Wow! Thank you for the technical background on wireless bands and the phone situation here. I love to know the reasons behind the symptoms I observe.
I will say that I have occasionally experienced the 2.5G coverage issues, but for the most part 4G works nicely on my 10iii.
I live in a Chicago suburb, so I know helps. But I travel a modest amount. During commutes, I make many voice telephone calls. I’ll have a conversation for an hour or more. Once on a drive Chicago to Detroit, I talked to someone for four hours. TMO dropped the call exactly at three hours. Redialed and continued for another hour.
But that is along highways.
Yesterday drove to North Carolina. Streamed a recording of live prog rock concert and other than in the mountain passes in NC, the music played uninterrupted. Yes buffering helps conceal the tower-to-tower handoffs.
I have occasionally (1 per 6 weeks maybe) instances where I get a voicemail indication whereas my phone didn’t ring. Now I understand that is probably band 4 being full. Makes sense! Ty!
In Austin, TX, if I’m down in a valley and then go into a building, I lose the 4G.
In rural parts of OR, once away from town or major roadway, yeah, lost signal there where my wife’s Android 5G still had signal.
In big convention centers if I have a lot of structure between me and towers, I’ve lost signal. i question the cell repeaters in those buildings, do they do 5G only now?
Overall, I suppose my travel habits keep me along major roads and near cities where I get 4G. Enough that 10iii is and has been daily driver. I’ll definitely jump on whatever new 10? that’s supported and encourage anyone thinking about it to do so as well. If someone is on the fence, I still have a couple 10ii’s still sealed and am willing to ship one for someone to use to test for their usage patterns.
But I sure wish that Sony would once again develop a US-targetted variant to work upon the freqs here.