Tri-band or Quad-band

I believe cingular will not let you activate any phone that doesn't use 850. That said all you need in North America is 850 and 1900. Anything else is not used in North America.

 

Cingular wouldn't know, since you would just put your SIM card in the phone. I believe you are doing yourself a disservice if you buy a phone w/o 850 since you are leaving another carrier because of poor coverage. A good quad-band phone will provide you with the best coverage. I recommend the Motorola V557. It is a free phone on Cingular's website and is the strongest performer I have tested on Cingular to date. It will hold a call with much weaker signal than most of their other offerings. I have the earlier version of the V557, the V551 and I always switch my SIM card to the V551 before traveling to rural areas so I never miss a call.

-Jay

 

Sony-Ericsson handsets are notorious for poor reception. Since this is your most important consideration, I recommend you go with the Motorola.

 

Some Nokias can be pretty good, but I would place my bets on the V557 for weak signal areas. You can even get an aftermarket antenna for it that increases the range further. If you don't want a Moto get a Nokia.

-Jay

 

If you want to try another phone maker Nokia GSM phones have awesome RF, the same if not better RF the Motorola. Just stay away LG GSM phones.

If you can let us know what phone you get. And for me a review of coverage/call quality around the HB area. I grew up in FV, and have heard some not so good things about Cingular call quality in Northern OC. Thanks!

 

I think from reading what others posted earlier (including my self) is that the only bands used in the US are 800 & 1900. The only real reason to get a quad-band is if you travel overseas a lot.

The reason I mentioned that is most Nokias are tri-band. What Nokia will do is offer two models of the same phone, one for the US (800, 1800, 1900 MHz) & the other for the rest of the world (900, 1800, 1900). The good news is Nokia is starting to change and make quad-band phone. Most are brand new and not carried by the US carriers yet or will be released very soon.

After saying all this I would recommend the 6682. I have one and it is great. It's feature packed and has the awesome RF, as all past s60 Nokias have been.

 

NO, HE'S WRONG MY PHONE DOESNT HAVE 850 MHZ AND I CAN USE IT WITH CINGULAR. I HAVE NOTICED IF IM IN A URBAN AREA IM FINE WITHOUT 850 MHZ BUT WHENEVER IM IN THE COUNTRY I HAVE NOTICED THEY USE MOSTLY 850 MHZ SO I HAVE TO USE MY BUDDY'S PHONE.

 

You don't need to shout! Did they use this phone that doesn't have 850 when they registered their service? They can switch to whichever phone they wish after their service is activated. To my knowledge cingular will not activate a phone that doesn't have both 850 and 1900. After you initially activate a phone on their network of course you can use whatever phone you like.

 

I've been doing research on the whole bands mess. I guess 850 and 1900 are used in the US, while 900 and 1800 are used in Europe. The only advantage in even tri-band, then, is being able to use it in Europe-- sometimes, because the 900 band is the one not included. If I buy a tri-band in Europe, I'll have limited service in the US because the 900 band isn't included.
So get the quadband if you're planning to go roaming around Europe for a month or more. Otherwise, save the money.
If it's not too late.