Cingular service in Greensboro

I am moving to Greensboro, NC soon, and have started looking into phone service there. it seems like Cingular has the best deals, but what about the coverage. i don't trust the maps that cingular.com provides.

anyone have experience with this?

[cryogenic]

Surprisingly once you get the detailed map (by clicking on the overview of coverage map that includes all the states), the maps are reasonably accurate... I have Cingular in Easten TN and I've noticed coverage to be almost exactly as stated in the more detailed maps. :-) Their GSM coverage is pretty good around here, though the rural areas aren't all that great, so you can probably expect the same in Greensboro... Maybe someone here can be of more help than I am, but I figured I'd throw out what I could. :-) Also, Cingular DOES give you 30 days to cancel service if you're not happy, and you're responsible only for what airtime you use, which is really cool.

I guess the only real way to tell is to test it - and thanks to the 30-day deal, I should have no problems returning the phone. The reason I'm interested in this, is that I'm considering just using a cellphone for all my calls and not having a home phone line. I would need to be sure that my phone works well inside my house. Right now, I live in Richmond, VA and have Sprint PCS. Overall, I'm very pleased with the service, but the phone barely works inside my place.

[KevinJames]

As far as I've heard, Cingular just recently changed their return plan to only 15 days. Before, it was just 3 days.

[SiemensS40]

I've lived next door in Winston-Salem for the past 12 years and for the past 2 years I've had service with AT&T Wireless. You really can't beat them. I flirted with Cingular last week because I like their GSM service better but I tried it for a week and canceled it. One, coverage was no better than AT&T (I was trying to get rid of one dead spot near Charlotte where I reside on weekends but it was no different with Cingular) and two Cingular presently doesn't allow roaming into non-GSM areas. With AT&T I have seamless coverage no matter where I go. You can also change your plan at anytime without penalty and as long as you pay your bill on time they give you a credit every year (basically one month's service) just for being a customer. My plan is $49.99 with 500 minutes and 3000 N/W minutes and due to contract renewals I actually have 700 anytime minutes now. No charges for long distance or roaming anywhere. It's worth checking out. My name on here reflects my attraction to the Cingular phone by Siemens but I found a new one at AT&T that I like just as well, the Nokia 6360. If you prefer GSM and can live with not having service in many places as you travel, you may want Cingular. Everyone I dealt with at Cingular was very nice. I did read somewhere though that they are in merger talks with AT&T- whether that is true or not I don't know, it was on wirelessadvisor or phonescoop, not sure which.

[TNDan21]

I had Cingular a couple of years back when it was under the BellSouth Mobility DCS brand and even back then I have to say service was pretty good. Coverage in East TN is pretty solid and while traveling to Myrtle Beach, SC I had service almost the entire time. My phone worked fine at the beach, better then my grandmothers current ALLTEL analog phone she had back then.

Customer service wise they was very friendly too. Now granted things have changed a lot since then but from what I hear people under the Cingular Southern GSM market seem to be mostly happy with there service, its a good network. The only thing you have to consider is GSM coverage is more limited, in fact the city you are in right now doesnt even have GSM coverage.

I've also found there maps to be quite accurate, basically look at there "Cingular Home" maps regardless of what plan you sign up with. If you stick to that coverage area then try them out, but if you travel to the edges of the map then consider somebody else. If you go beyond there coverage maps then I would recommend somebody else. By the way the return policy is 15 days now, not 30.

Still you can try the service out for a week or so and if you don't like it just return it back to the store and you will get your money back and out of your contract.

[cryogenic]

I stand corrected on the return policy. When I signed up in April, it was still 30 days... although now that I think about it, all their little signs say 15 days... so yeah, it's 15 days; my bad. :-) Anyway, you mentioned that in-building coverage was not very good with Sprint PCS, to be honest, it won't be any better with Cingular. SPCS is a 1900 Mhz CDMA signal, Cingular is 1900 Mhz GSM signal. Higher frequency signals have problems penetrating buildings, so I'd say you may wish to go with an 800 Mhz carrier such as AT&T (TDMA) or Verizon (CDMA)... unless they're PCS in that area... anyone have any ideas? At any rate, Cingular is good, but from what you're telling me, you'd probably be better off with AT&T or Verizon in this case. :-) If you go back home to Richmond, you're out of coverage with Cingular and that's no fun. So you might wanna shop around a bit more before you jump on the Cingular bandwagon here.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]Cingular converage in Greensboro is ok [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[TNDan21]

The only thing you have to consider with them is there Digital only (GSM) so if you travel a lot you might want to go with another provider like AT&T or Verizon Wireless. Also if plan on going back to Richmond, VA to visit a Cingular (GSM) phone won't even work in that city cause there is no GSM coverage there yet.

If you stick to the Cingular maps though and most major cities if you travel then you should be ok otherwise you might want to look into somebody else.

OK - thank you all for the help. I guess I'll look into some different services before making the plunge.