I need a quick lesson in all of this cell phone lingo. What is GSM, CDMA, TDMA? Which one is the best and why. I am currently a Cingular customer and my contract is almost up and I have not been happy with the service, lots of dropped calls and very bad reception in some areas. I have been looking into Sprint and T-Mobile. We live in Cary Illinois which is near the Wisconsin border. We camp a lot in the summer in Wisconsin and Michigan and would like to have good service in those areas too. We are looking for a family plan with mobile to mobile because my husband is a truck driver and travels to Wisconsin and Indiana too. Not interested in Nextel, because of the $$$$$. I am getting more and more confused the more research I do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I replied to one of your other questions but as for the CDMA, TDMA, GSM question, those are the names of different digital standards. Basically digital isn't just digital, there are diffarent kinds. As for what is the best, Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, the debate continues. What is best for you is whatever has the best coverage where you need to use it.
Alright how do we aproach this one. The first thing you need to do is realize that what you want is the provider with the absolute best COVERAGE in the areas you spend 99.9% of your time. I think you would be best served asking that in the Central US Forum seeing as how you are in the central US. After that you can make other decisoions but the first question you should alway ask is coverage.
Check the coverage maps and realise that if you go to rural areas that you will have to go with a cellular carrier (ie. not Sprint, T-Mobile), but that their signal strength will never be stellar. From the Cingular and Verizon maps it looks like they have comperable coverage, but Verizon offers a better home rate area on their America's Coice plans than Cingular. You may just be in a poorly covered area with all carriers.
I don't know where all you've been to as far as MI/WI/IN goes but I have Verizon and so far so good. I can't say that I have been to Cary, IL but I have used Verizon without problems in nearby Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, Algonquin, etc. The problem facing T-mobile might be in the rural areas. For example, say you wanted to visit the heart of Indiana like Peru, would T-mobile have coverage there or on the road off of the major freeway? Suppose you were in sunbathing at the waterpark in Merriville/IN and drove across to Fort Wayne/IN to spend the evening, I'm not sure if you'd have coverage while driving there with T-mobile. Now if you drove on the major freeway (I-65) straight down to Indianapolis) then you'd probably have coverage all the way. Mind you all carriers have similar weak spots -- for example, I had AT&T, Sprint and Verizon and they all have some weak spots when you're driving south of Chicago on the I-94 and heading towards the Indiana border on the way to Michigan. Anyways, in the heart of rural Indiana, I would say that Verizon is considerably stronger/better than Sprint and T-mobile. AT&T wasn't too bad for me there because AT&T had taken over the Cellular One base in Indiana. I also don't recall having problems using Verizon in Milwaukee and small town Racine (WI) and on my drive up there from Chicago. Interestingly enough, with the AC plan...in the Ottawa/Utica (IL) region I was roaming (free on AC plan) on Sprint PCS. Although I had coverage in Eau Claire and La Crosse (WI), the coverage area was quite weak. In fact, I think the AC plan used US Cellular as the roaming partner in most (if not all) of that area. I must that that I coverage wasn't all too bad when I drove between Eau Claire and La Crosse -- even though there was almost nothing in-between except for a couple of small towns.
Thank you for all of your infomation. What is AC? From what I am understanding with Sprint, if you are not in their area, roaming is no good because they use satellite???? So I would be better to go with a CDMA carrier because there are more towers and roam sharing capabilities?? Sorry if I sould like a dummie.
1.) AC means Americas choise. It is Verizons basic national plan. It has by far the largest coverage area's of any of the National plans. 2.) Cell phones (NEVER) use satelites, not with a range of 1.5-5 miles they son't . On sprrint when you leave ther network you are roaming and that means you are paying $0.60-$0.90 per minute for a call. 3.) You should go with the carrier with the best recepton/service in the area were you spend the most of your time (Home, work, School, freinds places, and the roads in between.) 4.) I said it before and i will say it again. We realy can'tr help you if we don't know were you are. A state would be nice. I am in NYC and because of my traveling have a prety good beed on the coverage in the north East.
NYCDru, I think perhaps you are confusing this thread with another. Collndan said in her original post to start this thread that she lives in Cary, Illinios and travels to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana.
I'm adding my two cents sort of late but after reading all the replies, here are my thoughts: I've lived in IL and MI and traveled in both Northern MI and WI. I typically take both Sprint and Verizon phones "up North"! If you get off the highways you'll be roaming and likely on analog. Whether or not you get a signal in rural areas varies from carrier to carrier. If you're roaming on analog service, Sprint will probably be more expensive - Verizon does offer some national plans that allow unlimited roaming even off their network. While I generally find Verizon better for rural coverage, I find Sprint is cheaper and offers very good PCS to PCS calling. My wife, children, and I all have Sprint phones and with each other anywhere in the US with unlimited minutes...that can't be beat. You'll have to consider what is your best coverage where you live, how much time you want to talk cell to cell in metro areas and how much time you'll be in the "woods".
Thank you, yes I am mostly in the Chicagoland area and I guess my concerns are for when I am vacationing in the summer. I know I probably shouldn't be basing my decision on vacation destinations, but what would I do if I couldn't check my messages at home.! : / I need to take a R&R class. lol. thanks for all of your help, sounds like I am a nuisence to some of you and I apologize for that. Just trying to make the best decision.
No one person in this world can honestly say they know it all. If you have questions, keep asking, hopefully someone here in computerland can answer them for you, and we all learn from it.
Sorry you feel like a nuisance...there are a few on this board, but you're not one of them. If we all were so smart and there was one right answer, we'd all have the same provider, phone and contract!
