Cell Phones

Siji · Post by **Siji** » May 17, 2004, 5:47 pm

Ok.. so I had a working phone (Nokia 3560) and cell provider (Cingular) that had strong service and reception anywhere/everywhere I went.

Got a scratch on my butt to get a picture phone.. Cingular doesn't have picture phones. Figured I'd give Verizon a try since I'd heard they have the best coverage in the country. Picked up a Audiovox CDM-8900 phone.

Coverage sucked.

At home, I had 1 bar if I was lucky, while my Cingular phone right next to it would have full. At work, same thing..

So now.. I took the Verizon phone back and in doing so, have lost my cell # since it was xferred from one to the other. So, now I'm looking for a new provider, and phone. I really like(d) Cingular, but their phone choices absolutely suck. They have like 5 phones to choose from. Verizon had some decent ones, but after the service I saw with the CDM-8900, I'm guessing I need to just avoid Verizon.

Any suggestions, or personal experienced with providers? I've been hearing bad things about AT&T (Cingular just bought them) and their coverage lately.. and I've heard T-Mobile is pretty bad also. I've thought about Sprint but don't know anything about them.

Also.. are flip phones inherently worse on reception? This was the first one I've tried so can only go by that. My Nokia 3560 doesn't have an antenna and blew away the flip WITH an antenna for reception.

Spankes · Post by **Spankes** » May 17, 2004, 6:08 pm

I have a 3560 with AT&T and have great reception and coverage....not a camera phone but the service has been great for me.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » May 17, 2004, 6:19 pm

It would be best for you to ask this question to peole you know specifically in your area. I have the same phone you said you had troubles with from verizon, and I have full reception in the entire half of minnesota ive been in since i bought it.

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 17, 2004, 6:24 pm

Sould like you want Cingular and there Motorola V400.

http://onlinestore.cingular.com/webapp/ ... tpaid=true

Best reception + easy to use camera.

NFC where you got the idea Cingular doesn't carry camera phones. Lots of stores claim to be Cingular but there really "Third-Party resellers" that will tell you anything to get a sale. There a bunch of sharks and pricks that are comparable to used-car sales men. Make sure you purchase your phone from a " Cingular Owned Store" that has Cingular employees working there. Ask them "Can I get my phone serviced here if it breaks?" if they say no your at the wrong place. better yet, just order it online

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 17, 2004, 6:33 pm

Also.. are flip phones inherently worse on reception? This was the first one I've tried so can only go by that. My Nokia 3560 doesn't have an antenna and blew away the flip WITH an antenna for reception.

No, the flip has nothing to do with reception.

Reception = brand of phone + network

Example: you can have a nokia with ATTWS and it works great. Take your experience to Cingular and purchase a similar model Nokia and it sucks ass.

If you looking for the best possible reception make sure you get tri-band phone, quad-band if possible. Limiting your bands restricts the chances of roaming onto another network.

Personally, I have found cell phones with a external antenna seem to get better reception then ones with integrated antennas (a la nokia). There is just from personal experience, nothing to prove otherwise

The Motorola V400 linked above is a quad band.

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » May 17, 2004, 6:39 pm

Aye what they said above, talk to people in your area.

I"ve had verizon with several different phones here, and there service has been incredible.

WIth cingular - awful.

Sprint - vastly depends on the area you are in, some places it's great, some places not so much.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » May 17, 2004, 6:52 pm

Stalker Vacio wrote:NFC where you got the idea Cingular doesn't carry camera phones. ... better yet, just order it online

Going to the Cingular web page, typing in my zip code (33614) displays only 5 phones available in my area - apparently South Florida has switched to the new network already, but the Tampa Bay area hasn't. That's why you can see that phone or buy it, and I can't.

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 17, 2004, 7:41 pm

All 5 of those phones are TDMA that just sucks. I wouldn't recommend any of them.

Remember the movie Wall Street with Micheal Douglas walking on the beach holding a brick for a cell phone?...that's TDMA technology.

I have user in Maimi who swares buy his t-mobile service. They seem to offer GSM phones in your area, might be worth checking out.

FYI: Verizion is the TDMA leader of the US which is why people recommended them.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 17, 2004, 7:58 pm

Do people actually use the picture phones? Seems like a waste to me unless you're a perv or spy...hmmm

I like my current phone as it's thinner than those picture things and fits in my pocket better. Are the picture phone peeps compensating for something?????

Picture phones seem more like a gimmick than useful. I'd think more powerful vibrating phones would sell well.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » May 17, 2004, 8:08 pm

coverage area tends to fluctuate pretty wildly depending on what region you are in and who your carrier is. someone could be on at&t wireless and be laughing at their verizon friend who can't even get a signal. then you move across town and the opposite happens.

the very nature of wireless phone technology is still very cobbled together and spotty no matter who your carrier is and where you go.

also, the industry right now is transitioning from the old TDMA network of digital phones to the new GSM that is supposedly better. the two technologies are so different that they use completely different cel towers and switch houses so you can't have both unless you own a multi band phone. because of the transition and because GSM is still so new, coverage is pretty spotty for GSM because they don't have as many towers as TDMA yet. TDMA coverage is better, but companies are taking down their old TDMA towers all the time and replacing them with GSM, so you can't really win no matter what.

the same thing is happening in canada.

as far as pure coverage area goes, ATTWS probably has the best overall coverage area for TDMA and GSM (maybe verizon has a sightly better coverage area for TDMA but I doubt it), but other companies like Verizon and NextTel have better calling packages I think.

Cingular has actually bought out ATTWS and will most likely be merging companies completely sooner rather than later. This will easily give them the best coverage area in the country and blow the competition out of the water.

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 17, 2004, 8:56 pm

Upon further investigation it appears ATTWS has the best GSM coverage in the Tampa area.

ATTWS
http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi/imap_gsminf ... ame=middle
Best overall coverage

Cingular
http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi/imap_gsminf ... ame=middle

MAN look at the west coast/east cost difference!!!!

T-Moibile:
http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi/imap_gsminf ... ame=middle
so-so

Nextel and Verizon are TDMA so they suck, don' go TDMA whatever you do.

Recommendation: purchase T-Mobile and a unlimited roaming plan so when you roam onto ATTWS (and you will) you wont' be slapped with huge roaming fees.

I would never recommend ATTWS as there customer service is the shittiest alive and they exported 1000's of US jobs overseas to India in the name of "cost cutting"

Siji · Post by **Siji** » May 17, 2004, 9:50 pm

Stalker, thanks very much for that information.

Looks like I'll give AT&T's page a browse and investigate some of their phones and cross my fingers. I'm guessing it'll be at least a year before Cingular makes any changes at AT&T or to the customers so I can spend a year w/AT&T if the service is good.

Just a note, the 3560 w/Cingular even as a TDMA phone (?) as mentioned above, is still an excellent phone. Never had a reception problem anywhere in the country I went. Just wanting something different to play with. As for camera phone's usefulness.. well, it's a novelty.

Ed: After browsing, I'm down to choosing between the Motorola V600 or the NEC 525.. they both seem like good phones. Anyone have either of these?

Knibble · Post by **Knibble** » May 18, 2004, 9:22 am

I guess cell phones are ok.But what pisses me off about them is people driving without ear pieces and they lose track and almost run into me.Then you have the rude ignorant people who walk up to the counter*I am assuming they are ready*and then they just stand there and talk with a line full of people behind them.
Oh wait nevermind this wasn't to be a bitch session on cell phones.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » May 18, 2004, 4:34 pm

Many stores only have a limited selection of phones, and having worked for a cellular provider, I know they aren't very johnny on the spot with getting the new models out to the reps to sell. You can buy from cingulars full selection on their website, or you can look around the web for unlocked phones etc.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » May 18, 2004, 4:38 pm

kyoukan wrote:
as far as pure coverage area goes, ATTWS probably has the best overall coverage area for TDMA and GSM (maybe verizon has a sightly better coverage area for TDMA but I doubt it), but other companies like Verizon and NextTel have better calling packages I think.

Verizon's calling area smokes ATTWS TDMA hands down, Verizon has the biggest digital footprint of all the carriers. For florida, if you don't plan on traveling a lot and are staying in populated areas, I'd try out t-mobile or just get a phone off the net for cingular.

btw can you link me to something that says cingular bought out attws? I worked for attws and what they had told us was that we simply signed an agreement so cingular could use our towers and vice versa.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 18, 2004, 4:55 pm

Knibble wrote:Then you have the rude ignorant people who walk up to the counter*I am assuming they are ready*and then they just stand there and talk with a line full of people behind them.
Oh wait nevermind this wasn't to be a bitch session on cell phones.

Send them to the back of the line! : )

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » May 18, 2004, 5:02 pm

when I worked at circuit city, if someone who was talking on their cell phone approached me, I would ignore them. If they tried to flag me down then or speak to me, I would flat out tell them I will help them when they are off their cell phone. If people are rude, return them the favor

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 18, 2004, 6:05 pm

Siji wrote: Ed: After browsing, I'm down to choosing between the Motorola V600 or the NEC 525.. they both seem like good phones. Anyone have either of these?

Both are good, personally I like Motorola

Truant · Post by **Truant** » May 18, 2004, 6:06 pm

Stragi wrote:
kyoukan wrote:
as far as pure coverage area goes, ATTWS probably has the best overall coverage area for TDMA and GSM (maybe verizon has a sightly better coverage area for TDMA but I doubt it), but other companies like Verizon and NextTel have better calling packages I think.

Verizon's calling area smokes ATTWS TDMA hands down, Verizon has the biggest digital footprint of all the carriers. For florida, if you don't plan on traveling a lot and are staying in populated areas, I'd try out t-mobile or just get a phone off the net for cingular.

btw can you link me to something that says cingular bought out attws? I worked for attws and what they had told us was that we simply signed an agreement so cingular could use our towers and vice versa.

When we went into AATWS a month ago to upgrade our phones/package, the rep told us that Cingular had bought it, and so we could look forward to our mobile to mobile having a lot more value soon.

Spankes · Post by **Spankes** » May 18, 2004, 6:20 pm

Stragi wrote: btw can you link me to something that says cingular bought out attws? I worked for attws and what they had told us was that we simply signed an agreement so cingular could use our towers and vice versa.

https://www.attwireless.com/ocs/pdf/Customer_Letter.pdf

Karae · Post by **Karae** » May 18, 2004, 7:00 pm

Go door to door. Ask all your neighbors what service they have and how the reception is!

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » May 18, 2004, 7:17 pm

Karae wrote:Go door to door. Ask all your neighbors what service they have and how the reception is!

this is the best advice actually. also if you have friends invite them over and ask them if you can use their phone and call someone while walking around your house. go outside and around the neighborhood too. lots of people buy wireless phones in the store and get them home and find out they can't get any service in their house. even more infuriating is when you can't get service in your house and your friend on another wireless carrier gets crystal clear service standing right next to you.

Verizon's calling area smokes ATTWS TDMA hands down, Verizon has the biggest digital footprint of all the carriers. For florida, if you don't plan on traveling a lot and are staying in populated areas, I'd try out t-mobile or just get a phone off the net for cingular.

Verizon is pretty dishonest wth their coverage maps. all carriers are, but verizon is the worst. any website or magazing devoted to wireless phones will report more coverage with ATTWS.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » May 18, 2004, 9:04 pm

One great thing about the "new" ATTWS service/coverage areas would be that it utilizes other networks without roaming now. I often go work on my mom's farm that is a couple miles into "poor" reception area with ATTWS, but 5(of 5) bars with Cingular or T-Mobile. My phone will just use whichever has the best reception. I have the NEC 525 camera phone.

Mplor · Post by **Mplor** » May 18, 2004, 11:39 pm

I've had my Verizon phone in two states so far and it's performed flawlessly. It's never dropped a call and the signal is alway strong. I'd recommend Verizon with no hesitation.

Actually, the only time I've ever seen it out of service was driving through the electromagnetic storm surrounding the Hoover dam.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » May 19, 2004, 11:26 am

I ended up picking up the GSM Motorola V600 with AT&T. The phone rocks. Very much so. Unfortunately, the coverage/sevice isn't much different than Verizon's TDMA was with the CDM-8900 tri-mode phone.

The funny thing is that my friend picked up a new phone while I was in the AT&T office and got the Nokia 3560 (the same phone I had w/Cingular). It's a TDMA phone. Standing right next to each other at my place, her (TDMA) signal is much stronger than mine (GSM) for the same provider (AT&T).

So.. I'm kind of at a loss. I'm about to say screw it and just go back to my trusty 3560 and screw the new style of phones coming out. I wanted something new to play with, but damn.. talk about a pain in the ass.

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 19, 2004, 3:06 pm

Siji wrote:I ended up picking up the GSM Motorola V600 with AT&T. The phone rocks. Very much so. Unfortunately, the coverage/sevice isn't much different than Verizon's TDMA was with the CDM-8900 tri-mode phone.

The funny thing is that my friend picked up a new phone while I was in the AT&T office and got the Nokia 3560 (the same phone I had w/Cingular). It's a TDMA phone. Standing right next to each other at my place, her (TDMA) signal is much stronger than mine (GSM) for the same provider (AT&T).

So.. I'm kind of at a loss. I'm about to say screw it and just go back to my trusty 3560 and screw the new style of phones coming out. I wanted something new to play with, but damn.. talk about a pain in the ass.

Sorry to hear about the poor coverage. Try to hang in there to see if the coverage is tolerable. Remember as the months go by GSM coverage will improve as more towers are added in your area. In contrast, CDMA towers are being decomissioned every day so the service gets worse. The V600 is a nice ass phone....you would half to pry it out of my hands to get me to switch to a 3560..

Remember ATTWS has a 14 day return policy " no questions asked" and you are entitled to leave your contract and a full refund.

Shaerra · Post by **Shaerra** » May 19, 2004, 3:21 pm

I've had AT&T Wireless for 2 years. Good service.

Karae · Post by **Karae** » May 19, 2004, 4:10 pm

Siji wrote:I ended up picking up the GSM Motorola V600 with AT&T. The phone rocks. Very much so. Unfortunately, the coverage/sevice isn't much different than Verizon's TDMA was with the CDM-8900 tri-mode phone.

The funny thing is that my friend picked up a new phone while I was in the AT&T office and got the Nokia 3560 (the same phone I had w/Cingular). It's a TDMA phone. Standing right next to each other at my place, her (TDMA) signal is much stronger than mine (GSM) for the same provider (AT&T).

So.. I'm kind of at a loss. I'm about to say screw it and just go back to my trusty 3560 and screw the new style of phones coming out. I wanted something new to play with, but damn.. talk about a pain in the ass.

When I was in my Cingular store getting my phone 6 months ago or so, the sales rep. swore by the Nokia 3500 series. He said those phones had the best reception by far.

You might try something like this. I've no idea how they work as I've never had to use one, but they claim a pretty significant boost in signal strength and for $5 I'd say it's worth a shot.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » May 19, 2004, 4:15 pm

kyoukan wrote:
Karae wrote:Go door to door. Ask all your neighbors what service they have and how the reception is!
this is the best advice actually. also if you have friends invite them over and ask them if you can use their phone and call someone while walking around your house. go outside and around the neighborhood too. lots of people buy wireless phones in the store and get them home and find out they can't get any service in their house. even more infuriating is when you can't get service in your house and your friend on another wireless carrier gets crystal clear service standing right next to you.

Verizon's calling area smokes ATTWS TDMA hands down, Verizon has the biggest digital footprint of all the carriers. For florida, if you don't plan on traveling a lot and are staying in populated areas, I'd try out t-mobile or just get a phone off the net for cingular.
Verizon is pretty dishonest wth their coverage maps. all carriers are, but verizon is the worst. any website or magazing devoted to wireless phones will report more coverage with ATTWS.

I'm not saying that from just having looked at their advertisements.. we had acutal 5 inch thick binders of towns, down to the street in some cases, of coverage for a bunch of different carriers..

Siji · Post by **Siji** » May 19, 2004, 5:11 pm

Karae wrote:When I was in my Cingular store getting my phone 6 months ago or so, the sales rep. swore by the Nokia 3500 series. He said those phones had the best reception by far.

That's been my personal experience as well so far. Just spoke w/Cingular and in 3 weeks we should have the GSM service in my area. Along with that they'll have the V600 available in my area as well. Supposedly, they claim their GSM coverage is better than AT&T's. Guess we'll see in 3 weeks.

But as mentioned above, the V600 is a friggin' awesome phone if you want a camera phone. I loved it for the 36 hours I had it.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » May 19, 2004, 5:29 pm

Doing very well with my i730 Motorola with Nextel service in the Northeast PA/NJ/MD area at the moment. I chose Nextel because of the name and it's "potential" stability.

So far so good.

Post by **pyrella** » May 19, 2004, 6:10 pm

Siji wrote:
Karae wrote:When I was in my Cingular store getting my phone 6 months ago or so, the sales rep. swore by the Nokia 3500 series. He said those phones had the best reception by far.
That's been my personal experience as well so far. Just spoke w/Cingular and in 3 weeks we should have the GSM service in my area. Along with that they'll have the V600 available in my area as well. Supposedly, they claim their GSM coverage is better than AT&T's. Guess we'll see in 3 weeks.

But as mentioned above, the V600 is a friggin' awesome phone if you want a camera phone. I loved it for the 36 hours I had it.

Get the V400 and flash to the V600 - just make sure you have that phone insurance =P

http://www.howardforums.com

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 19, 2004, 7:40 pm

I'm stuck with my crackberry

Whatever you do don't get one....i miss my v600

ooloof · Post by **ooloof** » May 20, 2004, 2:06 am

Well, to add my 2 cents in - since i own a cellular store (but too bad its a little late since you alrady made your selection)

The Mot V600 is an excellent choice - one of the top requested/rated phones

As for ATT service . . thats a different story.
Their GSM service was rolled out around last summer and it took them about 6 months after rollout (around mid january) to really work out the kinks - i would not even push and i would pursuade prostpective GSM buyers to choose another carrier or a TDMA phone (thats how bad it was) but - since then, the complaints have shot down dramatically. The one thing that ATT is renowned for is their 20-30 minute waits to talk to a human CSR rep (opposed to a ~30 sec wait for their main rival TMobile) - though it has gotten better recently. And. . with the Cingular merger (being a dedicated GSM provider) - the ATT network can only get better (probably later in this year)

ooloof · Post by **ooloof** » May 20, 2004, 2:28 am

The funny thing is that my friend picked up a new phone while I was in the AT&T office and got the Nokia 3560 (the same phone I had w/Cingular). It's a TDMA phone. Standing right next to each other at my place, her (TDMA) signal is much stronger than mine (GSM) for the same provider (AT&T).

Got to remember - they are running on 2 completely different systems.
Now, if you had 2 exact phones on the same system and have reception problems like you mentioned above, most likely - it would be a hardware (phone or sim card) problem

Any suggestions, or personal experienced with providers? I've been hearing bad things about AT&T (Cingular just bought them) and their coverage lately.. and I've heard T-Mobile is pretty bad also. I've thought about Sprint but don't know anything about them.

Regarding coverage/reception - its like what they said above to do - ask people im places you frequent (work/home/hangouts) which phones they have and how their reception is - no carrier's maps are gonna be what they claim. There are also waaaaay too many variables to factor in when determining good reception (thats why most carriers give you up to 2 weeks to "test" their phones)

and . .

Also.. are flip phones inherently worse on reception? This was the first one I've tried so can only go by that. My Nokia 3560 doesn't have an antenna and blew away the flip WITH an antenna for reception

no

Trias · Post by **Trias** » May 20, 2004, 3:13 am

hi hi loof ^^

Stalker Vacio · Post by **Stalker Vacio** » May 20, 2004, 3:20 pm

Yeah what Ooloof said. Remember THERE IS STILL TIME TO RETURN YOUR PHONE FOR A COMPLETE REFUND!!! GOTO T-MOBILE !!!!!