Hello. I am thinking about buying a new GSM phone. The one I'm interested in can operate on GSM900/1800/1900 networks. I am hoping cingular is not on 850 or some other frequency. What frequencies does Cingular operate on in the Southern California area and will this phone work with it?
All GSM networks in the US operate on 850 or 1900 or both. Cingular has many 850 areas in the Western US, so I strongly suggest you consider a phone that has both 850 and 1900, even if your immediate SoCal area doesn't have 850 (which I don't know). After all, most people travel around and what good is a phone if you can't make a call with it.
That is not correct. The only market in Southern California that is not a Cellular System A is Imperial Valley. In the LA market Cingular is getting everyone off of the Orange (1900 MHz) network to the Blue (850 MHz). Blue was not designed for so many callers so it has overloads problems and Cingular is adding Blue towers left and right to fix the problem. Once T-Mobile buys the Orange PCS towers from Cingular, Cingular can then use the Orange airwaves (1900 MHz) on Blue towers once they add PCS panels to them. That should end alot of overloads on the network. Also, Cingular Requires all GSM phones to do 850 and 1900 MHz for them to be activated today on their network If the phone does not do 850 it was probably activated 3 or more years ago
What is not correct? I said that I don't know whether Southern California is 850 or 1900 but that the OP would be better off getting a phone that can do both. What's wrong with that statement?
Sorry that I may have sounded too harsh in my last post on this thread:O First, if you get a new phone with Cingular it will have to have both 850 and 1900 beacuse that is their policy. So encouraging someone to get a 850/1900 phone I don't think is nessary, since you have to have a phone that has both bands. I don't know if T-mobile now requires a phone to be serviced having both 850 and 1900; but I do know in the US T-mobile sell phones that have both 1900 and 850, they don't sell a phone that does not have Cellular 850 MHz Every customer that upgrades after the ATT/Cingular merger in CA expect for a few places like the Imperial Valley goes to the Blue Network (850 MHz), so that is in the immediate SoCal area. I make mistakes all the time here. We learn from eachother :thumb:
Hi agentHibby, I have a 1900 phone (actually a european UMTS/GSM 900/1800/1900 as I explained in a post in the north-east forum section). Are you saying that if I come to CA I have strong probability to get full service in the most of the state with Cingular wireless? Did I understand correctly? (That is my problem indeed, and I don't know if my phone will work correctly in the US, since my wireless european provider contracted US roaming only with Cingular, and my phone does NOT have the 850 band. I asked the same question in the NE section about New York City, and the people told me that there I will have no problem at all. But my travels in the next months will involve California too, so I'm still concerned and considering to buy or rent a 850/1900 american GSM when in the US). Sorry for coming between this post, and thanks in advantage for your possible answers!
Now that we have determined that Cingular still provides service on both the 850 and 1900 MHz bands, seperate from the Network formerly known as "Orange", or Pactel, we can address the original question. It has been asked several times, 'will my 1900 MHz-only phone (or tri/quad that only access 1900 Mhz in the U.S.) work on Cingular?' The answer is, yes. However, you would be a fool to count on 1900 MHz-only Cingular service in CA. Not only is the network not designed for complete coverage at 1900 MHz, some sites will also not be designed for voice service. So, if you plan to come to L.A. and use your 900/1800/1900 phone, you might get service with Cingular. But if you plan to use this phone extensively in the area, you will be very frustrated. To me, it would be like driving a car with a 6-cylinder engine and only 2 of the cylinders work...you can get there, but you won't enjoy the ride.
cingular is mixed both GSM 850 and 1900. For best performance it is recommended that you get a phone that will do both 850 and 1900.
That's exactly my point, but.... intended in Europe. I wanted a modern UMTS phone to be used in an extensive and thorough manner (video-call available and everywhere strong signal). Nevertheless at the very present moment there are not phones which are both UMTS e GSM quad-band (except for a couple of new and very expensive models). So, since I will use it 90% in Europe and, when in California, mostly in SF and LA metro areas, I think I took a good choice. Thank you guys.
