Cell-Phone Frequency Bands

Cell-Phone Frequency Bands

There are presently two frequency bands for cellular service centered on approximately 850 and 1850 MHz. The 850 MHz bands are the classical cell-phone frequencies which have both analog and digital, and the 1850 MHz bands are the new PCS (Personal Communications Services) services and are only digital.

There is very little difference between the features of the PCS phones at 1850 MHz and the standard digital cell phones at 850 MHz. For this reason the choice between a standard digital phone and a PCS phone should probably be based on the fact that the lower frequency is slightly better than 1850 MHz.

There is an one reason, however, for customers to get a digital cell phone which uses the 850 MHz bands. Verizon, Nextel, and AT&T all provide the option of numeric messaging. Since automatic systems such as the VirtualPBX send a New-Message Page whenever new voice or fax mail comes in, it is very convenient to have a digital cell phone which can be paged without ringing the phone. This option allows one to get a page without the cell phone being called and without having to carry both a cell phone and a pager. None of the PCS service providers at 1850 MHz provide the back-door numbers to their voice-mail systems which are necessary for this feature.