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3G on US GSM providers? |
decoy7
Joined: Feb 06, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: NW London
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dont worry too much, we have 3G in the UK and its more than a crap service right now....definitely not ready for reliable mobile use, just about ready as a 2nd handset you dont have to rely upon for service.
i had a 3G handset for about 4 months on a free trial...most of the time i had no service & when it did work the line was low volume or cutoff mid conversation...battery time was terrible too and reminded me of the analog handset days where you charged your battery twice a day.
by the time 3G hits you guys out there hopefully your service providers can learn from the mistakes that have been made over here...there's a long list of them to go through.
on a plus note, the novelty factor of seeing someone in realtime was very good, i'd liken it to the first time i ever used a mobile phone...it wore off pretty quickly but was another small step for man nonetheless. |
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amagab
Joined: Oct 29, 2002
Posts: > 500
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Quote:
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On 2003-12-24 01:10:19, rraz9228 wrote:
With regards to consumer based, Cingular is Second to Verizon in customers but verizon is not GSM. Also, Cingular is bigger than T-Mobile thats why they are considering on buying it or to have a Merger with AT&T instead so they can be the biggest Cellphone carrier in the US beating Verizon.
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 I see you read BusineesWeek as well
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moodswinger
Joined: Dec 10, 2001
Posts: 78
From: New York, USA
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It is true that both Cingular and AT&T are larger than T-Mobile, but their networks and consumer base are hybrid. Are you sure that Cingular has a wider GSM coverage than T-mobile? |
GiantRobot
Joined: Oct 16, 2003
Posts: 18
From: California
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The idea of 3G is a pretty good one but in practice it will be a pain in the butt to implement anywhere. In the US there are only so many channels available per market that any one company can own. In order for say AT&T to roll out a UMTS network they'll have to give up space they're currently using for their IS-136 (TDMA) and GSM service. As of now AT&T and Cingular are in the middle of phasing out IS-136 channels in major markets to make room for their GSM customers. Cutting out even more channels to use for UMTS would just mean more network congestion.
For all that 3G promises there's a lot of hassle to go along with it. EDGE provides enough end user bandwidth for most applications and piggy backs easily with current GSM/GPRS systems. There's also the issue of providing GSM service on the 800MHz band. AT&T and Cingular have pretty extensive contracts for the 800MHz band in most areas. If they could get GSM service on a few channels in in most markets they'd have enormous amounts of GSM coverage. The rest of the GSM using world is benefiting from having GSM on two bands. We would benefit if we had more than one too. |
scizzors
Joined: Apr 28, 2004
Posts: 0
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[quote]
On 2003-12-22 22:10:42, amagab wrote:
EDGE is not very exciting and there's hardly any phones supporting the EDGE technology so I wouldn't bother getting into it. I rather wait for 3G to be fully developed.
I wouldn't switch to AT&T if you have read the latest write-ups about that company. My experience with T-Mobile customer service has been outstanding (except for 3G) and I've heard a lot of bad things from AT&T customers regarding their service.
True enought, Tmobile is strong, but still no 3g support or any high speed protocol. The new att/ cingular merger promises new things and will most likely be the next network to roll out a high speed plan such as EDGE. Shakey now, will be catching up soon.
BTW- the new nokia 6230 out now for $500 on ebay has EDGE and is the shiznit! |
amagab
Joined: Oct 29, 2002
Posts: > 500
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My guess why T-Mobile is behind with 3G is that they are putting their efforts on gaining the biggest customer base. Last year, T-Mobile had way much higher customer growth than the other providers. Once those people start paying, then they will have money to invest in 3G. Being owned by a company that spend billions on being early with 3G, T-Mobile USA might be wiser than their owner this time around and wait with 3G until its prime time. T-Mobile is a budget provider...I've come to think that at this point in time, their customers might not be interested in spending 3G.
Just my two cents...I'd love to try 3G as soon as I can.
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shawnmccall9
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Chicago, IL USA
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3GSM will be available by the end of the 2004 in 4 of these 5 cities (Dallas, Seatle, San Francisco, and San Diego, and Miami) and offered by ATTWS (or Cingular if the merger is approved by then) as part of a deal with NTT DoCoMo.
It is important to understand that it will run at 1900 mHz and not 2100 mHz, so European WCDMA phones won't run on the new system
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amagab
Joined: Oct 29, 2002
Posts: > 500
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What the .....?!!?? Why do they have to do the same mistake again and use different frequencies. Didn't they learn from earlier experiences?!? I was hoping there would be a world standard for WCDMA. Dumbasses!!!
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shawnmccall9
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Chicago, IL USA
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well, the FCC is supposed to open up some 1700 mHz (but not in the same range as S. Korea) and some 2100 mHz in 2007. So, we'll have to see then
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kimcheeboi
Joined: Dec 19, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Abducted by hot blondes to Les
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T mobile has recently upgraded to 2.5 g! :xx they will come out with 3g in q4, at least that's what a rep told me...
This message was posted from a T610 |
shawnmccall9
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Chicago, IL USA
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2.5 G would be having EDGE for data, which T-Mo does not have as of today. In fact, they offer no EDGE handsets or PC cards. Furthermore, ATTWS is the only group thaat MIGHT even have 3GSM by the end of the year. Don't look for anybody else to have 3GSM before Q3 of 2005
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kimcheeboi
Joined: Dec 19, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Abducted by hot blondes to Les
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they dont have any hansets, but they have upgraded their network in so, cali at least to handle 2.5G.
[addsig] |
shawnmccall9
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Chicago, IL USA
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well, get a Sony PC card or a Nokia 6200 and give it a shot. I promise all that you can get is GPRS right now. T-Mo has no EDGE currently, regardless of what the sales rep told you
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RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
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Vodafone has a stake on AT&T??? I thought it was DoCoMo.. Vodafone is part owner of Verizon (a CDMA provider) and at one time, was willing to give that up to purchase AT&T but didn't. |
shawnmccall9
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Chicago, IL USA
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you're right RichLok, amagab may have had some erroneous information
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Posted: 2003-12-24 02:39
