offshore cellular-best service?
jim
hollywood). I get about 2 miles out and I have little or no service. The
service is AT&T Wireless and I believe it is TDMA technology. What's the
solution for more distance? Is Cingular better (TDMS/GSM)? Sprint(PCS)?
Antenna? Different
phone?
BTW My friend (last summer) with a Bellsouth cellular in the Keys could get
service w/ his cellular 20 miles offshore (Islmorada).
-Jim
Steve Sobol
>I have a Nokia 5160 that's really bad offshore (fort lauderdale, boca,
>hollywood). I get about 2 miles out and I have little or no service.
You won't get service until they start putting antennas in the ocean. I
guarantee that the cities will not let the cellular carriers put the
antennas on the beach.
>BTW My friend (last summer) with a Bellsouth cellular in the Keys could get
>service w/ his cellular 20 miles offshore (Islmorada).
BellSouth, or BellSouth DCS? BS is TDMA, BSDCS is GSM.
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1900 mhz band signals also used by Sprint PCS, Verizon, and
Voicestream. Bellshouth , now called Cingular in that area uses a
800 mhz signal which jsut has a greater range. I think Nextel uses an
800 or 900 mhz ? signal which also gives greater rang than the 1900
mhz carriers . It is not the TDMA vs GSM vs CDMA problem
On Mon, 23 Apr 2001 08:00:19 -0400, "jim" <jim...@mindspam.com>
wrote:
Stanley Cline
>I think AT&TWS in that area is 1900 mhz TDMA . Slightly different
AT&T in Florida is 800 MHz exclusively. It's Verizon who's at 1900.
(Fortunately, most of my travel in FL is in the Panhandle where there
is no VZW coverage and ALLTEL provides 800 MHz service. So I never
notice VZW's bad coverage since I'm never in it...)
>800 mhz signal which jsut has a greater range. I think Nextel uses an
>800 or 900 mhz ? signal which also gives greater rang than the 1900
This is correct; the 800 MHz ESMR bands are close to the 800 MHz
cellular bands.
-SC
--
Stanley "roamer1" Cline, that guy with four cell phones :)
Atlanta, GA, USA -- http://www.roamer1.org/wireless/
if anything sux in my email addy, replace it w/ roamer1.org
Al Klein
>I have a Nokia 5160 that's really bad offshore (fort lauderdale, boca,
>hollywood). I get about 2 miles out and I have little or no service. The
>service is AT&T Wireless and I believe it is TDMA technology. What's the
>solution for more distance? Is Cingular better (TDMS/GSM)? Sprint(PCS)?
The air interface (TDMA/CDMA) doesn't determine the distance, but the
frequency (SPCS is 1900 MHz) will. Stay away from sprint if you want
distance.
BTW, PCS IS cellular CDMA, but on the 1900 MHz band. GSM uses the
TDMA air interface.
>Antenna?
Absolutely. A big, mast-mounted <as much as you can afford> gain
antenna. (Nothing less than 5.2db. 10db or 13db would be even
better. [10db gain is 10 times the power. 13 db is 20 times the
power.]) See a marine electronics shop.
> Different phone?
Not really, but a 3 watt car kit would help.
>BTW My friend (last summer) with a Bellsouth cellular in the Keys could get
>service w/ his cellular 20 miles offshore (Islmorada).
But can he get service in the areas you want service? If he can, it
might pay for you to go with Bellsouth. The antenna would be the
same, though, if they're on 800 MHz.
--
Al - rukbat at optonline dot net
Donald R. Newcomb (Despamed address)
There could several things causing this. First, where were you in the boat?
Altitude has a lot to do with range over water. Second, I assume you were
using the dinky little helical antenna on the 5160. You should try using a
real antenna. Finally, understand that, in theory, the waters of the
northern Gulf are licensed to two companies: (PetroCom and <mumble>) for
cellular service offshore. Land-based cellular companies are only allowed to
reach offshore if they don't step on those companies' coverages. There was a
recent case in Mobile, Ala. Where GTE was told that they had to roll their
coverage back to the water's edge because they had interfered with one of
these companies. Legally, AT&T's license stops at the high water line. They
may be playing it safe and pointing their antennas so they don't reach out
into the Gulf very far.
--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
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