Talk:United States/@comment-190.140.96.145-20180131211204/@comment-24682153-20180201012211

This is exactly why this chapter deals with US frequency bands so much in detail as they are so different/incompatible to the rest of the world. We often hear that e.g. the coverage of T-Mobile is so bad in the countryside of the US. But according to latest tests it almost matches Verizon there. But much of their rural coverage is now done through their newly acquired 600 MHz band (71). There are very few devices on the US market for this so far and none on the international scene. Even the latest iPhones can't handle this.

As 2G is either closed down (AT&T) or not suitable for data (T-Mob) and 3G is winding down, it's essential for a reasonable data connection to have at least the primary LTE bands of either AT&T or T-Mobile. You are right, that most iPhones and high-end Android devices carry them, but not so many budget phones from out of the US.