switch from cingular to T mobile?

[sambo]

I am switching from Cingular becuase I am tired of the "rules" continually changing (to my economic disadvantabe). T-Mobile looks good--family plan, mobile-to-mobile minutes, free nation wide long distance, coverage area looks good. What do those in the know know about T-Mobile? I live in Seattle, travel around the northwest and California a lot, a daughter will have a Washington cell phone in NYC.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[TProphet]

Here in the Puget Sound area, GSM (the technology used by T-Mobile, Cingular and AT&T Wireless) is not ready for prime time. GSM carriers have flashy phones and give you lots of minutes to make up for the coverage limitations and poor network quality.

If you want to "graduate" from Cingular, I cannot recommend T-Mobile. Their plans are only slightly less expensive than Sprint PCS, and Sprint's network is much better here in the Puget Sound area. Plus, Sprint offers the option to "roam" on cellular networks where no coverage of their own is available. Spend a little more, and you can get the Free and Clear America option, which lets you roam on cellular networks at no extra charge.

In the same price range as a Sprint Free and Clear America plan, you can also get a Verizon America's Choice plan. Verizon also has an excellent network here in the Puget Sound area, and I think they have better customer service.

(I do not work for either Sprint or Verizon, or sell their service.)

[ILUVSOCAL]

"GSM carriers have flashy phones and give you lots of minutes to make up for the coverage limitations and poor network quality."

That's just not true in every area, my home being a good example.

[TProphet]

Hey, I know you love Edge Wireless, and I believe your glowing recommendations of them. That said, they don't have service everywhere (well, except for maybe everywhere in Lake and Mendocino counties in California), and the nationwide GSM coverage footprint is lousy. You also have to admit that the technology is inferior to CDMA; hard handoffs make for dropped calls and poor call quality in busy urban areas.

Originally posted by: ILUVSOCAL
"GSM carriers have flashy phones and give you lots of minutes to make up for the coverage limitations and poor network quality."

That's just not true in every area, my home being a good example.

[ILUVSOCAL]

I said nothing about Edge, I was just saying that making blanket statements like "GSM carriers have flashy phones and give you lots of minutes to make up for the coverage limitations and poor network quality" is not a good idea if you want to give fair and unbiased reviews, each area is different. Also, I sense a bias against GSM in your statements, as far as I'm concerned, they all have good points and bad points, and to make one out to be some paradise compared to the others is wrong, my two cents [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: ILUVSOCAL
"GSM carriers have flashy phones and give you lots of minutes to make up for the coverage limitations and poor network quality."

That's just not true in every area, my home being a good example.

Yes, but you don't live in Seattle.

I will tell you, though, that I have been working in Seattle with my T-Mobile phone and have had no problems at all. That doesn't mean there aren't problems (just because you think they're after you doesn't mean they're necessarily not, after all), but I haven't had them. Works just as well (including I-5 to Vancouver) as Cingular did.

What you might want to do, though, is try T-Mobile where you live and work. They give you a 14-day trial period and at the end if you decide it's not for you, simply return the phone. You only pay the prorated part of the monthly fee that you used (i.e., if you're on the $39.99 plan you would pay $18.66 plus taxes for fourteen days).

[Matt]

Tprophet, aside from your one-day bad experience with T-Mobile, have you ever used GSM from any carrier? Yes, CDMA is a more spectrally efficient technology. But my nearly 4-years of using GSM (T-Mobile specifically) in an urban area (DC Metro) does not support your claims regarding network quality and dropped calls.

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: TProphet
Hey, I know you love Edge Wireless, and I believe your glowing recommendations of them. That said, they don't have service everywhere (well, except for maybe everywhere in Lake and Mendocino counties in California), and the nationwide GSM coverage footprint is lousy. You also have to admit that the technology is inferior to CDMA; hard handoffs make for dropped calls and poor call quality in busy urban areas.

Let's be nice here. He didn't mention Edge Wireless. You made a blanket statement that GSM carriers have flashy phones and cheap plans to compensate for lack of coverage, and he refuted it.

The nationwide GSM coverage footprint is not much smaller than the CDMA footprint these days. We have four firms (AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile and Western Wireless) who are building out GSM and implementing roaming agreements between each other to provide the coverage until they have made it fully redundant. The only real difference is that CDMA phones can use analog backup, which gives them a much bigger coverage advantage.

I was talking to AnthroMatt yesterday and was talking about how loss in signal affects CDMA and GSM phones. When a CDMA phone starts to lose signal, the volume level drops, so you get "HI MATT H((((ow are y))))OU?" whereas when a GSM phone starts to lose signal it cuts out, so you get "Hi Matt h... ...ou?" It amounts to the same thing.

Furthermore, the realities of network deployment generally preclude the hard-handoff drops that you complain about. I assume that at least some of the engineers know what they're doing... and when you pass into a gap, your phone will drop you, no matter whether you have CDMA, GSM, TDMA, analog, or iDEN.

I live in an extremely large urban area where cell phones are treated like children, and I don't know what you mean by poor call quality. With CDMA you might be able to make a call where a GSM phone would report a network overload but the call quality might be lessened, whereas with a GSM phone you get the usual (excellent, IMNSHO) call quality or you get a 'network busy' error. In any case, these problems have largely gone away as the GSM providers fine-tune their networks.

[ultramookie]

Geez, TProphet, one bad experience with one GSM carrier makes you an expert, huh?

As for the original poster, T-Mobile offers a 14-day trial period. Get a phone and try it out in all the places that you go to on a regular basis. You'll pretty much get a good idea what kind of service you'll get from T-Mobile with that trial period. Here in NorCal, the coverage is pretty good and I haven't had any problems with T-Mobile. I have had SprintPCS here in NorCal also and their coverage is about the same.

Most cell companies let you try out their service. Why not try it before you buy it and not listen to rants (like TProphets, or even mine). See for yourself what suits you best.

[Codepyro]

here is my experience...
i have t-mo and Verizon in the northeast...and i assure you t-mobile and cingular probably ahve the worst coverage overall up here in the northeast..in nyc they are probably one of the worst providers since they have capicity issues(ie calls go straight to voice mail) vause by sharing towers(they also share towers in california)...for best coeverage ehre in the northwest you want either att tdma (not GSM)or Verizon...i seriously think with Verizon you get what you pay for....i dont know too much about washington so i cant comment on coverage there....i'll second tprophet's suggestion for sprint and verizon....for the northeast...especially nyc.,,,

[ZaphodB]

In NYC? If you mean Manhattan, I have yet to experience a dead spot on ANY carrier in Manhattan.

[TProphet]

Yes, I have used AT&T GSM extensively in this area (GoPhone makes it easy to try out--thank goodness I didn't sign a contract!), have two good friends (well, partners in crime really) with T-Mobile, and have also tried out Cingular (they let you sign up month-to-month if you have your own unlocked phone).

My friends with GSM phones expect their calls to drop and their phones not to work in certain areas. They think that's how wireless phones just are, and my experience with GSM bears that out. The terrain here is difficult to cover well without dropping calls, and CDMA's "soft handoff" capability really makes a big difference. It's also more spectrally efficient so it can handle situations like rush hour on SR520 more easily (anyone who has ever been here knows exactly what I'm talking about, in terms of the geographic challenges).

To be fair, my experience is mostly night and weekend usage--things may work better during the business day when the networks are less congested. And also to be fair, I haven't ever used Nextel myself--my knowledge of their coverage holes is based on travel around the Sound with Nextel-using friends. I also haven't personally used AT&T TDMA in this area, although I have done so in Alaska (where it works well, albeit with very limited coverage). My real estate agent, on the other hand, has experienced so much deterioration of the AT&T TDMA network in this area that it's a negative impact on his business, and he's planning to be among the first to switch on 11/24.

Incidentally, nobody ever challenged my assertion that GSM carriers do not cover the Seattle area well until I had a bad experience with T-Mobile. That's probably because it's, well, true. I certainly take no pleasure in this; I'd like to have more options for decent coverage than just Sprint and Verizon, since they both have annoying problems of their own.

[Rasputin]

All I have ever heard is that T-Mob has better coverage in the greater Seattle area than cingular. Try it out for the trial period, if you like it great if you don't stay with Cingular or try another carrier. I would not suggest ATT GSM yet, but Verizon/Sprint would be o'k, they won't give you the boat load of minutes that T-Mob is offering though.

[poetic7folly]

All right, I'll take the bait. I sell ATT, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon. I am based in Everett, which is about 30 miles north of Seattle. ATT GSM has been crappy around here, I don't ever sell it because selling an ATT GSM phone is like throwing a boomerang--it always comes right back. ATT TDMA actually isn't doing too much better at the moment.

T-Mobile has been great! I have a Verizon dealer line, Sprint dealer line, and T-Mobile dealer line, and they have ALL worked well around here. Now I don't venture too far from the beaten path (I don't visit Darrington too often--if you know where THAT is), although all 3 have had great coverage in Arlington and Monroe and other more "out of the way" places. I sell mostly T-Mobile and Sprint, and have no problems with either... clear calls, and great service. Now, I don't know about T-Mobile's customer service, I have always told my customers to call me, and I call in and get things done. Works great, and they are always chipper and willing to help me out... who knows--bad days happen, I guess. And they DO lose customers, no excuses.

Sprint also works very well around here. They have been throwing money into towers in our area like crazy. I get a couple emails a week detailing new service areas. They have competitive plans, especially if you are looking for a local calling area, and they have GREAT phones! I sell a lot of them as well, and really like them. Sprint is NOT going to give you as many minutes as T-Mobile, that's for sure, and in my experience it has not been because T-Mobile is giving so many minutes "to make up for the wholes in their coverage."

So, basically, in the Seattle area, I'd say T-Mobile or Sprint, with Verizon being the way to go if you travel the country a lot.