Need Cingular info for Ea Washington

[Chinasaur]

I switched to Cingular in the Tri-Cities market and my 15 day period ends next Monday. I'm looking for feedback from Cingular subscribers in Ea Washington, or (CA,WA,OR,NV) about Cingular. I've been a cell user for a year now and all of it was with Sprint so I could use some sage advice.

My call records are running 4 days behind ... last message showing on my account is 5/26 @ 12.23P. The new manager from the Yakima store says Cingular performed a billing upgrade over the Memorial Day holiday. Customer Service says nothing about this.

I have found myself saying to them, on more than one occasion, "well..Sprint had this..or Sprint had that" and am met with blank, but not hostile or defensive, stares. I disliked Sprints C/S intensely, but I find myself wondering if the little things with Cingular will add up to a bad experience overall.

The Cingular billing system is very slow (they say that at the end of each billing month, my account will not show minutes for up to five days while the system cycles), the phones are not the best, coverage area is limited but growing.

OTOH, I have a great deal w/ 1500 minutes, don't roam or travel much and when I do their footprint seems to cover my needs, I don't need flashy options other than a good phone book and calendar. The call quality is MUCH better ... almost perfect. I used to think missed calls, pops, line squeals, "can you hear me now..", Lost Signals was just life with a cell phone till I got Cingular. Now I know how truly pathetic the signal/service is from Sprint out here. It's eye opening.

Anyone care to offer advice or share information?

Thanks [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[TProphet]

In the tri-cities, as throughout much of eastern Washington, Sprint service is actually provided by Alamosa PCS. Alamosa is a cash-strapped Sprint "affiliate provider." The 10-Q form for Alamosa is fairly revealing as to their financial state, although it's not quite as scary as other affiliates such as AirGate PCS. Throughout most of the geographical area Sprint covers, Sprint does not provide the service; affiliate providers do, carrying the Sprint banner under a franchise agreement. Many of these affiliates are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, and don't have the money to make any investments in coverage improvements.

Cingular is backed by BellSouth's money, and although they're widely considered to be a train wreck of the wireless industry, they've been making significant network investments here. This is primarily because their coverage is (and continues to be) so poor. In areas such as the tri-cities which are relatively easy to cover (flat terrain, nothing taller than sagebrush and nuclear reactors to deal with), they seem to have pretty good GSM coverage. However, here in the Seattle area, folks have reported all sorts of problems--especially on the University of Washington campus.

Bottom line, if most of your time is spent glowing in the dark among nuclear waste (e.g. in the tri-cities area), and the Cingular coverage and price plan fits your needs, then by all means stay with them. If, on the other hand, you plan more than a few half-lives away from there, then you may want to consider one of US Cellular's nationwide plans, which are price-competitive with Sprint.

[Chinasaur]

TProphet,

Tks [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I kept Cingular. The coverage and call quality if light years better than Sprint..or whomever [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] The Cingular DB is now lagging 8 days behind, but from all reports it's a broken system, not regular "biz as usual"

As for the waste, I had the same attitude living in Lacey/Oly..till you move out here. It stops being funny when it starts being you [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I found that once I dried out from Puget Sound..this place kind of grows on ya [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

/me goes off to check his dosimeter...