Cingular GSM 1900 w/ Nokia 5190?

No, not at all. A specific example would be North and South Carolina, where Cingular (and the earlier BellSouth DCS) have a PCS GSM network. The A and B cellular providers are Alltel and Verizon (and several small companies).

I would say the the majority of Cingular is 850 MHz, except for the specific regions served by BellSouth DCS and Pacific Bell Wireless. Of course, Cingular have purchased additional PCS licenses in the recent auctions. Then came the ATTWS purchase.

I am doing what you propose. I use a Nokia 5190 or Motorola 2000 MicroTAC and my Cingular SIM, and I am learning where the Cingular Blue PCS network works. In Memphis, Blue is PCS and Orange is cellular.

COtech

 

East Tennessee (Knoxville & Tri-Cities) would work OK also. A 5190 would work either on AT&T (Blue) in alot of areas,roam on T-Mobile or any other GSM PCS signal that Cingular has a roaming agreement with :browani:

 

Cingular does NOT have 1900 coverage everywhere they have 850.

That said, if you can live without rural coverage you can get by with a 1900-only phone around here, as Cingular has 1900 coverage (thanks to the AT&T Wireless acquisition) in every major city and most minor cities in the Southeast and along the interstates and major highways connecting them. (South GA used to be an issue but Cingular has built out 1900 along I-16 and I-75)

-SC

 

Another example of this would be CA where Pacific Bell Wireless set up a GSM 1900-only network back in the 90s. This is the shared Cingular/T-Mobile network which Cingular has now sold to T-Mobile. The A & B providers in CA are Verizon and Sprint or even AT&T TDMA (which is mostly supplemented with GSM 850 overlays) IIRC.

I'm sure that larry can clear me up on the last statement about the A & B providers should it be wrong.

 

Some of Cingular's roaming partners that operate an 800 GSM network you wouldn't be able to use if you have a 1900 only phone, and of course you wouldn't be able to use Cingular's 800 network, but other than that, it's not going to 'mess' up your roaming.