So how is ATTWS GSM service - really?

I am in Upstate NY (Syracuse area) and have been using T-Mobile. I need GSM
for international travel and really only want to have one phone and one
number. T-Mobile has pretty good international roaming, but marginal (at
best) service in the Upstate area. Now that ATTWS has increased their
coverage (largely because of their relationship with Cingular) and now that
they have competitive international roaming, I am seriously considering
switching over to them. I have purchased a pre-paid GSM account to test
their service in the area and so far, it has proven to be far superior to
T-Mobile. I have written to T-Mobile CS in New Mexico, and they say that
there are "no near term plans to improve service in this area." There are
other higher priority markets to service (like the buy-out of Cingular on
the West Coast). I know ATTWS won't be perfect and my expectations are (I
think) in line with reality, but I can only "test" their service in a
limited area. So you out there of the wireless masses, who have been using
the service for a lot longer than a week or so, how is their service really?
I know the answers will be "area specific" but that is what I am looking
for.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

---

› See More: So how is ATTWS GSM service - really?

On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:31:42 GMT, "Karen" <[email protected]> wrote:

>.... I know ATTWS won't be perfect and my expectations are (I
>think) in line with reality, but I can only "test" their service in a
>limited area. So you out there of the wireless masses, who have been using
>the service for a lot longer than a week or so, how is their service really?
>I know the answers will be "area specific" but that is what I am looking
>for.

We've had ATTWS GSm for abit over a year now (along with non-GSM ATTWS and
non-GSM Verizon). We've used the ATT phones (Ericsson t68i and NEC 525) all over
the US -- DC, where we live; east coast up to Boston, down to Atlanta; Chicago;
Denver and Colo. Springs; Seattle; Phoenix; San Francisco; LA; Las Vegas; New
Orleans, as well as Canada (Quebec City to Sarnia), and France, Belgium,
Holland, and the UK with SIMMS purchased over there. (Just make sure you get ATT
to toggle their little "international roaming" switch on your account befoore
you leave the country, something they don't mention anywhere in their roaming
literature.) We have yet to have any problems or find anywhere in the cities we
visit (other than subway tunnels) where other protocols will work and GSM won't.

I grant you that we're not spending more than a week in each of those places,
and we don't wander out of the city and interstate areas all that much, but
we're very pleased.

Sure, there are areas an hour and a half from DC where they don't work, but
there is *no* cell service at all there (e.g., Sperryville, VA).

-- Larry

Thanks. Very helpful


"pltrgyst" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 15:31:42 GMT, "Karen" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >.... I know ATTWS won't be perfect and my expectations are (I
> >think) in line with reality, but I can only "test" their service in a
> >limited area. So you out there of the wireless masses, who have been
using
> >the service for a lot longer than a week or so, how is their service
really?
> >I know the answers will be "area specific" but that is what I am looking
> >for.
>
> We've had ATTWS GSm for abit over a year now (along with non-GSM ATTWS and
> non-GSM Verizon). We've used the ATT phones (Ericsson t68i and NEC 525)
all over
> the US -- DC, where we live; east coast up to Boston, down to Atlanta;
Chicago;
> Denver and Colo. Springs; Seattle; Phoenix; San Francisco; LA; Las Vegas;
New
> Orleans, as well as Canada (Quebec City to Sarnia), and France, Belgium,
> Holland, and the UK with SIMMS purchased over there. (Just make sure you
get ATT
> to toggle their little "international roaming" switch on your account
befoore
> you leave the country, something they don't mention anywhere in their
roaming
> literature.) We have yet to have any problems or find anywhere in the
cities we
> visit (other than subway tunnels) where other protocols will work and GSM
won't.
>
> I grant you that we're not spending more than a week in each of those
places,
> and we don't wander out of the city and interstate areas all that much,
but
> we're very pleased.
>
> Sure, there are areas an hour and a half from DC where they don't work,
but
> there is *no* cell service at all there (e.g., Sperryville, VA).
>
> -- Larry
>

Works very well in LA where I live. Cingular and TMO are very poor here in
my area but ATTWS GSM is strong.

George


"Karen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I am in Upstate NY (Syracuse area) and have been using T-Mobile. I need
GSM
> for international travel and really only want to have one phone and one
> number. T-Mobile has pretty good international roaming, but marginal (at
> best) service in the Upstate area. Now that ATTWS has increased their
> coverage (largely because of their relationship with Cingular) and now
that
> they have competitive international roaming, I am seriously considering
> switching over to them. I have purchased a pre-paid GSM account to test
> their service in the area and so far, it has proven to be far superior to
> T-Mobile. I have written to T-Mobile CS in New Mexico, and they say that
> there are "no near term plans to improve service in this area." There are
> other higher priority markets to service (like the buy-out of Cingular on
> the West Coast). I know ATTWS won't be perfect and my expectations are (I
> think) in line with reality, but I can only "test" their service in a
> limited area. So you out there of the wireless masses, who have been
using
> the service for a lot longer than a week or so, how is their service
really?
> I know the answers will be "area specific" but that is what I am looking
> for.
>
> Thanks in advance for your opinions.
>
>

Okay, you're trying to accomplish two things which are somewhat
contradictory:

ATTWS has better voice svce. I use it in New York City, Hartford, CT and in
between. Voice quality is far superior to that of T-Mobile, as it seems
AT&T's got full-rate codecs enabled by default at most of the towers.

International - forget it. Local calls in Europe would cost you a few
dollars a minute, and that's not mentioning calls to the U.S. or from the
U.S. - those would be even more. Short messages - a dollar each for both
incoming and outgoing. It's a ripoff -- worst ever.

Another trouble with ATTWS is that it's using some lame interconnect for
international SMS. Messages sent from the U.S. to foreign numbers are
rarely delivered, even though you always get "message delivered" status
reports. Those sent from overseas aren't coming, either.

Using T-Mobile phone overseas may be a bit less expensive and more
practical. If it's company paid - definitely go with T-Mobile, checking
their international offerings first. If you pay on your own - I suggest to
get a local account with a local number unless you want to pay hundreds of
dollars/month. If you have a steady place where you work abroad I'd also
suggest getting a Vonage account and equipment and plugging it into your
broadband connection abroad. It's location-independent - you can then make
and receive unlimited calls to and from the U.S. Works very well at home or
office, but not when you drive ;-) If you also have it connected through a
small Linksys router to assign higher priority to voice traffic the call
quality would be excellent - just like a local call across the street.
Check out the forum at vonage.com

you can email me if you have any questions

Good luck :-)

On Wed, 4 Aug 2004 05:41:14 +0400, "Ashot Shahbazian"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>International - forget it. Local calls in Europe would cost you a few
>dollars a minute...

$1.09 to 1.29 a minute.

-- Larry

For the love of god, do not go with AT&T they have the WORST customer
service ever. Not only are they horrible but they have been consistently the
most unprofessional company I've ever experienced. I'd use 2 tin cans and
10,000 feet of string before I resign with AT&T.


"Karen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I am in Upstate NY (Syracuse area) and have been using T-Mobile. I need
GSM
> for international travel and really only want to have one phone and one
> number. T-Mobile has pretty good international roaming, but marginal (at
> best) service in the Upstate area. Now that ATTWS has increased their
> coverage (largely because of their relationship with Cingular) and now
that
> they have competitive international roaming, I am seriously considering
> switching over to them. I have purchased a pre-paid GSM account to test
> their service in the area and so far, it has proven to be far superior to
> T-Mobile. I have written to T-Mobile CS in New Mexico, and they say that
> there are "no near term plans to improve service in this area." There are
> other higher priority markets to service (like the buy-out of Cingular on
> the West Coast). I know ATTWS won't be perfect and my expectations are (I
> think) in line with reality, but I can only "test" their service in a
> limited area. So you out there of the wireless masses, who have been
using
> the service for a lot longer than a week or so, how is their service
really?
> I know the answers will be "area specific" but that is what I am looking
> for.
>
> Thanks in advance for your opinions.
>
>

I wouldn't agree with it. AT&T's got real telephone specialists handling
the calls, not some poorly trained losers at an anonimous call center
somwhere. Wait time is usually long though.

There are other probs with ATTWS - see my previous post




For the love of god, do not go with AT&T they have the WORST customer
> service ever. Not only are they horrible but they have been consistently
the
> most unprofessional company I've ever experienced. I'd use 2 tin cans and
> 10,000 feet of string before I resign with AT&T.
>

"Ashot Shahbazian" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> AT&T's got full-rate codecs enabled by default at most of the towers.
>

Could you please explain this in more detail? Are you saying that the same
phone might have varying quality of sound, based on the carrier's settings?
I didn't know that. Different carriers use different codecs?

How can one tell?

"Ryan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:g4_Pc.202563$a24.4522@attbi_s03...

> For the love of god, do not go with AT&T they have the WORST customer
> service ever.

That is strange. I have always received professional treatment. Reps that
knew what they were talking about, focused on customer satisfaction. I've
been a customer since '99. I am really sorry to see them being acquired, as
there are sure to be changes, and I am not so certain that they will all be
good ones.

Yes there are half-rate, full-rate and enhanced full-rate modes. The sound
quality varies greatly. Most modern handsets support all three modes, but
it looks like it's the carrier's deciding which one to use. The default
mode isn't pre-programmed in a handset - it is rather set when it's
negotiationg a call setup with the tower.

The same carrier may have different settings on different towers - you must
have noticed varying voice quality calling from different areas with
seemingly good coverage.

How can you tell? By the voice quality, I guess ) There must be
something about it in GSM standard AT command set - you may be able to get
the mode parameter during a call in progress by sending some commands to
your handset connected to a computer.

ATT seems to use FR or EFR modes in New England. I noticed it just in the
recent couple of months, as the voice quality improved.



>
> > AT&T's got full-rate codecs enabled by default at most of the towers.
> >
>
> Could you please explain this in more detail? Are you saying that the
same
> phone might have varying quality of sound, based on the carrier's
settings?
> I didn't know that. Different carriers use different codecs?
>
> How can one tell?
>
>