I just sold this phone which worked fine and the customer says she cannot talk but 2 minutes and it goes into emergency mode. Cingular says its because its an overseas phone but it truly worked fine when I had it. Any Help out there for a confused seller
An overseas L6 is likely to be triband - 900/1800/1900 MHz. In the US, there are 2 GSM bands - 850 and 1900. As long as you are in an area that is 1900 only, you should be fine using this phone. However, if you tried to use the phone in an 850 area (and I would venture to guess your customer did), the phone is going to go into emergency mode, latching on to any 1900MHz signal it can find. There is not much you can do about this short of offering the customer her money back and trying to sell it to an overseas customer who won't need the 850MHz band.
Scrumhalf's right. European model phones rarely have the US 850 band on them. There is pleanty of 1900 coverage in West Virginia on Cingular, but there are areas that Cingular's coverage is only on the 850 band. I know there's a stretch on I-95 just north of Richmond that is 850 only. I found this out when I had locked my V551 to the 1900 band and just outside of richmond the phone displayed "Emergency Only" for about 30 or 40 minutes. I figure my phone was jumping onto the T-Mobile network, but Cingular wouldn't let me roam. This is what is happening to your customer. They live in an area that is mostly 850 band coverage, and their phone is finding another carrier's signal on the 1900 band to at least let them call 911 if needed. -Jay
I get what you folks are saying. But in the emergency mode i thought you could only dial 911. The phone stays on fine and calls anyone fine but the call only lasts about 2 minutes
This, I probably know the answer. But is the bands software or hardware? Can you update software to make the phone recieve 850? If not anyone out there want to buy or trade an 850 for 1900?
Some phones can have 850 added by software, but probably not a european model. I know that is the case with a lot of older T-Mobile phones. Since their coverage was 1900 only they disabled 850 on some of their phones. The european model does not have the hardware to operate on 850. -Jay
the thing which is throwing me is that the area I live in is mostly 850 I was a nextel dealer for a while so I know this to be accurate. And the phone did not do that here. I must say I am a little stumped on this. How can I find out what frequency the phone is operating on?
Randee, can you tell use where your custormer is using this L6 and with whose SIM? Some info will fuel our speculations. Also please mention where you had used it, and with whose SIM. Tell us by county or town and state. COtech
I had driven through your area on my way to Dayton about a year & a half ago and I found pleanty of 1900 signal on my trip. -Jay
Abilene, TX has cellular B-band 850 MHz service. A-band was Western Wireless, now Alltel, who built 1900 MHz GSM for roamers (primarily T-Mobile, since Cingular has native coverage). COtech
so based on what service IF this was a single band phone should she be having touble and is it the phone? My son just refreshed my memory that this phone is in fact a tri-band phone. So where does this info take us on this journey of randy's confusion
The bottom line is that in the united states that phone will only operate on the 1900 band. If your carrier has 1900 signal in the area it is being used, then you're ok. If there is no 1900 signal from your carrier, and no roaming partners the phone will default to SOS mode and only allow 911 calls on the other carrier's network. -Jay
