Cingular or Verizon for Long Island?

You could have 1 of the V600's that had some software issues with it & this is part of your problem, you could get an unlocked phone on Ebay such as a Nokia or a Moto V551 and see if that helps any, also part of the issues could be from the integration work.
You can try this & see if it helps any: with the phone on, remove the battery & SIM and let them stay out for at least 3 mins, then put everything back & see if there is any improvment, Cingular say's this helps as well as they recommend once a day power cycling your phone for 30+ seconds.
But again it could be the phone or the network.

 

If you do end up switching carriers, you can't really go wrong with Verizon on Long Island.

 

As Fire mentioned your V600 could have the bug which caused problems on the 800MHz band. So I would try out another phone, and you may want to check to see which network your phone is using. A different phone and making sure you are on the "blue" network should solve most of your problems.

 

Last time I was on Long Island I had visited the Centerreach & Port Jefferson areas and I had excellent coverage with Cingular.

 

Verizon has excellent coverage in Long Island, I though Cingular's Coverage is also pretty good there also.

 

Did you call Cingular CS about that problematic Phone?
If you you do they will reset that phone to manufacturer setting
and Power restart it.
And the last thing Cingular will do is sell you a New Phone
since that is originally an ATTWS phone.
I have that phone and it has been reset like 5 times
by Cingular CS.
It had all sorts of Bug like the caller ID won't show even
when not blocked.

 

YES after like a few months, another problem.
PhoneBook in GSM is stored in the SIM card
so it will not be lost.
The pictures will be Lost.

 

In LI you should be only on the Blue network, here in the NY/NJ/LI area Cingular didn't have there own network prior to the merger, they had a shared network with T-Mobile, and since us Blue customers can't use the T-Mobile network to roam on, you should only be locked onto the Blue network.
I would seriously try another phone, if you have a friend with either an old AWE phone or an unlocked phone, pop your SIM into there phone & see if there is a difference.
As for doing a master reset, you can go into settings and select Master reset to see if it helps, but it may or may not help.
Another choice is get a data cable & download the newest software version & flash the phone to it, it all depends on if you want to do that or get a newer phone.

 

If a flip is the phone you want, then the Moto V551 is a good one, I haven't had any problems with mine so far, also the V505 which isn't sold in the stores anymore is another good choice. My 1 daughter has the V220 which is a basic clamshell phone & it's got good Rf and call quality, just smaller then the V500/600 series phones.
As for the best phones for Rf, the Nokia's win that hands down, so if your willing to settle for a candybar phone, then go with just about any Nokia, I had the 6010, 3595 & 6800 and still have them (actually my daughters had/have them) and they have been good to us & alot of other people, I know people also say the 6230 is an excellent phone, but just heard on here today that Cingular has been having software issues with it, this is the 1st I have heard of that though, but the source is reliable.

 

My understanding is that the call quality is equivalent to the V551, the V3 is just wrapped up in a prettier package. I had strongly considered a V3 when I had purchased my V551, but in the end I did not feel the coolness factor was worth a couple hundred extra bucks.