T-mobile versus Cingular in central Texas?

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bigolds98@gmail.com - 26 Feb 2007 21:37 GMT

Hello group,
I am hoping to find some folks who have made the comparison between
cingular and t-mobile in central Texas? We have had Cingular for over
two years because it works great out in rural Bastrop county (West of
Austin) But as most know their customer service stinks plus I can get
a much better deal on new phones and the same cost per month family
plan. Over the last couple of years I have heard several people say
"Cingular and T-mobile use the same towers" and such that made it
sound that one works as good as the other but for some reason I am not
sure I believe that. I had a Voicestream phone years ago and the
service was horrible. Almost no rural reception and we travel across
Texas a lot and I understand that is not the case any longer..Just
trying to get some ideas before jumping off into another two year
contract. We would be getting the Razr phones which would have the
850mhz roaming too..

Thanks so much for any insight..

John

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BruceR - 26 Feb 2007 22:10 GMT

On TMo's home page you can put in your zip code and see a detaied
coverage map that shows included roaming on the Cingular (and others)
850 towers.

> Hello group,
> I am hoping to find some folks who have made the comparison between
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> John

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bigolds98@gmail.com - 27 Feb 2007 13:09 GMT

> On TMo's home page you can put in your zip code and see a detaied
> coverage map that shows included roaming on the Cingular (and others)
> 850 towers.

Hi Bruce.
Thanks, I did check that and was helpful but was hoping to get a
general "feel" from other users how well the service is while driving
about the countryside :-)
They do have a pretty good interactive map though so I just followed
it along the normal routes and it appears there is a dead spot on the
way to Abilene but I think Cingular has this as well..After all rural
Texas is pretty vast and we can't expect coverage everywhere..My first
experience with Voice stream was on the same route. We were between
Brownwood and Abilene (west Texas) and saw several people stopped
along the road on their cell phones. Seconds later we saw why they
were calling, ahead and to the west was a Tornado! I picked up my
Voicestream phone and it had "no service" Seemed others had service
but I have no idea what carrier they had..This is probably the same
place that the map shows no coverage..Maybe they had something
analog..

Thanks again!
John

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Mark Randol - 27 Feb 2007 13:57 GMT

Got T-Mobile when we moved to Austin (AT&T/Cingular/AT&T couldn't figure
out how to make the move with us, so we left). In town it's been pretty
reasonable. Along MOST freeways and major highways it's been ok. But
I've noticed sometimes when I don't get coverage, like between Dallas &
Texarcana, I do get Cingular towers. Could be roaming, depending on
your plan. But that doesn't happen often, so I'm GUESSING that T-Mobile
and Cingular have similar coverage. Out past Fredricksburg, it's a mix
of Cingular, T-Mobile and No Service.

From what I can tell, if you want the BEST coverage, Verizon has it.
From what they charge to begin with, then dime-ing and quartering you
for every feature after that, they are by far the most expensive, except
for maybe Nextel. Not worth it in my opinion, but your needs and wants
as always may vary ;)

Mark

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jonjonbear - 27 Feb 2007 19:25 GMT

> Got T-Mobile when we moved to Austin (AT&T/Cingular/AT&T couldn't figure
> out how to make the move with us, so we left). In town it's been pretty
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Mark

Hi Mark.
I know what you mean..I used to have Verizon. I think you hit the
nail on the head, I think as long as you have a handset that can use
the other services you should be okay as long as Cingular doens't take
away TM's permission to roam on their site but that would seem
unlikely..
Thanks for your help!
John

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