GSM Network in the U.S.

US/Canada is 800 (cellular) and 1900 (PCS). Everywhere else it's 900/1800.

 

Where would one find 800 MHz GSM in the US? Anywhere? Is this the 'sometimes known as' GSM 850, which is supposed to be a future direction? I've seen one or two phones offering GSM 850/1900 for US use. But the vast majority of GSM phones sold are 1900 only, in the US. In the future, a 'world phone' is going to have to be GSM 800/900/1800/1900 (US/world/world/US!).

 

Currently all the GSM networks in the United States use the 1900 mhz frequency.

 

cingular does have some 800MHz GSM towers active now in TN and KY, IIRC.

And yes, GSM800 and GSM850 are the same thing.

 

800 and 850 are two different freq. 800 is cingular as stated but 850 is european freq, an 800 phone will not work on 850. but phones are going to be out soon that have the 800 1900 tdma 800 1900 gsm (GAIT Phones) once the entire network for cingular goes gsm will inculde 850 gsm for the world phone .

 

I am sure Cingular had a reason for adding the 6340i to its lineup of phones. The only difference is that the 6340i supports GSM800.

 

Errr thats GSM 850, sorry.

I copied this from phonescoop:

GSM 850

(GSM 800)

GSM 850 is simply GSM technology operating in the Cellular (800 MHz / 850 MHz) frequency band. Both the technology and frequency band have been around for a long time, but only in 2002 were they combined.

In the U.S. prior to 2002, GSM technology only operated in the PCS (1900 MHz) frequency band.

GSM 850 addresses the needs of carriers with Cellular licenses switching from other technologies to GSM.

Before the existence of GSM 850, the Cellular band was commonly referred to as the "800 MHz" band. "850 MHz" implies a different frequency band, but this is not the case. "800 MHz" and "850 MHz" refer to the exact same frequency band. 850 is technically a more accurate description of the frequency range, but 800 is the original, and more common term.

 

I think we're getting confused over a very simple matter. 800Mhz or 850Mhz are two terms used to refer to THE SAME frequency blocks. Make no mistake about it. The 800 (or 850) band uses the frequency range located at 824Mhz - 849Mhz for the phones to transmit and 869Mhz - 894Mhz for the towers to transmit. The only thing that's happening right now is that with the TDMA operators moving to GSM, those TDMA 800 networks are being converted to GSM 800. There's nothing innovative about this. It is only a plain change of network technology in the same existing 800Mhz band that we've all known for years.
Some carriers use TDMA in the 800Mhz band, some others use CDMA in the 800Mhz band, some others use Analog (AMPS) in the 800Mhz band. Now, we will see some carriers using GSM in the 800Mhz band. It's that simple.

Canada, Mexico, the caribbean and most of South America use the same 800Mhz and 1900Mhz frequencies used in the US. However, some countries in Central and South America use the 900Mhz and 1800Mhz bands used in the rest of the world.

 

Are there any inherant advantages or disadvantages to a particular frequency?? Meaning, is 1900 mHz GSM any different than say 850 mHz GSM??

 

850 MHz is better than 1900 MHz at in building penetration because of the lower frequency. It has nothing to do with GSM.

 

Another difference is that 1900Mhz operators need to place cell sites closer together than 800Mhz operators to achieve the same coverage. That's why 1900Mhz networks suffer more from dead spots.

 

Ok, so why then would the US GSM providers use 1900 mHz?? FCC reasons?

 

1900 is what the FCC have them in the early/mid 90s when they started out. The 800 band was taken in the 1980s.

 

The move from TDMA to GSM gives the 800Mhz new life. Since TDMA has been sentenced to death, we'll see GSM replacing it. In the end GSM will be in both 800 and 1900.