Cell Phones in Great Britain - GSM 850 Roaming in USA

Author

GSM 850 Roaming in USA

Andrew

2005-08-28, 5:49 pm

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to roam on GSM 850 networks in the
USA with a UK SIM and compatible phone?

All I see mentioned anywhere is having a GSM 1900 phone for roaming in
the USA.

chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and

2005-08-28, 5:49 pm

Andrew <Andrew@the.internet> wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if it's possible to roam on GSM 850 networks in the
> USA with a UK SIM and compatible phone?
>
> All I see mentioned anywhere is having a GSM 1900 phone for roaming in
> the USA.

It's possible, but you're phone would need to support it. You can get
quad band and tri-band phones which support GSM 850. Are you sure you'll
be in an area where you'll benefit from a phone that supports GSM 850.
1900 will be fine for most (if certainly not all) heavily populated
areas.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
photos at http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer

S Viemeister

2005-08-28, 5:49 pm

chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy
wrote:
>
> Andrew <Andrew@the.internet> wrote:
>
>
> It's possible, but you're phone would need to support it. You can get
> quad band and tri-band phones which support GSM 850. Are you sure you'll
> be in an area where you'll benefit from a phone that supports GSM 850.
> 1900 will be fine for most (if certainly not all) heavily populated
> areas.
>
Cingular have been steadily increasing their 850 coverage - we went from
very spotty coverage in and around NYC (when coverage was mainly 1900), to
very good.
My triband phone is 850/1800/1900, so I get maximum US coverage on
Cingular, I use Orange in the UK, so I don't require 900.

Sheila

Rufus Stone

2005-08-28, 5:49 pm

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:00:53 -0400, S Viemeister
<firstname.lastname@which.net> wrote:

>Cingular have been steadily increasing their 850 coverage - we went from
>very spotty coverage in and around NYC (when coverage was mainly 1900), to
>very good.

Agreed. Last year in the States I took my quad band phone. The 1900Mhz
base stations tend to be quite far apart, compared to our UK 1800Mhz
cells. The 850Mhz from Cingular was very useful to fill in between the
1900Mhz bases.

The previous year, using only a tri-band phone (no 850Mhz) it was
possible to lose the 1900Mhz signal in motels or buildings spaced
roughly midway between the 1900Mhz cells.

HTH.

R.

Joseph

2005-08-28, 11:48 pm

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:51:52 GMT, Andrew <Andrew@the.internet> wrote:

>Can anyone tell me if it's possible to roam on GSM 850 networks in the
>USA with a UK SIM and compatible phone?

Absolutely if your handset can use 850 of course it will work in the
USA, Canada and anywhere else that uses GSM 850.

>All I see mentioned anywhere is having a GSM 1900 phone for roaming in
>the USA.

I'm not sure where you're looking. Any mobile forum in North America
most certainly will tell you that you'll get much better performance
if you have a handset that is 850 as well as 1900 capable.
- -

2005-08-29, 5:48 am

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:00:53 -0400, S Viemeister
<firstname.lastname@which.net> wrote:

>My triband phone is 850/1800/1900, so I get maximum US coverage on
>Cingular, I use Orange in the UK, so I don't require 900.

Beware of 3g phones. We've just discovered out 6680s are only tri-band
but the 2g V3 is quad....

Sorry.... really really fed up with these dire 6680s now and wishing
we'd got the V3s.

Rgds
Jonathan

mrcamp

2005-08-29, 5:48 pm

If you will be roaming here, and your provider has roaming agreement
with Cingular, a phone with 850/1900 will give you better coverage, if
your provider only has agreement with tmobile, a phone with 1900 only
will suffice. If you will be going payg, tmobile sims are the easiest
to get(ebay), and you only need a 1900 phone. If you will be going with
cingular payg, make sure you phone has both USA bands.

--
mrcamp

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