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Least Dropped Calls? Most reliable, nah.
- Thread starter jng
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QuarterSwede
macrumors G4
I have Cingular in Fredericksburg. From what I gather, Verizon has the best coverage in the area. Unfortunately, I'm unwilling to use a phone that's been heavily branded, locks you into a phone (no SIM) and I HATE bad UI's. Sony Ericsson's general UI is by far the best out now and the reception on my w600i is excellent anywhere there is coverage. I don't get many dropped calls, but I do have some trouble connecting after dialing sometimes. I figure that is because of the heavy cell usage in the area though.
When in Alexandria/DC I've never had a problem with reception or calls. My phone works well enough that my wife and I don't have a land line.
Same here. Plus everyone I know in my area uses them so I have a TON of minutes.
apfhex
macrumors 68030
I switched to Cingular last month and the first time I received a call that happened to me. Exactly like their commercials! How funny. However that was on the free Motorola L2 I got with the service. Once I put the SIM in my unlocked W810i (I love GSM 😀) I've had 100% perfect service. Full 5 bars in my house, where I was getting between 0-3 and lots of disconnects with T-Mobile. I'm paying at least $10 more a month on Cingular, but I swtiched because their reception is unquestionably the best in my area.
QuarterSwede
macrumors G4
That is definitely true. Too much branding, contracts, etc.
I had a friend who had AT&T when it was bought by Cingular and he had problems too. I took that post with a grain of salt because I'm willing to bet that service rep had had so many people complaining about the change in service (like that guy) that he was tired of responding to it. I can completely understand why he really didn't give a rip that this guy was going to go to Verizon. At least he wouldn't have to deal with yet another person complaining about something he couldn't do a thing about. That's my take on it anyway.
I know I sound like a Cingular fanboy, but I'm really not. Personally I just think that of all the major carriers in the US they offer the best combination of plans/hardware/coverage.
G5Unit
macrumors 68020
Well I would have to say that Cingular has the 2nd best coverage in my area, San Clemente, CA. Since the new name of AT&T the recpetion has gone up loads. I also get edge on tpop of my hill(before i got no bars of even regular service). I was thinking about moving over to T-Mobile. They do have better prices(wayyy better) but I'm not sure about their coverage.
This is actually something I'm struggling with right now.
Cingular works beautifully EVERYWHERE in Northern Virgnia. There is only one place where it doesn't work: my office building. As soon as you walk outside, it's five bars. Walk in and you get "No Service".
I've tested all other carriers---all work great, except for the network with the fewest dropped calls.
I'm a Realtor, so my phone is the center of my business. I currently have my phone calls automatically transferred to the office landline phone as soon as my Cingular phone gets no service, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with this scenario.
I've called Cingular about it---they had me switch phones, SIM cards, etc.---to the point where one representative recommend I switch to another carrier.
And the only reason why I am staying is because I want the iPhone. But therein lies the question: what point is having the greatest phone on Earth if you can't use it to make calls?
It's a tough call.
Cingular works beautifully EVERYWHERE in Northern Virgnia. There is only one place where it doesn't work: my office building. As soon as you walk outside, it's five bars. Walk in and you get "No Service".
I've tested all other carriers---all work great, except for the network with the fewest dropped calls.
I'm a Realtor, so my phone is the center of my business. I currently have my phone calls automatically transferred to the office landline phone as soon as my Cingular phone gets no service, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with this scenario.
I've called Cingular about it---they had me switch phones, SIM cards, etc.---to the point where one representative recommend I switch to another carrier.
And the only reason why I am staying is because I want the iPhone. But therein lies the question: what point is having the greatest phone on Earth if you can't use it to make calls?
It's a tough call.
Palm just announced the Treo 755p. I know it's no comparison to the iPhone, but No Service vs. old-fashioned smartphone? Increasingly tough call...
apfhex
macrumors 68030
hmmm, never been in brookline or the medford area a lot, so i can't say how the cingular service is there on my treo. my husband has a razr (cingular-branded purchased in late '05) and it will usually show fewer bars than mine whenever we compare. i think i got lucky with somehow finding a place in the 'burbs with great cell tower coverage in the reading area.
i must say i never truly need any of the gadgets i get, and most certainly don't need an iphone. but i'm a geek and i revel in new gadgets like this. i have come to grips with my gadget-geek status and focus on funding this habit accordingly. 😛
i can let you know how my coverage is when i get an iphone. at this point, i'm thinking of "working from home" on the day it's released so i can hunt one down at the nearest apple store! 😉
Rodimus Prime
macrumors G4
sounds like it is your building that causing the problem with the weaker GSM single. I am willing to be T-Mobile would be having the same issue in that building because GSM is fairly weak singal.
I would say you best bet that would work for you is to go over to one of the CMDA carriers . They tend to struggle less in buildings and cut though interferences a bit better due to the stronger signal strength that CMDA uses.
GSM is a very old technology and it a lot more limited in what it can do. CMDA is able to adjust better to surrounding and is a much newer tech. CMDA never really grew world wide because company had to pay royalties to Quadcom to use it while GSM was free.
As for me I have cinglar and it works find where I and is one of the better 2 carriers here. Sprint and Cinglar are the only 2 that really work where I am. My biggest problem is my Cinglar phone has a lot of noise in my apparment. Single is great but there is just to much digital noise in the area and it cause problems (same with my wireless modem from Xanadoo)
And that's just the thing: T-Mobile is GREAT in my office. Four bars. But Cingular gets none.
I really hope it doesn't come down to this, but I may have to switch to Verizon or Sprint. (T-Mobile's phones are crappy)
*sigh* Damn you, iPhone...
Rodimus Prime
macrumors G4
That is strange because GSM I know general speaking struggles more with building and anything with a lot of metal in it compared to CDMA. One of the biggest CDMA handles building better is because it uses a more powerful signal. Now my best though on T-Mobil working in your building could be that there is a T-Mobil tower closer to the building than a cingular tower. That or the feq cingular is using in that are is the weaker of the 2 they use (Which I believe is 800 and 1800mhz and T-Mobil only uses 1800mhz)
kuebby
macrumors 68000
I live in MD and Verizon has the best coverage in this area.
As far as customer service goes I haven't had any of the problems I've heard about from others. Every time I call customer service the wait is only about 30 seconds to one minute, that's better than Apple. The people on the phone have been knowledgeable about Verizon service and their products. Every time I've gone to the corporate store in my area I've haven't had to wait at all for help and the people knew what they were doing.
This is recent experience too, I just got a new phone (Motorola Q) about two weeks ago. I got it from eBay and it was still easy to get activated.
As far as customer service goes I haven't had any of the problems I've heard about from others. Every time I call customer service the wait is only about 30 seconds to one minute, that's better than Apple. The people on the phone have been knowledgeable about Verizon service and their products. Every time I've gone to the corporate store in my area I've haven't had to wait at all for help and the people knew what they were doing.
This is recent experience too, I just got a new phone (Motorola Q) about two weeks ago. I got it from eBay and it was still easy to get activated.
Different carriers are better in different parts of the US. Where I am, Verizon is one of the worst for coverage. Even in areas that a carrier has excellent coverage, there will always be pockets of bad areas.
Also, the phone can make the biggest difference. Some phones have a lousy antennae design and the circuitry is not very sensitive either.
The iPhone is a GSM phone and Verizon is a CDMA company. That left Cingular/AT&T and T-Mobile as the two main GSM carriers in the US.
I don't know what reception is like over in the US, things to do with mobiles phones seem to be pretty different over there. But here in the UK, I've never had once dropped call.. actually I didn't even know such a thing existed. And the only time I've ever not had reception was whilst way way up away in the Scottish highlands, kind of expected. I'm on three.
mkrishnan
Moderator emeritus
To our credit, our country is somewhat geographically larger than yours. 😉 If you can go to Lithuania, Hungary, Italy, Greece, and back, and not have any dropped calls, then you have my attention. 😛
