Sprint vs T-Mobile in NYC

I go into the city a lot and i currently have sprint. I used to have voicestream(t-mobile). Sprint is hit or miss in the places ive been, next to no service in penn station or the subway, and NO service in the theatre at MSG. When i had voicestream a few years back, it SUCKED. I know that it has gotten better over the years. Tmobile now works on the LIRR platform level in penn.

How come you wont consider cingular? if your going for coverage, go with a cingula GAIT phone (GSM, TDMA, AMPS) cant go wrong there

 

good recommendation Yankees, and though you used Sprint, it's good to see someone make an honest and un-biased recommandation.

 

Tmobile

Pros
1.) GSM world phones are cool. You can get any GSM 1900 phone you want.

2.) 3000 anytime minutes for $50/month

3.) 600 anytime with unlimited Night an weekend with weekends starting friday = $45/month

4.) Corporate stores are able to give you VERY detailed coverage mps of zip code areas.

Cons

1.) Building penetration in alot of areas sucks.


Sprint
Pros
1.) Very cool Phones

2.) Area wide 1000 min for $45/month

3.) $5/month gives you 7 to 7 daytime minutes.

4.) $5/month gives you REALY good roaming.

Cons
1.) No text messanging (not yet, and not without one of the newer phones)

2.) Building penetration in alot of areas sucks.


How many minutes / month do you want?

How much are you willing to pay per month?

 

Thanks a lot Tony E

 

With Cingular you won't get any TDMA service in NYC. There just isn't any for NYC customers. So even if you get an obsolete Nokia 6340i, it will only work on GSM. Although customers coming from other areas of the US can still roam on AT&T for TDMA. I don't know why you are ruling Cingular out since they have the same network as T-Mobile so their coverage is exactly the same. So between T-Mobile and Cingular you just have to decide between what plan fits you best.

If I were you, I would avoid myself a headache and stay with Verizon. 800Mhz service in NYC can't compare to any 1900Mhz network especially in buildings. I know many people that have to carry two phones: one with Verizon because it works where they need it and another one with T-mobile because of the cheap minutes, data plans, etc.

You can just give T-Mobile/Sprint a 15-day try and see if you can live with the spotty in-building coverage. Depending on the specific places where you go, you may not experience any reception problems so that can only be determined with a 15-day trial.

 

Cingular

Pros
1.) GSM phones are cool. You can get any GSM 800/1900 phone you want and typicaly there are lots to choose from.

2.) ROLLOVER minutes.

3.) $7/month gibes you 7 to 7 nights and weekends.

4.) Tmobile Corporate stores are able to give you VERY detailed coverage mps of zip code areas in NYC.

5.) GSM 800 while travleing.

Cons

1.) Building penetration in alot of areas in NYC sucks.

 

I have actually contemplated thus recently cause i have gotten overahges 3 of the last 5 months.

Yes i check my minutes but sometimes i don't care.

 

As I replied before the Freg Band that VZW bought from Northcoast are all 1900 MHz.

And one of its areas are NYC. These 1900 MHz is now being used by VZW in NY Metro. So don't be negative about 1900 MHz. All of GTE's license w/c is now part of VerizonW are 1900 MHz.

 

I was in NYC around the weekend before Christmas, and I had no porblems at all with the T-Mobile service that I am using. The people I was with had problems though; My Dad uses Wireless, and has so for a long time. In NYC, everytime he would call someone he would get a busy signal, but then he would use my phone, and the call would go right through, with no problem. A friend of my Dad uses Sprint PCS, and though his phone did work some of the time, he kept losing signal. My Mom and I both use T-Mobile, and didn't have any problems at all. Whenever we got lost or separated in the Manhattan area, we would call each other and hold conversations, until we found each other. I never had a dropped call, and I don't think she did either.

With my experience in NYC, I would proudly recommend T-Mobile.

 

I was just in NYC with my wife a few weeks back, one of her coworkers had T-Mob, and had good coverage in and around the city, I found I had a little better interior coverage with Verizon, but other than that T-Mob worked well. Test it out and see if you like it...At least you can get a boat load of minutes..

 

I am sure you have a good signal in most of NYC. I use Cingular (same T-Mobile network) and I can't complain about the signal. My phone gets full 5 bars almost everywhere I go in NYC. However, as soon as I hit an area where there is a traffic jam or an area with too much people, watch for those system busies, calls not going through, etc. The signal is full, but the network is just too fragile when loaded. I don't know how AT&T TDMA can be more reliable using less than 25Mhz of spectrum when T-Mobile/Cingular GSM has 40Mhz. Everytime I am in a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, it is common not to be able to make calls on GSM because the system is too busy. However, my field test shows about 7 control channels with very strong signals. I know that on TDMA that was not a problem because if you tried to make a call when a control channel was too busy, the system would simply switch to another channel that was free even though it was weaker. I would think GSM is smart enough to do this too, but it seems to me, it doesn't. On TDMA, calls were more likely to go through in a crowded area. So much fo GSM's better spectrum efficiency!

 

Bobolito

NYC/NJ market right? Which means that ATT TDMA is 800 Mhz, but ATT/Cingular/Tmobile GSM is 1900 mhzright. The weak signal on TDMA is coming from a good distance away buyt is still usable. The GSM signal....yeah its there but at 1900 mhz, do you rthink it ould be usable? Plus the people who are closer to thart weak signal have probably goten there first.

 

Both AT&T TDMA and T-Mobile/Cingular GSM signals come from the same place. At the GWB toll going from NJ to NYC there are loads of panels all over the buildings around that area and all carriers have multiple sites due to the high density of the area. To take over the other half of the GW bridge all carriers have loads of panels on the NYC side building rooftops. So there is plenty of capacity dedicated to that area. AT&T TDMA has 4 sites within a 1 mile stretch on Rt 95 in Fort Lee just before you reach the GW bridge. Sites 150, 149, 146 and 144 all service that crowded Fort Lee area on Rt 95. There's a similar amount of coverage devoted to the NYC side. I don't know how many sites T-Mobile/Cingular GSM has installed in that area, but I know it is a lot, but still, their fragile GSM network can't handle a simple everyday traffic jam as well as AT&T TDMA can. Unbelievable!

 

I have used both TMo and Sprint in and around NYC. Standing still Sprint service is usually very good and clear call quality. When traveling I find Sprint to be very uneven. Factoring in the pricing and CS, I can confidently recommend TMo over Sprint in NYC. I think TMo CS give it a definite edge over Cingular also.
Make use of the 15 day trial period and see that the phone works where you need it.

 

bobolito, could you please explain what you mean by above?

Also, could you (or anyone else) explain all the beneifts of 800Mhz over 1900Mhz. I know it penetrates better, but doesn't it require more towers then 1900Mhz? Also, doesn't 1900Mhz give you a better battery life and maybe sound clarity?

Thanks.

 

There shouldn't be difference in sound quality since both the 850 and 1900 MHZ service are GSM. Battery life really depends if you are in an area with good or bad coverage...

Frank

 

1900 Mhz networks require more towers. Building penetration really depends on how well the system is built out rather than the frequency. A properly built out 1900 MHz system (with a surplus of towers) should penetrate as well as an average 800 Mhz system.

 

I can't agree with that because there is a difference between building penetration and signal strength indoors. I agree that a properly built 1900Mhz system can work just as good as a 800Mhz system, but that doesn't mean that indoor penetration is as good. The number of dB lost when a signal goes through a wall is fixed and depends on the frequency. The higher the frequency, the more difficult it is for signals to go through walls.

Let's say that on a particular building you lose 5dB when you go indoors at 800Mhz. At that same building you will lose more than 5dB if you are using 1900Mhz service. For purposes of this example, let's say you lost -10dB on 1900Mhz when you go indoors. Now, if your 1900Mhz has a stronger signal outdoors (-71dB) than the 800Mhz service (-76dB), you are going to get good service indoors with both the 1900Mhz phone and with the 800Mhz phone because indoors you will have -81dB at 1900Mhz and -81dB at 800Mhz. In this case you can't say that signal is penetrating just as good on 1900Mhz because you are still losing 10dB when going indoors. However, what you can say is that the signal strength is just as good on both bands indoors.

The ability of a tower signal reaching you indoors depends a lot on the transmission power of the tower and the obstacles the signal goes through before reaching you. But it is a known fact that at higher frequencies, obstacles have a more pronounced effect on signals. This effect can be compensated by adding more towers which is why you can have the resulting coverage area to be the same on either frequency.

About battery life, there's really no significant difference between a phone operating at one frequency or another. However, power output while on a call is probably what makes the most difference in battery life. If you are constantly in a weak area, your phone is forced to transmit with more power which makes your battery die quicker.

Sound clarity depends a lot on the vocoder used by the network and the quality of the phones used on each end. It has nothing to do with the frequency band used.

About why AT&T TDMA can be more reliable using less than 25Mhz of spectrum when T-Mobile/Cingular GSM has 40Mhz is simply a matter of quality of network build than anything else. If T-Mobile/Cingular spend enough money to bring their GSM network to a respectable quality, they can do better than AT&T. However, whoever has more money can spend more on their network, therefore making it better regardless of how much spectrum they have available. But it really makes no sense to me that T-Mobile/Cingular can have more spectrum than AT&T in NYC, and yet have more system busies when they have less customers than AT&T.

 

bobo, how do you know how many customers the carriers have in NYC? I'd be interested in that info.

 

Um...in General yes ATT has more Customers. In NYC.....I can find a random Tmobile dealer by pointing in a direction in Manhatan. There are more people selling Tmobile than there are Starbucks(and there are way too many of those as is.) I think in NYC the are a TON of Tmobile customers and the addition of Cingular hasn't made things any better. Some friends who have Tmobile have mentioned that quality of service with them has gotten worse (ie, more fast busy and network unavailable.) in the last couple of months. Makes sence to me.

 

Living in this area for almost 14 years I kinda know that by intuition. I don't have any numbers, but all indicators point in that direction. AT&T being one of the old Cellular 800Mhz carriers is one of the oldest in this area next to Verizon. Since the inception of Omnipoint, GSM was not popular until the creation of T-Mobile in this area. Nobody really wanted Voicestream or Omnipoint since in people's mouth you heard that was synonym of bad reception which is why the name change has helped them. AT&T, being a much older, and a cellular 800Mhz carrier, with it's much superior coverage has captured a great deal of business users and people in north NJ who needed dependable service. And let's not forget that the AT&T name has been a very strong brand, historically known to be synonym of quality, (although this year we know the story is totally different) . PCS carriers never had good coverage in northern NJ until Sprint decided to fix that after 2001. People hated Sprint until 2001 when they gave their coverage a huge boost that changed their whole image and their number of subscribers boomed in 2001. T-Mobile is just following Sprint's footsteps after they joined forces with Cingular. So it is just a matter of connecting the dots to see that AT&T has more customers. T-Mobile is growing faster, but I am sure you know that those who have more room to grow, because they are smaller, grow faster than those who are big already.

Based on the number of customers, this is how I classify them in this area:

1. Verizon
2. AT&T
3. Sprint
4. Nextel
5. T-Mobile
6. Cingular