James ([info]terraplanner) wrote,
2005-08-09 09:48:00
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Attention Cingular Users / Cell Phone Geeks

Last night was the final straw for me. After dropping a call with [info]johnreen twice in 5 minutes, my T-Mobile service has to go. With that, I've been contemplating going over to Cingular since my contract with T-Mobile was up as of last week. I will not go back to CDMA service (ie Verizon & SprintPCS), and would like to remain on a GSM phone. So that leaves me with Cingular. Another reason is I was going to them is to use their EDGE service, and eventually UMTS service once they make smaller handsets that support it. So any Cingular users, let me know what your experience has been with these folks. And for those of your tech geeks out there, feel free to recommend a phone for me. I was considering the Nokia 6630, though I never had a Nokia before. I've always had Motorola brand phone, and recently havn't been too impressed. So while I'm open to suggestions, these are the things I'm looking for:

- Bluetooth enable
- EDGE capable
- Camera (funny since I always though it was kind of useless)
- AIM client on phone

Would prefer:
- Quadband GSM(850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
- Video capture
- Speaker phone
- Flip style

Like I said, the 6630 seems like the way to go, and most people on cnet.com seem to like it. I just wish Nokia would make a flip with those features. Always liked them, since I didn’t have to worry about locking the keypad when I drop it in my pocket. But beggars can't be choosers.

Now, its off to the exciting magical land known as... Buckeye, Arizona for a site visit on a Cell Phone tower in which T-Mobile wants to co-locate on. Hmm, a sign?

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  • 31 comments

[info]ncsuj

August 9 2005, 17:03:51 UTC 6 years ago

well, I don't have Cingular, but I'll tell u this. It is owned by the evil AT&T which is in turn owned by the greater evil Bellsouth. I despise both of these companies, and refuse to ever give them another dime of my money. If you get their service and ever cancell it, call them 4 times to make sure you are not still getting charged.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 17:12:10 UTC 6 years ago

Cell Phone Whore

Fun, that sounds like my experience with Verizon (2002-2004), SprintPCS (2001-2002), Cellular One -> Alltel (1999-2001), Contel Cellular -> GTE MobileNet (1996-1998). I'm sure getting out of T-Mobile will be a chore.

Wow, that make me look like a cell phone service whore :-(

[info]ncsuj

August 9 2005, 17:14:24 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Cell Phone Whore

yea, it does! I have had Alltell for like 4 years now, and never had an ounce of worry with them. They always go out of their way to give me what I want.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 17:26:02 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Cell Phone Whore

Well, to my defence, work paid for two of those. I was a computer tech for Sears for a few years, so they paid for the Alltell phone. Before that, my dad had gotten some employee discount with his work so that's how I had a phone in 1996. Damn thing was a brick and I'm sure lead to a tumor I don't know about. Sprint by far has to be the worst ever. Hence canceling my contract with them only after 9 months. Verizon has provided good customer service and had no complaints. However, there phones were shit. I kept having to get my V60 replaced several times. And features (since I'm a tech whore) sucked. Even now there phone selection sucks IMO. So then it was off to T-Mobile, which coverage wise... BLOWS. So next on the list... Cingular!

[info]jsciv

6 years ago

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[info]tony_m

6 years ago

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[info]dipdewdog

August 9 2005, 17:21:43 UTC 6 years ago

Cingular is not owned by AT&T; rather it OWNS the former AT&T Wireless. And its parent company SBC is in the process of buying AT&T itself.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 17:33:01 UTC 6 years ago

Cingular is not owned by AT&T; rather it OWNS the former AT&T Wireless.

Translation: AT&T Wireless = Cingular's bitch. Funny story: AT&T Wireless had owned all the GSM towers between Tucson and Las Cruces, NM along Interstate 10 (about a 290 miles stretch). So on my drive back to New Mexico this past weekend I laugh to see the display on my phone flash on and off between CINGULAR and AT&T WIRELESS every 30-40 minutes.

[info]dipdewdog

6 years ago

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[info]terraplanner

6 years ago

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[info]ncsuj

August 9 2005, 17:33:46 UTC 6 years ago

Yea, that's what I meant to say! Bellsouth owns the whole shebang pretty much......That company is the bane of my existance, well it was for about 2 years anways.

[info]teethang

August 9 2005, 17:16:01 UTC 6 years ago

Cingular is probably what I am gonna change to as well. I have issue with the way T-Mobile is. I'm suppose to be living in a full coverage area according to them, but yet I can't sustain any phone calls for more than 15 minutes if I am in my bedroom, or pretty much anywhere in my condo for that matter. I always have to go outside.

[info]ncsuj

August 9 2005, 17:18:33 UTC 6 years ago

By the way.....

not sure if it has ALL of those features, but The Nokia 6255i has most of them, at a glance, and then some.

[info]dipdewdog

August 9 2005, 17:20:48 UTC 6 years ago

Moto v551... I have it, and it's not without its faults, but it's a good phone.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 20:41:28 UTC 6 years ago

That was the next phone I was looking it. I have a question, how well does it do on text message storage? I know it says 5MB, but my V600 said the same, yet it only allowed for 30 incoming texts, which isn't much at all.

[info]dipdewdog

August 9 2005, 20:49:20 UTC 6 years ago

I've had upwards of 50 in my box; I think the 30 incoming limit is imposed by the SIM (if your phone is set to store texts on the SIM instead of in its memory)

[info]terraplanner

6 years ago

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[info]yellow7

August 9 2005, 17:44:29 UTC 6 years ago

I'm convinced that the worst cell phone service provider is whichever one you currently use. People have been loathing phone companies for over a century now, and though time and technology march onward I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I'm on T-Mobile (with a Sony Ericson T610) and it looks like we're going to start up (appropriately enough) a "family plan" with a Motorola V330. It looks pretty good, even though there's a difference of opinion here. I prefer the "Hershey Bar" design, you-know-who prefers the clam-shell/flip-phone/Classic Star Trek Communicator design.

One cool thing about the V330 is that it has a USB port and you can charge the phone via USB. There's one less power brick to have to worry about when travelling (or whatever).

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 20:43:38 UTC 6 years ago

you-know-who prefers the clam-shell/flip-phone/Classic Star Trek Communicator design.

Who might you be talking about?? I like the clam shell design, simply cause i dont have to worry about calling people from my pocket, which happened all too often for the few weeks I had the Sony Ericson T610.

[info]jsciv

August 9 2005, 21:39:18 UTC 6 years ago

I still have the incriminating audio from when Andy accidentally called me from his phone while he was alone, singing along to the radio. :)

[info]yellow7

August 9 2005, 22:29:22 UTC 6 years ago

I remember checking my voicemail one day and he had left me a message. I listened to it and waiting for Magic Voice to tell me to press 7 (or whatever) to delete. Instead, things were quiet for a moment and then off in the distance music started playing. He hadn't hung up properly and so I got to ride along on the car seat for about five minutes (or longer) listening to the radio.

I usually "lock" my phone and maybe that's one reason why I've not had this problem.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 22:40:23 UTC 6 years ago

Yeah, both Paul and I have those too, but they're intentional. Ha ha. ducks

[info]panikmanik

August 9 2005, 17:57:26 UTC 6 years ago

my mom was with cingular for about a week..

that entire week she could not make, receive or even think about making a phone call... there was absolutely no reception anywhere (phx, east valley, etc)..

it was horrible.. a black hole had absorbed all of reality, time and space had been mutilated, everything dear to man kind was lost, loved ones, puppies, art and music, tivo.. everything was destroyed..

[info]pekkasuomi

August 9 2005, 18:54:46 UTC 6 years ago

Cell Phones

I'm not technical at all, and I have Qwest (Motorola phone) which is terrible. But everyone seems to have problems no matter which company or phone. All I know is that our cell phones work on a different standard from the rest of the world. Apparently in Europe, Japan, etc., cell phones work well. So there doesn't seem to be an answer. Again I am not technical but apparently other countries use some kind of GSM (?) which is different from ours.

[info]terraplanner

August 9 2005, 20:48:15 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Cell Phones

Some services are, some are not. Verizon and SprintPCS are CDMA, which are not in Europe. T-Mobile and Cingular are GSM, which are in numerous countries around the world. This means you can roam, in most places with a phone from either of these two providers. However, you're looking at international roaming charges from $0.79 to $3.99 per minute, depends where you are.

[info]pekkasuomi

August 9 2005, 20:55:15 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Cell Phones

Thanks for the info!

[info]jsciv

August 9 2005, 21:44:40 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Cell Phones

T-Mobile was actually a venture by Deutsche Telekom to bring GSM into the USA. They intentionally went after the US market with the idea of being the only ones who could boast worldwide phone use.

However, I'm not sure if you can roam with a US GSM phone as is: I think the ROM needs to be swapped out in order to use it abroad. Maybe they've done away with that requirement, though.

[info]swanhart

6 years ago

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[info]swanhart

August 9 2005, 21:53:29 UTC 6 years ago

Well, I've been an AT&T wireless customer for years, which now makes me a cingular customer.

We were tech whores at my workplace in Phoenix, so we got a business account with each of the wireless providers in Phoenix, excepting Qwest. This is what we found:

AT&T (now Cingular)
Good to Excellent coverage across entire valley
Some dead zones, noteable spotty coverage near Papago Park
Spotty coverage in parts of tempe
poor quality coverage in downtown phoenix, lots of drops
Problems:
Infamous voicemail w/out ever ringing problem
Drops calls regularly. 1 in 30 (guestimate) conversations experience a drop or noticable loss of quality in downtown Phoenix.

T-Mobile
Average to Excellent coverage valley-wide
Stronger signal than AT&T in same areas
Higher rate of dropped calls than AT&T in all areas
better quality than AT&T in downtown Phoenix
spotty coverage in same areas as AT&T

Verizon,Sprint
Moderate to Good coverage valley-wide
Poor signal in outlying areas
Not many dropped calls
Poor quality in many calls, sometimes hear other peoples convos

Cricket :)
Poor to Moderate coverage over most of valley
Poor to no coverage in outlying areas
Poor quality in most calls
Many dropped calls

[info]ufofp

August 11 2005, 03:49:20 UTC 6 years ago

My Cingular/ATTWS cell has been working pretty good and I tend to get the reception that's needed. The two quirts of the moment are

1) Always keep the battery over the 50% mark as if it goes below that reception goes down dramaticly and the number of dropped called skyrockets
2) Because of the merger/cell tower migration if you drop a call after minute 7 or 8, do a hard reset on the phone (pull the battery) as since it's been turned on your phone has talked to a tower that is misconfigured. They say this will over away 2yrs after the merger started...

[info]ufofp

August 11 2005, 03:52:12 UTC 6 years ago

O that said... I'm changing my work phone to a verizon smart phone, just to keep myself to 2 dissimilar networks. Though with that I really want the unlimited data plan and the terminal services client...
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