silly, unknowledgeable....question---if I take advantage of cigulars new national plan (they tell me I can roam anywhere on other carriers towers (I really don't believe them) does it make a difference cdma or tdma or even gsm whether or not you can roam onto different towers. I've noticed verizon is big in coverage from reading....wouldn't that make cingular just as big by being able to roam onto other carriers towers--I mean can cingular really use sprints or anyone else tower? can someone help me understand--I reside in MA, close to UMASS
They are not lieing, you can indeed roam onto other carriers networks under the following conditions: 1. You have a phone capable of AMPs (analog) transmission AND the roaming partner has analog towers. 2. You roam onto another carrier's digital network as long as it is the same digital technology.
I believe in your area Cingular is TDMA and sells mostly Tri-Mode phones that means you can roam onto TDMA networks and Analog networks. No, they are not lying either its no roaming or long distance charges while in the US.
thanks for the info. I have many dbc's right now (dead brain cells) and sometimes I have CRS (can't remember sh*t) so I guess that means I have sfb (sh*t for brains) so if this area that I'm in say for example is mostly cdma--using a tdma phone wouldn't work on another carriers network?
It would work in analog mode. But saying "mostly CDMA" is a bit surprising. All digital technologies have overlapping markets. Maybe CDMA carriers have more expansive coverage but I don't think that ALWAYS means that TDMA isn't available.
TDMA is pretty widely avaible so you should be fine and if you are not within a TDMA tower your phone will just go into analog mode. With a Tri-Mode phone you are pretty much going to have coverage wherever there is some type of tower around.
Cingular in Massachussetts uses TDMA digital technology so the phones they sell will work only with TDMA or analog towers. Some phones are only digital though. However, Cingular by themselves do not cover the entire US. They have agreements with other TDMA carriers (AT&T, SNET, Ameritech, Bellsouth, Cellular One, etc.) so the result is coverage in all states. Therefore, wherever you go in the US, either Cingular or one of their partner carriers will get you covered in digital (TDMA) or analog with no roaming or long distance charges. There are other systems not compatible with your phone such as CDMA or GSM systems so your phone will never pickup those towers. These systems only work with phones designed for these technologies such as the phones from Verizon, Sprint, Voicestream and others.
Thank you very much everyone------nowwwwww,, I understand more about coverage and a bit more about phones
go check out cingular and see what you think. remember that you have a trial period that if you are unhappy you can cancel service without a canc fee Jack
