Tri-band Without 900 Useless?

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

And one more, general remark.
I don't understand what is the sense in producing 850/1800/1900 tribands? For American users 850/900/1900 would be more useful. And, I think that GSM phones nowadays should be produced as 900/1800, 850/1900 (for Uncle Sam and the neighbourhood ), or quad-bands 850/900/1800/1900....

It seems to be harder to make a quad-band phone than a tri-band phone. So, when Cingular wanted to sell a phone for 850/1900 that was also "international" they (and the manufacturers) hit on a modification of the existing 900/1800/1900 phones. Changing from 900 to 850 is mostly a software modification. It was really a cheat, since 1800 provides only limited international coverage. However, as I said earlier, in this case it's good 'nuf.