Jordan Shuck wrote:
> Also, I've been noticing Cingular's nationwide GSM plans (and their
> cheap really nice phones). Somebody talk me out of signing up with
> them! I live in Madison, WI.
Oh, that's easy. First off, there have been reports (I don't know this
first hand but have been told) that Cingular will charge for unanswered
incoming calls as airtime. Someone calls you and you don't answer? At
least one minute gets knocked off your airtime bucket.
Second, Cingular still hasn't completed
GSM rollout. They are also
hurtin' bad when it comes to available spectrum, so much so that quite a
few markets (including the largest one: NYC) actually aren't running on
Cingular's network: they've been borrowing spectrum and network capacity
from T-Mobile to be able to claim coverage in such areas. And even with
this, coverage still isn't up to snuff, especially if you were
interested in Free & Clear America. You won't even come close to that
kind fo coverage for quite a while yet on Cingular.
Third, Cingular WILL have to overhaul its network again if it even
remotely plans on keeping up with data services. If you were on a
CDMA
network like Sprint or verizon, this won't mean much to you if you have
no interest in data. But if Cingular ultimately switches to WCDMA from
the current generation of
GSM, you'll eventually have to upgrade your
phone whether you want to or not.
If you plan on leaving Sprint, I would *seriously* avoid Cingular.
Linear Mode
