Travel Technology - T-Mobile (U.S.A.) UMTS bands

I'll appreciate of someone would clarify the nomenclature issue for UMTS phones/service please. From what I have read, T-mobile's 3G service uplinks in 1.7 GHz band and downlinks in 2.1 GHz. Shouldn't T-mobile's phones be operable in both 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands? Some of T-mobile's phones are said to have 1.7 GHz band but not 2.1 GHz! :confused:
The only explanation that comes to mind is that although the phone is said to operate nominally in 1.7 GHz band, it does have the capability to work with 2.1 Ghz downlinks.

If the uplink band is used in nomenclature although the phone also works in the downlink band, why are UMTS phones in Europe said to operate in 2.1 GHz band (which is the downlink band)?

Why can't we be consistent about nomenclature?

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands) and this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Wireless_Services) should answer your questions.

In a nutshell, while there is some overlap between T-mobile's UMTS downlink band (also called AWS) and the standard European/rest-of-world one (also called IMT), they don't match exactly. Plus, the uplink band for each of them is completely different from the other.

Why can't we be consistent about nomenclature?

Simply put, either you quote frequencies as uplink/downlink, or you pick semi-representative "names" for each set of frequencies.

Numbers are probably easier to deal with than acronyms/initialisms, so you generally see "2100", "1900" and "1700" rather than "IMT", "PCS" or "AWS" (although of the three, that is the one I've seen most).

Simply put, either you quote frequencies as uplink/downlink, or you pick semi-representative "names" for each set of frequencies.

Numbers are probably easier to deal with than acronyms/initialisms, so you generally see "2100", "1900" and "1700" rather than "IMT", "PCS" or "AWS" (although of the three, that is the one I've seen most).

So glad that you understood what I was saying. I agree that either one could use uplink band, the downlink band or some other characteristic to name different bands. All I am saying is the criterion should be consistent and it's not.

For example look at some of the popular UMTS bands
Band--------Uplink--------Downlink
2100> 1920 - 1980> 2110 - 2170> Named after the downlink frequencies
1900 > 1850 - 1910 > 1930 - 1990> Named after the downlink frequencies.
1700 > 1710 - 1755 > 2110 - 2155> Named after the uplink frequencies.
850 > 824-849> 869-894 > ------ both uplink and downlink are around 850 MHz.

It's easier if one criterion is used for naming the bands. My brother thought he would need a dual band phone for an operator with services in the first (2100) band.