Q. for all of the GSM techies.

OK, here's my dilemma. I live in Pittsburgh where TDMA/AMPS service was superior to verizon's CDMA/AMPS service as far as coverage goes. I now have cingular GSM and the service falls short of both it's predecessor (TDMA) and also the CDMA/AMPS service in my area. If you know Pittsburgh, you know it's really hilly, which means a lot of valleys. I made sure I got a Nokia that had both the 850mhz and the 1900mhz frequencies, but I still notice a problem with less coverage. The cellphone industry should be moving forward as far as coverage goes, not backwards. Anyway, I have some ideas, really just questions:

Why can't GSM include the AMPS technology so that calls can be maintained when travelling in valleys or in people's houses and basements? I have to stay in one spot in my friends basement to get a call, and my friend can walk around and talk anywhere in his basement with his verizon phone. My aunt and uncle are going to switch to verizon because their Cingular coverage is so sparratic in their house. It will jump from some service, to no service, to full service.

Option 2 (the better one): Why can't the phones be equipped with higher-boost antennas that will send out the 850mhz signal stronger? AMPS is sent out with a two-watt (or is it three watt?) signal compared to the one watt signal of GSM 850mhz and GSM 1900mhz. I know battery life is worse, but I can manage to plug my phone in every two days instead of every four. I'D RATHER IT WORK! I heard of people that hooked their phone up with a makeshift antenna and a wattage booster and they got incredible service. It seems like the same would happen if the phones sent their lower-band frequency (in this case 850mhz) out with a higher wattage output. Most calls would still be done in the energy efficient 1900mhz band and all of the heavy-duty stuff would be done with the stronger signal of the lower band. This seems like it would cure GSM of all of it's problems. This conceptually should work and I'm curious to hear if anyone knows anything about this.

Usually, the signal from the tower can reach the phone, it's just that the phone can't send it back. This is a two way system, you know. Some phones are better than others and this just proves my point even more, a stronger signal on the 850mhz band for all new GSM phones would do the trick.

P.S. This works for WiFi. One can buy high-gain PC cards and/or external antennas for PCI cards that do wonders. I put one from compUSA on a computer that was in someone's basement and the computer went from occasionally getting one bar to full strength nearly all the time. No lie!

I guess I just want someone to tell me why this WON'T work so that I'm not so upset and frustrated trying to figure out why they haven't done it yet.

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› See More: Q. for all of the GSM techies.

buy a GAIT phone. They are easily found on ebay. They support GSM, TDMA and AMPS analog. I upgraded to one from my TDMA/AMPS phone.