TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers?

Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers?

Steven M. Scharf (scharf.steven@linkearth.net)
Sun, 15 May 2005 03:53:56 GMT

John Levine wrote:

>> Do today's cell phones have any option to do that?

> None that I've seen. Typically the A carrier is TDMA or GSM, and the
> B carrier is CDMA, so if you forced the phone to the other one it'd
> have to fall back to analog and cellco's don't like that.

> Ten years ago when I had an analog car phone I would force it to
> switch all the time when I was on trips because I knew that the
> non-default carrier had a better roaming deal.

There are quite a few areas with two TDMA and two AMPS networks.
Depending on the phone, it can be easy or difficult to switch it
between networks. Some phones require being hooked up to a computer to
be switched, and some can be programmed over the air.

In areas where both Cingular and AT&T have TDMA networks, the networks
are still separate (labeled orange for Cingular, blue for AT&T, but it
is still A & B for AMPS).

I've recently activated several old TDMA phones for use on Beyond
Wireless (http://gobeyondwireless.com) or CallPlus. These have to be
phones that were either previously on the AT&T TDMA network, or that can
be reprogrammed over-the-air. I.e., they can't activate a locked
Cingular TDMA phone that can't be reprogrammed over the air.

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