Cingular Street Coverage

You should expect about -85 to -95 db of signal, or about 2-3 bars on most phones.

-jay

 

The only thing I woud like to add to what Jay said, it depends on what phone you have. Some like Nokia's show 7 bars vs the average of 5. Also the amount of bars doesn't always mean how well the coverage will work, sometimes less bars gives better calling then full bars & they aren't that reliable.

 

I live in a "good" zone according to the map. As far as I am concerned I get excellent service within my house. Calls are clear, no dropped calls, and the phone works all through the house, including the basement. I get between 2 and 3 of 5 bars so I obviously agree with fire14 that the number of bars doesn't mean a whole lot about quality of service.

This is just one person's experience obviously. Do you have any neighbors with Cingular service? They would be the people to talk to.

 

or you could invite someone over that has a cingular phone, and then test it out.

 

I live in a "BEST" zone and barely get one bar outside.

 

I don't have much experiences with GSM phones, but I do believe that Motorolas are along the top RF performing phones. Nokia often comes out on top, though.

 

I don't have experience with that particular model, but as a general rule you can't go wrong with Motorola. The worst phone in their current lineup is the V3, and even that phone is still pretty good. IMHO the best Cingular phone in the past few years is the Motorola V551 if you are interested in buying one on Ebay. A good one can generally be had for $60 - $100. The Motorola L2 works quite well and is available as a free phone on their website.

-Jay

 

That is good to know, Jay. I did not know that, but I will tell my girlfriend that she did have the best performing phone on Cingular.

 

yes the Nokias perform best in the RF zonel......generally getting the best reception followed by the Motorolas.........Samsungs are probably the worst.....

i just got the MOTO RED RAZR V3m................with Sprint its been pretty good to me.......i have heard people having bug problems with some of the GSM V3's though......

i had a Motorola V188..........one day i forgot it was in my pocket....i walked into Lake Erie and the phone was submerged for 5 mins.......when i got out and realized it..........i took out my SIM card and the battery and let it sit all opened up for a day or two and it worked fine except that the contrast was off a little bit.....

 

You could also go on e-bay and get a Nokia 6230, I found that phone to have excellant RF and very reliable. If you want bells and whistles I will also admit my current SE is right up there with RF as my beloved 6230.

 

I live in a good area and my bars range from 2-5. I have a SE300i. My last phone was a SE500. Sony Ericsson is hard to beat on quality of reception. I never get cut off.

 

my friend got that phone and she hated it, refused to use it.:loony:

 

My niece dropped her V180 in a pond and after drying it out it worked fine. She started using it again when her "new" nokia quit on her and she's now using the V180 again until she qualifies for an upgrade again.

-Jay

 

i know they are such durable phones.......theyre great to use too.....but the new RAZRs arent as durable from what ive heard.......fullll of bugs too but i just got one so well see how it works out

 

This is interesting, My daughters Nokia is starting to give her problems as well, it's not new but she is having reception issues with it.
I am actually suprised about how it's just giving out.

 

My sister's family all had V180's when they signed up for Cingular about 3 years ago. When they upgraded they got Nokias. Now I think all but one of the Nokias are dead, and they are using the V180's again because they are in the limbo period between the warranty being expired and being able to upgrade again. I think they can upgrade again in the spring, and I think they are going back to Motorola again.

-Jay