Cellular South, is it TDMA or CDMA

[Jackson]

I am concidering a move to Oxford, Mississippi and was looking into Suncom (I quess AT&T after 08/13/2002, from what I was told there), Cellular South, Unicel I think, was not impressed with them. My question about Cellular South is are they CDMA or TDMA. In the store in Oxford they had Nokia 6360's and Motorola v.60t's, but I stop in to recheck price plans and coverage before I got on the plane in Memphis (just 40 mins North of Oxford) I noticed they had Nokia products ending in XX85i, and v.60c's. The sales staff was very busy so I left with the Plans and pose this question to every one here. If they are moving to become CDMA (I do not think they would be going the other way) are they looking to be bought out by a larger company? The only reason I ask is Memphis and all of Mississippi are in the same home coverage area.
Thank You

[chodges]

In Memphis Metro and Jackson, TN, they are CDMA. Everywhere else TDMA... but they are in the process of overlaying their network in Mississippi to CDMA. AFAIK, they only sell TDMA phones to Mississippi (Oxford) customers.

Be careful with Cell South in it's 800mhz markets like Oxford... their network tends to drop calls to analog when you are so far from the tower or not allow the phone to register... even if the signal strength is 89db! I have the problem of 2-3 bars at my house and can't register or initate calls... system busy tone. They also lately have had switch problems... "all circuits are busy." Besides this, their plans and customer service are top notch. If you want a phone for around town it's pretty good but if you are going to go out into the county... watch out.

[BarryATL]

I roam onto Cellular South quite a bit and have to agree. About three months ago they started having problems with dropping people to analog. I have heard from two businesses in Hattiesburg that have many phones and they both can pin point to the day when the problems started. I have been wondering if that is the day they started the overlay of CDMA or made a change in the switch to handle both CDMA and TDMA??

[chodges]

They've had problems with that for a lot longer... up here in North Miss... it's been doing that for at least a year. It may have something to do with tower congestion I don't know. What's interesting about it is even with a 3-watt booster the tower drops the phone to analog at about 6-8 miles from the tower and won't allow the phone to register when it reaches about 10 miles... no matter what the signal strength is. If I plug the booster in I get well in the 70's db but it still won't register. No problem with CenturyTel's TDMA tower though.

[Jackson]

chodges,
If you are from this area, please let me know which company you would go with. What is the time frame of the overlay of CDMA with Cellular South, and when this is complete will the current issues be resolved. My biggest issue is a phone that will work in Oxford, Memphis, Sardis, Tunica, and in the sticks of Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas where I will be spending time at some friends hunting camps. Also the phone needs to work in Florida. (Tampa, Orlando, and Gainesville - Family). I do not want to get caught in a change over to GSM, I know great metro and interstate coverage, but not so good elsewere.
Thank you

[parthery]

Cellular South does not go as far east as you will be going...there Florida coverage ends once you get past Pensacola/Destin/Ft. Walton.

If you are heading into Florida, you may want to look at either Cingular or AT&T. AT&T has better coverage on the Peninsula, and in Pensacola, but they roam on US Cellular and Cingular in Tallahassee and Gainesville. Cingular has capacity problems in Tallahassee and Gainesville, but seems to be OK in Tampa and Orlando.

[roamer1]

RCC Unicel is the one who lost their switch to lightning last Thursday (that alone should be a red flag); they finally appear to be partially back up. That said, they have OK coverage but quite poor roaming relationships with surrounding carriers (particularly Verizon); for local coverage they're OK but I simply wouldn't recommend them for much else.

Cellular South is a good carrier, and with the CDMA conversion (Memphis is already CDMA) should be even better. I'm still a bit concerned what they're going to do roaming-wise as a result of the conversion; they roam mainly with Cingular right now (which is good for your right now, as right now you'd have digital coverage almost everywhere you listed) but with a CDMA conversion will either they land up having their customers keep roam on Cingular but on analog (unacceptable, IMO) or shift customers to Verizon and ALLTEL.

As for Florida -- Cingular is at 1900 MHz in the Panhandle; Cingular 1900 IS-136 coverage is very solid (but not quite to the level that AT&T in ex-Suncom/Telecorp markets is) but I've heard the capacity complaints too. (I don't use Cingular so can't verify those claims.)

-SC

[chodges]

Cell South is okay but you WILL run into problems roaming... they tend to only have agreements with "B" carriers... in Arkansas, if off the highways and away from AT&T PCS coverage, their phones tend to stick to the TDMA carrier Cingular which is an A carrier... "enter credit card". They have a roaming agreement with ALLTEL which is the B carrier but since they are CDMA, TDMA phones work in analog only.

It's really a tough call... AT&T may be a good choice because they have PCS coverage in Oxford and they have roaming agreements with everybody... A and B carriers. AT&T bought out the SunCom (Telecorp) network affilate and will be officially "AT&T" August 13. They will probably have some good plans and promos. I don't see a GSM conversion by them in this part of the country anytime soon... the SunCom/AT&T TDMA towers were put up only 2 years ago, if that.

Cell South will probably be alot better in CDMA. If you can get a CDMA phone I'd go with them. It won't be long before they start selling CDMA in Mississippi... maybe before the end of the year.

Unicel will give you a HUGE bunch of anytime minutes for your dollar. Their network in Mississippi is actually growing... they've installed new towers in Grenada just last month. But I don't see them going to a newer digital tech anytime soon.

Sprint PCS is the only other provider in Oxford but I wouldn't recommend them to my worse enemy. They certainly won't do you any good if you get off the interstates.

[Rae]

Don't be so sure about SunCom/AT&T not overlaying GSM anytime soon. The plan is already in the works in the Memphis/E. Arkansas/N. Mississippi areas.

Unless they've made some major improvements, Cingular used to have several "holes" along I-55 - mostly around the Senatobia area. SunCom has pretty good coverage all they way from Memphis to Oxford - no matter whether you dive I-55 S or take 78 to 7 and come down through Waterford and Abbeville. I've also been able to use their service in rural Arkansas and most of the vacation spots in Florida.

I've worked for both Cingular (in the BMI days) and SunCom - I personally use a SunCom phone.