T-Mobile coverage in central NJ and 850 MHz roaming

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ednj2002@yahoo.com - 07 Aug 2006 23:35 GMT

I am considering T-Mobile for use in my home area in Central NJ.
According to the coverage map, I have very low T-Mobile signal in my
area. I know that Cingular has excellent 850 MHz coverage in my area.
As I understand it, I can roam on Cingular as a T-Mobile subscriber.
Is this correct? If I switch to T-Mobile, what's the best phone for
850/1900 MHz signals?

Thanks.

Ed

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^'^BatAttaK^'^ - 08 Aug 2006 00:20 GMT

>I am considering T-Mobile for use in my home area in Central NJ.
>According to the coverage map, I have very low T-Mobile signal in my
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
>Ed

You cannot roam on 850 if there is native 1900 regardless of signal
strength. It is allowed only in very specific areas where there is no
TMO covereage at all.

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delysid - 08 Aug 2006 02:51 GMT

>> I am considering T-Mobile for use in my home area in Central NJ.
>> According to the coverage map, I have very low T-Mobile signal in my
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> strength. It is allowed only in very specific areas where there is no
> TMO covereage at all.

That is not correct. I was in Southeastern Indiana with a strong 1900
T-Mobile signal and I was still able to switch between the 850 Cingular
towers and the 1900 T-Mobile towers. I had no restrictions whatsoever.
So, you may be restricted in some areas if there is a native T-Mobile
1900 network, but not everywhere.

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Dan - 08 Aug 2006 03:03 GMT

>>> I am considering T-Mobile for use in my home area in Central NJ.
>>> According to the coverage map, I have very low T-Mobile signal in my
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> So, you may be restricted in some areas if there is a native T-Mobile
> 1900 network, but not everywhere.

I have the same thing by me with 1900 roaming in illinois. I could
manually select tmo or simmetry. I always did simmetry because it said i
had edge with them while tmo diddn't.

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LEM - 08 Aug 2006 03:39 GMT

delysid <delysid@nospaminmylsd.net> wrote in news:bddaf$44d7ee21$d8c49918
$30637@FUSE.NET:

> That is not correct. I was in Southeastern Indiana with a strong 1900
> T-Mobile signal and I was still able to switch between the 850 Cingular
> towers and the 1900 T-Mobile towers. I had no restrictions whatsoever.
> So, you may be restricted in some areas if there is a native T-Mobile
> 1900 network, but not everywhere.

I beleive, that central NJ is one of those "some areas" where you cannot
roam on 850MZ. I live in New York, just across the river and it won't let
me switch to Cingular, even though I can see their signal in manual
selection mode (it simply denies switching to it). I am pretty sure
central NJ is a part of the same market as NYC, so you may be out of luck
there.

My understanding is - in areas where 1900MZ is spotty, and large gaps
present they let you roam. Of course they can not individually allow or
deny roaming on every tower, so they generally let you roam in those
entire markets. This is what happened to me when I was in Catskill
mountains in upstate NY the other day - some areas just 850MZ coverage
(cellular one) some both that and native, but in later case I was able to
choose freely.

LEM.
(remove digits in e-mail for correct address)

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