The 800MHz "Cellular" Band was the original cellular service frequency allocation in the United States. The 800MHz Cellular band refers to the specific frequency ranges of 824.01-848.97MHz and 869.01-893.97MHz.

In general, 800MHz signals travel farther and are better able to penetrate building materials than 1900MHz signals (due to the longer wavelength at 800MHz), so cellular systems using the 800MHz band tend to have better coverage than those using the 1900MHz band. A 1900MHz system can have coverage that is as good as or better than an 800MHz system, but in order to achieve this, it is necessary to have more base station antennas in an area than an 800MHz system would need. Since the 800MHz band has been in use for wireless telephone communication longer than the 1900MHz band has, 1900MHz systems tend to be less fully developed than 800MHz systems, and therefore to have less coverage. However, this is not true for all systems and in all areas.

Some wireless providers in the USA that use the 800MHz band in at least part of their network include:

• Alltel (800MHz CDMA)
• Centennial Wireless (800MHz TDMA)
• Verizon Wireless (800MHz CDMA, 1900MHz CDMA)
• Cingular (800MHz TDMA, 800MHz* GSM, and 1900MHz GSM)
• AT&T Wireless (800MHz TDMA, 800MHz* GSM, 1900MHz GSM and 1900MHz TDMA)
• Nextel (SMR/800MHz** iDEN)
• And others.

In every region of the United States, there can be up to two carriers operating in the 800MHz cellular band. These are referred to as the "A" and "B" carriers in an area. The "A Side" carrier can use one half of the frequencies in the cellular band, and the "B Side" carrier uses the other half. Every carrier that operates in the A or B cellular band is required to run the older AMPS protocol on at least a small number of their frequency channels in order to maintain backwards compatibility with older AMPS phones, and to facilitate roaming (for instance if you have a phone that works with CDMA and AMPS, and you are roaming in an area that only has TDMA and AMPS service, at least you can still place a call using AMPS).

Many carriers that originally owned some 800MHz Cellular licenses have purchased 1900MHz PCS licenses either to supplement capacity in areas they already covered, or to gain coverage in areas in which they previously held no license. This has led to the widespread popularity of Dual-Band(800/1900) phones, phones that can work with systems in either the 800 or 1900MHz band. There are dual-band phones available for IS-54(TDMA) systems and CDMA systems.

In order to facilitate international roaming, Dual-Band (1900/900) and Tri-Band (1900/900/1800) phones have been available for some time. These phones work on the 1900MHz band in the United States, and on the 900 and 1800MHz bands in Europe and other parts of the world where these bands are used. Now that the GSM800 standard has been released, Quad-Band (800/900/1800/1900) and USA-Only Dual-Band (800/1900) GSM phones are available for sale.

Sometimes people will refer to something called the "850MHz Band," usually in conjunction with GSM systems in the United States. The terms "850MHz Band" and GSM 850 refer to the exact same thing as "800MHz Band" and GSM 800 in this context.