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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Cingular / October 2005TDMA service being secretly eliminated in the Chicago area?
I live in the Chicago, IL area and since a few days ago, my TDMA service has become unusable for talking. I can still use the phone for paging or sending text messages, but cannot talk. I can dial someone, they pick up their phone, but then we don't hear each other. I exchanged my original phone with another TDMA phone I had, and the same thing is still happening. Therefore, it's not the device problem. It must be the service problem. I contacted the Cingular Customer Service, but they reported no problems with their service. The rep suggested that I switch to their GSM service. I don't want to switch, because they don't have the equivalent plan. Are they surreptitiously forcing me to switch? >The rep suggested >that I switch to their GSM service. Buf of *course* that's what the rep would suggest. cingular's plan is to make service on the TDMA side so bad that if you want to stay with cingular you will *have* to switch even if the plan you are on now has better terms. They figure if they squeeze hard enough you'll do something. They hope you'll bite the bullet and get a GSM plan. But if you want you can outsmart them and switch to a competitor and just thumb your nose at their tactics. - - When upgrading from tdma, it would be best to check out all the other carriers, even the gsm ones, even cingular gsm, to find the one that suits your needs best. >>The rep suggested >>that I switch to their GSM service. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > - - > It's hardly a secret. There is a gradual change being done, over to GSM from TDMA. As they do this, there are fewer resources at the tower sites to support TDMA users. I agree, the offered plans may not be as good as whay you now have. I looked everything over in my market, and decided to stay with Cingular and get two GSM phones. The next- best alternative, here, was TMobile, but there were some issues with plans offered, price- point, and my useage level. It's a moderate headache, but do the research, compare the plans and phones offered, and make a choice. You can, at least, keep your number, even if you change providers, if that is important to you. Yup, the tdma company, att, went out of business. cingular paid for the privilege of providing a cushion so those customers would not be dropped flat. Not being dropped flat is good. cingular can drop tdma anytime they see fit. They also gained some customers and some spectrum out of it. The bottom line is the tdma provider is gone. There is no tdma provider to take it's place. Those customers need to move on or get over it. cingular does not have to match att's plans. They only have to have plans that compete with currently operating carriers. > It's hardly a secret. There is a gradual change being done, over to > GSM from TDMA. As they do this, there are fewer resources at the tower [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > phones offered, and make a choice. You can, at least, keep your > number, even if you change providers, if that is important to you. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Jerome Zelinske <jeromez1@earthlink.net> > Sent: 10/24/2005 1:31 PM -0400 > Subject: TDMA service being secretly eliminated in the Chicago area? > Yup, the tdma company, att, went out of business. . . . The bottom > line is the tdma provider is gone. There is no > tdma provider to take it's place. One cannot speak of AT&T as "the tdma company" and state that "the tdma provider is gone. There is no tdma provider to take it's [sic] place" because that misstates the reality of both Cingular and AT&T. Cingular, premerger, provided both TDMA and GSM service, as did AT&T before it. Cingular, postmerger, is in the process of amalgamating the various constituent networks and will, undoubtedly, phase TDMA out at some point in the yet-to-be-defined future. In the meantime, TDMA and GSM service continue to be provided, albeit with continual incremental change moving toward that probable eventual elimination of TDMA.  SignatureRJW The reality is that cingular was a gsm only company before they bought att. They stopped selling tdma service long before they bought att. A provider selling tdma service did not buy att. A provider selling gsm service bought att. And they have and still are providing a cushion for those tdma customers to transition to a current network. There may not be any providers that are currently selling tdma service. I don't know of any. I don't think there are any cingular tdma customers still under contract. There are probably very few att tdma customers still under contract. And those contract requirements have been dropped. Therefore tdma service can be dropped at any time. >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Jerome Zelinske <jeromez1@earthlink.net> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > GSM service continue to be provided, albeit with continual incremental > change moving toward that probable eventual elimination of TDMA. > The reality is that cingular was a gsm only company before they bought > att. No, that's not true. > The reality is that cingular was a gsm only company before they bought >att. They stopped selling tdma service long before they bought att. Actually not so long. >A >provider selling tdma service did not buy att. A provider selling gsm >service bought att. How is that important? >And they have and still are providing a cushion for >those tdma customers to transition to a current network. Translation: The "new" Cingular continues to provide TDMA service to existing customers, both of the old ATTWS and the old Cingular. >There may not >be any providers that are currently selling tdma service. I don't know >of any. No major national carriers. >I don't think there are any cingular tdma customers still under >contract. There are probably very few att tdma customers still under >contract. There are still about 9 million Cingular TDMA customers, of which a significant percentage are undoubtedly still under contract. >And those contract requirements have been dropped. In fact those contracts are still in force. >Therefore >tdma service can be dropped at any time. Of course it can, but not for those reasons. >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: Jerome Zelinske <jeromez1@earthlink.net> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >> GSM service continue to be provided, albeit with continual incremental >> change moving toward that probable eventual elimination of TDMA. SignatureBest regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES: John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular> >I live in the Chicago, IL area and since a few days ago, my TDMA >service has become unusable for talking. I can still use the phone for [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >I don't want to switch, because they don't have the equivalent plan. >Are they surreptitiously forcing me to switch? Cingular is migrating its network to GSM and turning off "redundant" towers, which is having the effect of degrading "TDMA" (IS-136) service in some (many?) areas. If your service stays degraded, then you have the right to terminate without penalty. If you decide to stick with Cingular, then you should upgrade to GSM, and demand a package (rate plan plus sweeteners*) that's roughly equivalent to what you have now. First-tier reps don't have sufficient authority, so insist on being transferred to a "resolution specialist" or "retentions". * sweeteners might include a big bucket of Anytime Rollover minutes. SignatureBest regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES: John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular> Are TDMA and GSM the same? The are the same time division digital cellular in theory. They should work in digital mode. However, the analog mode will only work in the TDMA. >I live in the Chicago, IL area and since a few days ago, my TDMA > service has become unusable for talking. I can still use the phone for [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > I don't want to switch, because they don't have the equivalent plan. > Are they surreptitiously forcing me to switch? > However, the analog mode will only work in the TDMA. Huh? Analog support at the tower is not tied to TDMA--they can and probably will drop TDMA long before they can legally drop AMPS in early 2008. The handoff support is not as good between GSM and AMPS as it is between TDMA and analog but otherwise it's possible. There were a few GSM/AMPS phones made back in the Omnipoint and early Voicestream days (Ericsson CF888, Nokia 6190 with Plus module etc). SignatureJud Dallas TX USA >> However, the analog mode will only work in the TDMA. >> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >GSM/AMPS phones made back in the Omnipoint and early Voicestream days >(Ericsson CF888, Nokia 6190 with Plus module etc). I think he means that you only get AMPS service from Cingular if you are a TDMA subscriber (alone or through the GAIT feature). SignatureBest regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES: John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular> >> However, the analog mode will only work in the TDMA. >> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > GSM/AMPS phones made back in the Omnipoint and early Voicestream days > (Ericsson CF888, Nokia 6190 with Plus module etc). When did GSM get the ability to hand calls off to AMPS? TDMA could do so, and in the early days of GSM there was a real advantage for TDMA users. My understanding is that the GSM protocol does not allow for handoffs to analog. > > 2008. The handoff support is not as good between GSM and AMPS as it is > > between TDMA and analog but otherwise it's possible. There were a few [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > understanding is that the GSM protocol does not allow for handoffs to > analog. That is my understanding also--guess I should've said "handoff support is nonexistant" instead of "not as good". Not that that would stop me from buying a GSM/AMPS phone--afaik I've never had even one call handed off between TDMA and AMPS. That would probably only affect someone who lives right on the line. SignatureJud Dallas TX USA |
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