Re: Colnago C60

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 1/8/2025 7:43 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

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.

 
It never got a European SIM. Understand, back in those days I knew
approximately nothing about cell phones. The phone was my wife's, used
almost entirely for her job. I may not have known what a SIM card was.
As I said, AT&T promised the phone would work perfectly as is. The
European cell phone store staff told me it could never work.
 
Ah well. It's all electrons over the dam now.
 

The SIM card wouldn’t have made a difference if the phone wasn’t GSM.

Roger Merriman