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  1. #1
    middamiff
    middamiff is offline
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    I have been going 'round and 'round with AT&T about TDMA and GSM multi-band service and I get a different story from each person that I talk to. Currently, my company has AT&T Digital 1-rate service on all of our phones. The phones work quite well in our remote business area of rural Northern Nevada. However, the phones have no service in our home office location in the outskirts of Phoenix. Originally, AT&T told me that I could upgrade our Digital 1-rate plans to include muti-band coverage. With the purchase of a multi-band phone like the Siemens S46 or Nokia 6340i, we would have both the TDMA coverage we have now but would also gain AT&T and Cingular GSM coverage as well. Well, I can't get that guy to call me back (I've called him at least 10 times and messages). And, other AT&T reps have said various things like that they can't do that, that they don't do it any longer, and that they can do it but we will only have AT&T / Cingular TDMA and GSM coverage instead of the "any-provider" TDMA coverage that we have now. Does anyone have any insight into this dilemma? I know many people suffer the same problem: I carry my AT&T phone while on the road and in the field but have to have a T-mobile GSM phone to get coverage at my house. However, the T-mobile phone is worthless on the road. Do I have any other options with other carriers? We already canned the Nextel idea after 6 months of terrible and limited service. Thanks in advance for you help.


    See More: AT&T muti-band service




  2. #2
    2serviceuser
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    Similar Problem

    This is my first post.

    My wife and I have a similar problem. We are on the San Francisco Peninsula, but travel to some remote areas in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Occasionally, we are in Canada, within 100 miles of the U. S. border. Presently she has the AT&T Digital 1 TDMA Service with no additional charge for roaming; I have Sprint Free and Clear America. Between Sprint and AT&T, we have never had a major service problem in the many remote and rural areas we travel or around the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Recently I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that the AT&T TDMA Service will be available after the merger with Cingular is completed, but Cingular will not provide a phone for this TDMA Service. In essence, if your TDMA phone no longer works, you will have to use the Cingular GSM Service. This troubles me because the Cingular - AT&T combined GSM service will not provide adequate coverage in many areas where we use our AT&T Service and where Sprint is not available.

    I became interested in the Siemens S46 because it is a multi-band phone and would cover the AT&T TDMA and supposedly the combined AT&T – Cingular GSM networks. However, on the AT&T web pages under plans available with this phone, only the GSM plans are outlined, while for there is nothing on either the Cingular or AT&T web pages for the Nokia 6340i. What is even more disturbing is that last week AT&T had two Nokia phones for TDMA service; this week I cannot find even one phone using TDMA service on their web site.

    I have made several fruitless calls to AT&T, but no one seems to know anything when I ask my questions about future service availability in AT&T TDMA only service areas. The local AT&T Store is useless. I know that some of these AT&T people will be unemployed when this merger is completed, and I can understand their feelings about going the extra mile for the customer. However, someone, somewhere, either at AT&T or Cingular, must know the answer to my questions. After all, Cingular has been advertising on TV in this area that they have the "most bars more places" on their "Nationwide Digital System". I am beginning to wonder what type of bars they mean.

    If anybody knows how we can get AT&T TDMA service and the combined AT&T - Cingular GSM service, your input would be most helpful. In the meantime, I think we will keep our present AT&T TDMA phone with the same plan until the phone is broken and cannot be used any longer. At that time, if ATT&T and the "New Cingular" do not have their act together, we will look elsewhere, probably at Verizon.

    Thank you in advance for your assistance.



  3. #3
    mwvboy
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    Feel your pain with Cingular/AT&T

    I know exactly what you guys are talking about. I was a corporate 1 Rate customer with AT&T, but wanted to switch to a Blackberry. The AT&T sales rep assurred me that the phone would work in all of the areas that my old Nokia TDMA phone had, plus all the email and web features in GSM service areas. Like a sucker, I bit and ordered the phone - and it came locked up tighter than a drum. My only available network was listed as Cingular, and there was no coverage in TDMA only areas - I know, because my boss was standing beside me with the same model Nokia I had been using and had three bars of signal strength, and my Dingleberry was showing no network coverage.

    After more than 20 hours total getting passed around between at least a dozen AT&T and Cingular reps, I finally threw a fit and had my number migrated back to my old Nokia. To top it all, they wouldn't take the Blackberry back because it had been more than 30 days from the purchase date - despite the fact that I was misled by their reps, who still can't get their stories straight.

    I feel like "voting with my dollars" and switching service, but AT&T pretty much had things locked up in West Virginia. There are no other viable players with decent coverage areas. So now what? I've got a $400 paperweight and am back to using my old phone, but with a new ulcer as a free consolation prize.

    Would sending my phone to someplace like Bongo Wireless and having it unlocked solve my coverage problems, or is this just going to give me the ability to scan more networks that just aren't available in rural Appalachia - what some people claim is America's 3rd world country?

    If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.



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