Looking to buy a repeater

Have you tried ebay? you should... The way you tell what band your phone is on is by the provider you used before the merger but in your case you didnt have the serivce before the merger so ask the technician (he probably wont know but the stores are still usually marked by AT&T or Cingular so use that as a refrence) Also you might give Verizon a try just a thought.

 

I would recommend getting a dual band repeater for your home, being AT&T/Cingular use's both bands in PA, you would be way better off with something like this:
WIRELESS EXTENDERS - YX510PCS/CEL - Cellphone Dual Band Extender

Yes it's more money but it will be worth it, there are other units out there that state they handle more then 1 phone at a time & I am not sure if this will be your only phone in the home, or others will have 1 & be using the repeater.
If so check on some other unit's like Wilson and others. I don't have any links available right now, but if you do a search on these forums you can find other sites for repeaters.

From people that have brought them in the past, they say they work & make a big difference.

 

oh ok i didnt realize you were in a more rural area ( i am but there are plenty of towers)

it may be shared between VZ and nextel (sprint) im not sure but i dont think at&t which is gsm will share towers with VZ which is CDMA im not real sure on that one but it probably is shared in any case if it is 2 CDMA carriers it wouldnt really be shared per say the lets say VZ phone would be extended network on nextel (sprint)'s network

 

Different carriers will share towers, it doesn't matter on technology, but need to fill a coverage gap ect...

Most towers are owned by tower companies & lease the space to the different providers, and there are carriers that own towers & will lease space to another carrier.

If you check the cell site photos you will see plenty of towers with multiple carriers on them.

 

oh ok..............

 

Justin; Cingular/ATT uses both 1900 and 850Mhz frequencies. The Synch is a dual technology phone (GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA). As to a repeater you can look at Cell Phone Antennas and Cell Phone Boosters at Wilson Electronics for a small repeater system, but remember any decent one will cost about $400-500. Good Luck

 

Then you can go with the lower priced dual band repeater & that should cover you well.
Being AT&T uses both bands & normally the phones will work on 850 for voice, I still highly suggest the dual band repeater.

 

Hi Justin,

My name is Sam and I am a partner in the company Repeaterstore.com. I noticed that you were interested in the zBoost zP that is about to be released. The sub $100 version of the zBoost zP is going to be the direct connect YX100. This repeater will connect directly to your phone via a cable and a small patch that will affix to the back of the phone. The wireless YX300 version is the one you referred to in your post, and this will probably retail at around $169 (sorry our site has not got that information yet).

It is true that Cingular broadcast on both the 850 and 1900 MHz bands. However, you can often narrow this down to one band by using the Cingular coverage maps at GSMworld.com. Here you can select coverage maps for one particular band, and then zoom in to see if it is that frequency that is currently in use in your area. If Cingular is only using one frequency then you may be able to save some money. As far as I am aware, Cingular do not have roaming agreements with any other carrier (they cannot roam with CDMA networks like Sprint or Verizon) so you can take these maps to be fairly accurate.

Lastly, you may be interested to know that in the coming weeks we are intending to lower the price of the higher powered zBoost YX510 by $50, bringing the price to $299 (+$15 shipping). I know this is a little out of your price range, but I just thought I'd mention it. It offers a coverage area of around 2,000 sq ft, and will improve signal reception on all major networks (except iDEN) for both voice and data.
I have set up a discount code for the $50, so if you (or anyone else) wish to receive this discount straight away just enter the code wirelessadvisor in our shopping cart.

If anyone has any repeater based questions, feel free to message or email me.

Best regards,
Sam
sam@repeaterstore.com

 

Being the OP lives in PA, AT&T use's both bands there & even the maps you link to show this.

Also AT&T does have roaming agreements with other carriers, especially in rural areas like Dobson/Cellone, Alltel ect... But yes you are correct they can not roam on a CDMA carriers system.


I also wonder how acurate these maps are?

Also wanted to say Thank you for offering a discount for WA customers, that was nice.

 

Alltel is CDMA so they dont have roaming agreements with them Verizon does but not AT&T

 

With a market cap of $24.79 billion and over 15 million customers as of early 2006, Alltel is the largest regional mobile phone company in America, and the fifth largest mobile phone company overall. The wireless group provides service in parts of 35 states. The company mainly focuses on small to medium-sized cities, but has low-cost roaming agreements with the major national CDMA carriers, especially Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel, in order to provide national service. Reciprocal agreements in turn provide those carriers with coverage in rural areas. When Alltel acquired Western Wireless in 2005, it gained a large GSM footprint as well. While it does not offer GSM service to its own customers, Alltel has indicated that it will continue to maintain the GSM footprint (and perhaps even expand it) to provide roaming service to GSM users of other wireless carriers; however, one exception is that as of April 1, 2007, Alltel will no longer maintain the GSM footprint in the coverage area it acquired from First Cellular of Southern Illinois. It does, however, offer current GSM customers in the affected area to sign a new agreement with Alltel, requiring affected customers to purchase a new CDMA phone. Alltel advertises itself as "owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network"; this claim refers to geographical coverage of its network rather than number of Alltel customers or population covered.
i dug that up on wikipedia just for proof

 

Or in other words your previous post (#14) was incorrect.

Yes, Alltel offers GSM for roaming partners. Fire14's statement was correct.

 

Maybe you should read your own post here. Alltel does have GSM when they bought Western Wireless & I believe they had some area's for roaming revenue prior.
So as Charlyee stated, Yes they do have GSM roaming & they do it for AT&T, T-Mobile and other smaller GSM carriers like Dobson ect...

Yes they said it Southern Illinois they would not maintain the GSM roaming, but that is all.

 

Heh have to backup Fire14, but then again I've known him for a while,

Alltel's GSM footprint will probably never expand, and Alltel itself will not be selling or accepting GSM handsets, but they do maintain an active GSM Footprint, furthermore they do accept GSM Roaming, and last but not least, they're not giving up their licenses for GSM in the areas they already have licenses in. That being said, you were correct in the fact that Alltel is a CDMA carrier, but, like most carriers they have acquired some other networks through mergers and acquisitions. I'm sure if you look you'll notice that in all the mergers and acquisitions Sprint and Verizon, own or have sold off GSM based networks and so forth as well. Good Luck and since this is the first time I've interacted with you :welcome: to WA.

In regards to the Op's originaly question, get a dual band because regardless of where you live now and the issues you deal with now, should you ever take it somewhere else you never know and remember you get what you pay for most of the time.

 

ok but mypoint is that they will no longer maintain their GSM but i see what your point is also

 

That's only in Southern Illinois where AT&T and I believe T-Mobile maintain a presence.

 

Glad to hear it's working out well for you & giving you better coverage throughout you home.
Keep us posted once you get it tweeked.