It's worth bearing in mind that both O2 and Vodafone have frequencies allocated to them in the 1800 band as well, so having a mobile that only supports the 900 band might result in patchy coverage depending on how they are deploying 1800MHz. (Likely in the more densely populated areas).
They are the only 2 GSM operators who have anything at 900MHz though.
Kevin
Does that mean that a 900 mhz O2 also works on 1800 mhz ? are the phones on seperate frequencies, or do they now work on both combined? Is it that a more modern O2 is now 1800 mhz and won`t work on the 900mhz equipment ? - Not quite understanding this fully??
:-?
Most modern phones will work on 3 or 4 bands at least. 900 and 1800 in europe, 850 and 1900 in the US and a few other parts of the world.
The phone will search all bands for a home network (the issuer of the SIM card) and then search for a roaming operator (if overseas, for example) unless it's been configured not to, so you don't normally notice it moving.
Vodafone and O2 have an allocation at 1800, but it depends how they use it. Typically, they would use the extra capacity and smaller cell footprint at 1800 to infill urban areas where the volume of calls is high, so they might send an 1800 capable phone from 900 up to 1800 to make use of this capacity. Whether an 1800 only phone would work (if you can find one these days) depends if they have complete cells on 1800 MHZ or just traffic channels. If it did, coverage would be woeful out of town because they'll almost certainly be using their existing 900 MHz infrastructure for "rural" coverage.
Kevin
Author
Topic: NCDC 2015 - what phone network works? (Read 2038 times)