Coverage Report: NJ, NY, CT, MA, & VT

[GSMboys]

Hello,

This week I am going to be in New Jersey, New York, Conneticut, Massechucetts, and Vermont. I have a Cingular GSM nationwide account - so I will be reporting on the GSM Cingular/Unicel/Cell One service in the area as the week goes on... I will post a little here and a little there (if thats ok).

First of all when we got into the airport (of Newburgh) we got 4/6 bars. It was great throughout the city, I had gotten 4/6 bars, then when we got onto the highway (HW 84), we lost service for about a minute going through the first toll booth, then the phone registered with CELLULAR ONE(!), they had solid coverage throughout the 84 corridor all the way into Newton.

After we had dropped CELL ONE, we got back onto the T-Mobile system from Newton to Mildford, after we hit Milford, we registered back to the Cingular system. We have been on the Cingular system in Rowayton.

Rowayton, CT has decent service depending on where you are. I would say that on the highway T-Mobile did have better tower switching than Cell One did. Although Cell One did a better job in overall coverage area.

I will be reporting on New Jersey, and NYC later on...

Its been great. Question though. In New York is this the true Cellular One or just another company using the brand of Cellular One? Also I have noticed my phone going into EMERGANCY mode on T-Moible (when Cingular is available) - what is up with that?

Overall Cingular has great roaming aggrements with both T-Mobile, and Cell One (hopefully they are just as good with Unicel)

[Quint101]

IIRC, Cingular does not allow you to use another company's network if Cingular is available; hence, the "Emergency Only"--phone recognizes Tmo's signal though.

Just b/c a Company A has a roaming agreement w/ company B doesnt mean that A has to allow you to use B besides 911

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by GSMboys

After we had dropped CELL ONE, we got back onto the T-Mobile system from Newton to Mildford, after we hit Milford, we registered back to the Cingular system. We have been on the Cingular system in Rowayton.

Rowayton, CT has decent service depending on where you are. I would say that on the highway T-Mobile did have better tower switching than Cell One did. Although Cell One did a better job in overall coverage area.

I will be reporting on New Jersey, and NYC later on...

Its been great. Question though. In New York is this the true Cellular One or just another company using the brand of Cellular One? Also I have noticed my phone going into EMERGANCY mode on T-Moible (when Cingular is available) - what is up with that?

Overall Cingular has great roaming aggrements with both T-Mobile, and Cell One (hopefully they are just as good with Unicel)

Did you actually make calls on TMobile? Although my Cingular phones can often see the TMobile network, if I try to connect to it or make a call I get an error message. That's as intended, AFAIK.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by GSMboys

..... In New York is this the true Cellular One or just another company using the brand of Cellular One? Also I have noticed my phone going into EMERGANCY mode on T-Moible (when Cingular is available) - what is up with that?....

It depends on where in NY state you are. Some areas have Cingular native coverage, usually in the urban and suburban areas. In the rural areas you are covered by Dobson Cellular One.

Even though Cingular has been cutting roaming in the areas they serve, there are still a few places where Cingular has native service and roaming is allowed on T-Mobile or Cell One or whichever GSM carrier is available.

Whenever you see "Emergency Mode" in your phone it means the phone is not able to register with a network it just found. Sometimes rebooting the phone forces the phone to scan again and find the appropriate network to register on.

Here's a map of the north east showing the native Cingular coverage areas in orange and roaming areas in tan color. The light tan areas have no coverage.

[GSMboys]

Here is my New York City Report.

On the Metro-North Train in Rowayton/Norton Hieghts/Darien stations had 3/6 bars. Stamford/Old Greenwich/Riverside/Cos Cob/Greenwich, CT all had 2/6 to 3/6 bars. In New York the stations of Rye and Harrison had superb coverage at almost 5/6 bars the whole time. Service was in EMERGANCY ONLY mode in Mamroneck, but recovered to about 3 bars in Larchmont. New Rocheller/Pellham/Mt. Vernon East all had 4 bars (at least). I got into alot of trouble with dropped calls/calls failed in the tunnel leading out of Grand Central (as expected).

While in NYC I had great service -- about 5 bars or 6 -- near the Statue of Liberty, also the Empire State Building. I had fair --4 bars -- in Central Park area and in the Central Park Zoo. While near Time Square I had 6 bars, but in FAO Schwartz 3 bars (and underground 1). In Little Italy service was ok, at 3 bars, but in China Town I had only 1 bar, or EMERGANCY ROAMING on T-Mobile.

Overall I was satisfied... I am glad I do get EMERGANCY roaming with this new phone - because with my old phone it never did this...

My next journey will take us to Jersey (Central/North/South). After that the Catskills and Adirondecks, then possibly southern/central Vermont, and Mass.

[bobolito]

I think that "Emergency" banner you get on your phone that often might be some kind of problem with your phone staying registered on the network. In all those places you mentioned, Cingular has native coverage as I've been there too. So I don't see any reason why it would say "Emergency".

Sometimes, the phone could have just lost the signal and it may be displaying the "Emergency" banner temporarily before re-registering on the Cingular network. In other words, just because it says "Emergency" doesn't always mean it was on T-mobile. It could've been on Cingular itself because the phone temporarily could not register on Cingular for some reason. I have had that happen to me on rare occasions and I just reboot the phone and then it registers ok. This makes me think it could be a bug in the phone's firmware.

Also, you might have discovered that when departing from Grand Central on the Metro North Cingular has full service inside the portion of the tunnel near Grand Central. Well, they are the only carrier with service down there! This goes back to the late 90's when AT&T Wireless decided to put panels there for some reason. However, once you get away from the station (about a mile I think) signal fades to no service until you come up from underground.

[GSMboys]

In New Jersey coverage is great in Ocean County, and Manmauth County. In Oceangrove, coverage is great in most places. In Jackson its very spotty. In Freehold its ok, and Red Bank its average. All I can say is that I expected better. We will be in the upstate NY (the Mountains of Catskills and Adirondecks, and Burlington/Stowe Vermont -- Ben and Jerrys -- then back down to Rowayton CT). My phone is doing better with the Cingualr network... rarley going into Emergancy Mode on T-Mobile (which is good).

[dmarkson]

Did you have Cingular send an OTA so it no longer prefers T-Mobile?

That is basically the Emergency problem and its not a fair assessment of Cingular coverage in that mode.

[Critic]

I'm not really sure why you expected better GSM coverage in New Jersey - this is CDMA country, fella! (By which, of course, I mean that NJ is home to VZW's corporate headquarters.) Seriously, tho, GSM coverage in this state has been spotty for years, and only since the CingulATT merger have things started to get better (or so I'm told by my GSM-having friends - but most of the people I know are on VZW...).

We've discussed the situation in Jackson before - it's a large township with a small population. Oh, and a theme park. Coverage has never been a priority there, for reasons that only the carriers know.

The other thing to remember is that NJ is NIMBY Central. The two towns you mentioned by name - Freehold and Red Bank - are towns with lots of historic buildings, and large residential poplations, and carriers have had a very difficult time in recent years finding places to put cell panels. (See the recent post about Sprint's fight to get a monopole in Lawrenceville.)

Anyway, hope you had a good time in MONMOUTH county.

[GSMboys]

Originally Posted by dmarkson

Did you have Cingular send an OTA so it no longer prefers T-Mobile?

That is basically the Emergency problem and its not a fair assessment of Cingular coverage in that mode.

Yes, they did send me the OTA so that my phone will prefer Cingular!

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Critic

I'm not really sure why you expected better GSM coverage in New Jersey - this is CDMA country, fella! (By which, of course, I mean that NJ is home to VZW's corporate headquarters.) Seriously, tho, GSM coverage in this state has been spotty for years, and only since the CingulATT merger have things started to get better (or so I'm told by my GSM-having friends - but most of the people I know are on VZW...).

You are right about the NIMBYs in NJ but the days of spotty GSM coverage were over in NJ when Cingular and AT&T Wireless merged. GSM coverage was spotty when we only had T-Mobile being the only GSM carrier here. But now with Cingular and GSM 850, there are very few places where you can get CDMA and not GSM in NJ. They are both basically the same. However, the old idea still remains that Verizon is the only carrier with deep broad coverage in all of NJ. I have asked some locals in upper Passaic Co. and the boonies and most people are with Verizon. They are surprised to see my phone has service too.

[GSMboys]

Today my travels took me from Jackson New Jersey, through Sussex County, to New Hope Penn, and to Kingston New York.

In Sussex County (New Jersey) Cingular coverage was ok... but when we got farther into the hills service got more spotty (as it got more rural). In Port Jarvis (Penn) I would have to say Cingular has little to no service, where as T-Mobile had tons. Service did pick back up in Deer Springs though (where we roamed on Cellular One/DCS). As we traveled 85 to Kingston through the small towns the phone could only recieve a DCS signal. Cell1/DCS has great, solid coverage. -- wierd thing is that T-Mobile had service where Cingular didn't (Cingy roamed on DCS) -- also sometimes T-Mobile was the only service(which Cingular didn't roam onto).

While in Kingston Cingualr service is ok outside, but forget it when you are inside... luckily DCS is there to back you up when you are in the department stores and what have you.

Overall I look forward to making most of my calls on the Cell1/DCS system, and possibly some on the Unicel system. Its been a pleasure roaming with such a solid company.

Also, I have found out that to get out of a weak Cingular signal into a strong DCS/Cell1 signal I just hit #*# on my phone and hit 'send'!

[bobolito]

In most of the rural areas of Upstate NY Cingular doesn't have native coverage as shown in the map I posted before. They roam on Dobson.

But how did you know that sometimes T-Mobile was the only carrier available? Do you have a T-Mobile phone as well? That could've been another carrier if you are just going by the "Emergency" display.

[jones]

Originally Posted by GSMboys

Also, I have found out that to get out of a weak Cingular signal into a strong DCS/Cell1 signal I just hit #*# on my phone and hit 'send'!

On your Phone Network Settings,
Did you Select Automatic Network?

When i had ATTWS i have to Reboot Phone
to register SIM, because it would say "No Service,
unregisterd SIM"

[GSMboys]

Originally Posted by bobolito

In most of the rural areas of Upstate NY Cingular doesn't have native coverage as shown in the map I posted before. They roam on Dobson.

But how did you know that sometimes T-Mobile was the only carrier available? Do you have a T-Mobile phone as well? That could've been another carrier if you are just going by the "Emergency" display.

Yes, we have T-Mobile phones.

[GSMboys]

Originally Posted by jones

On your Phone Network Settings,
Did you Select Automatic Network?

When i had ATTWS i have to Reboot Phone
to register SIM, because it would say "No Service,
unregisterd SIM"

No, as you might know Cingular blocks the network select. All you do is press in #*# into your phone when you have a weak Cingular signal and it will register either to another nearby tower (that has better service) or register you onto a roaming carriers network -- all it does is override the preference for Cingular and lets you use a roaming network.

[jones]

Automatic Network is My Settings
on Motorola V557.

[TurboDan]

I have to take slight issue with your downtown NYC observations. I have never, ever, received a No Service/Emergency anywhere in Manhattan, including Little Italy and Chinatown. Cingular's network in NYC is the ATTWS network, which blanketed the city a long time ago. Perhaps the day you were there one tower/repeater was out, which can happen, since most repeaters are on top of buildings and even on makeshift fire-escape-looking platforms and are subject to getting knocked off-air for whatever reason.

Really, the only place in the five boroughs I've EVER lost service was on Roosevelt Island - and that's every carrier since there are no panels on the island and the Queens and Manhattan panels are somewhat blocked, making service spotty.

As far as NJ goes, I agree with you 100%. Ocean and Monmouth are good to excellent, usually. I would figure the part of Jackson near Six Flags would have great coverage due to the theme park and the proximity to I-195. I've driven on I-195 there many times and have never experienced a dropout. Western Monmouth isn't too populated and probably lacks some coverage, however, I'm never around there so I wouldn't know.

How was your experience from NJ to New Hope, PA? I recently drove to New Hope from Plainsboro, NJ (near Princeton) and had great coverage all the way to PA. I didn't venture any farther into PA than a mile or so over the bridge in New Hope, though.

[jones]

Originally Posted by TurboDan

Cingular's network in NYC is the ATTWS network, which blanketed the city a long time ago.

The Cingular Coverage Question In NYC Metro
is Whether you will Get Full Bars or just 2-3 Bars
in the Street where you are?