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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Verizon / January 2005Cingular/ATT Coverage.
Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to Cingular/ATT? > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and > given the Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered > switching to Cingular/ATT? Dream on dude... You have two glaring errors in your sentences above... "signifigantly"?!?!?!??!?!? hahahhaahhaha "Debacle" HAHAHHAHA >>Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and >>given the Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered >>switching to Cingular/ATT? > > Dream on dude... You have two glaring errors in your sentences above... > "signifigantly"?!?!?!??!?!? hahahhaahhaha "Debacle" HAHAHHAHA Actually, taking a look at the areas in which GSM is available vs. the areas it was available just 24, 18, or even 12 months ago, the coverage has vastly improved. Many people also report that call quality is higher using a GSM compatible device than it is using a CDMA compatible device. >>>Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and >>>given the Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >Many people also report that call quality is higher using a GSM >compatible device than it is using a CDMA compatible device. I agree that you get better sound quality on a GSM phone. However, even with the combined AT&T/Cingular network, you still get better OVERALL coverage and call quality (less dropped calls, better signal, etc) on Verizon. That's been my practical experience with my VZW phone and my wife's Cingular phone. Of course your mileage may vary, but that's just been my personal experience. Dave > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the > Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to > Cingular/ATT? I think VZW has an excellent network in the 3 states that I travel in. I knew bluetooth was really insecure but after reading about a car that has bluetooth getting a virus I am not sure VZW was so wrong in limiting its "features". >> Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given >the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >bluetooth getting a virus I am not sure VZW was so wrong in limiting its >"features". Dropped Verizon 9 months ago before ATT merger. Too many dropped calls and weak, digitalized signals. Analog is all but worthless these days. GSM rules the day. Now have Cingular service with Moto V600 and Jabra BT250 bluetooth earpiece. Works like a charm and roll-over minutes never have to pay extra $$$ for extra minutes. Never going back to VZW or non-bluetooth phones. Face it: Verizon screwed you folks who are still stuck with their crappy CDMA/AMPS "service" and non-bluetooth phones. >>> Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and >>> given the Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Face it: Verizon screwed you folks who are still stuck with their > crappy CDMA/AMPS "service" and non-bluetooth phones. My sincere condolences, not only on your POS phone, but your obvious major mental instabilty..... > Analog is all but worthless these days. GSM rules the day. As long as you are in a GSM coverage area. Three years ago I had my daughter on Cingular. It was fine for her in Knoxville TN and most populated areas in the south (former Bell South network). She had a summer job in Cleveland OH and I went in to the store in March to change her plan to cingular nation (it was off contact and I agreed to a new one yr contract) in anticipation of working in OH. I specifically asked if Cleveland had CN coverage - he said Yes. She arrives and had no service where she was staying (near the airport). We went up the next weekend and I called cingular CS on my verizon phone. They said "oh, you need a dual mode phone. It will cost you $70 to upgrade." I hated to spend $70 on a new phone but said "Ok, send her a new phone. Can you rush it to her summer address?" He said "It won't be available for 3 months." I was pissed that they didn't mention this in March (and why mention that she needed a dual mode if it wasn't actually available for sale?) There was no way I was going to pay $40 a month for phone service that wasn't available or allow her to live in a strange city without a working phone. I went to the store when we got home and intended to cancel the account. He said they were expecting some duals in but didn't know the exact date so I gave him one week to find me one or cancel the account. They couldn't get me a phone and he was going to charge me the early cancellation fee until I bitched about not being told she needed a dual mode in March when he (same guy) made the change (I told him why I was wanted the CN plan and where it would be used and he knew what phone I had and never once mentioned Cleveland might not have GSM coverage). I was also willing to buy one, but they didn't have any. (Not having a phone to sell me was what got me out of the contract.) My next stop was at Verizon. :) I got her the same phone I had because I knew it worked there. Granted, coverage is better now and Cleveland might have good GSM now - but my story illustrates the problem with single mode phones in some areas. (My new phone is a digital but the other phones on our plans are trimodes and I figure when I'm in rural areas another family member will be with me or I'll take their phone.) >>Analog is all but worthless these days. GSM rules the day. > [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > and I figure when I'm in rural areas another family member will be with me > or I'll take their phone.) That almost sounds like you got a 1900 mHz only phone but needed the lower band 850 mHz (also called 800 mHz when referring to TDMA, AMPS, or CDMA). Either way, it was the fault of the salesman. > That almost sounds like you got a 1900 mHz only phone but needed the lower > band 850 mHz (also called 800 mHz when referring to TDMA, AMPS, or CDMA). > Either way, it was the fault of the salesman. I had to phone since it was bell south about 2 yrs prior and haven't looked at it in 3 years so I don't recall what it was - but that is not the point. If you want to insure coverage everywhere, get a multimode phone. Verizon's digital phones may not have 100% coverage and Cingular's GSM network does not provide 100% coverage either. That Cingular did not have coverage in a large city and didn't have a phone I could use in both areas was unbelievable. The rep (it was a cingular owned store) never gave the phone a thought when he changed my plan and said I would have coverage everywhere on the cingular nation service map.... and the fact that they advertised Cingular Nation to all customers but didn't have phones available that worked in all of their national service area and the salesmen didn't know many phones wouldn't work nationwide says a lot about cingular and their coverage, which was the point of the post I replied to. > The rep (it was a cingular owned store) never gave the phone a thought when > he changed my plan and said I would have coverage everywhere on the cingular [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > nationwide says a lot about cingular and their coverage, which was the point > of the post I replied to. You had bad luck with 1 salesman, right? By that logic, before I moved to the United States for business, I met one ignorant American. Therefore, can I safely assume that ALL Americans are ignorant? Of course not. A Verizon Wireless salesman told me once that ALL Verizon Wireless customers who had nationwide long distance included in their plan also had all long distance to Canada included in their plan. However, the real case is that all customers with nationwide long distance in Market X4 could call Canada with no additional long distance charges. However, my number to be based in Market X7 would incur long distance to Canada at a rate of (I think it was 0.89/minute). Therfore, can I assume that Verizon Wireless is not familiar with its own long distance offerings? 1 salesman was not, but that one salesman does not represent equally 100% of Verizon Wireless employees. Verizon Wireless, as does Cingular Wireless, has a multitude of fine employees on the payroll. I could really find some horror stories about Verizon Wireless employess from "Market X7" as in that market, Verizon Wireless has a wireless monopoly. I wouldn't expect the reps here to know about cost of calls to Canada because where I live is far from the border and it's rare anyone here would call Canada. I know I wouldn't. If I call CS, they should know as they deal with customers from all areas. My plan says something about Mexico calling but I never paid much attention to exactly what is it because I have no need to call to or from Mexico. (We have a lot of Mexicans living around here and many have cell phones - I'll bet they know what it means. :)) I do expect that if a company supports 2 different technologies or frequencies (as cingular does), that the salesmen will know some phones won't work everywhere and know specifically that the phone I have won't work in the entire market area they serve and can tell me (after looking it up) where it will work and where it won't work. (The map in the store used one color of orange for all market areas, when they should have used different colors for the frequencies they supported.) If I ask if I will have coverage with my phone in a specific geographic area, I expect they will either know the answer or say they don't know and explain why and either offer to find out for me or give me a number to call. I expect that they will tell me that I need a new phone to have service in those areas and that they will have one available for me to purchase. (Verizon will, because I've heard them tell customers much the same thing with the digitals and trimodes.) That the Cingular salesman didn't know my phone wouldn't work in Cleveland was unbelievable (and an indication of poor training prior to the release of the plan) - he should have known that Cingular Nation covered areas supported by one of two bands and at least mentioned that cingular nation coverage was really only regional coverage because it dependant on which phone you had. I would have asked him to verify that Cleveland had the correct service for my phone or asked about getting a dual band before signing the contract. (It wasn't just Cleveland - the entire northern US was not compatible with the phone, I have no idea about coverage west). > A Verizon Wireless salesman told me once that ALL Verizon Wireless > customers who had nationwide long distance included in their plan also had [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Wireless employees. Verizon Wireless, as does Cingular Wireless, has a > multitude of fine employees on the payroll. >> She had a summer job in Cleveland OH and I went in to the store in >> March to change her plan to cingular nation (it was off contact and I >> agreed to a new one yr contract) in anticipation of working in OH. I >> specifically asked if Cleveland had CN coverage - he said Yes. She >> arrives and had no service where she was staying (near the airport). >> We went up the next weekend and I called cingular CS on my verizon > That almost sounds like you got a 1900 mHz only phone but needed the > lower band 850 mHz (also called 800 mHz when referring to TDMA, AMPS, or > CDMA). No. Cleveland DID NOT have GSM coverage at all for a long time. I lived there until the end of June 2003, and between myself and my family members we have used every carrier that services Northeast Ohio except Cingular/Ameritech Cellular. So I know the market. :) Until 2001 or 2002 (I forget exactly which), Cingular/Ameritech and AT&T Wireless were TDMA/AMPS only, and there was no VoiceStream. VoiceStream supposedly started building out their network in 1999 or 2000, but they took a long time to complete it, finally launching whenever the T-Mobile rebranding started... the T-Mobile company store at the Great Lakes Mall had a couple demo units that had the VoiceStream logo on them :) But that was the first time Cleveland *ever* had GSM coverage. In T-Mobile's defense, once they did launch, their coverage area was amazingly comprehensive, covering even some rural areas only covered by the oldest legacy carriers (AirTouch/Verizon and GTE Wireless/Alltel) - for example, my parents' house in central Geauga County, in Montville Township. And not only that, but they gave my brother a phone number LOCAL TO MONTVILLE! It was a Claridon Township exchange - Claridon is right next door to Montville and is also in the middle of nowhere. I think Cingular might offer local phone numbers there, but that's it.  SignatureJustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "In case anyone was wondering, that big glowing globe above the Victor Valley is the sun." -Victorville _Daily Press_ on the unusually large amount of rain the Southland has gotten this winter (January 12th, 2005) She went up in the summer of 2002... the west side by the airport didn't have coverage but apparently the east side and city center had some GSM. > No. Cleveland DID NOT have GSM coverage at all for a long time. I lived > there until the end of June 2003, and between myself and my family members > we have used every carrier that services Northeast Ohio except > Cingular/Ameritech Cellular. So I know the market. :) Every day. > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the > Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to > Cingular/ATT? >Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the >Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to >Cingular/ATT? And the advantages of using bluetooth are? (yeah, you can use it wirelessly with a headset and upload/download images to and from a computer. Big deal IMHO. I use a wired headset or speakerphone and a USB cable.) > And the advantages of using bluetooth are? I work with a critic's team that we have to send out in the field for various assignments. My team goes out evaulating various business. We have V505's with Cingular (under AT&T Wireless plans, but activated post-merger). Because we cannot always verify that a team member has actually visited the business on company time, we give them a GPS device and a mobile phone. The mobile phone is used for voice and alphanumeric paging, as well as camera capabilities. We require team members to display the GPS device in a picture of the area in which he is assigned. The GPS device displays a date, time, and co-ordinates of the location. None of these can be changed with the device, and are used to verify the authenticity of the photograph which proves physical location and time/date. We adopted this standard after we caught a team member falsifying information. Using bluetooth has been wonderful. When a team member returns to the office, we can immediately download information from the phone. No need for cables, and we can download the information while he's got the phone on a holster clip. We can also sync appointments on the phone via bluetooth. Even though we only have a couple of hundred team members with these phones, bluetooth makes life much easier for us. > (yeah, you can use it wirelessly with a headset and upload/download > images to and from a computer. Big deal IMHO. I use a wired headset or > speakerphone and a USB cable.) Added benefit. > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the > Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to > Cingular/ATT? Cold day in hell before I go back to Cingular. Half my house and my work location were out of service last I had them, still they wouldn't let me out of my contract. I had to lawyer up to get out of it. Calls going right to voice mail instead of ringing, bah humbug on that. I now have VZ, and my phone works everywhere I go. Of course, I live in San Diego, CDMA's birthplace, I bet that helps. Brian > > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the > > Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > have VZ, and my phone works everywhere I go. Of course, I live in San > Diego, CDMA's birthplace, I bet that helps. You know .... complains like this are like complaining that you do not have Verizon coverage at the North Pole. Everything depends on locations. I bet there are places where Cingular coverage is better than Verizon's and vice versa AP Verizon's Americas Choice product includes service in North Pole, Alaska (on towers owned by ACS). -Dave (being a wise-a.s) > You know .... complains like this are like complaining that you do not > have Verizon coverage at the North Pole. Everything depends on > locations. I bet there are places where Cingular coverage is better than > Verizon's and vice versa I can remember being at a location in which Verizon Wireless was the only wireless carrier. Nobody with a VZW phone could do anything, but I, with my Cingular phone, could dial 611 to get "Thank you for calling Verizon Wireless. We never stop working for you." Well, okay, coverage never stops working for Cingular customers, but it does for Verizon customers. All the VZW phones were tri-mode, so they had the same AMPS capability that my Motorola TDMA phone had. TH > Verizon's Americas Choice product includes service in North Pole, Alaska > (on towers owned by ACS). [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >> locations. I bet there are places where Cingular coverage is better >> than Verizon's and vice versa I have been with Verizon for over 9 years and recently switched to Cingular. I wanted a Treo 600 without a data plan (work would not pay for that) and Verizon said no, Cingular worked around their system to give it to me. The other advantage is that Cingular works most of the time in my office and Verizon was completely dead. Granted my office is celluar hell but Cingular GSM is the least bad there :) I still have a phone on Verizon for my mom. Basically a safety plan with few minutes but that is all that she needs and her phone is a tri-mode that works just about anywhere (except of course my office :) > Since the Cingular/ATT coverage map has improved significantly and given the > Bluetooth debacle with Verizon, has anyone else considered switching to > Cingular/ATT? |
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