TMobile cannot roam Cingular. Read this!!

Hi,
I just switched my phone from Cingular to TMO. I live in NYC where both networks have good coverage but TMO data plan with Blackberry was way cheaper. I go to Long Island fairly often to visit my parents and need coverage there on weekends. I checked the coverage on the TMO website and I knew it was going to be pretty bad (they say 1 bar was to be expected). Still when I got there I could not received or place a single phone call. Cold sweat. Relax I told myself, I am just going to roam the Cingular network for free as advertised by TMO. See, I know Cingular has decent coverage there because I just came from Cingular. But what was my surprise when I tried and failed to connect to the Cingular network with my new shiny Samsung T509. So I called TMO and talked to their technical service department. And guess what I found ? The tech I talked to somewhat shippishly admitted to me that right now you CANNOT roam ANY Tmobile device on the Cingular network. This problem started on August 21st after Cingular integrated big parts of ATT Wireless into their network. No word on when they will perform the upgrades to resume roaming on Cingular. So right now I am screwed unless I am within the TMO coverage area. All this stuff about free roaming is pure bull. I am still within the 14 days period where I can return the phone. I am thinking about it although I have come to hate Cingular and was very excited about giving TMO a shot. I just feel a bit deceived.

Well, it's true that you can roam on Cingular but the catch is, if the signal is weak on T-mobile, it will still try to connect to T-mobile. It will not use Cingular. The only time you can roam on Cingular is if T-mobile have no coverage in that particular area.

Don't rely on the coverage of Cingular. You should always check the coverage on T-mobile.

If T-mobile says you going to get one bar than that's what you are going to get. That's already pretty weak so you may want to go back to Cingular.