Thinking about moving from ATTWS

I've had an ATT One-Rate plan for years. The cost & some coverage problems
are finally getting to me. They've botched their GSM conversion, kept the
1-rate (which they pioneered!) cost too high, and I get fast-busies and
dropped calls in places like Vegas & Houston.

I'm looking at Sprint and Cingular, and am impressed by the "theoretical"
coverage of Cingular's GAIT Nation plan. Sprint looks pretty good & has a
lot of billing flexibility, but I live in a borderline signal area for them
in Texas and am a bit worried.

So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive as
it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice quality
good?

Thanks for any and all inputs and comments!

---

› See More: Thinking about moving from ATTWS

In article <[email protected]>,
"PriusGeek24" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I've had an ATT One-Rate plan for years. The cost & some coverage problems
> are finally getting to me. They've botched their GSM conversion, kept the
> 1-rate (which they pioneered!) cost too high, and I get fast-busies and
> dropped calls in places like Vegas & Houston.
>
> I'm looking at Sprint and Cingular, and am impressed by the "theoretical"
> coverage of Cingular's GAIT Nation plan. Sprint looks pretty good & has a
> lot of billing flexibility, but I live in a borderline signal area for them
> in Texas and am a bit worried.

Often time signal coverage decreases with time as useage increases. Then
there may be issues with Building penetration, where you could have
acceptable signal outdoors but not indoors.

>
> So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive as
> it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
> dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice quality
> good?

Define good.

>
> Thanks for any and all inputs and comments!

I was an AT&T customer for 7 years. I switched from AT&T TDMA to Cingular
GSM 2 weeks ago. The main reason I didn't stay with AT&T was lack of GSM
coverage. Basically, throughout East Texas AT&T had very little GSM
coverage.

I live in DFW but spend a good amount of time in rural areas of East Texas.
I've been out to my land in east Texas and I have great coverage with
Cingular (even better than my AT&T TDMA coverage) and had GPRS in almost all
the areas. I was absolutely surprised at the great GSM coverage and could
make calls on my land that I couldn't with AT&T.


"PriusGeek24" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've had an ATT One-Rate plan for years. The cost & some coverage
problems
> are finally getting to me. They've botched their GSM conversion, kept the
> 1-rate (which they pioneered!) cost too high, and I get fast-busies and
> dropped calls in places like Vegas & Houston.
>
> I'm looking at Sprint and Cingular, and am impressed by the "theoretical"
> coverage of Cingular's GAIT Nation plan. Sprint looks pretty good & has a
> lot of billing flexibility, but I live in a borderline signal area for
them
> in Texas and am a bit worried.
>
> So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive
as
> it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
> dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice
quality
> good?
>
> Thanks for any and all inputs and comments!
>
>

I'm in Georgetown, which is about 25MI north of Austin. I travel to
Rockport & the coast and Johnson City / the Hill Country pretty frequently.


"XFF" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "PriusGeek24" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
>
> > So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive
as
> > it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
> > dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice
quality
> > good?
>
> Where in TX are you located?

Stay the hell away from cingular, they will try to screw you each month with
billing errors that favor them.


"PriusGeek24" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've had an ATT One-Rate plan for years. The cost & some coverage
problems
> are finally getting to me. They've botched their GSM conversion, kept the
> 1-rate (which they pioneered!) cost too high, and I get fast-busies and
> dropped calls in places like Vegas & Houston.
>
> I'm looking at Sprint and Cingular, and am impressed by the "theoretical"
> coverage of Cingular's GAIT Nation plan. Sprint looks pretty good & has a
> lot of billing flexibility, but I live in a borderline signal area for
them
> in Texas and am a bit worried.
>
> So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive
as
> it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
> dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice
quality
> good?
>
> Thanks for any and all inputs and comments!
>
>

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:10:09 -0500, "Popeye Sailor..US Navy"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Stay the hell away from cingular, they will try to screw you each month with
>billing errors that favor them.

Been with them for 6 years and the one problem that came up, was
promptly and courteously corrected.

> Stay the hell away from cingular, they will try to screw you each month
with
> billing errors that favor them.

I think billing errors is VZW's area of expertise.
The rate at which VZW consistently makes "mistakes" is uncanny.

>
> I think billing errors is VZW's area of expertise.
> The rate at which VZW consistently makes "mistakes" is uncanny.
>

That's exactly the reason I switched from VZW to Cingular. No problems at
all with Cingular. -Dave

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

> I'm in Georgetown, which is about 25MI north of Austin. I travel to
> Rockport & the coast and Johnson City / the Hill Country pretty frequently.

Then I would say Cingular is your best bet. They got you covered
throughout central Texas, including all the way down to the coast.
Johnson City (and all of TX-15) is tough though, because the cellular
carriers there are Concho Cellular on the A-side and ALLTEL/Five Star
Wireless/West Central Wireless on the B-side (see
http://people.ku.edu/~cinema/wireless/southwest.html). Neither of
them is a Cingular roaming partner, and with VZW you only get ALLTEL
for free, but you will roam on the others. Concho Cellular is
starting a GSM overlay though, so expect them to be available for GSM
roaming later this year. If you can deal with that go Cingular GSM.
If not get a Cingular Nation plan and all roaming is free period.

"Dave C." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >
> > I think billing errors is VZW's area of expertise.
> > The rate at which VZW consistently makes "mistakes" is uncanny.
> >
>
> That's exactly the reason I switched from VZW to Cingular. No problems at
> all with Cingular. -Dave

Speaking of billing errors, this is ironic. I called to cancel Verizon
Wireless after the end of my 2 year contract due to outrageous billing
errors. It took them a while to send me my final bill. I just got it last
night and OF COURSE there was another outrageous billing error. In a month
that I DID NOT USE MY PHONE AT ALL, they wanted to charge me over two
hundred bucks. Oh, and that was for A PARTIAL MONTH. Good riddance,
Verizon. -Dave

Does every newsgroup have one of these posters?


"Popeye Sailor..US Navy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Stay the hell away from cingular, they will try to screw you each month
with
> billing errors that favor them.
>
>
> "PriusGeek24" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I've had an ATT One-Rate plan for years. The cost & some coverage
> problems
> > are finally getting to me. They've botched their GSM conversion, kept
the
> > 1-rate (which they pioneered!) cost too high, and I get fast-busies and
> > dropped calls in places like Vegas & Houston.
> >
> > I'm looking at Sprint and Cingular, and am impressed by the
"theoretical"
> > coverage of Cingular's GAIT Nation plan. Sprint looks pretty good & has
a
> > lot of billing flexibility, but I live in a borderline signal area for
> them
> > in Texas and am a bit worried.
> >
> > So, what are your Cingular experiences? Is the GSM network as extensive
> as
> > it looks in Texas? Consumer Reports pointed out some network overload /
> > dropped calls issues. Any particular areas prone to that? Is voice
> quality
> > good?
> >
> > Thanks for any and all inputs and comments!
> >
> >
>
>