AT&T multi-band plan(GSM)

[kingpin619]

I currently have an 8390 w/ AT&T. i was thinking of maybe switching over to the siemens s46 bc they use both TDMA and GSM when im doing traveling so i dont lose any calls and continue to use my 8390 when I'm at home in san diego. but my question is, is that if i were to get the multi-band rate, using it in my siemens would work both GSM and TDMA, but if i put that sim car into my 8390 will it not work? or will it work just in GSM areas?

I'm just thinking of getting the siemens bc of the great deal that it has right now.

thanks
chris

[RenoWirelessGuru]

Yes, your 8390 will work in GSM areas if you put the SIM from your s46 into it.

[kyousif]

I recently had AT&T multiband plan with the Siemens S46 and the phone for me wasn't very good. I called to cancel my service then asked my brother if he wanted to take over the service for GSM only and the rep told me that it's not a good GSM only phone. So I used the service about 15 days my brother for about 10 and ended up cancelling AT&T. It seemed to me there were very few places I got a strong signal and my phone didn't work with two or fewer signal bars and it worked marginally with 3 and fine with more. Me personally I haven't found a good service company. I have been with Sprint, Cingular, AT&T, Nextel (for work) and now Verizon. Verizon seems to be okay. I was dissappointed by AT&T's coverage map VERY EXAGGERATED.
Ken

[CommuteMan]

Where are you? It sounds like it's tough to get decent coverage from any carrier.

I've found the S46 to be great in the SF Bay Area, and it works fine down to 1 bar (although that's where it gets marginal). The ATT GSM service seems about equal to TDMA, so I have locked the phone on GSM to get better battery life. The S46 on GSM gets better reception than my old Nokia 6162 on TDMA in this area. I've also used it in GSM-only Europe, and it worked flawlessly.

The comment that it's not a good GSM-only phone seems like a typically clueless CS comment.

CM

Originally posted by: kyousif
I recently had AT&T multiband plan with the Siemens S46 and the phone for me wasn't very good. I called to cancel my service then asked my brother if he wanted to take over the service for GSM only and the rep told me that it's not a good GSM only phone. So I used the service about 15 days my brother for about 10 and ended up cancelling AT&T. It seemed to me there were very few places I got a strong signal and my phone didn't work with two or fewer signal bars and it worked marginally with 3 and fine with more. Me personally I haven't found a good service company. I have been with Sprint, Cingular, AT&T, Nextel (for work) and now Verizon. Verizon seems to be okay. I was dissappointed by AT&T's coverage map VERY EXAGGERATED.
Ken

[asatoran]

<FONT face=Verdana size=1>kyousif, you were getting poor performance, you might have tried exchanging the phone. In the past, I had to go through a few exchanges before finding a phone that gave aceptable performace. My thinking that that the technician doing the final adjustment was having a bad day so the phone I got were slightly off. AT&T has a 30day return so I'd keep exchanging until I got a working phone or traded for a model that did work. I had to swap my EricssonT68i twice and finally exchanged it for the Motorola T720 before I got acceptable reception. I figure if I kept getting bad performance, I'd keep swapping the phone until I found one that worked or until the store manager got 'concerned" enough for him to talk to me. Maybe then, I could get them to improve the reception in my area.

And coverage maps don't tell you much. They're designed by marketing people, not technicians, so you never know where you'll get coverage until get get the phone home. And they're probably never tell you where the transmitters are. "Proprietary info", blah, blah, blah.

</FONT>

[parthery]

AT&T had a bad batch of Siemens phones...I went through 3 before I got one that worked properly....other than being an annoyance it really wasn't a big deal and AT&T took good care of me.

As far as coverage is concerned, it actually appears that coverage has been enhanced, particularly in the central and upper midwestern US...these were areas where AT&T does not have service but they have worked out the roaming with Cellular One west....C1west is converting to CDMA but still has their TDMA channels up and for that reason the Siemens phone roams just fine in these areas.

[DCinSEA]

C1 West to CDMA?

Eventually, Western Wireless will go CDMA and US Cellular is actually closer to eliminating TDMA for CDMA, but those will still take a couple of years, and is a waste of time in my opinion. Might as well spend the money going GSM, instead of changing technologies.

ATT and Cingular will have GSM along the Western Freeways by 1Q 2003, so all but the po-dunk areas in the Midwest will be GSM very soon.

DCinSEA