Anybody here use Cingular here in Michigan on a very regular basis. More specifically in west Michigan along the lake shore? I need a no B.S. assessment of coverage. Thanks in advance.
When I HAD Cingular, it was iffy at best north of Holland. And to this day, anything west of GR is non exsistant.
I don't know about Cingular, but my uncle has Verizon, and he loves the service. He can even make calls 7-8 miles off the coast when he is out on his boat in Lake Michigan.
VZW is out of the question as I despise VZW. Had em' here, wont do it again. Worse than two cans and a string. Cingular or Alltel would be my only options. I know how Alltel is around here and wanted to give a serious look at Cingular. Since they are launching (as of this weekend as a matter of fact) native service in the Muskegon MI market. I know that Cingular has built more sites here than Sprint (iPCS) has and did not want to launch without coverage at LEAST being better than Sprints. As Sprint (iPCS) provides highway coverage only. I know many people around here have Cingular, T-MO, and AT&T by using addresses in Ottawa county. I was hoping one of these people would speak up. I personally do believe that with Cingular launching service here. Providing MUCH more coverage than Sprint (iPCS) does now. With Cingular only just beginning their build out I do believe this will be the nail in the coffin for Sprint (iPCS) around here.
I would say Verizon or Alltell are your best options. I have tried Cingular as I travel regularily to the west side of Michigan from St. Joes to Traverse City. I personally have VZW and they are solid...Many have Altell also and are satisfied as VZW and Altell roam off each other anyway...
In western Michigan it is all Alltel. Which is why his verizon phone works there, it is roaming off of alltel's towers. So if you hate Verizon, Alltel would be your only choice. GSM technology in Michigan is horrible in general (T-Mobile, Cingular), until they start building more towers, probably a year or two or three from now they will not have much of a market there. CDMA is king in Michigan. Alltel Native Coverage Verizon Native Coverage- Geez...sorry the first map is so big, that's the only one I could find.....
Sorry about the bad link, here Although I should mention, Verizon now has native coverage in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, not any surrounding areas though.
Wow - I travel up to MI often and have good GSM coverage. I travel from IL throughout MI. even in the UP I had coverage was shocked - lol. A few years ago I didn't have coverage in certain areas. However, I think Cingular and it's affiliates are building out there GSM network in MI pretty well. I haven't had any bad expriences on GSM recently. A few years ago it sucked up there. Also I just looked at a cingular map and it did not look like the map posted. I think the posted map is extremely outdated
I have 2 sales reps who work for me and live up in Traverse City. They both had TMobile/NPI and traveled the entire northern 2/3 of state (which includes western top half of state--Ludington and north). They got fed up with constant dropped calls. Coverage was fine, they just could not hold on to calls with any regularity. They have since switched to Altell and have been much happier with improved coverage....
I was using Cingular up in Benzie County (I believe I was roaming on NPI/Dobson) and the service was HORRIBLE!!! Fortunately I also had a Verizon phone with me and found Alltel's coverage much better.
Did you have coverage in the eastern UP? Because as far as I know there is not GSM towers there, the western UP like Marquette and southwest have GSM though...It's not too bad on the highways but other then that it is not good. The map I displayed that was orange is actually Verizon's native not Cingulars, sorry for any confusion. But as far as Michigan it is accurate, with the exception of the city of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, because they just implemented the recently bought Cricket towers. But here is Cingular's right now.... They claim to have complete coverage in southwest michigan. But when ever I go off the main road I don't get a good signal with GSM, I really hope they build more towers because I do like the voice quality when it has all bars compared to CDMA with all bars. But right now they aren't there yet. Because with one tower of CDMA I can have a pretty much uninterrupted conversation. But with GSM it's been my experience that you can't understand anyone with 2 or less bars. I believe Cenntennial has GSM now, maybe they're setup is better, seeing as they have more towers here then the GSM company I was with, T-Mobile.
Well I just switched to Cingular this past month because Sprint wasn't allowing, or it wasn't available, digital CDMA roaming between Green Bay and Mohawk, Michigan. Now that I am on Cingular I have had great coverage in the UP and nearly no areas with zero service so I have to say my experience has been great on GSM Cingular in the UP of Michigan. It could be the roaming setup on Sprint but I can't say that Alltel has good CDMA coverage in the Western UP.
Hmmm, haven't been up that way with my Alltel so I'm not sure on that either. Here is probably a more accurate version of Alltel's coverage where you are. There are some holes that only have roaming, looks like the Houghton area has a gap in coverage....that is probably the source of the Sprint problem, so they only let you on Alltel's towers when it is digital or?
Actually, that is an old map of Cingular's. Here is their most recent map as of October 2005: Note: As you can see, Cingular has added more coverage in Michigan and the UP.
Gamer03- That is much better, I couldn't find that one before. I might have to test out Cingular on my next trip up there......
The next time I am in Michigan, I will have to test out my service. But I only go up there every couple of years to visit my uncle. So by then, I don't know if I will still have Cingular. Who knows....
This spring I was in the UP...eastern...St. Ignace area and roamed fine on NPI Wireless. It wasn't the best, but also wasn't the worst. Indoor coverage was not that great....but it is expected on 1900... :cool2:
According to that map for Alltel it shows coverage in houghton and there should be digital coverage as Houghton is fairly active with all the Mich. Tech Students. I have access to 4 different Sprint phones (relatives who come here as well) and none of their phones including my old one would consistently hold a digital signal and never during a call. The majority of calls would all be analog with occassional glimpses of digital showing up on the phone, of course not during the call. So either digital isn't built out very well with Alltel or Sprint just doesn't allow digital roaming in the UP. Either way i was tired of using analog and now that I am on Cingular my coverage is almost perfect and nearly as good as when I am in the Chicago area.
Yeah I had service in Alpina but it wasn't cingular. I think it WAS NPI a company I never heard of but it worked - lol.
Well back to the original post, for West Michigan in the lower penninsula along the lake shore, as of now Alltel and Verizon would be the best. Although Cingular is building more towers it will probably be a year or at most two before they match Alltel in that area.
this isnt going to help you since i am in metro detroit but i just left sprint where i had EXCELLENT service to go to T-Mobile, where my service is good as long as i stay w/in wayne county (roughly) but weakens the further i go my parents and sisters have cingular and they're svc is the worst i've seen in the area (however they all use older or lower level phones)
Well, basically, everything north of Grand Rapids is all CellularOne/Dobson Territory. Cingular and T-Mobile would only be roaming on CellularOne's GSM towers. I live in the thumb, where we have CellularOne, and it's pretty good. There's some places that aren't so good. But, yes, I do agree that I think that Cingular and T-Mobile have some work to do, as well as CellularOne on building more GSM towers. Especially here in the thumb, Thumb Cellular, which is CDMA, seems to get better signal all around. Maybe Cingular should look into buying CellularOne out.......
https://www.celloneusa.com/ECellPortal/ECell.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ECell_main_home Cingular roams on Dobson
I've had Alltel (great coverage all over w.MI), Nextel (great2-way, patchy cell coverage), Centennial (patchy coverage and lousy customer service), and currently T-Mobile (patchy, but only 1-year contract). I'm looking to switch to Verizon. I've read mostly favorable responses so far. DG
