ATT 850 vs T-Mobile and Verizon

850mhz is better on the ATT network then the 1900Mhz PCS, just because the system was built already to run at 850mhz and will travel farther than 1900Mhz PCS. But last I knew they still did not have Cali converted over, I thought they still had a way to go. They started out with a bang and then had slowed down to a crawl in doing the Cali conversion in the last year or so.

I would test it out, ATT does not have that high churn rate for no reason. But Hopefully it will work out for you.

 

it needs 1800 and or 900 in Europe.

 

850 is up in california, or at the very least, the SF bay area.

You do have the 30 day trial to try it out!

 

Gotta be clear on this one

850 is up for Voice channels in the Bay, but not all of the 850 control channels are up. The only places I've ben able to pick up 850 control channels are in the East Bay. They have not turned on 850 control channels in SF or SJ yet, so you'll still be on 1900 for a while. And places where they really need them, like the Santa Cruz mountains haven't been turned on either. AT&T has definitely been dragging their feet on this one.

Also - be forwarned that the 850 voice channels are spotty. You'll only connect to them if there are any available (ie: not being chewed up by TDMA users who havent migrated yet). My phone will only jump to 850 about half of the time.

 

Choose your region on the link below. If your carrier has an A-side or B-side where you live, they can provide 850 service.

http://people.ku.edu/~cinema/wireless/regions.html

 

Last month, I tried out a friend's ATTWS GSM service on my 850/1900MHz Siemens C56 for a couple of weeks. He was going out of the country and was kind enough to let me play with it. Opening up 850MHz voice channels has definitely improved service, although not to the degree I had hoped. Calls are less likely to drop, but audio quality is still spotty at best in fringe areas (and there are a lot of fringe areas).

Unfortunately, the paging channels haven't been moved to 850MHz, at least as of last month. This means that once you have a call going, you can benefit from the service improvements, but it can still be difficult to place and receive calls.

Personally, I wouldn't go with ATTWS right now, if I were looking for GSM service here in the Puget Sound area. Cingular has a mediocre network, but it's the most mature in the area and it beats T-Mobile for coverage area and quality. Of course, I don't recommend *any* GSM carrier in this area. Verizon and Sprint seem to have the best service.