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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / ATT Wireless / February 2004

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Tri-band phone for AT&T?

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IcUrdazedandconfused - 23 Feb 2004 15:19 GMT
I have AT&T D1R, and I have heard many horror stories about GSM
service (or lack thereof).  

My question is this:

Does At&T have a tri-band phone?  What I'm thinking is if GSM is bad
in an area, can it drop back and get teh digital signal that I get
from my TDMA phone?  (I know I'd lose my analog signal)

TIA
John Cummings - 23 Feb 2004 15:43 GMT
> I have AT&T D1R, and I have heard many horror stories about GSM
> service (or lack thereof).
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> TIA

You are looking for what ATTWS calls a "multi-network"
phone. They have offered two--I'll let you check
and see what current plans go with them. You might
find one if you ask around the neighborhood stores,
or used from eBay.

The Siemens S46 has 900/1900 MHz GSM and 800/1900
MHz TDMA (same "digital" as your D1R plan). This
the one with no 800 MHz AMPS (analog).

The Sony Ericsson T62u is a GAIT phone, and has
800 MHz AMPS. It also has TDMA and GSM on both
North American bands 800 and 1900 MHz.

When you say "tri-band phone", you indicate that
you're interested in a GSM-only phone. Two examples
are the Sony Ericsson 610 with 900/1800/1900 MHz,
and the SE 616 with 800/1800/1900 MHz. The former
would be good abroad with two international bands;
the latter would be good in at home with two
North American bands.

I hope that's enough to get you started.

John C.
Jeremy - 23 Feb 2004 17:58 GMT
> > I have AT&T D1R, and I have heard many horror stories about GSM
> > service (or lack thereof).
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>
> John C.

I believe that, in the event of a network dropout on GSM, the system cannot
hand the call off to TDMA, unlike TDMA's ability to hand off to analog
mid-call if necessary.  So the TDMA bands should not be thought of as a
mid-call safety net.
[ a m z ] - 23 Feb 2004 20:09 GMT
> "John Cummings" <n4bkn.no@spam.bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> > "IcUrdazedandconfused" <IcUrdazed@confused.net> wrote in message
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> mid-call if necessary.  So the TDMA bands should not be thought of as a
> mid-call safety net.

I have an S46 and the TDMA is definitely not a mid-call safety net.  The
nature of the networks won't allow a switch in either direction.  Also, if
you have iffy GSM and strong TDMA in an area, the phone will still try to
use the GSM.  It won't pick the stronger signal.  However, you can override
this by selecting TDMA Only, GSM Only or Automatic.  Still... the S46 is a
great phone if you can get AT&T to set you up with the right plan.
 
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