Hi, Ive had tmobile for 2 years now without any problem. I want to switch now to either Cingular or at&t (or are they the same thing now?) for free phones. I would have switched last year but switching numbers would have been a big hassle, and now I can just port the old numbers. I just want to know how good cingular or at&t reception is in NYC, since Im switching to either one of those. Is it exactly the same now? What exactly happened between the 2 companies? Anyway, thanks.
Right now for a couple months or so, AT&T has the advantage. After Cingular absorbs AT&T's coverage, it will be the same.
You will have very good coverage with AT&T in NYC vs Cingular. Once the merger goes thru it can be up to a year before they get all of the AT&T networks switched over to Cingular so you will be better off getting AT&T for now.
However, in this area, it shouldn't take more than 3 months to get us all switched over to AT&T towers completely. So I bet that by December Cingular should have it all sorted out if the merger gets approved this month. They really are shooting to get the T-Mobile joint venture done by January, and knowing Cingular, they really have a trend for finishing network projects ahead of schedule. Also, since Cingular appears to have less customers than any other carrier in this area (because they have been here for only 2 years) so it shouldn't be hard to switch everyone quickly. I can tell by the amount of exchanges they use, they don't have that many customers in the tri-state area.
How will all this affect ATT customers in central Jersey? Here in the New Brunswick area Cingular has significantly better reception than ATT, mainly due to 850 vs. 1900. Will I still have to manually switch over to Cingular every time I want to make a call, or will my phone automatically stay on the stronger of the 2 signals (which will be Cingular espcially indoors)?
You can manually select whichever network you want to use until the networks are truly merged. When handoffs between AT&T and Cingular begin to work, you won't have to manually select and the phone will pick the strongest of the two.
ATT is generally good in the NYC area. One area that it isn't so good is north Jersey (Edgewater). A friend of mine has serious problems with call drops, not being able to hear the other party and static. He was going to drop them for Sprint after his contract comes up.
it used to be, when they originaly roller out GSM it was in 1900 (and they kept 850 for TDMA) now all the new 1900 towers plus the TDMA 850 towers were upgraded to 850 GSM (with very little bandwith on the old towers for TDMA, and none on the new towers... that's why TDMA is very bad now) so if you have a GSM 1900 phone you are only using part of the network... their new and upgraded 850 network is better than Verizon.... (or at least on par)
About Edgewater: That northeastern shore of NJ isn't really that good with any carrier. I agree AT&T has some work to do there, but I've noticed a number of problems with T-Mobile and Sprint as well in that same area. Service is unnaceptably bad in some areas of North Bergen, Guttenberg, Fairview, all the way to Edgewater. I don't understand the reason for this since these are very urban and well populated areas.
I've recently changed from Verizon to AT&T because I wanted to get a Bluetooth phone and am very happy with the service. I got an SE T637 which I believe takes advantage of GSM 850 band. I live and work in midtown Manhattan and have no problem with signal inside the buildings I've been in so far.
I think ATTWS had a problem w/ one of the Rooftop Antenna that serve this area (edgewater vicinity). ATTWS is still activating new Towers in Northen NJ.
I was in Weehawken recently right near the Lincoln tunnel and had trouble connecting my call even with a full 6 bars (AT&T gsm). I had to redial 2 times and even then the call quality wasn't that great. Maybe this is a capacity issue?
I made a call a week ago before entering the Lincoln Tunnel w/ Cingular, the call did'nt drop inside and after exiting the Lincoln Tunnel. Maybe because it's using T-Mobile network. When i came back inside the Tunnel (towards NJ), it has full bars of signal.
Yeah, the Lincoln Tunnel is probably the only one where T-Mobile rarely drops calls. However, the Holland Tunnel, Verrazano Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburgh Bridge, Battery Tunnel and Triborough Bridge are ALL guaranteed dropped calls on T-Mobile/Cingular with no exception. Other passages where calls don't drop are the George Washington Bridge and Whitestone Bridge. I am not sure about the Goethals Bridge, Throgs Neck or Tappan Zee.
