cingular frequency usage

Cingular only uses 850 and 1900 Mhz, with UMTS in the 1900mhz range, if you have an area in specific you're curious about you can use the the tool on wirelessadvisor.com to see which frequency they have a license for in that area. I think Cingular generally prefers 850 mhz outside of the major cities, but that's just an opinion.

 

Actually they've had to diversify a lot of area (california for example, nevada is another I believe) with the merger, generally you'll find them on one band in an area. Other than that I really don't know. I hope someone with more knowledge will let you know.

 

Even after giving their old infrastructure to T-Mobile in CA/NV Cingular is still running both 850 and 1900 here since AT&T WIreless network had both. I've seen several places with 850-only coverage when I was in New Jersey and in Dallas. I think there also a few places where they are running 1900 only (Omaha?).

 

Here in NJ they do have both 850 & 1900 with 850 being the primary. I think once they merged it gave them quite a bit of 850/1900 coverage in the country but like you said, there are some area's that are 1900 only or 850 only.

That's why it's important to have a phone with both bands vs just a 1900 only phone.

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: LG-CU500 Obigo/WAP2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Here in okc its 850 only.

 

Cingular hit the jackpot in Florida They own the 850 side throughout the state So most of the state is 850/1900. The only place where Cingular uses 1900 exclusively in FL is Panama City (AFAIK). Bay County's 850 companies are Verizon (analog-only holdover) and Alltel.

In Georgia, there is an interesting mix going on there. The eastern/southeast part of the state (along with Knoxville, TN/the Carolinas) is 1900 only from the Bellsouth DCS days; Metro Atlanta/N. Georgia, Macon, and Valdosta areas are 850/1900. Columbus/Albany and most of SW Georgia is 1900 only.

On the WA site, they have USCellular as the 850 company for parts of SE GA, but USCC sold that area off to ATT Wireless (now Cingy) back on March 2004:biggrin:

 

Also, Cingular will free to make any changes the see fit as long as overall footprint for a dual-band capable phone coverage doesn't change. I've seen people posting that some of the GSM 1900 bandwith was reallocated to UMTS use, dropping GSM coverage to 850 in several places. So even if one determines that the current 1900 coverage is sufficient for their needs it's no guarantee it'll be there tomorrow.

 

I think that this is something that VZW does also in dual band markets: voice on 850 and mostly data on 1900 as well.

 

thats a complicated question....
cingular UMTS at present is 1900 MHZ only... so if your in an 850 mhz only area your device will "dummy" down to EDGE or GPRS as applicable

here is a link (Ive posted before) for coverage... there is a checkbox for 3G
http://www.cingular.com/coverageviewer/

 

This map doesn't show which area is 850 & which is 1900 or which has both. so it doesn't help answer the OP's question on what area's have which frequencies.

 

Just because UMTS is 1900mhz doesn't mean that all non UMTS areas are 850mhz. Afaik UMTS is usually in a dual band area.

 

Actually Cingular is doing 850Mhz UMTS/HSDPA in several areas. Alot of the Southeast is 850 UMTS.

 

Wirelessly posted (Q's Mobile Device: Opera/8.01 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/3.0.6306/1528; en; U; ssr))

In Florida, the network is all 1900. I live in Tallahassee and I should know lol. Verizon has a small amount of analog on 850 near Panama City which is collecting dust lol. I think that the Verizon network in Texas is all 1900 also.

 

Wirelessly posted (Q's Mobile Device: Opera/8.01 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/3.0.6306/1528; en; U; ssr))

That's is neat! They just launched high speed access in Tallahassee last week... Is this the high speed access they launched?

 

motounlock; It would be based on where you are. If the have both bands some areas are doing UMTS/HSDPA on 850 and some on 1900mhz. It just varies from area to area.

 

I'm not aware of any technical reasons why they can't run both GSM & UMTS/HSDPA on both bands. So conceivably there could be areas running GSM 850/1900 and UMTS 850/1900 at the same time.

 

The only limitations have to do with spectrum usage. UMTS/HSDPA require 5Mhz of spectrum to work so that would be their only requirements.

 

motounlock, depends on how much spectrum they have available in an area. If they don't then they can't to EVDO.:browani:

 

motounlock;

whoever said that doesn't know what they are talking about. As I said before alot of the UMTS in the South is running on 850mhz. I know I was involved in the roll-out.

 

your probably right......whenever i roam......my phone connects to Verizon on 1900 first but then reverts to 800 after about 30 seconds.....

well.........when they distribute licenses for an area.....they are allocated a certain amount of channels so that 1900 companies can function in one area.......so otherwise thay would have to make a T-Mobile-only area and Cingular wouldnt be able to provide service there because T-Mobile has all of the channels.............now..........since UMTS/HSDPA uses 5 MhZ of spectrum there isn't a lot of room to fit the GSM and UMTS together so......

and example would be of what T-Mobile is doing......theyn are using 1900 for their home-network...........and 1900 and 850 are both being used for roaming......but they are deploying UMTS/HSDPA on 1700 and 2100...........2 completely different bands........now of course one of the other reasons they are doing it on those bands is because that is what they were allocated by the FCC......but the FCC allocated that bandwidth for those previous reasons.....

 

SmArTeStChIlD421; Actually it's very easy to have multiple bands in the 1900 band. Currently the A & B bands are 30 Mhz bands along with C. D, E, & F are 10 Mhz bands. Also the FCC gave Nextel 10Mhz of the new G band to allow them to move off the SMR bands they were using which was causing interference with the public safety providers. Cingular has in all of it's markets at least 60 Mhz of spectrum so frequencies aren't a problem to run UMTS/GSM networks.

 

ohhh alright.......my misunderstanding........then why do they choose to put everything on different bands........and if what a few other people are saying is true.......about Cingular getting rid of GSM/GPRS/EDGE on the 1900 band in some areas in favor of UMTS/HSDPA will they eventually make the network all UMTS cuz thee direction they are headed is kinda crippling for some customers who may rely on a particular band in a specific area

 

I doubt they are going to do UMTS/HSDPA all over for a while because of the BellSouth/AT&T integration, after that who knows, but GSM isn't going away anytime soon because worldwide it's growth is still huge. For all the cool things you can do with 3G networks, voice is still the number one thing they (the carriers) make their money from so until they see money starting to flow from it quickly it'll slow in it's roll-out

 

Even with the SMS price gouging?