Re: Colnago C60

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 1/7/2025 4:46 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:02:16 -0400, Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
 

To tell another anti-AT&T tale: The first time we went to continental
Europe, we (or rather, my wife) had a flip phone through AT&T. I called
AT&T support to ask whether the phone would function in Europe. The tech
support guy I got told me it absolutely would, no problem at all.
 
Of course when we landed, we found the phone was useful only as a
paperweight. IIRC, the phone wasn't even capable of dealing with the
frequencies that Europe used. And when I took it into a cell phone store
of some kind, asking if something could be done to make it work, the
tech guy there said "We've never even seen a phone like this one!"
 
Ah well. We got by for six weeks anyway, mostly by using internet cafes.

 
Approximately what year was your visit to Europe?  Which countries?
Any clue as to the maker and model number of the flip phone?

 
That visit was 2007. Poland, Czechia, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
 

 
Europe switched from 2G and 3G to 4G (and now some 5G) protocols,
which also included some added bands.  Shutting down the 2G and 3G
networks is still work in progress.
 
"A Complete Overview of 2G & 3G Sunsets"
<https://1ot.com/resources/blog/a-complete-overview-of-2g-3g-sunsets>
 
My guess(tm) is your flip phone was 2G or possibly 3G which is why it
didn't work on a 4G network.  However, since this was AT&T, it's
possible that the SIM chip that AT&T sold you was misprogrammed,
incorrectly activated or just plain defective.

 
If the SIM card were bad in that way, would it work in the U.S.? The
phone was fine at home.
 
Again, I thought it was fundamentally a frequency issue, that at the
time Europe used two bands but U.S. used two other bands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies

My Nokia phone would worked in NewYork some point after 2001 and would have
been GSM only, likewise it worked in Australia and other countries I
visited.

America choose unwisely really!

 
Not that it mattered. It wasn't a curable problem, so we just got by
without the phone.
 
 

Roger Merriman