Cingular in Connecticut have Most coverage in more places

600 cell sites in a state the size of Connecticut, which is 5,018 square miles, which divides out to about one site to cover 8.36 square miles each. Wow, thats pretty impressive, Cingular should work in every single house in that state, there should be no weak areas at all!!!!

From a customer stanpoint, thats great, but lets look at it from the company's point of view. There are 3,409,549 residents in the state, and I am going to guess that wireless penetration is about average there at 70% which leave 2,386,684, now I am going to say that the percentage of those who have Cingular service are 40% (thats optomistic) that leaves 954,673 customers that have Cingular phones. The current ARPU is 48.82 which totals out to 46,607,135. Thats pretty good, but lets see how much it costs to maintain a site, I am going to guess that between rent, utilites, and the cost of the T1s running to each site (if anyone has any more concrete numbers, chime in) that adds up to about 6,000 a month per site, which is 36,000,000 million right there, now with the overhead of the stores, and management, I am going to guess about 5$ per month per customer, which is 4,773,000 which totals up to 40,773,000. That leaves less than 7,000,000.Now that does not include the cost for the people who maintain the network, who create the advertising, and for network upgrades. If somoene has any ideas on what those might be per user, please chime in with that.

All in all, I just dont see how having that many cell sites in that small of a state can be good for the company.

 

What this means is that they combined ATT's crappy coverage with their crappy coverage so now they have more crappy coverage.

You forgot to mention the coverage added by Verizon recently when they built out the areas received from their Northcoast purchase.

 

Cingular was known to have a good network in CT before the merger. I'm sure there were hiccups during integration, but I bet coverage is the best it has ever been.

Oh that's right. Verizon Wireless works the best everywhere. How silly of me to forget that.

 

Yes silly boy. You should stand in the corner.

 

You are so clever. And not having Verizon how would you know that?

 

Yes, this is true. I live in CT and I have noticed a big improvement in the malls over the last year. The integration was only shaky for a few weeks in the fall, and you could really tell when they were finished. Cingular's integration and new cell sites really have filled in all the remaining holes of weak or no service that I would see driving around the rolling hills of NW Connecticut.

Because SNET was the CT phone company (before SBC bought them) and SNET had it's own wireless company (Lynx), the local coverage always had an edge over competitors, especially in rural areas. But there were blanks, when they switched to GSM, like in front of the cingular store in the mall...i could only get TDMA a few years back. Deep inside Sears or Filenes, it seemed like Verizon guys had reception and mine was shaky. Not anymore though...the signals are very strong around here now. It is the best it has ever been.

I see more and more first timers signing up with Cingular and others thinking of switching for a variety of reasons because the reception differences are not there anymore...it's become a nonissue for most people here. The word has gotten around and now they are looking at other selection factors.

Jones, thanks for the press release from Cingular's web page. I have nothing, and try not to say anything negative about Verizon or others coverage because I don't use them; I can only report that everywhere I go, I'm getting strong coverage. Anyhow, that wasn't really the viewpoint of Cingular's press release...they are not comparing or being negative about the competition. They are just posting about Cingular and CT.

Your posts certainly do bring out the cheerleaders though!

- viewfly, currently in Japan using UMTS (3GSM) via Cingular's roaming partners

 

I have always noticed the superiority of Cingular's coverage in CT compared to NYC and NJ and the last time I was there was before the network integration so I can imagine now it must be superb.

 

i don't know.... I have been having many odd issues the most common is the phone shows 4 or 5 bars but the other person can't hear me and when this happens my phones bar meter goes red and has zero bars? once the call drops it goes right back to full power? this happens on both of our phones (Moto v551 and Sony w600)

this happens maybe once a day in CT and about every call when I travel to toms river NJ. which every other week...


just my 2 cents....

 

Your 2 cents is a data point and worthwhile. The original news posting was about coverage, not individual service problems. But, anyhow, having full bars on your phone doesn't mean that the other phone is in a good service area and would hear you. They need to have good service at their location too. Concerning the varying meter readings, I don't know, it could be many reasons, but it's not something I experience very often. But I don't doubt your situation.

viewfly

 

Well where I live in CT (NW foothills) we still have no coverage and it is very spotty in the NW hills. Been waiting two years for service when we signed up w/ cingular we were told that a tower was going up in our area:nono: Our contract is up in March. I think we are switching to Verizon seeing how when friends / family come over and their phone get service and we do not.

Norm

 

NW CT is stuff. I have pretty decent service around Kent, Bulls Bridge (excellent),Litchfield and Cornwall Bridge. However it really bothers me that Lake Waramaug is a hole. Also, Washington Depot is a wireless (for all carriers) hole because of community resisitance to putting up towers.

Do you have a GSM phone (ie has a SIM card) or TDMA?

viewfly --- in Paris this week, roaming with Cingular

 

We were told that a tower was going up within 6 months. We could live with that. Two years later and still waiting. Contract expires this month.

Spotty coverage going up Rte.7 around Canaan, Salisbury, Great Barrington until you get around Pittsfield, MA.

Norm

 

I can talk nonstop from Lime Rock Park (which has it's own Cingular tower) on 112 to rte 7 and all the way to Lee, MA (35 miles). All the way thru Canaan, Sheffield, Gt Barrington and Stockbridge. I use a Nokia 6010 most of the time with a Jabra wired headset and the phone on the dash. Sometimes a drop in Falls Village CT at the blinker on 7 and in downtown Stockbridge MA.

I understand there is a tower in the works in Salisbury CT right now.

Verizon is crappy around Lime Rock. I have a Verizon phone to use as a signal meter and all the Verizon and Sprint folks walking around looking for a signal at the track is a real comedy. They see the cell tower on the hill and when i tell them it's Cingular a light goes on.

 

There are a couple of factors here, 1 what phone are you using? and they could say a tower is being put up in 6 months (don't know how they can be so sure about that) and the town wouldn't allow it, which is why the 2 years still no tower-there are unfortunatly a lot of factors that can prevent a tower going up in a specfic time period.

 

Phone is a LG 4050. I am going back to Nokia and staying with Nokia (Wife picked out the LG). We went to the company store in Newington and the manager told us that a tower was in the works for our area Two more weeks

Thats the one thing about Verizon is the lack of coverage in the NW hills. Maybe one phone from each company:loony:

Norm

 

LG's are better known for there CDMA phones vs GSM phones, you are way better off staying with Nokia or Motorola.

 

How are Sony/Ericsson phones? There is a slide model that I have been looking at or should I stay with Nokia & Moto. Thanks!

Norm

 

I have heard the SE's are also good phones as well, the worst you can do is try it and if not within the 30 days return it for either the Nokia or Moto.

 

If you want to try a Sony Ericsson, the z520a is an excellent choice for Cingular. But if you prefer Motorolas, the V551 or the RAZR are good phones.