Cingular in Richmond, Virginia area

[magrt]

Now that Cingular is available in Richmond, I've been trying to obtain service from one of the many on line suppliers (Amazon.com, etc..). They all say that Cingular service isn't available. The only online place that will take the order is Cingular.com and their prices are significantly higher than Amazon's for the same phone (I'm trying to get a Razr V3). Anyone know when we'll be able to buy from someone other than Cingular?

[suncomisstupid]

Here's a list of free GSM phones from a Cingular Wireless store in Virginia Beach, VA I received. It states that:

"GSM Customers have these free phones to choose from, when you renew your contract for 2 years!

Nokia 3220
Motorola V220
Motorola V180
Sony Ericsson Z500a
Nokia 6010
LG C1300
Samsung X427m
Samsung e317
LG L1400
Samsung C207
Nokia 3120

Call 1-866-737-8408"

P.S. I have GMAIL invites available, just PM me if you need one!

[z00m]

I've heard alot of the stores are sold out of phones. e.g. Nokia's
It maybe just around Central Virginia though.

[Stick0413]

Based on personal experiences and friends/familys experiences this is my list of carriers in central VA.

1. Verizon- Not to many dead spots. A little problems in rural areas.
2. Sprint- A few dead spots. Better in rural areas but has dead spots in urban/surburban areas
3. Alltel- A few dead spots. mostly in rural areas
4. Cingular (T-Mobile)- More dead spots. Even in some spots of the interstates which is something I havent noticed with the three that are above. Know many ppl that have switched from Cingular to either Sprint or Verizon
5. Nextel- When you get into rural areas you mind as well forget about it.
6. N'Telos- Not bad but if you do any traveling at all this one isnt for you. Get out of the VA/NC area and you have nothing, no roaming or anything.

[pbw]

Originally Posted by Stick0413

Based on personal experiences and friends/familys experiences this is my list of carriers in central VA.

1. Verizon- Not to many dead spots. A little problems in rural areas.
2. Sprint- A few dead spots. Better in rural areas but has dead spots in urban/surburban areas
3. Alltel- A few dead spots. mostly in rural areas
4. Cingular (T-Mobile)- More dead spots. Even in some spots of the interstates which is something I havent noticed with the three that are above. Know many ppl that have switched from Cingular to either Sprint or Verizon
5. Nextel- When you get into rural areas you mind as well forget about it.
6. N'Telos- Not bad but if you do any traveling at all this one isnt for you. Get out of the VA/NC area and you have nothing, no roaming or anything.

I would put Alltel #1. They don't have a lot of customers so their network is relatively uncrowded giving enhanced distance from the towers. I know nothing about exGTE other than they had coverage just less than Alltel. Since the merger they have done a decent job of filling in rural gaps and sectorizing *all* sites. They have also started to build almost all new sites with onsite generators by default (this is an old BAM engineering thing). This practice paid dividends during Isabel when Alltel lost 100 towers between Norfolk and Richmond to "generator failures".

Nextel is incredible up north and not bad in SE. Nextel Partners is "eh". Your summation is correct except they do have rural coverage, assuming you are on a major roadway!

nTelos has incredible rural coverage in the ex CFW Intelos network (SW). SE/Central VA is exPrimeCo which was never that robust. Two years ago they did a big build out. Still isn't enough. I don't know about roaming but native coverage ends in NE NC in the outerbanks and north in Fredericksburg. Still, back in 10/2004 there was *no* one with reliable coverage like nTelos along I-77 in Bland County and parts inbetween.

Sprint PCS, incredible rural coverage, but engineered wierdly. You will find Sprint PCS service in some wierd areas heading out of Richmond, like Cumberland County, Nottoway county and so on. Problem areas like I-95 between caroline county and fredericksburg still sucks. The towers are there but my phone(s) always go nuts there. Charles City County would have decent coverage but the towers seem spaced to far apart. More like islands of coverage than a network.

Sprint PCS affiliate Horizon PCS has an agreement to provide service on nTelos's network from Louisa west ward. So once you get to Charlottesvile and west and then south to TN your on nTelos's network. Augusta County north is ShenTel PCS (another affiliate).

Cingular is a seperate entity from T-Mobile. There were never any sharing agreements. In NOVA it was CellularONE of Washington/Baltimore. In the rest of VA it was Triton PCS aka SunCom, except for a portion of the Norfolk market back in the early 90s which was AT&T Wireless. I can't speak to the CellularONE network, but Triton PCS, like Sprint PCS has incredible rural coverage. Problem is the network is or was oversold and the maintenance lax. The potential is there.

T-Mobile is the newest entrant. Quality, but nothing coming close to Sprint or Triton for rural coverage. They can't touch Alltel or Verizon. Still they are very aggressive and always seem to have cells popping up in the strangest places. I put them above nTelos easy, except in SW VA where the network is skeletal at best (tower/licenses purchased from Devon Mobile ((Adelphia Wireless)). I expect big things from them in the future but right now the focus seems to be on capacity in the cities and the highways.

Hope this helps!