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jaw04005

macrumors 601
Original poster
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
402
AR
For reference, Verizon uses the 850Mhz spectrum also.

"The iPhone 3GS has been a huge hit for AT&T, and although they aren't saying how many customers they've stolen from other carriers, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega said they had 'hundreds of thousands' of pre-orders," Sascha Segan reports for Gearlog.

"That puts a lot of pressure on AT&T's network, but the carrier is ready for it, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said. They're doing three major things to improve their coverage and speeds, one of which will have a huge positive effect on coverage in cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles," Segan reports.

"That major upgrade is known as '3G on 850 Mhz.' In busy cities, some dropped calls and signal problems come because the 1900 Mhz airwaves that AT&T mostly uses for 3G are totally saturated - they're trying to cram too many iPhones into too little space," Segan reports.

"Across much of the country, though, AT&T also owns big blocks of spectrum in the older 850 band, which was once used for AT&T and its predecessors' older TDMA service. Verizon Wireless is the other big 850 Mhz carrier," Segan reports. "AT&T has been refitting their 850 Mhz equipment for 3G. As 3G 850 comes on throughout the rest of this year, the effect will be like going from having 100 people crammed into a conference room, to having the same population in a spacious ballroom."

http://www.gearlog.com/2009/06/att_iphone_coverage_getting_be.php via MacDailyNews

I'll believe it when I see it, but good news if it happens.
 

Knowlege Bomb

macrumors G4
Feb 14, 2008
10,194
8,833
US
Ahhh... TDMA. I miss my polyphonic blue-screened TDMA candybar...

Anything AT&T does to improve their coverage is welcome in my book.
 

mavis

macrumors 601
Jul 30, 2007
4,734
1,452
Tokyo, Japan
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (white): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

So the old A/B band stuff has just been unused this whole time??
 

co.ag.2005

macrumors 68020
Jun 17, 2009
2,363
1,809
Fort Worth, TX
Ahhh... TDMA. I miss my polyphonic blue-screened TDMA candybar...

I had the Nokia 8250 on Cingular back in the day. It was probably one of the best phones I've owned with regards to reliability and durability. Also, never had a dropped call or insufficient cell signal with this thing (unless I was traveling between coverage areas). Ah, the good ol days of TDMA

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_8250-217.php
 

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PhixionFilms

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2008
348
0
Deployed atm
Aww, how nice of At&T spending money for the BIG citys that lose calls maybe once in a BLUE $%^&*@# MOON!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CITYS THAT HAVE NO SERVICE LIKE MINE?? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE AN UPGRADE AT&T SO I CAN TALK IN MY OWN HOUSE!!?!? Isnt that what a phone is supposed to do???
Man i really HATE at&t. WTF are they doing? Really, they are seriously going to help the reception in citys like NEW YORK LA?!?!?!?! WTF why dont they take a look at there CRAPPY coverage map, and help the citys that DONT have service unlike LA and NY.
I live about 2 hours away from LA and i cant even talk in my house. Dude im sick of AT&T and all there crap. Apple should really move on to another carrier. AT&T Kinda reminds me of one of those dead beat, wife beating husbands, the iphone puts out all the work and then at&t holds them back from almost everything, AND THERE NOT THAT SPECIAL.
 

Jeremy08

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2008
151
0
Aww, how nice of At&T spending money for the BIG citys that lose calls maybe once in a BLUE $%^&*@# MOON!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CITYS THAT HAVE NO SERVICE LIKE MINE?? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE AN UPGRADE AT&T SO I CAN TALK IN MY OWN HOUSE!!?!? Isnt that what a phone is supposed to do???
Man i really HATE at&t. WTF are they doing? Really, they are seriously going to help the reception in citys like NEW YORK LA?!?!?!?! WTF why dont they take a look at there CRAPPY coverage map, and help the citys that DONT have service like LA and NY.

No crap, i live in at least a mildly populated metro area (Omaha, NE), and 3G as well as all AT&T coverage blows weiner sacks for the most part, if you do any traveling while you are on the phone say across town, or even to certain areas within the Omaha area, you can god damn guarantee you will drop a call. Pretty worthless for the 150 i pay for me and my GF's monthly bill. At least i finally found out that it has nothing to do with the iPhone, when i used a old GSM motorola in between the time i sold my 3g and got my 3gs....att should really step it up for all there new customers...weak sauce x10000
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Think about it if you were the CEO of AT&T.
Would you try to improve reception to city's with 20 million people and many potential subscribers or bother with urban areas and improving signal out in the woods with minimal population?

Man i really HATE at&t. WTF are they doing? Really, they are seriously going to help the reception in citys like NEW YORK LA?!?!?!?! WTF why dont they take a look at there CRAPPY coverage map, and help the citys that DONT have service like LA and NY.
 

dwreck

macrumors member
Nov 28, 2006
89
24
Aww, how nice of At&T spending money for the BIG citys that lose calls maybe once in a BLUE $%^&*@# MOON!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CITYS THAT HAVE NO SERVICE LIKE MINE?? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE AN UPGRADE AT&T SO I CAN TALK IN MY OWN HOUSE!!?!? Isnt that what a phone is supposed to do???
Man i really HATE at&t. WTF are they doing? Really, they are seriously going to help the reception in citys like NEW YORK LA?!?!?!?! WTF why dont they take a look at there CRAPPY coverage map, and help the citys that DONT have service unlike LA and NY.
I live about 2 hours away from LA and i cant even talk in my house. Dude im sick of AT&T and all there crap. Apple should really move on to another carrier. AT&T Kinda reminds me of one of those dead beat, wife beating husbands, the iphone puts out all the work and then at&t holds them back from almost everything, AND THERE NOT THAT SPECIAL.


Whoa, pardner. Here in SF, 3G service is pretty spotty. A friend had 4 droppped calls in 15 minutes today. In SF, LA and NY the iPhone is so popular that AT&T's network is completely bogged down. From a business perspective, improving the networks in the places with the most subscribers makes the most sense.
 

TMar

macrumors 68000
Jul 20, 2008
1,679
1
Ky
Think about it if you were the CEO of AT&T.
Would you try to improve reception to city's with 20 million people and many potential subscribers or bother with urban areas and improving signal out in the woods with minimal population?

I would put it in the woods. Minimal population=less traffic= less cost to them lol. It doesn't help that's where I live tho :)
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Lol :D
I know it sucks, I dont live in a major city either but lucky enough AT&T has good coverage with 3G all around.
But usually AT&T and most companys think with their pockets and could care less for the consumer getting the short end of the stick.


I would put it in the woods. Minimal population=less traffic= less cost to them lol. It doesn't help that's where I live tho :)
 

doubleatheman

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2009
628
0
I find it amazing how fast AT&T killed off it's tdma network, I turned on my old tema phone for he hell of it last week, sure enough nomore signal. I will say I miss how reliable tdma was, it was a good netowork and it served me well.

But I'm very glad to see AT&T amping up it's netowork in busy areas, past week when I was in San fran I got many dropped calls, but it's something I have come to expect in the city.
 

adster

macrumors regular
Aug 7, 2008
235
2
Aww, how nice of At&T spending money for the BIG citys that lose calls maybe once in a BLUE $%^&*@# MOON!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CITYS THAT HAVE NO SERVICE LIKE MINE?? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE AN UPGRADE AT&T SO I CAN TALK IN MY OWN HOUSE!!?!?

I live in the middle of Hollywood California, and my 3G signal is awful. I don't get signal in my house and if I want prolonged phone calls, I have to go outside - and even then I drop the calls sometimes. I work about 2 miles from my house, and there are no less then 3 dead spots where my call drops from my work to my home.

However, since I've upgraded to the 3GS things seem to be a little bit better, but the 850mHZ spectrum will very much be welcome here.
 

wr1020

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2009
170
0
Aww, how nice of At&T spending money for the BIG citys that lose calls maybe once in a BLUE $%^&*@# MOON!!! WHAT ABOUT THE CITYS THAT HAVE NO SERVICE LIKE MINE?? I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE AN UPGRADE AT&T SO I CAN TALK IN MY OWN HOUSE!!?!? Isnt that what a phone is supposed to do???
Man i really HATE at&t. WTF are they doing? Really, they are seriously going to help the reception in citys like NEW YORK LA?!?!?!?! WTF why dont they take a look at there CRAPPY coverage map, and help the citys that DONT have service unlike LA and NY.
I live about 2 hours away from LA and i cant even talk in my house. Dude im sick of AT&T and all there crap. Apple should really move on to another carrier. AT&T Kinda reminds me of one of those dead beat, wife beating husbands, the iphone puts out all the work and then at&t holds them back from almost everything, AND THERE NOT THAT SPECIAL.

You have to think of it from there point of view, why invest money in boosting the signal in a small town when you can use that money and then some to boost signals in big cities where there are millions of people.
 

ravensfan55

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2009
413
0
Yes. They've been switching to 850 in DC for a while now.

I can confirm this. My old Blackjack had a secret "Engineer Test Mode" where I could pull all sorts of info about the phone and the network, like the Tx/Rx, what band I was on, etc.

When I first got my Blackjack AT&T was using 1900 for 3G, starting last summer I noticed that in more places around here I was seeing "WCDMA 850" in test mode.

At least where I live it seems we're getting 7.2mbit HSPA, for the past week there have been AT&T engineers working on the cell panels near my office, and 3G has been off for a few occasions.
 

iWork

macrumors member
May 7, 2009
43
0
AT&T holds an 850MHz license in many markets and it 850MHz 3G has already been deployed, and is currently being deployed, in many of AT&T's markets.

Small and large markets have already gained 3G on 850MHz. NYC 850MHz overlays are nearly complete. Transmitter tuning is currently underway. Much needed backhaul enhancements will be made in the next few months.
 

ravensfan55

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2009
413
0
AT&T also gets a ton of 850mhz licenses (though mostly in rural areas) from the divested Alltel markets they picked up, and the Centennial acquisition.
850
1900
 

Michael CM1

macrumors 603
Feb 4, 2008
5,681
276
Nothing more hilarious this late than people who don't understand why AT&T is trying to improve cell reception in cities with 10 million people before they work on towns with two traffic signals and a brand new Wal-Mart.

But seriously, all of the companies keep working at adding service in certain locations. If they didn't, they wouldn't have any subscribers. You're just going to get the better service if you're near a big metro area.
 
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