Dobson/AT&T Tower Integration

Yeah, I have had some dropped calls when I come out of Caro on M-81 once I get past the "big hill". I think that because I am at a slightly higher elevation and can see forever, I actually pick up an ATT tower from Saginaw county. That might be part of the problem for me. I have a buddy that used to live in Watrousville that had Verizon and he had really crappy service, but found out he was mostly locked onto the Verizon tower from Saginaw county. Once we figured out how to change the SID and lock onto Thumb Cellular, it was all good. Either way, Cellular One is kinda dead in that area. Know anyone with the last name of Nichols?

 

try living in a rural area in GA or AL or MS. then youll know what neglect is


no seriously though i understand how it can be frustrating, where i live coverage is below par in many residential areas, mainly due to constraints of local government and building approval.

but with the transition im not familiar with any particulars, i just know that it always takes time, espically when you have the same towers in the same town, they are having to switch over all the equipment and the whole nine yards. think about just one city, even a small one, you are talking about 50-100 towers. thats what we have in my area and like i said, it could use more. so transitioning is going to be a time table issue.

not to mention Dobson was very regional and spread all over, the main thing that your going to see is where the highest revenue places for Dobson will be converted first, and everything else last.

this may be the reason that in your area it may take longer. this is a guess though

 

There are new SIM flashes for those border areas that will help.

The stock SIM flash looks for 410 every 9 mins and will lock in to 410 until completely gone, plus if not on Dobson towers the phone will scan every 9 mins and shortens battery life.

The newer ones SIM flashes have fixed some of the bugs.

Upgrades are already in progress, but it takes time.

 

In WI, more of western WI, Cell One is still being broadcasted on the tower ID's. I heard that the Cell One towers are going to be the last of the whole tower swtich over due to T-Mobile and agreements between Cell One DCS and T-Mobile.

(Over hear T-Mobile will NOT roam on to AT&T. However, if you select Cell One manually, start a call and head towards the cities Cell One DCS will had it off to AT&T no prob. However, try to manually select AT&T and you get "Emergency Calls Only!")

I know my T-Mobile BB Pearl (one of the first ones) will allow you to manual force. However due to SIM encoding and such my battery runs down like you would not even imagine in manual mode.

I wonder if they do switch the name if it will causing roaming issues or not. RIP Cell One, and soon for me: burn and die T-Mobile!

 

AFAIK, the Thumb towers (at least the one I pick up at my house) have not been converted to 310-410 yet. I have not verified it with my manual selecting V400 w/in the past couple of weeks, but just knowing the difference between having 1-2 bars most of the time and 3-5 bars if I can loose the 1-2 bar tower, I can tell pretty well. I just hope there is no programming in the SIM to prefer 1900 over 850 or I will prolly be in the same boat. The Tri-cities area that was formerly ATT Wireless is 1900 and the thumb Cellular One towers are 850.

 

Yeah, hopefully soon, but I am not holding my breath. I know how long it took them to convert all the Tri-city towers from 310-380 to 310-410. 3G iPhone will be awesome.

 

It's still two seperate networks in upstate NY as well. Picked up the Cingular MNC in addition to CellOne DCS.

 

It's still registered as "cell one" in my area. RadioFoneGuy, do you know if they are converting to 410 yet around Michigan?

 

They already started changing the Alpha Tag. Dont know on the MNC change yet.

 

Should be this summer some time