Has anyone noticed?

[davidtheprof]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

2. Today, in southern California [between downtown LA and Disneyland, where I live], I had trouble logging on to an AT&T MVNO on thr 850mH band. I thought this might be a refarming issue but latter in the day was able to connect. Has anyone noticed loss of GSM ability on 850 or 1900 in the US due to refarming??

with a quad band phone, how do you know what band you are using? I can see (on Froyo) which network it's on, but not the frequency

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

with a quad band phone, how do you know what band you are using? I can see (on Froyo) which network it's on, but not the frequency

Actually, I have an older Panasonic Tri-band phone and that has an american version with 850/1800/1900 and lets me choose any one of those bands and also 850/1900. This is perfect for american tinkerers. The model is G-51U [U=USA]. [The G-51M & G-51E had the bands: 900/1800/1900 and the combos 900/1800 & 900/1900.]

More modern phones tend not to let you choose these things. I have a simple quad band Samsung that lets you choose quad or 900/1800 or 850/1900. That does not let you do what I can do with the Panasonic.

[RTuesday]

I can confirm that EKit Simple Calling no longer roams on GSM in (Western) Canada, including for existing sims (mine is several years old).

It was working fine when last called from on July 5th with a GSM-only phone, but today that phone now doesn't register on anything. Trying the sim in another phone, it can roam on both Telus and Rogers on UMTS, but again nothing on GSM.

There was no notice to existing customers that the ability to roam in Canada on GSM would be removed.

I was keeping one Simple Calling sim alive as a backup, but when this runs out now I won't bother, as it just stayed in the GSM-only phone. They may turn off other roaming without warning as well.

My main North American sim is T-Mobile prepaid. Cheaper in the US, a bit more expensive (but reliable!) in Canada, pricey but usable at a pinch (and for incoming sms) in Mexico and much of Europe.