Cellular Bands (Who Uses What Frequencies)

[marcp90]

This is just out of curiosity.

I was wondering what cellular phone companies use what frequencies in the cell phone bank. I already know that NEXTEL uses the same as PS for their walki-talkie service. But I want to know what frequencies Verizon, Cingular, Etc are using.

Thanks

 

[N_Jay]

There are 2 blocks assigned at 800 and 5 blocks at 1900.
Who has which should be easy to find on the FCC site.

They will vary by Market (MSA/RSA).

 

[Voyager]

This is just out of curiosity.

I was wondering what cellular phone companies use what frequencies in the cell phone bank. I already know that NEXTEL uses the same as PS for their walki-talkie service.
Thanks

Nextel uses the same as BUSINESS frequencies (SMRs) for all their operations - not just the walkie talkie service.

As NJ said, there are two banks - Bank A consists of 869-880 and 890-891.5 MHz, and Bank B consists of 880-890 and 891.5-894 MHz. Why are they broken up? They were originally 870-880 and 880-890 MHz, then the band was expanded. The A block was the non-wireline carrier (new cell companies), and the B block was the wireline carrier (traditional phone company).

Joe M.

 

[Starion]

Cingular / AT&T and T-Mobile use Global System for Mobile Communications.


For the 1900 MHz band:

Mobile to Basestation
1850–1910 MHz

Basestation to Mobile
1930–1990 MHz


The GSM 1800 band provides for a GSM uplink in the range 1850-1910 MHz, and a GSM downlink in the range 1930-1990 MHz.


Hope this helps.

 

[nd5y]

The FCC has a web page that tells how to find the carriers in you area.
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/cellular/operations/findingaserviceprovider.html

The license page for each carrier tells what frequency blocks they use in
your market area.

You might also want to read this thread.
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=21076

Tom

 

[Starion]

Thanks for the link ND5Y.

I remember that AT&T and Cingular use 824-849 MHz and 869-894 MHz GSM. T-Mobile exclusively uses the 1900 band in the USA.

Verizon and Sprint use the 850 and 1900 MHz band for CDMA analog and digital modes, not GSM. Verizon uses AMPS in addition to CDMA.

Each cellphone cell uses a different set of frequencies.

 

[nd5y]

Each cellphone cell uses a different set of frequencies.

Where on earth did you get that crazy idea?

I worked for a wireless phone manufacturer for the past 12 years
and I can tell you that all phones operate on the same frequencies.

Yes, there are different bands in some countries and the various
modes (GSM, CDMA, etc.) have different channel numering schemes
and bandwidths but each individual phone of each model is exactly
the same (except for the serial numbers)

Tom

 

[Videokid]

Each cellphone cell uses a different set of frequencies.

Where on earth did you get that crazy idea?

I worked for a wireless phone manufacturer for the past 12 years
and I can tell you that all phones operate on the same frequencies.

Yes, there are different bands in some countries and the various
modes (GSM, CDMA, etc.) have different channel numering schemes
and bandwidths but each individual phone of each model is exactly
the same (except for the serial numbers)

Tom

I think what he meant by that is that each cell phone tower can be handling calls on any frequency at any given time, within the 850/1900 bands.

 

[Starion]

Each cellphone cell uses a different set of frequencies.

Where on earth did you get that crazy idea?

Tom

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone

Videokid is correct.

I mistyped. I meant to say that each company or service uses a different set of frequencies for a given cell site. With frequency reuse, different cells in different parts of a city or county can use the same frequencies.

 

[N_Jay]

Each cellphone cell uses a different set of frequencies.

Where on earth did you get that crazy idea?

Tom

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone

Videokid is correct.

I mistyped. I meant to say that each company or service uses a different set of frequencies for a given cell site. With frequency reuse, different cells in different parts of a city or county can use the same frequencies.

Within one market, each company uses frequencies from one or more blocks. The frequencies in each block are exclusive to the licensee for that market.

In another marhet the same company may be in differnt blocks, and the same blocks may be assigned to different carriers.

Confused yet?

All cellphones can go to any frequency in any block (assuming they cover that band). The specific frequencies are determined by the celluar system.

As said before, ther are two 800 MHz blocks and five 1900 MHz blocks.

 

[Raccon]

The GSM 1800 band provides for a GSM uplink in the range 1850-1910 MHz, and a GSM downlink in the range 1930-1990 MHz.

I think you accidently repeated the GSM1900 frequencies, GSM1800 uses 1710-1785 & 1805-1880MHz.

 

[techer]

What about celluar in Canada ?

What are the frequencies used for say rogers , MTS and Telus ?
I see alot of scanners have blocked cell ranges why would they even bother seeing as though everything is
highly compressed and digital. Its not as if anything can be heard here anyway. I belive this is true for bothe cdma and Gsm phones.

 

[WayneH]

CDMA uses the same frequency all throughout the market because of how the technology works. PN numbers are used to differentiate the different sectors of a site.

 

[af5rn]

While we're on the topic, is there anything to hear anymore on the 800 cellular bands?

I'm not asking for random speculation without experience. And I'm not asking anyone to admit to ECPA violations. But if anyone has absolute, concrete knowledge of whether there absolutely is or is not any analog voice traffic still occurring to be heard in the 800 cellular band, I'd like to know.

It just seems to me that if everything there is now digital, and there is nothing there that can be decoded, then there is no longer any reason to exclude the band from receivers. It isn't against the ECPA to tune that band. It is only illegal to tune the conversations there. And with rebanding, that band is going back to commercial and public safety use anyhow, right?

 

[57Bill]

I STILL hear analog from time-to-time near Cleveland, Ohio.

 

[fineshot1]

While we're on the topic, is there anything to hear anymore on the 800 cellular bands?

I'm not asking for random speculation without experience. And I'm not asking anyone to admit to ECPA violations. But if anyone has absolute, concrete knowledge of whether there absolutely is or is not any analog voice traffic still occurring to be heard in the 800 cellular band, I'd like to know.

It just seems to me that if everything there is now digital, and there is nothing there that can be decoded, then there is no longer any reason to exclude the band from receivers. It isn't against the ECPA to tune that band. It is only illegal to tune the conversations there. And with rebanding, that band is going back to commercial and public safety use anyhow, right?

I think there is still some analog channel usage in my area but for how long who knows?

Not sure what you mean by " rebanding ". There is no rebanding for cellular. Cellular is
not included in that scheme of things since it has its own freq range which is not the same
as public safety.

 

[af5rn]

Are you sure? It was my understanding that some of the currently allocated 800 cellular band was going to be reallocated to LMR and public safety. In the urban areas, it simply isn't used anymore, best I can tell, so why not?

 

[fineshot1]

Are you sure? It was my understanding that some of the currently allocated 800 cellular band was going to be reallocated to LMR and public safety. In the urban areas, it simply isn't used anymore, best I can tell, so why not?

I think you are confusing the Nexthell move with cellular.

The cellular carriers in the 800mhz spectrum purchased the spectrum they have
and because its only about 12.5Mhz each for the A & B band carriers they barely
have enough. Don't forget that when digital came into(both cdma & gsm) usage
they had to come up with a channel scheme for that and being that they both
use wider band width channel schemes they had to squeeze it into the spectrum
that had been in use for analog and still keep some room allocated for analog
while digital became more wide spread.

 

[SAR923]

Everywhere in Nevada outside Vegas and Reno is still analog. Large portions of rural Arizona and New Mexico are also still analog. We even have some in the more remote reaches of Alabama. I doubt that there's much analog left in urban areas but there's a lot of rural America where the traffic doesn't yet justify the switch to digital.

 

[n1das]

While we're on the topic, is there anything to hear anymore on the 800 cellular bands?

I'm not asking for random speculation without experience. And I'm not asking anyone to admit to ECPA violations. But if anyone has absolute, concrete knowledge of whether there absolutely is or is not any analog voice traffic still occurring to be heard in the 800 cellular band, I'd like to know.

It just seems to me that if everything there is now digital, and there is nothing there that can be decoded, then there is no longer any reason to exclude the band from receivers. It isn't against the ECPA to tune that band. It is only illegal to tune the conversations there.

According to ECPA'86, it's also not illegal to monitor communications that are "readily accessible to the public". ECPA'86 also leaves "readily accessible to the public" wide open to definition. Go figure. While I won't admit to any ECPA violation(s), I will say that I only monitor communications which are "readily assessible to the public" as a direct result of physical laws at work. Don't listen to anything that I wouldn't listen to.