Thinking of Sprint

I am a current AT&T Wireless customer. I am on the AT&T GSM prefered
network (cell phone is setup like that) which can roam to the Cingular
towers (These show up seperate and not prefered) and sometimes to
others towers when there is no other coverage. There are certain
towers I can see that I cannot talk to.

Coverage is okay, but I am starting to get the signal where I am on
network but can't make a call. I have to wait. This is occuring more
often. I suppose GSM is getting crowded.

I have a family share plan with 2 phones. One died, and I purchased
another from e-bay which is working okay. But these are over 2 years
old and not working as well as I would like.

I never have been happy with the fact that my GSM phone doesn't get
coverage where my works CDMA Cingular phone does get coverage.
Especially inside buildings. I also think the quality of the call on
the CDMA phone seems better than the digitalized GSM phone. Siemens
m56. The voice seems about as poor as the XM talk stations.

My contract is up and I am going month to month. I want to replace
these phones. AT&T/Cingular has increased my rate for my plan from
$49 to $59. If I renew my contract it goes to $69 in my area. (It's
$59 in other areas.)

Sprint and T-Mobile have comparable plans at $59 a month for the family
share. I see that T-Mobile has very limited coverage in SW Missouri.
Sprint seems to have complete coverage.

I don't know anyone that has Sprint. What can I expect to be different
from AT&T going to Sprint? Sprint is digital CDMA right? Can I do
POP3 still on these basic phones? The site seems to state not. Any
other advise?

Thanks;

Edwin.

---

› See More: Thinking of Sprint

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I am a current AT&T Wireless customer. I am on the AT&T GSM prefered
> network (cell phone is setup like that) which can roam to the Cingular
> towers (These show up seperate and not prefered) and sometimes to
> others towers when there is no other coverage. There are certain
> towers I can see that I cannot talk to.
>
> Coverage is okay, but I am starting to get the signal where I am on
> network but can't make a call. I have to wait. This is occuring more
> often.

It is well known that Cingular has taken steps to tighten the noose around
the necks of former ATTWS customers, by cutting back on access to towers, in
an attempt to arm-twist them into signing up for new Cingular plans that
are, without exception, more expensive than the ones that they had with
ATTWS. Sure, you can remain on your current plan, but Cingular is making it
less desirable to do so, to the point that you begin to wonder why you are
paying them at all, for little in the way of service.

I switched to Sprint a couple of months ago, after having been with
AT&T/ATTWS/Cingular for over 7 years. It was wonderful! My only regret is
that I did not switch earlier--much earlier.

Last time I looked, Sprint was offering promotions of free phones and no
activation fees on their website (not available in stores or through
agents). Check their site before buying at a store.

In my case, I got three free voice phones, and I had a choice of any of
three different phone models (Verizon was selling the same phones, but with
the Verizon model number, for $30 apiece), I got $108 in activation fees
waived on the three lines, I received my phones overnight via UPS, Sprint
ported one of my former ATTWS/Cingular phone numbers over within 45 minutes
of my getting the phone, they set up my phones to each display the name of
the individual family user on outbound Caller ID, they gave me a three-month
period in which to make changes to my plan or features without having to
renew the two-year contract term, I get free nationwide roaming, 7 PM N/W,
FREE M2M, and no more limited "Home Rate" area, as I previously had. Under
ATTWS, my home rate area stretched from Rhode Island to Northern Virginia,
and from the Atlantic Coast to the PA-OH border. Not so with Sprint. I am
in my Home Rate area as long as I am on the Sprint network--whether here in
Philadelphia or on the West Coast.

My phone clearly indicates whether I am on the Sprint network or not, and I
can set my phone to operate in any of 3 modes: Sprint Only, Roam Only, or
Automatic.

The calls are indeed "Crystal Clear," and I get free nationwide long
distance over the Sprint fiber optic network.

The 5 times I called Customer Service, I was pleasantly surprised by the
politeness and knowledge of the reps. I have been told that Sprint's
Customer Service reputation is not too good, but I've nothing bad to say
about my experience with them.

I can press "Star-Four-Talk" on my phone, and Sprint will give me a verbal
readout of how many minutes I've used month to date. I can also get that
info on their web site. Verbal readouts were not available to me under my
previous ATTWS TDMA plan.

Sprint recently installed an antenna atop a building 2 blocks from my home,
and I get five bars of signal strength at all times at home, unlike the one
or two bars I used to get from Cingular.

I do not roam much, but here in Philadelphia I have had no dropped calls
wherever I have been. The Sprint web site has a map of their towers, and
they seem to have Philadelphia well-covered. I don't expect 100%
uninterrupted service, as that would be impractical for any carrier, but my
previous Cingular service was SO bad that I was reluctant to even try making
calls, knowing that most of them would drop out. Not so with Sprint.

Did I tell you that Sprint's monthly charge is $5.00 LESS than I was paying
to Cingular for their crappy service?

About a year ago, Cingular did something to their network that made all my
phones shut off whenever I drove beyond my local area's boundaries. I could
try turning the phones back on, but after about 10 minutes they would turn
off again, making it impossible to receive incoming calls. One cannot drive
and keep checking their phone status at the same time. As soon as I'd
return to my home area, the problem would go away--and this was the case for
all three phones on my account. It started several months after Cingular
took over from ATTWS. I phoned them, and their rep played dumb, and said
she'd send a technician to "check the towers in New Jersey . . . " Yeah,
right. It must be all those Jersey towers . . .

The only two factors that are less than I'd prefer are: No free text
incoming messages, as I used to get from ATTWS and there is no SIM card in
Sprint phones, because they are CDMA, not GSM.

On balance, Sprint gives me virtually everything I really want and need in
wireless service, unlike those bastards at Cingular. As I said earlier, I
am very happy to be rid of Cingular, and I would never consider giving my
business to them in the future. My anger is based on the fact that Cingular
cut back our service ON PURPOSE, in order to coerce us into giving up our
attractive ATTWS terms.

My advice is that you keep your current Cingular service, while you set up
new service with Sprint. You have 15 days to try it out before you are
committed to a term contract. If you are as pleased with them as I was,
just call your Sprint rep and have your Cingular number ported over. Pay
your final bill to Cingular, and then thumb your nose at 'em! If, by some
chance, your Sprint experience fails to meet your needs you can search for
some other carrier.

I've been a Sprint Long Distance business customer for years, and they have
always provided me with clear, quiet connections for voice and fast,
reliable data connections. Their PCS service has proven itself to be on the
same high level. All I can say is to GO FOR IT!

And please give a message to Cingular for me: "Screw you!"

"Jeremy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news4v%f.5628$XI6.1672@trnddc05...
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...

<snip>

And yet here you are still lurking in the Cingular newsgroup, miss us?
...
bamp

Um, thanks. I only posted to the Sprint group. Not sure how the
reply got cross posted?

But since it did get cross posted, my AT&T internet order took over 8
hours of on the phone, mostly "on hold" time, to get the order
completed. I was at work and left the phone on speaker phone most the
time, otherwise I'd of let the order auto canceled. You can search
Google Groups for edavid3001 and AT&T and find a post on this.

That left me with a horrible experience. Of course, I ordered my phone
at the time AT&T was planning to sell to Cingular and right when their
computer systems crashed for weeks. What luck.

But I also got a plan that gave me a lot of options for a lot less
money than any other provider. GSM is a lot better now than 2 years
ago... now that I can roam to Cingular towers, though it is starting to
degrade a bit.

Anyway, the price is the problem. My plan is $49. I need new phones.
I am not willing to pay $69/mo to do that. Unlocked phones cost just
as much as a 2 yr contract, so that is a wash. Cingular has a strong
desire to remove all AT&T SIMs from their network and get them on
Cingular SIMs. I'd need a new $69 contract to get Cingular SIMs.

T-Mobile and Sprint are $59 for my plan in my area. So it's between
them. Google Groups doesn't have a t-mobile group sucked, yet.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <x4v%f.5628$XI6.1672@trnddc05> on Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:34:37 GMT, "Jeremy"
<[email protected]> wrote:

><[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>>I am a current AT&T Wireless customer. I am on the AT&T GSM prefered
>> network (cell phone is setup like that) which can roam to the Cingular
>> towers (These show up seperate and not prefered) and sometimes to
>> others towers when there is no other coverage. There are certain
>> towers I can see that I cannot talk to.
>>
>> Coverage is okay, but I am starting to get the signal where I am on
>> network but can't make a call. I have to wait. This is occuring more
>> often.
>
>It is well known that Cingular has taken steps to tighten the noose around
>the necks of former ATTWS customers, by cutting back on access to towers, in
>an attempt to arm-twist them into signing up for new Cingular plans that
>are, without exception, more expensive than the ones that they had with
>ATTWS. Sure, you can remain on your current plan, but Cingular is making it
>less desirable to do so, to the point that you begin to wonder why you are
>paying them at all, for little in the way of service.
>
>[SNIP]

You're thinking of "TDMA" (D-AMPS), not GSM. Read more carefully.

What's actually happening in this case is that Cingular is merging its two GSM
networks, "blue" (old ATTWS) and "orange" (old Cingular). For best results
during the transition, you need an "orange" ENS and a newer ENS-capable
handset. But ATTWS GSM subscribers aren't getting worse coverage,
notwithstanding hiccups during the transition.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://NavasGroup.com/>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on 13 Apr 2006
10:41:02 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

>Um, thanks. I only posted to the Sprint group. Not sure how the
>reply got cross posted?

Jeremy was being a smartass.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://NavasGroup.com/>

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Anyway, the price is the problem. My plan is $49. I need new phones.
> I am not willing to pay $69/mo to do that. Unlocked phones cost just
> as much as a 2 yr contract, so that is a wash. Cingular has a strong
> desire to remove all AT&T SIMs from their network and get them on
> Cingular SIMs. I'd need a new $69 contract to get Cingular SIMs.
>
>

I can't comment on the best available price, but I strongly recommend that,
whatever you do, you don't favor Cingular with your future business, if
there is another acceptable alternative provider. They are simply coercing
you. There is no reason that you could not be allowed to switch to the
Orange network and still keep your old rate plan--they just don't want to do
that.

I had TDMA service and paid $109.00/month for three lines. I now have three
Sprint lines and I pay $104 monthly for essentially the same number of free
minutes, plus I get much better service. You may or may not have the same
signal strength, depending upon where you live and travel to.

I think you'll have to expect to pay more, regardless of which carrier you
go to (even if you remain with Cingular). ATTWS is gone, and only their
existing customers can continue to get those preferential terms.

Trouble is, Cingular is not giving you the same level of service that ATTWS
did, so your rates really did go up, in a reverse sort of way. You now pay
the same, but you get less. In my case, what I got was so poor that I felt
that I was paying more per minute than any customer on the Orange network
was. What good is wireless service when you have to wait 2 minutes for a
signal after you turn on your phone, or when 75% of your calls drop at some
point, or when your phones remain on only when you are in your local area?

I would recommend that you stay with Cingular only if their coverage is
markedly superior to the others' for the places that you use wireless
service. They are snakes.

"Jeremy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:tDy%f.13341$gy2.4983@trnddc08...
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>
>> Anyway, the price is the problem. My plan is $49. I need new phones.
>> I am not willing to pay $69/mo to do that. Unlocked phones cost just
>> as much as a 2 yr contract, so that is a wash. Cingular has a strong
>> desire to remove all AT&T SIMs from their network and get them on
>> Cingular SIMs. I'd need a new $69 contract to get Cingular SIMs.
>>
>>
>
> I can't comment on the best available price, but I strongly recommend
> that, whatever you do, you don't favor Cingular with your future business,
> if there is another acceptable alternative provider. They are simply
> coercing you. There is no reason that you could not be allowed to switch
> to the Orange network and still keep your old rate plan--they just don't
> want to do that.
>
> I had TDMA service and paid $109.00/month for three lines. I now have
> three Sprint lines and I pay $104 monthly for essentially the same number
> of free minutes, plus I get much better service. You may or may not have
> the same signal strength, depending upon where you live and travel to.
>
> I think you'll have to expect to pay more, regardless of which carrier you
> go to (even if you remain with Cingular). ATTWS is gone, and only their
> existing customers can continue to get those preferential terms.
>
> Trouble is, Cingular is not giving you the same level of service that
> ATTWS did, so your rates really did go up, in a reverse sort of way. You
> now pay the same, but you get less. In my case, what I got was so poor
> that I felt that I was paying more per minute than any customer on the
> Orange network was. What good is wireless service when you have to wait 2
> minutes for a signal after you turn on your phone, or when 75% of your
> calls drop at some point, or when your phones remain on only when you are
> in your local area?
>
> I would recommend that you stay with Cingular only if their coverage is
> markedly superior to the others' for the places that you use wireless
> service. They are snakes.
Don't pay any attention to anything this guy says. I've been with Cingular
since 1997 and in my opinion no one else can touch them, with service,
rollover, etc.
...
bamp

[email protected] wrote:
> I am a current AT&T Wireless customer. I am on the AT&T GSM prefered
> network (cell phone is setup like that) which can roam to the Cingular
> towers (These show up seperate and not prefered) and sometimes to
> others towers when there is no other coverage. There are certain
> towers I can see that I cannot talk to.
>
> Coverage is okay, but I am starting to get the signal where I am on
> network but can't make a call. I have to wait. This is occuring more
> often. I suppose GSM is getting crowded.
>
> I have a family share plan with 2 phones. One died, and I purchased
> another from e-bay which is working okay. But these are over 2 years
> old and not working as well as I would like.
>
> I never have been happy with the fact that my GSM phone doesn't get
> coverage where my works CDMA Cingular phone does get coverage.

Huh? Cingular has no CDMA coverage, that I'm aware of.

> Especially inside buildings. I also think the quality of the call on
> the CDMA phone seems better than the digitalized GSM phone.

Yes, call quality is generally better on CDMA than GSM.

> My contract is up and I am going month to month. I want to replace
> these phones. AT&T/Cingular has increased my rate for my plan from
> $49 to $59. If I renew my contract it goes to $69 in my area. (It's
> $59 in other areas.)

Yes, Cingular is not willing to keep the low-cost AT&T plans if you want
to be on Orange.

> Sprint and T-Mobile have comparable plans at $59 a month for the family
> share. I see that T-Mobile has very limited coverage in SW Missouri.
> Sprint seems to have complete coverage.

Get a tri-band Sprint phone so you can roam on other carrier's analog
networks.

Also, check to see if your work offers any discounts on Sprint or
Verizon. I.e., my wife gets 18% off on Verizon, which reduces her
monthly bill to under $30. I'd move to a family plan, but we'd lose a
lot of coverage and other benefits of an older plan.

Trying to be fair;

I don't have the problem with dropped calls. I think I've had 2 over 2
1/2 years. I have problems with calls not being placed in the first
place. But if I select auto dial, it gets through within a few
minutes. This is happening more often, but it is not horrible unless I
was calling 911. This happens about 1 out of every 5 calls, however my
wife and I use about 70-200 minutes combined a month. Very light
users.

I've never been too impressed with GSM. My two GMS phones have poor
audio quality on Cingular/AT&T networks. I can roam to both towers
now, so I get better coverage than before the buyout. But GSM has less
building penetration than CDMA. My works Cingular CDMA phone has
better voice quality and coverage. It is not a choppy / digital.

I'm not disappointed with Cingular, I'm just doing the same thing I did
2 1/2 years ago. Seeing who can offer me the best deal. Cingular
wants $20 more a month for the same service. Sprint $10. That's $480
over two years versus $240 more.

T-Mobile and Sprint have the best rates for the plan that meets my
needs in this area. Sprint has the better coverage in my area.

So can I do POP3 on Sprint phones? If I put E-Mail as a sort on the
phone list, only the expensive ones show up. The el'cheapo phones at
AT&T/Cingular do POP3. It looks like I have to add-on their power
communications to get this?

I understand I can do text messaging, but it cost more on Sprint
phones.

Sprint Vision is an add on, so I likely won't be getting that.

Cingular phones are GSM, and with the right band these are world
phones. Sprint PCS doesn't offer this feature, right?

Most of Sprint's phones do not have Blue Tooth, so I am out of luck on
that unless I buy top of the line - unlike other networks where
Bluetooth can be found in the low cost phones. The bluetooth is one
thing that I would like to have that is a negative in this comparison.

Since these are not GMS, there are not SIMS, so I can't purchase a
replacement phone off of e-bay and just swap the SIM. I have to get
another phone from Sprint, right?

Thanks;

Edwin

> Don't pay any attention to anything this guy says. I've been with Cingular
> since 1997 and in my opinion no one else can touch them, with service,
> rollover, etc.

I can understand that, depending on the situation, there is normally
one cell company that is better in certain respects than others.

But it seems to be a sign of doubt when someone keeps on feeling a
need to keep hanging aound the old company, telling how bad that
company is compared to his new company. If it was so blindingly
obvious that Sprint was better in all respects than Cingular, he
wouldn't have to bother trying to convince us. We would all be
bailing out, even if it took paying the ETF, to go there.

I know that, in my case, Sprint's coverage at home was marginal enough
that it was the inferior choice to Cingular. I have not tried
T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular, etc.
--

>>Huh? Cingular has no CDMA coverage, that I'm aware of.

AFA :P Yes, Cingular was TDMA as someone pointed out. My work phone
is old and on an old plan. It is not GSM. So I guess it's TDMA and
not CDMA. So anywhere I've associated Cingular and CDMA, replace CDMA
with TDMA. I don't think you can buy Cingular TDMA anymore, but they
still support all the old contracts/phones.

I checked, and the plan my work offers is with Cingular and it's no
better than what I can get online.

Thanks for everyones input

"Kevin K" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2-z02igd2Ew9sc@ecs...

>> Don't pay any attention to anything this guy says. I've been with
>> Cingular
>> since 1997 and in my opinion no one else can touch them, with service,
>> rollover, etc.
>

So, let me get this straight: ONE POSTER says he is satisfied with
Cingular, so that is reason enough for EVERYONE to be satisfied with them?

Pure bull!

Cingular's tactics of coercing former AT&T customers to give up their old
rate plans--by cutting back on their service to the point that it hardly
works--is well documented. And SBC Communications' reputation for
arm-twisting their own customers has earned them a negative reputation in
their own right.


> I can understand that, depending on the situation, there is normally
> one cell company that is better in certain respects than others.
>
> But it seems to be a sign of doubt when someone keeps on feeling a
> need to keep hanging aound the old company, telling how bad that
> company is compared to his new company.

Make no mistake about this: The level of service that many of us, myself
included, received from Cingular was SO BAD (purposefully so) that just
about ANY CARRIER would have been better.

But the original post specifically asked about SPRINT VS. CINGULAR--and I
addressed that specific comparison. I was not trying to confirm my personal
decision to leave Cingular. Leaving Cingular was the best thing I did, and
I am happy to proclaim that fact.

> If it was so blindingly obvious that Sprint was better in all respects
> than Cingular, he
> wouldn't have to bother trying to convince us.

WRONG again! The reason that I so enjoy posting anti-Cingular messages is
that it is my way of spreading the word about Cingular's obnoxious attitute
toward their customers, in the hope that others will realize that Cingular
does not deserve to be their carrier of choice.

The Internet empowers ordinary folks to speak out against a broad range of
injustices, and to have their messages heard. I believe that Cingular would
be much happier if their tactics went unreported, but that is too bad for
them.

>
> I know that, in my case, Sprint's coverage at home was marginal enough
> that it was the inferior choice to Cingular.

So what? If you read my post you will see that I clearly acknowledged that
coverage may vary, depending upon where the customer travels. So in your
case, Cingular was the best choice. In MY CASE, it was the WORST POSSIBLE
CHOICE. And, according to published reports, millions of former ATTWS happy
customers have felt the same way, and have walked away from Cingular.

But YOU apparently think that YOUR personal experience with Cingular
overrides that of the many of us that told 'em to take a hike . . .

In summation, if YOU like Cingular, you are perfectly free to sing their
praises, just as others are free to condemn them.

As for me, I maintain that Cingular's arrogance is such that wireless
customers should LOOK BEFORE THEY LEAP when considering dealing with them.

SCREW CINGULAR!

[email protected] wrote:

> Since these are not GMS, there are not SIMS, so I can't purchase a
> replacement phone off of e-bay and just swap the SIM. I have to get
> another phone from Sprint, right?

As long as it's a CDMA phone that Sprint supports, and it's E911
capable, you can activate in on Sprint. At least on Verizon, you go onto
their web site, enter the ESN, and it switches you to the new phone in a
minute or two.

Jeremy wrote:
> So, let me get this straight: ONE POSTER says he is satisfied with
> Cingular, so that is reason enough for EVERYONE to be satisfied with them?

Kind of like you're ranting about Sprint, huh?

> Cingular's tactics of coercing former AT&T customers to give up their old
> rate plans--by cutting back on their service to the point that it hardly
> works--is well documented.

I must have missed that. Any links?

> Make no mistake about this: The level of service that many of us, myself
> included, received from Cingular was SO BAD (purposefully so)

Purposely? How so?

> Leaving Cingular was the best thing I did, and
> I am happy to proclaim that fact.

That you're saving $5 a month and Caller ID on each phone?
Realistically, that's the only real advantages - the Caller ID that is.

> in the hope that others will realize that Cingular
> does not deserve to be their carrier of choice.

To each his own, jsut because it didn't work for you, does not make it
true for everyone else.

> The Internet empowers ordinary folks to speak out against a broad range of
> injustices, and to have their messages heard.

Not gonna touch that...I'm laughing at all the possible things I could say.

> SCREW CINGULAR!

Popular C&W song does like..."We're from Texas..*****EW YOU!"