 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups General General TopicsGSMBluetoothProviders AlltelATT WirelessCingularFidoNextelSprint PCST-MobileVerizonManufacturers EricssonNokiaMotorolaCountry Specific Australian GroupUK GroupRelated Topics PocketPCPalmMore Topics ... |
Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / ATT Wireless / June 2004GSM vs TDMA: Advantages?
I've been a TDMA customer since 1999. Have 3 lines. Am perfectly satisfied with the feature set that I have now. No need for data, or surfing the web on 2" screen. Does GSM offer any advantage over TDMA when comparing the features that are common to both systems? Is the voice quality any different, for example? Seems to me that unless one really needs the data services, it make no sense to switch to GSM. All that "M mode" hype is irrelevant to my needs--I just want a phone that works, that has voicemail, and that displays when I have an SMS or a Voicemail message waiting. >Does GSM offer any advantage over TDMA when comparing the features that are >common to both systems? Is the voice quality any different, for example? Voice quality is better with GSM. Feature-wise GSM has more native features that work across all GSM systems. If you don't need data or you don't think you need any GSM features on new phones stick with TDMA. The voice quality isn't quite as good, but you'll give up analog roaming if you switch to GSM. If you're in urban areas it won't matter, but if you find yourself often in rural areas it's probably better to have the multi-mode phones that you can have with TDMA. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply >Voice quality is better with GSM. No it's not! Differences in phones and peoples ears sometimes make it seem better, or worse as the case may be. Technically it isn't better - it is the same. -- John S. e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net Jeremy, You are right on the mark. Thousands of AT&T customers converted to GSM and found the coverage much worse, and they quit AT&T as a result. It depends on where you are located. In a handful of markets, like Cleveland, Philly, Phoenix and several others, they use the same frequency band and coverage has not been an issue. Here, TDMA 850 MHz coverage was good, but had dead spots. When they just added 1900 MHz GSM service to the same sites, it was noticably inferior. Some day, they will make GSM work well. If you have good service on TDMA, stay with it for at least another year. Bill Radio Click for Western U.S. Wireless Reviews at: http://www.mountainwireless.com > I've been a TDMA customer since 1999. Have 3 lines. Am perfectly satisfied > with the feature set that I have now. No need for data, or surfing the web [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > want a phone that works, that has voicemail, and that displays when I have > an SMS or a Voicemail message waiting. > Jeremy, > You are right on the mark. Thousands of AT&T customers converted to GSM and [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Click for Western U.S. Wireless Reviews at: > http://www.mountainwireless.com Another selling point for GSM is international travel. Once again, if you don't travel over seas, then who cares. Phones these days can do some much, that it is often forgotten that you can call people with them too. I have to agree with Jeremy, I have no use for internet, email, or even sending pictures via my cell. txt messaging though, that's rather useful for me. >Phones these days can do some much Huh? What language was this supposed to be written in? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply > >Phones these days can do some much > > Huh? What language was this supposed to be written in? some much = so much. Sorry, the Vicodin is making me feel a little too good I guess ;-) > Another selling point for GSM is international travel. Once again, if you > don't travel over seas, then who cares. Not all GSM phones have all the bands that might be needed overseas; indeed some "International" phones have subsets of those bands. > Phones these days can do some much, that it is often forgotten that you can > call people with them too. I have to agree with Jeremy, I have no use for > internet, email, or even sending pictures via my cell. > txt messaging though, that's rather useful for me. On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 02:25:34 GMT, "Røbert M." <rmarkoff@faq.cIty> wrote: >Not all GSM phones have all the bands that might be needed overseas; >indeed some "International" phones have subsets of those bands. If you have the right equipment it indeed is an international phone. If you don't have all the required bands domestically you'll have problems as well. If you have a 1900 phone and the area you are in is 850 you're out of luck just as if you had an 900 phone and all that was available is 1800. It's a limitation of the user's equipment not of the service. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply > > Another selling point for GSM is international travel. Once again, if you > > don't travel over seas, then who cares. > > Not all GSM phones have all the bands that might be needed overseas; > indeed some "International" phones have subsets of those bands. My cousin figured that one out the hard way. He was all excited that he was going to France for a month. I looked at his phone, and sadly informed him that is the 850/1900 only, and wont work over there. oh well. > Jeremy, > You are right on the mark. Thousands of AT&T customers converted to GSM and [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Click for Western U.S. Wireless Reviews at: > http://www.mountainwireless.com Bill, this is great advice! My wife has ATTWS TDMA service which we just renewed so as to add unlimited mobile to mobile calling. Although the Reachout Unlimited service that allows one to add unlimited MtoM calling requires a 2 year signup, we managed to sweet-talk the salesman into giving it to us for 1 year because we simultaneously changed my T-Mobile service to ATT GSM. I have no intentions of giving up TDMA/AMPS anytime soon. The signal strength is great, I have coverage just about everywhere I go and AMPS backup. > Bill, this is great advice! My wife has ATTWS TDMA service which we > just renewed so as to add unlimited mobile to mobile calling. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > intentions of giving up TDMA/AMPS anytime soon. The signal strength > is great, I have coverage just about everywhere I go and AMPS backup. NO cell phone gets signal in my office. We even talked to a verizon tech and he said if they put a tower right outside the building, it wouldnt matter, there is so much steel and cement in this building it would all be absorbed. anyways.. a few guys with a digital/analog phone have to turn their phones off since the phone loses digital signal, flips over to analog mode and just searches all day and kills the battery. I have seen them lose a brand new, full battery in one day in this building before. having the analog may be helpfull, but it may also be your undoing. > NO cell phone gets signal in my office. We even talked to a verizon tech and > he said if they put a tower right outside the building, it wouldnt matter, [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > full battery in one day in this building before. > having the analog may be helpfull, but it may also be your undoing. Interesting - I guess it is all location-specific. In the Portland metro area, I have yet to find a single locations where my wife's Nokia 8265 on ATT TDMA does not work. Deep inside her office building, at home away from windows, you name it, it works. That's why we are keeping our TDMA service until they shut it down. My T-Mobile on the other hand is reasonable outdoors but is marignal at work and pretty much nonexistent at home. We just signed up for an ATT GSM account - let's see how good that is vs. the T-Mobile. > > Jeremy, > > You are right on the mark. Thousands of AT&T customers converted to GSM and [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > intentions of giving up TDMA/AMPS anytime soon. The signal strength > is great, I have coverage just about everywhere I go and AMPS backup. This was a good deal that you received. Let me however warn you of something. You received unlimited Mobile to Mobile on a 1 year signup. However you are required to have a 2 year contract. Essentially they gave you an override because they wanted your business. The problem is that if sometime over the next few months if you want to change your plan as in switch to a plan with more or less minutes, you will lose that unlimited mobile to mobile, because you are on a 1 year plan. No matter how much you bother ATTWS they will take it away from you. I know this because I had something better than the unlimited Mobile to Mobile. Then I switched to a plan with more minutes, and lost the special override that they gave me. What special feature did they give me... I'll keep you guessing. So just to let you know, you'll probably have to keep your plan exactly as it is now. > just renewed so as to add unlimited mobile to mobile calling. > Although the Reachout Unlimited service that allows one to add [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > intentions of giving up TDMA/AMPS anytime soon. The signal strength > is great, I have coverage just about everywhere I go and AMPS backup. At our cabin, Dobson Cellular One is the only company that provides even a weak signal. Verizon is the other cellular band carrier, and is nearly unusable. I have had good luck with a Nokia 6360 TDMA phone and a 3dB antenna and a DA4000 3W booster. Without the 3W booster, I have to find a hill. I just got a Siemens S56 from E-Bay, since Dobson has added a GSM overlay. Connected to the same equipment, the S56 cannot find a network, unless I am on a hill, and a little rain wipes that out, while the 6360 makes a call just fine. This is my first test of a GSM 850 phone connected to an antenna is a weak signal area. It appears that GSM is lacking. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.