Cingular Sues Sprint, claiming that their network is more "powerful"

"http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=26464"

Pretty funny stuff here. T-Mobile should get into the act and claim that
they have the best all-digital network of any GSM carrier, or the best
PCS GSM network.

Uh, someone should tell the lawyers for these bozos to read the JD Power
and Consumer Reports surveys, if they want to know which carrier has the
best network.

Perhaps Cingular really does drop fewer calls, but if they do, it's
because they have much more limited coverage than Sprint or Verizon. In
fact, if you go by covered area, Cingular probably has an order of
magnitude less coverage, unless you have a Nokia 6340i or SE T62u, or
unless you're still on Cingular's TDMA/AMPS network.

---

› See More: Cingular Sues Sprint, claiming that their network is more "powerful"

SMS wrote:
> "http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=26464"
>
> Pretty funny stuff here. T-Mobile should get into the act
> and claim that they have the best all-digital network of
> any GSM carrier, or the best PCS GSM network.
>
> Uh, someone should tell the lawyers for these bozos to
> read the JD Power and Consumer Reports surveys, if they
> want to know which carrier has the best network.

Wait a minute. No one said the word "best". One of them
said "most *powerful*". I wonder what that means? Most
radiated power measured at the transmitter? The other said
"fewest *dropped* calls". Does that mean you had to have
established a call before it can qualify to be dropped?

I'll bet the other carriers are tickled to death about this.
These two are going to air out all the shortcommings
in each other's networks.

-Quick

Quick wrote:

> Wait a minute. No one said the word "best". One of them
> said "most *powerful*". I wonder what that means? Most
> radiated power measured at the transmitter? The other said
> "fewest *dropped* calls". Does that mean you had to have
> established a call before it can qualify to be dropped?

Exactly. Cingular found a metric that was unrelated to network coverage,
or at least indirectly related, because it was all they could find to
counter Verizon's consistently higher ratings in independent surveys.
They can guarantee that you won't drop a call with Cingular on top of
Half Dome, or out on the San Mateo coast south of 1/2 Moon Bay, or on a
train along the Alaska Railway.

They're counting on a lot of consumers with no critical thinking skills,
that will think, "yeah, dropped calls are the critical metric in
measuring the quality of a network."

> I'll bet the other carriers are tickled to death about this.
> These two are going to air out all the shortcommings
> in each other's networks.

It'll be great to see the Telephia methodology for Cingular's "fewest
dropped calls" claim, which Cingular has repeatedly refused to release,
since it'll have to come out in the unlikely event this ever goes to
court. It's pretty clear that Cingular must be hiding something.

What's odd is that Sprint already explained what they meant by "most
powerful," and it was unrelated to coverage. It was more about Sprint's
wider high speed data coverage, and something related to handsets.

Here's another article about the same thing, with more detail,
"http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/05/22/story7.html"

This all started with Sprint's complaint to the BBB regarding Cingular's
claim about "fewest dropped calls."

This spat has destroyed Cingular's whole ad campaign that was based on
the Telephia data. If anyone ever paid attention to it, now they'll have
doubts about the veracity of Cingular's claims, since they refuse to
release the Telephia data.

I think the only thing Cingular can do now is to get Navas out on the
road explaining everything to everyone.

Sigh. Lawyers ought to be illegal.

--

"SMS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=26464"
>
> Pretty funny stuff here. T-Mobile should get into the act and claim that
> they have the best all-digital network of any GSM carrier, or the best
> PCS GSM network.
>
> Uh, someone should tell the lawyers for these bozos to read the JD Power
> and Consumer Reports surveys, if they want to know which carrier has the
> best network.
>
> Perhaps Cingular really does drop fewer calls, but if they do, it's
> because they have much more limited coverage than Sprint or Verizon. In
> fact, if you go by covered area, Cingular probably has an order of
> magnitude less coverage, unless you have a Nokia 6340i or SE T62u, or
> unless you're still on Cingular's TDMA/AMPS network.

Herb Kauhry wrote:
> Sigh. Lawyers ought to be illegal.

It's the executives that make the decisions to engage in this nonsense.

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> I think the only thing Cingular can do now is to get Navas out on the
> road explaining everything to everyone.
>
>
clearly, the best option. BTW, I just joined the t-mobile group and am wondering
if this Navas guy is the same one who knew everything about modems there was to
know about 10 to 15 years ago? It was before the dawn of cellular.

smitty wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>> I think the only thing Cingular can do now is to get Navas out on the
>> road explaining everything to everyone.
>>
>>
> clearly, the best option. BTW, I just joined the t-mobile group and am wondering
> if this Navas guy is the same one who knew everything about modems there was to
> know about 10 to 15 years ago? It was before the dawn of cellular.

One in the same.

An excellent demonstration of his *research skills*, but no original
thinking.

Kind of like a movie reviewer - knows his movies, but never directed one.

Kenny-boy Lay and Skilling refused to engage in the knowledge necessary
to make decisions of that kind. If you carry the analogy a few steps
further and apply it to Cingular's ultimate owners and the decisions
they made, well, doesn't it make you feel more comfortable about
Sprint? And I'm speaking as someone who wants the best service from
the best company, not a rah-rah Sprint supporter. I'm just reading the
newspaper.

Toggle wrote:
> Kenny-boy Lay and Skilling refused to engage in the knowledge necessary
> to make decisions of that kind. If you carry the analogy a few steps
> further and apply it to Cingular's ultimate owners and the decisions
> they made, well, doesn't it make you feel more comfortable about
> Sprint? And I'm speaking as someone who wants the best service from
> the best company, not a rah-rah Sprint supporter. I'm just reading the
> newspaper.

Sprint's complaint to the BBB was reasonable. Cingular is running around
trumpeting "fewest dropped calls" with no indication of the methodology
used in the study, or the actual results. It's entirely possible that
the actual results are meaningless because they are so close, or because
the areas they evaluated are not representative of the whole country.
The fact that Cingular doesn't want to release the details means that
they are hiding something.

"DecaturTxCowboy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
newsz%[email protected]...
> An excellent demonstration of his *research skills*, but no original
> thinking.
>
> Kind of like a movie reviewer - knows his movies, but never directed one.

That's a twisted kind of logic.

I know funeral directors in your neighborhood; none of which are dead.

SMS wrote:
> Herb Kauhry wrote:
>
>> Sigh. Lawyers ought to be illegal.
>
>
> It's the executives that make the decisions to engage in this nonsense.

And the "executives" know they have a team of lawyers to defend their
actions.

George wrote:
> SMS wrote:
>> Herb Kauhry wrote:
>>
>>> Sigh. Lawyers ought to be illegal.
>>
>>
>> It's the executives that make the decisions to engage in this nonsense.
>
> And the "executives" know they have a team of lawyers to defend their
> actions.

I think that in this case it's a case of a vendetta. Sprint essentially
destroyed Cingular's multi-million dollar ad campaign based on the
Telephia "fewest dropped calls" survey, with the publicity from the BBB
complaint. Now Cingular is trying to destroy Sprint's "most powerful
network" ad campaign. Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Verizon are looking on in
bemusement, since they are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Herb Kauhry wrote:
> Sigh. Lawyers ought to be illegal.

Do remember that behind every sleazy lawyer is an even sleazier client.