I'm translating something and a fella says at one point "towers were down so the 800 MHz system didn't work" Anyone know what the 800 MHz system is?

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Anyone know what the 800 MHz system is?

I would imagine it is an antenna transmitting signals at 800 MHz

Probably something like  this or one of its successors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Phone_System

So is this just a mobile phone or a reference to the mobile phone network? Or is it something different/fancier?

 

Could I just transform "towers were down so the 800 MHz system didn't work" into "towers were down so cell phones didn't work"? Would that be accurate?

Probably, but it's hard to tell without context.

In the United States, a lot of police and fire radio systems operate in the 800 MHz band, which has sections reserved for public safety use.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/800-mhz-spectrum