I want to thank all of you that responded to this thread. Your insights were very helpful. As a follow up, I wanted to share some information with all of you. I purchased a T-Mobile contract. I did a lot of research and field testing of T-Mobile cell phones before I decided to go with them. Aside from checking with the members of this site, I also checked some geek cell phone sites (such as
http://www.howardforums.com/) and (of course) the T-Mobile site. I discovered some information that might be useful to other cell phone users.
Naturally, my first concern was how well will T-Mobile work in my local area. I have previously used the Nextel system and found it to be pretty good but there are some "dead spots" in my local area. I also found that Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Cingular and the many other companies also had their share of "dead spots" as well. So, I decided to check the cell phone tower locations at
www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls.
I became concerned because T-Mobile doesn't own very many towers as compared to the other big companies. With that information, I almost crossed T-Mobile off my list. However, then I learned some important information. If you have ever taken the time to look at a typical cell phone tower, you'll notice that they most often have 3 or more separate antennas. Each antenna is used by a different cell phone provider. For example, Verizon and AT&T wireless own a bunch of towers in my local area, yet T-Mobile has antenna arrays on all of those towers. Apparently they lease space on these towers.
In the U.S., the T-Mobile GSM phones are dual band (900 MHz and 1900 MHz) but only the 1900 MHz frequency is used in North America. In my field tests, I found the T-Mobile coverage to be excellent in my area for a wide radius. The "switch" between towers when traveling in a vehicle was flawless.
Thanks again for all your help!
