Which Carrier to go for??

[ashwin]

I am planning to buy a cell phone and I live in Wichita, Kansas. Have T-Mobile and Cingular in my mind. I am confused as to which carrier to opt for. I guess Cingular is better than T-mobile when it comes to coverage. Just let me know your opinion. Also, I am planning to buy Motorola V600. Hope that V600 is ok. I would appreciate your reply.

[Scrumhalf]

You need to determine the coverage of various carriers in and around Wichita where you will presumably spend most of your time, as well as coverage elsewhere if you travel.

My best advice for you is to talk to various people in Wichita (colleagues at work, school, etc.) on what works for them in and around Wichita. The information you get from such sources is always going to be better than what you can get from us.

Secondly, do you travel off the beaten path, i.e. away from cities and interstates? If so, carefully look at the coverage maps of the various carriers because you may find out that analog coverage is really important to you.

Finally, if you are not planning to travel too much, look into local plans. You can get a lot more cost-effective plans with local plans and you can always get a prepaid phone for the rare occasions that you travel outside your local calling area.

These are just a few ideas from someone who knows nothing about the situation at ground zero in Wichita.

[ashwin]

Thank you very much for the reply. I did enquire with a few people here in Wichita and I guess Cingular is better than T-mobile. But I was wondering whether to go for Motorola V600 or not??

[Scrumhalf]

The V600 is a great phone - great RF and sound clarity which are really important to me, and pretty good for other frilly stuff like color screen, mp3s etc. etc. which may or may not be important to you.

However, my experience with the V600 is with ATT. I suggest you check out HoFo - there have been a lot of discussions on Cingular-branded v600s having problems with GSM850 and that Cingular has suspended offering this phone. Don't know if this is true or just rumors.

[TNDan21]

Cingular Wireless has pulled the Motorola V600 for now. Cingular corp stores are no longer carrying it because of RF issues associated with the 850 frequency. You still might be able to find the phone at reseller's but I wouldn't recommend it. Cingular had a good reason for pulling it.

Cingular is still selling the Motorola V400. You might want to consider that phone instead.

[ashwin]

Yeah I heard that Cingular has pulled out Motorola V600. But I like the phone a lot. My friend here has taken it through T-Mobile and he isnt facing any problem with it. I am really not sure as to how good is T-Mobile with its service, so as a reason I dropped it. Now I guess I need to wait till Cingular re-launches V600. Will they re-launch V600 it in the future. Thanks.

[TNDan21]

The T-Mobile version of the V600 does not have 850 on it. T-Mobile uses only 1900 in the US. That's why the T-Mobile version is fine. The V600 is fine on PCS Networks.

Cingular wasn't having any issues with the V600 in there PCS markets, it was only in the 850 markets that they was having problems with it. I think Motorola is suppose to fix the issue and relaunch the phone. I've heard sometime in September but I'm not sure. Nobody knows quite yet when or if the V600 will come back to Cingular.