Re: Colnago C60

On Tue, 7 Jan 2025 23:01:43 -0500, 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.

OK, no maker and model of flip phone.  So, I have to guess.  2007
would probably be a 3G phone.  LTE was initially introduced in 2009
with a fairly small number of cell sites.  By about 2009, there were
sufficient LTE sites available to offer service in metro areas.
Anyway, with an AT&T phone made before 2007, my best guess(tm) would
be it was a 3G phone using GSM, GPRS or EDGE.  I'm not sure this will
help, but it does show some of the possibilities:
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Cellular_network_standards_and_generation_timeline.svg>

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.?

Maybe.  I used "defective", as in electrically broken.  Is that what
you meant by "bad"?  The SIM could be setup for the correct protocol,
but the wrong frequency bands, system ID, etc.  It only takes one
programming error, and it won't work or do something strange.
Similarly, it also could be a provisioning error at the cellular
providers end.  Only one way to do it right, but plenty of ways to do
it wrong.

The phone was fine at home.

I assume that means it was fine using the original USA SIM and not the
European SIM.

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

Yep.  The US tends to select frequencies and protocols that are
intentionally incompatible with Europe.  Lots of conspiracy theories
available for why that happened. 

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

True.  I use my phone for talking very little.  For me, it's mostly a
data terminal, reminder service, solitaire game machine and a music
and video player.  The measure of a successful technology is based on
how much the technology can be abused.  Cell phones are certainly
successful.


--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558