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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Cingular / October 2003Confused about coverage and upgrades
My wife and I both have separate Cingular Nation plans on our cell phones. Her phone is a Nokia 6161 and mine is a Nokia 7160. Both are TDMA 800/1900 and Analog 800 according to the specs from the Nokia site. We live in the Birmingham area and seem to get comparable coverage except at our lake house which is just south of Alexander City on Lake Martin. Until recently, neither of us got anything but minimal and very spotty coverage around our Lake House. Recently, my phone, the 7160, is getting excellent (5-6 bars) coverage "Roaming" there but her coverage is no better that it has always been. We both really need to get good coverage at the lake house so I have been thinking about changing our service to Nextel which has good coverage in all areas that are important to us. Now that something has happened to improve Cingular coverage at the lake, I am thinking about upgrading both of our phones to 6340i's and going with a Cingular Nation Preferred Family Plan. My concern is that the 6340i's will work as well as my 7160. BTW, our lake house zip (36853) does not show as a supported area when entered at Cingular's web site. Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated. One more question, given that I would be in roaming mode at the lake, are there any limitations on the percent of usage in roaming vs non-roaming? Also, there is a possibility that we might move full time to the lake during our 2 year contract period. I wonder what the implications are? Thanks, Vince > Now that something > has happened to improve Cingular coverage at the lake, I am thinking > about upgrading both of our phones to 6340i's and going with a > Cingular Nation Preferred Family Plan. The service you currently have is not available anymore. Should you go to a Nation plan with shared phone access, that's a GSM-only plan. That will restrict you, and GSM coverage at your lake house may be non-existent. The plan you currently have is superior in all ways, as are the phones. Were you to replace those phones, you'd be stuck with the 6340i which has had a decent amount of problems. >>Now that something >>has happened to improve Cingular coverage at the lake, I am thinking [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Were you to replace those phones, you'd be stuck with the 6340i which > has had a decent amount of problems. Or he could get a pair of brand new 6340i phones, with new contracts, and give it all up within the standard 14 day trial if the service sucks. If the new service works well, give it all up anyway, then upgrade the phones/contract with the same old numbers he's used to, Simple.  Signaturejer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273 "All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of what we know." -- Richard Wilbur >coverage except at our lake house which is just south of Alexander >City on Lake Martin. Until recently, neither of us got anything but >minimal and very spotty coverage around our Lake House. Recently, my >phone, the 7160, is getting excellent (5-6 bars) coverage "Roaming" >there but her coverage is no better that it has always been. The 7160 is roaming on either RCC Unicel or AT&T; the 6161 (given it's a TDMA-only phone too) should roam the exact same as the 7160. I'd suggest contacting CS and seeing if they can push an IRDB update to the 6161, or to both phones. >We both really need to get good coverage at the lake house so I have >been thinking about changing our service to Nextel which has good >coverage in all areas that are important to us. Now that something Last time I was around Alex City (May or so of this year), Nextel had *EXTREMELY* spotty coverage, basically occasional signals from a site around Sylacauga. :( >has happened to improve Cingular coverage at the lake, I am thinking >about upgrading both of our phones to 6340i's and going with a >Cingular Nation Preferred Family Plan. My concern is that the 6340i's Get the 6161's IRDB fixed before doing anything with phones or plans! >One more question, given that I would be in roaming mode at the lake, >are there any limitations on the percent of usage in roaming vs >non-roaming? Also, there is a possibility that we might move full Current plans require 50% of usage on the Cingular network; I don't remember about old Preferred plans. >time to the lake during our 2 year contract period. I wonder what the >implications are? You'd have to break the contract; Cingular may or may not waive the ETF. -SC SignatureStanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ ... "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune > >One more question, given that I would be in roaming mode at the lake, > >are there any limitations on the percent of usage in roaming vs > >non-roaming? Also, there is a possibility that we might move full > > Current plans require 50% of usage on the Cingular network; I don't > remember about old Preferred plans. The old plan (I got on it back when the Nation plan first came out, about a year and a half ago) didn't specify a number--but it did specify that they reserved the right to cancel your plan or something if the majority of your calls were outside a Cingular-served area. Thanks to everyone. You've been very helpful. I'm gonna try to get the 6161 database updated first and see if it fixes that problem. Then I may try a 6340i for my wife whether or not the IRDB fix works. I hope it does because the 6161 is pretty beat up and needs a new battery anyway. Even if we do move to the lake I think most of our minutes will still be within the Cingular network. The one thing I'll have to check on is if Cingular will get heartburn over our billing address changing to a non-covered area. The other benefit of the 6340i is that it works with same car kits(cark-91h) that we have for our current phones. > >coverage except at our lake house which is just south of Alexander > >City on Lake Martin. Until recently, neither of us got anything but [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > > -SC > Thanks to everyone. You've been very helpful. > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > benefit of the 6340i is that it works with same car kits(cark-91h) > that we have for our current phones. Good on the rectcling of the CARK-91. Also, I use a mail forwarding feature offered by Mailbox Etc. It's a physical street address with a suite number, and periodically the contents are forwarded to any other address of my choice, extra postage is included in my account for normal re-delivery schedules. If you could get one of these at a strategic locale, it might save you a couple of bucks in the long run. The even better news is they discard bulk mailed items. Signaturejer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273 "All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of what we know." -- Richard Wilbur Re: Confused about coverage and upgrades You're not the only one! It took me an hour to figure out what you can and can't do with all their phones. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Unless you have either the Sony Ericsson T62u or Nokia 6340i, you aren't going to have much roaming coverage and what you do get is pretty much limited to major cities and along interstates. Considering how close the rate plans are priced, I have no idea why they even offer the GSM only plans. Am I missing something here? > Considering how close the rate plans are priced, I have no > idea why they even offer the GSM only plans. The GSM-only plans offer rollover minutes *and* the option for family plan phones, something the standard Nation plan doesn't. Their goal is to bribe you into going GSM-only, to justify their expenditures in creating the GSM network. Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: > The service you currently have is not available anymore. Should you go > to a Nation plan with shared phone access, that's a GSM-only plan. That > will restrict you, and GSM coverage at your lake house may be > non-existent. Actually, T-Mobile has just put up a new tower and provides excellent coverage and I believe they are GSM only. The problem is that T-Mobile has terrible coverage in some parts of Birmingham where we will be spending a lot of time. BTW, one real neat thing about T-Mobile is that their in store folks have web access to signal strength maps that get their information directly from the towers in real time. I have no idea about their accuracy but I was impressed. Regarding the Cingular plan and whether it is GSM-only, this plan is available with a wide variety of phones. Most of them do not even have GSM. Some examples are Nokia 1261, 2260, and 3560. The specific plan that I was looking at is one of the Preferred Nation Family Talk plans. Does your concern go away with this plan? Vince > Regarding the Cingular plan and whether it is GSM-only, this plan is > available with a wide variety of phones. Most of them do not even > have GSM. Some examples are Nokia 1261, 2260, and 3560. The specific > plan that I was looking at is one of the Preferred Nation Family Talk > plans. Does your concern go away with this plan? The concern I have is that the Preferred Nation Family Talk plan is GSM-only, according to Cingular's web site. Only the Nation plan--without Family--is not GSM-only. Maybe it's different in my area than in yours. What ZIP code are you looking at? > My wife and I both have separate Cingular Nation plans on our cell > phones. Her phone is a Nokia 6161 and mine is a Nokia 7160. Both are [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Thanks, Vince Since the 6340i is a GAIT phone, it doesn't just use GSM as some in this thread have suggested. If current TDMA coverage is present, then it will be there when you switch. There may also be GSM coverage that you are not currently aware of, because your current phone does not pick it up. You can upgrade phones and keep your current rate plan (don't let them tell you otherwise). As long as you are going to a GAIT phone, you can keep your old TDMA plan, though there are new GAIT Nation plans, that are a little short on minutes for the price compared to the old ones. Mark Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: >The concern I have is that the Preferred Nation Family Talk plan is >GSM-only, according to Cingular's web site. Only the Nation >plan--without Family--is not GSM-only. >Maybe it's different in my area than in yours. What ZIP code are you >looking at? Elmo, I think you broke the code. My home zip is 35242. There does not appear to be a GSM only limitation here. I tried some zips in TN, MD, and NY and they offer GSM only Nation Family Talk plans there. What zip were you looking at? Thanks again....... |
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