ATT GSM IN SANTA CRUZ IS DOWN

[iceman19]

Since Oct. 30, 2002, signal reception from Cingular wireless to ATT GSM customers has become non-existent. I'm an ATT GSM customer that attends school at UC Santa Cruz. Over the Summer, ATT GSM and Cingular agreed on a contract that allows ATT GSM customers to roam on the Cingular network. Everything was fine until October 30, when for some reason all signal was lost. I've tried numerous times to manually select the system(Cingular) but I get "NO SYSTEM ACCESS". By the way, I have a Nokia 8390. This is very frustrating because I was able to get reception before, but now I am unable to. I have called ATT Customer "Care" frequently. They have issued Trouble Tickets but have done nothing at all. What kind of customer service is that? The tickets were filed on Oct 31. Today is Nov. 4, and no progress has been made. If you're an att gsm customer and would like to complain, refer the agent to Trouble Ticket 090637 started by me. ATT says they can do nothing at all because it's a Cingular issue and that Cingular would have to correct the problem. But I get the feeling ATT is doing nothing to contact Cingular. The customer reps provide ok drone customer service but cannot do anything to help. What's going on?

[christof]

iceman--

I also attend UCSC... Coverage for GSM 1900 service is pretty spotty, unless you're on Oakes Path. I'd recommend talking to ATT to find out if you can cancel service, as it no longer works, without being held liable for the cancellation fee. It's quite simple, if they can't provide the service they did before, they breached their contract, and you should not be liable.

iceman, I'd recommend the TDMA 800 or CDMA 800 networks run by ATT TDMA or VZW. Also, I've heard that SPCS's CDMA 1900 network is pretty good on campus also. I'm considering a switch from VZW to SPCS.

Good luck. Let's hope that more cell sites go up on campus where they're going to put that new KZSC tower.

[iceman19]

I'm already looking into T-Mobile and Cingular. I like T-Mobile's $39.99/600 min plan but I would have to add unlimited nights and 500 texts which would make it 50 bucks. Cingular is another possibility where I could get a $39.99/600 min rollover plan w/ 3000 nights and weekends and tack on 100 text messages for only 2.99. That would make it 43 bucks. I like T-Mobile, but it seems like Cingular makes the most financial sense. Does anyone know which service is more RELIABLE? Cingular or T-Mobile. Thanks.

[christof]

iceman--

t-bone is currently piggybacking off of the cingular network, so you'll have the same service that cingular customers have. it's been my experience with friends who have cingular phones that they don't work on campus. i've lived at oakes and am now at college ten. i've never seen anyone use a cingular phone unless they were on oakes path.

i'd seriously recommend verizon or att tdma... or sprint.

your only other option is to go with cellular one... i'm sure you'll like this plan... $40/month 520 anytime, unlimited nights and weekends from 7pm - 7am, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited incoming text... unlimited outgoing text costs $6 extra/month. the catch: mtm and n&w minutes can only be used here in sc or mendicino counties. the other thing is that the mtm and n&w last only for the length of the contract... and att has recently announced its intention to swap markets with cellular one. so you might lose all of this once the swap is complete--in probably 6-12 months.

again, take a look at verizon or att tdma... or sprint.

[iceman19]

Thanks for the tip. I've invested some money into my nokia 8390 which I really like. My phone only accepts GSM 1900's so I'm going to sacrifice service on campus for my phone. I live down by the boardwalk and Cingular has great reception. I'm giving ATT till wednesday. If it's not fixed, i'm going to file a Buyer's Remorse cancellation. I have till Nov. 9 to decide.

i own a Siemens S40 (with Cingular, of course) and grew up living in Santa Cruz (would have gone to UCSC if it hadn't been for this; i'm at Cal Berkeley right now) ... Cingular doesn't work on campus ... there are very few places where You can actually get coverage (Cingular is like this for most campuses, which is why i'm switching to either AT&T or T-Mobile)

hope it helped!