GSM questions/reception

[prosaic]

I have a few questions about GSM networks and reception. I currently have an SE T68i phone on AT&T's GSM network in the San Francisco area. The reception (or rather, the signal penetration) that I get is terrible. My phone doesn't get a usable signal anywhere at my office, in next to tall buildings, in elevators, on the first floor of my apartment building; it seems that everywhere I go, I end up standing around outside somewhere, trying to rush someone off a call so I can go inside.

I'm very satisfied with the T68i as a device ; I like the interface and the design and the ease of Bluetooth syncing (this, most of all, I love). But after a year of waiting for AT&T's network penetration to improve, I've simply grown tired of feeling like I'm stuck in 1995 all over again.

Will other phones give me better reception? What is Tri-Band GSM and will it help if I have a phone that supports this? Are there any non-GSM phones out there, with any carrier, that support Bluetooth? Any advice you can offer, or resources you can point me to, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[lfchristian]

i am an a.t.+t. gsm user, but i've never used my service in the san fransico area, so i can't really speak about the service there. however i did own a se t68i for a several weeks and the rf performance was definitely sub-par to all the other phones i've ever owned. in fact i took it back after two weeks for that very reason. i agree as do most people who had/have the t68/i that it was a great phone outside of the rf.

if you want a recommendation from someone who has had phones that span most of the major manufactures, i would have to say for rf performance the best is generally nokia. that is just my opinion and experience comparing phones on a.t.+t.. i currently have the nokia 6600 and the rf performance has been very good.

[Michael]

T68i RF is sub-par, yes. It is the phone's fault, for the most part.

Just about any recent Nokia will be a vast improvement.

The SE Z600 is also a vast improvement, if you prefer the Bluetooth route.

[adisaoz]

Most Sony Ericsson phones, save for the Z600 (since I haven’t tried it), have sub-par RF reception. Get a Nokia phone; they generally have better RF reception. I have a friend out in San Francisco who had the same problem; he switched to the 3650, which is a bit cumbersome to hold, but otherwise a great phone.

An AT&T rep also said that phones that operate on the 900mhz frequency don’t penetrate the buildings very well, which I cannot confirm. I just know that the T68i, though a tri-band phone, operates on only one frequency in this country, so it should not matter with that phone.

As for your question about non-GSM phones that use Bluetooth, the FCC has approved them, but I am not sure any carrier or manufacturer has a non-GSM phone that uses Bluetooth yet.

Anyway, my advice would be to not rush to switch carrier yet, but rather to try a different phone first, preferably a newer Nokia. If the Nokia doesn't fare well, then you might need to switch carrier.