....at least with Cingular.

Apparently they define which areas are GSM (their own or partner's like
T-Mobile) and which are not - TDMA (Cingular or their partner's) or other,
like AMPS, I suppose.

So what's frustrating is that if you are in GSM area and you don't get GSM
signal for whatever reason (i.e. dead-spot or in the building), the phone
will _never_ switch to TDMA or AMPS, although I know those networks I
available (I had my old AT&T TDMA phone with me.)

On the "micro-level", e.g. in one-city boundaries, this defeats the whole
purpose of GAIT. On the "macro-level" - when I travel far, e.g. to the
mountains to ski, the phone will switch to TDMA, I hope. I am still to see
how this is going to work, because I have GSM stretching for quite a bit
around where I live (New York City). But there are still some dead-spots
still in this area which I hoped to cover by having a GAIT phone and a
corresponding plan.

I spent l-l-lots of time with their customer and tech support people to
gather this. Finally I got one guy on the phone who was really knowledgeable
and honestly explained me the way it works...

I tried Nokia 6340i and Sony Ericsson T62u: I went to the areas where I knew
there were dead-spots for GSM coverage - three on the highway, one on the
bridge, at my friend's house and at one other place - all within ~20 mile
radius from NYC where the whole area is marked as solid GSM... BTW there is
no way to force the phone into any particular mode, they don't even indicate
the mode on the display, so you wouldn't know.

Is that how it's supposed to be?

Can anybody share their experience with GAIT? With Cingular or any other
provider.

Thanks

Vido




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