At&t GSM in south Jersey, big mistake!!!!

Where in South Jersey are you using the phone?

 

Why not try Verizon, or Cingular, or Sprint? Sprint mya not be great in South NJ, but Verizon and Cingular are strong in most areas. If you really want GSM, Cingular will have GSM there soon. It was supposed to be up in Nov, but that's another story.

 

I doubt the GSM aspect is directly related. Aren't they sharing their 1900 spectrum across TDMA and GSM now? Sounds like they need more network capacity. There can't be that many GSM customers (relative to the number of TDMA customers).

BTW Rich, while I can't specifically vouch for T-M in Cherry Hill and Voorhees, it's still close enough to Philadelphia that you should see good coverage. If you were in southeast NJ, near (but not at) the shore, then it would be a different story. I've been up and down the highways in that general area (295, NJTP, 42, 73, etc) many time w/o problems. But I don't live there.

 

Rich are you getting an audible recorded message saying that the network is busy? or are you getting a fast busy tone or the screen displays the message? If it is an audible message, then it is not related to their GSM network, but rather their wireline capacity to interconnect to other carriers. AT&T had that problem in north NJ/NYC for a long time but it has improved after months of frustration. If this is the case, don't count on them fixing it soon no matter what they tell you. If you are getting a fast tone and the phone displays "call failed" or something similar, then it is related to their GSM capacity. However, don't blame GSM technology for it. I don't think this is the case since AT&T GSM is relatively new and it is hard to imagine they are having those issues already. However, I've been saying it all along, that a 10Mhz block is not enough for what they wanna do. T-Mobile/Cingular have much more spectrum in that area right now. AT&T is not sharing GSM spectrum with anyone. They just use their own for now. I believe things will improve in the future but not in the next 30 days. Get out and get something else.

 

FYI, just in my opinion, Sprint and Cingular work great in the Cherry Hill/Voorhees area. I use Cingular heavily in this area, and hardly ever drop a call. In addition, a family member of mine uses Sprint, and they have service 98% of the time.

 

yes cingular in that area is strong go with them

 

You can look at their maps on the brochures on the Cingular stores or on their website. However, this will not tell you the level of signal you will expect in your specific area, nor it will guarantee you will have indoor coverage.

About AT&T, the message on the screen is an indicator that their tower capacity may be exhausted which is a surprise to me. I would be surprised if they fix it within your 30-day timeframe. That will only happen if this is a case they already have the solution for it and already have a set date to go and fix it. They probably do, but again, who knows?

Plans to increase tower capacity have to be coordinated with other companies that do tower maintenance and other network teams and engineers and it can take a while to get all that coordinated. You can either live with it until they fix it (I am sure they will), or you can switch to another carrier. The question is when they will fix it. In the meantime, you can try and be energetic about it in your complains to make sure they note it if they don't know about it. The more complains they get, the quicker they will fix it.

 

Well hate to say this (not really), but we kinda told you so. In that other thread when you asked everyone about who you should get for GSM service, EVERYONE said T-Mobile. Noone said get AT&T, because we know it's terrible just about everywhere.

Give T-Mobile a try.

If you want the 7210, I can get you that unlocked. It will cost a little more unlocked, but then you can take it to whatever GSM provider you want, whereever you go, whether it be here in the U.S. or overseas. Check out my site: www.alienwireless.net

 

hahaha if you say so!

 

Really? I highly disagree with that. I have AT&T GSM and it's great on Long Island, it's the clearest service I've ever used (only unless of course, you are using the T68i...)

 

AT&T GSM is horrible JUST ABOUT everywhere.

Go ahead and try to travel out of the area though. Take a trip out of town. Their coverage isn't connected at all.

 

nothing like a brand zealot!

T-Mobile has absolutely nothing on AT&T GSM in central pa (ie: state college and surrounding areas). Also I travel quite a bit between state college and the washington dc/baltimore metro area and have strong coverage the entire way. AT&T is also extremely solid around the entire northern virginia, dc and surrounding metro areas.

So I do travel out of town and to some pretty remote mountainous parts of Central PA and have never been let down by AT&T GSM!

 

I kept a gsm phone call from exit 7a on the nj tpke thru exit 4 and to the ben franklin bridge. The call didnt drop or break up once. I dont remember tdma being that good. I know there has been a lot of bashing of att gsm on these forums but so far I have found it to be very reliable. I moved all the lines on my account to gsm and all the users are happy with it also. The sound quality is so good the person on the other side isnt sure if you are still there because it is so quiet. Of course once in a while a call doesnt come thru or ring long enough but that happens with any mobile phone.

 

T-Mobile actually doesn't have alot of romaing agreements, only a few here and there. Mostly all of their coverage is there own, thank you very much.

Wow, you guys named off like what 3 states; There are 50 United States by the way. They are horrible in my area, both GSM and TDMA. They are horrible in Cleveland aswell, among other places that they have built GSM.

AT&T has huge problems though; They don't have enough spectrum (10Hz). So, if they get too many new customers joining their GSM, and still have alot on TDMA, then they are going to run into huge capacity problems, much like what 'Rich' described in his original post.

 

Aiwapro, you've just noticed that you are being outnumbered by people that live in this area so they know what they are talking about. Therefore, think carefully before responding. I think we got your message that you don't like AT&T and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own preferences, even if they don't make any sense. However, the most important thing here is that Rich can get service WHERE HE NEEDS IT. It will not be wise for him to go with T-Mobile simply because it works better in YOUR area. You got T-Mobile and it works for you: Contratulations! But don't forget that just because AT&T is not as good as T-Mobile in your area, doesn't mean it will be the same everywhere else.

I would not use T-Mobile for the same reason, it doesnt work in my house or at my office. However, that doesn't mean that I am going to start broadcasting all over that T-Mobile is terrible, because I know that is not right. They just happen not to work where I need it, therefore, they are not for me.

Do you think Rich cares that T-Mobile has such good service (as you claim they do) in YOUR area?
As Rich claims, AT&T has full signal in his house whereas T-Mobile has none. He tried both services so he chose what was best for him. That is all that matters.

I know you don't like to hear this but Cingular owns more spectrum than T-Mobile and AT&T in South Jersey/Philly market. However, in NYC, Cingular only has 10Mhz while T-Mobile owns 30Mhz and AT&T owns 35Mhz. The point is they are all different everywhere you go.

 

I'll name the places where I have experiences with. AT&T isn't good anywhere in Ohio.

Also, AT&T is so bad across the United States, that Southwest Airlines, who had a contract with them for years, has now dropped them. I know excutives in Southwest, and they told me AT&T problems. My aunt is a vice-president in Southwest, and she has alot of problems out of her phone, and it's not just in Dallas in Southwest's home base, it's alot places, all across the U.S.
Let's just say they had obviously alot of problems, for a company who has thousands of employees, to go and change each and every employees phone to a different company.

 

I have to agree with Bobolito....no offense Aiwapro, but a blanket statement like "TMobile is the best" is not, does not and cannot be accurate....TMobile is not all things to all people. They have their share of billing and customer service issues...trust me...I used to be connected to their inner workings. The Powertel, Aerial and Omnipoint mergers did not go particularly smooth.

As for your comments about Southwest dumping AT&T....are you sure that the ONLY reason they dumped AT&T is because of coverage? In the Corporate world, contracts are constantly getting done...deals being sweetened, etc... I work for a company that does fulfillment for Sprint....and as an employee I can get an exceptional discount with them. BUT...we also get a discount with AT&T, Verizon and Cingular...specifically because there is no one carrier that is great for everyone.

The reason we all follow this forum...and contribute to it...is because each one of us can contribute something meaningful. Sometimes we all agree...other times we don't. But as long as its honest and constructive...then its beneficial to all.

 

They left AT&T because of service problems, just as I stated before.

For you to be working with Sprint, I though you might already know that Southwest switched from AT&T, to Sprint. They are using Alltel I believe to fill in some gaps.

 

Of course, the purpose of this thread was to talk about AT&T GSM in South Jersey, not to establish a superiority battle between T-Mobile and AT&T.