Greetings - I have VZW service but am considering switch to GSM carrier. T Mob seems to be the least toxic of the carriers perhaps, and GSM to me just sounds alot better, and is a suitable substitute for wireline replacement, which I'm considering. I've read where T Mob is sharing on 850 band with I guess Cing. Is this true ? If so, I'd think the coverage may be acceptable. Steve / York, PA
I'm not sure but I thought T Mobile was 1900 only. You'll probably have better coverage w/ Cingular. Anyone else's thoughts?
Well, yes,....that's what I thought. By virtue of them being a PCS carrier, and I thought T Mob was only licensed for 1900 But, I have read several places where they share 850, to the point where those suggesting this, recommend getting a phone that covers 1900 and 850 at least, to allow this to happen. And, I do see on T Mob site where some of their phones do cover these bands. Seems to make sense, but I don't know if it's true. :loony: p.s. - my main concern w/Cing is that they seem to be having a high incidence of complaint regarding dropped calls. I exp. this recently while in NJ wiht friends on Cing. 2 or 3 bars of sig. calls repeatedly dropping. Very annoying.
I would seriously consider getting an 850/1900 phone, but you won't be using the 850 in south central PA. I have some contacts in that area, and after a few years of relative stability in the network, TM is resuming a rather large expansion in that area. They added 8 cell sites in July, and have on track another 30+ in the next 6 months. There are lots of rumors about TM 850 roaming, and there is official 850 roaming in MN and the UP of MI. However, it is in areas where TM does not provide service - it is not used as filler.
I really haven't experienced any dropped calls in the Northern Virginia area, Maybe this is a local network issue? We're kinda overkilled here as far as coverage because Cingular & AT&T both had pretty good native netowrks here so we have been somewhat "overbuilt" since the merger.
I did a thread a few weeks ago about GSM and CDM sound, please check it out, if you like. I find that GSM sound is flat; and true CDMA can be robotic, depending on the Vocoder and other factors. I have been on calls coming from a GSM phone where the conversation falls apart. Of course a lot depends on the phone. I have been thinking about switching too. Building penetration is another consideration for 1900. Its a toss up
HI Matt: I recall talking with you here several yrs ago. Yes, we;ve been adding ckts / T1 lines / T3's (I work for VZN ntwk in York, PA.) regularly. They're running all their stuff from the Ephrata / D&E switch, on fiber optics through PP&L, through our York Main C.O. - lots of activity. It's been a long time since I can recall adding a T1 ckt or anything, for a VZW site. I was in South Jersey 3 weeks ago, and around people who had both Cing and T Mob. Their coverage seemed identical, although the Cing people had high incidence of dropped calls, even with apparently good RF. So, here I am again,....contract about to expire - - after another slam deal by VZW locking me into a 2 yr contract,....man that P's me off......thinking that GSM is calling. I love the long battery life and the more realistic sound quality. ALthough, and maybe it's my imagination, VZW seems to have gotten ever so slighty better. Steve York, PA.
Jerro: Where is the thread ? Well, I had cheapo Nokia 3595 when Cing was just firing up GSM several yrs ago. Took it back in 12 days ONLY due to coverage issues. Sound quality I thought, was great, people generally didn;t know it was a wireless phone, and that's a low end phone.
The T-Mobile/Cingular "sharing", in the past, (not anymore) was never on the 850 Mhz band, anyway. If you want all that native and roaming 850 Mhz GSM coverage, go with Cingular. The issue with poor Cingular GSM coverage in the Philly area (due to control channels being put on 1900 Mhz only), has long since been corrected. Cingular's 850 Mhz GSM around Philly, and the former AWS 850 Mhz in the rest of PA, should be excellent.
I remember our conversations from before. IIRC you were AT&T TDMA at the time? Maybe not. As you've noted TM is busy up there. Check the coverage at the TM website - they have a street-level mapping option. None of the new sites from July are on there though ( know where a couple of them are in Lancaster Co.) and I know of a few others that were being worked on last week.
There are some area's that T-Mobile has been testing using 850 Roaming in different parts of the country within the last year, some are with Cingular, some are with Dobson, there is a thread on these forums about it. As for Cingular still using T-Mobile, I think in some area's like here in the NY/NJ area they still do use the T-Mobile network if there is no Blue network available, just Blue customers can't roam onto the T-Mobile network. I guess it all comes down to the area's of the country where coverage between the 2 networks (except in the NY/north NJ & CA area's) is good enough that Cingular doesn't feel the need to roam on T-Mobiles network.
Actually Cing TDMA, to GSM for 12 days, to VZN Oh, and I love that street level map thing. Probably the most honest of any company.
I'm a long term T-Mobile customer who has lived in York PA for almost 2 years. I have been nothing but frustrated. I don't have enough signal strength to use the phone while sitting at my desk in my office, and calls drop out constantly when I'm on the road. Signal strength seems to have gotten a wee bit better lately, but it's still spotty. I can't say anything about Cingular. I've never used them. I'm considering switching to Cingular, however, because I want a Treo 650. T-mobile's reluctance to adopt the Treo may be the thing that finally causes me to divorce them.
Well you need to read PA Dutchman's post at the top of this thread - he can confirm what I posted about T-Mobile doing a significant network expansion in the central PA (former PCS One) area. I travel to the area frequently, and while it's not perfect (and not as good as northen Virginia) I really don't have problems. The topography permits the signals to travel much further than here in DC metro area.
Um, I DID read his post. I made my comment about improved coverage to confirm that efforts to beef up the network are working - a little bit. Signal strength in many places is STILL unacceptable however. I did much better with T-Mobile in NYC.
Where are you seeing problems? I'll check and see if I can get an idea of the location of the 30+ towers for this year. I know of a few in Lancaster and Lebanon counties because I've asked about them, but I haven't asked about York county. The new towers, if placed correctly, should see a significant improvement. Jones, unfortunately for our Cingular cheerleaders, the solution to T-Mobile's problems isn't always to sign a roaming agreement with Cingular.
Agreed, and that goes for any carrier. If they just dedicate the time & money to properly build more towers, then they can have the coverage they need instead of giving the money to another carrier. That's why Cingular is trying to eliminate the roaming with T-Mobile in the NY/NJ area, in the long run it will serve them well to kinda be forced to build a better network.
It's true, I've seen alot of network activity regarding T Mob and how they are handling their traffic through our local York area, VZN network. Some of this is network re-arrangement (usually to save money) and some appears to be adding stuff for more capacity. I'm sure there are some new sites going in too. As far as your phone not working well in your office / building, well, that seems to be the big tradeoff with any carrier (Sprint too) running on 1900 MHZ band. The up side at least with T Mob is their competitive rate structure.
That does make sense, and, I believe that is also generally what the FCC expected and perhaps even required(s) of PCS carriers. Cellular had a different set of playing rules....serve an "area" and PCS is serve the population. I think by design, PCS was seen as perhaps ultimately, the replacement to the land line.
A guy I know I think, has the TREO 650 and is def. on T Mob It is a sweet device. Did they used to sell this ? How about getting one on e-bay or something ?
Yeah, it will work, but I will pay 3 times as much for the phone. On the upside, I won't have to pay $20 more every month for unlimited PDA data service. So it's a wash after 2 years. I have two options, (well - 3 if you include "upgrading" to a TREO 600) and they all suck.
I have found unlocked GSM TREO 650s on ebay but they are all Cingular branded. That means that if the phone turns out to be a lemon I can only return it to Cingular. If I'm not a Cingular customer, I don't think they will replace a phone I bought from a 3rd party. I can't take that chance.
You know where my calls ALWAYS drop out? Right in front of the T-Mobile store on North George St. and Route 30. Funny, huh? Amen to their competitive rate structure. That's the one reason I'm reluctant to switch carriers.
Actually you would only be able to resell it on Ebay, and the key is to make sure it's an Unlocked version, otherwise your SIM won't work in it till you unlocked it. Since Cingular didn't sell the phone to you, they wouldn't take it back.