If you use Cingular and have not been screwed yet, you will be soon

[Jim]

A couple of things to mention about Cingular after being on the phone with them for almost 3 hours yesterday.

First, let me take you back a year when AT&T really merged with Cingular. On that day, the reception we received was like waking up Christmas morning. Spots were we never had coverage now worked.

Take it to about the last week of this January. All of a sudden, my phone, my wife's phone and 3 of my children's phones stopped working very well. Either the calls just didn't go through or, they dropped. Notice, the middle of January was when the AT&T/Cingular merge was all over the news, commercials...etc. Coincidence????

I called Cingular support and was told that AT&T flooded Cingular's network and everything would be worked out soon. After 2 more weeks, I called again. Cingular's CS actually mentioned during conversation that as long as they leave Verizon alone, it's ok that they are working toward a monopoly. Anyway, he also told me that they had to upgrade our sim cards and within 24 hours we should see everything back to normal. Nothing improved...

Yesterday, being a little more pushy than usual, I spoke to a supervisor. It seems that while Cingular was just Cingular, they were allowed and did lease space on other carriers towers. As part of the merge, part of the deal is that they can no longer lease space and the other providers really have no intention of helping AT&T putting them out of business. This is not happening all at once. Slowly but surely, cell towers that once worked with Cingular will stop working. If you are in or around a major city, this probably won't be a problem. If not, you will probably have this happen to you.

Next, have you gotten text spam on your Cingular phone? If you don't have text messaging enabled on your account, you have the privilege of paying $.10 for each and every text spam you get. If you have text messaging enabled, the spam is counted as one of your messages on your plan. It is only free if the title of the spam is "Cingular Free". Cingular is in court with one spammer at a time but, will it stop? Is there anything you can do with email spam? The answer to both is no. I told the supervisor the only answer will be for Cingular to offer unlimited free text messaging to everyone. Imagine having to pay $.10 for every email spam you receive. The Cingular spammers can send for free. Just go to Cingular, put in the number and spam away. I'm sure there is a simple piece of software that will just put in random Cingular numbers and send to mass numbers at a time.

Anyway, I am now looking for another service that uses the same sim cards where we actually get service.

[Cleo]

I'm very happy with T-Mobile and yes they use a SIM card. I switched to T-Mobile just because they used a SIM card as I like to buy unlocked phones like the Sony Ericsson K750i that I've been using for almost a year now but did have to replace recently after dropping it one too many times.

I find the iPhone that Apple is coming out with really interesting but really am not very thrilled about having to switch to ATT for it plus a few other things about it.

[Jim]

Cleo, somewhere, someplace, they will offer an unlocked version of the Apple phone.

[Toby]

I've been a Cingular customer for several years, have had no issues, but then as you noted, I'm located in a BIG city.

[DistantD]

I'm still baffled by all this Cingular/AT&T marketing. I was an AT&T customer for 4 years, then 2 years ago they made me switch to Cingular when supposedly AT&T became the new Cingular.
And now its another switch back?? Seems rather odd that they keep doing this...
I just hope they don't make us "switch" to AT&T, as I recall a nightmarish experience with having to get new Sim cards and being told I need to "buy" a new phone.
Perhaps it is time to switch to someone else!

[Jim]

Originally Posted by DistantD

I'm still baffled by all this Cingular/AT&T marketing. I was an AT&T customer for 4 years, then 2 years ago they made me switch to Cingular when supposedly AT&T became the new Cingular.
And now its another switch back?? Seems rather odd that they keep doing this...
I just hope they don't make us "switch" to AT&T, as I recall a nightmarish experience with having to get new Sim cards and being told I need to "buy" a new phone.
Perhaps it is time to switch to someone else!

They are the "New AT&T" right now. Call them and they answer the phone, "Cingular, The New AT&T". It's only a matter of time before the Cingular gets dropped completely.

The dropped leased towers are happening everyday. More and more people will see it happen as the days go by.

And on a note you would call nothing but odd. I just received a call from AT&T about purchasing some land I own. When I called, they said they were having problems from St Rt 168 to 90 (the thruway). After telling them I could throw a stone and hit the thruway (It's really about 1/2 mile away), I mentioned I owned land on St Rt 168 and would be more than willing to sell a parcel for a cell tower. I have a meeting with them Thursday.

[Jim]

One more thing...
Also as part of the merge, they had to get rid of their "in state free roam". Remember that next time you travel away from your zip code and your phone says roam. You are now paying for that when you didn't before.

[Greenguy]

All Around The World.....

[RedCherry]

Cingular butt fucked me and I hate them. We had Cingular for I don't know year and 1/2 or so. Then suddenly we could not talk more than 5 fucking minutes and our call was dropped. EVERY TIME. I would talk to my family, sure enough we had to keep calling each other back. I talked to I don't know how many people at Cingular...we weren't due for a phone upgrade, we'd have to PAY to fix their problem. blah blah

I had 2 months to go to the end of my contract, and I had enough and switched to T-Mobile which is great and I haven't had one dropped call since the switch.

We couldn't downgrade the service on Cingular, or we'd have to sign up for another year. So we ate the $300 early cancellation fee to get away from them. Can you tell they pissed me off?

I didn't know about the tower thing Jim, but that makes sense. I live in a rural area and we had great reception until oh around Thanksgiving I think last year, then all the dropped calls started. They must have had to give up some tower space in town.

I swear the day after we switched is when I started seeing the commercials about the "least dropped calls" I wanted to thow something at the TV every time I saw them or do this to cingular.

[docholly]

It's funny you should start this thread, Jim as i was going to come here and post for suggestions.

I've been tasked with finding new service for us. We now have Sprint which SUCKS big time..and i need to get wireless service again for my new laptop but i'm avoiding going to sprint because in order to sign up i have sign with them for 2 more years.

Our service is up at the end of june but i'm starting now looking for new service.

Soo i need comments and suggestions on the following companies..

TMobile
Cinqular/ATT
Verizon
Helio
Sprint

Anyone passionate pro/con?? why???

I do travel quite frequently .. so it needs to be something that's very urban and national.

Noted both Jim's and RC commentary on Cinqular and TMobile.

[bDok]

In regards to whatever you switch to... There are companies out there that will pay a little of your get out early contract to get credit for whatever cell provider you do switch to. Sorry I don't have URLS, but I saw it on a news report about companies that will do this. Just a heads up.

Cheers,
B

[Jim]

Things have changed since this morning. They put out a network ticket for our area yesterday. All of a sudden today, all of our phones started working better. Far from perfect but...good enough to wait on the switch.

And, I really don't want to screw up my chance to unload some land that only generates $40-50K/15 or so years. And, they are only talking about less than one acre of the 55 or 56 I own.

[Aquarius]

Originally Posted by Cleo

I'm very happy with T-Mobile and yes they use a SIM card. I switched to T-Mobile just because they used a SIM card as I like to buy unlocked phones like the Sony Ericsson K750i that I've been using for almost a year now but did have to replace recently after dropping it one too many times.

I use the same phone and I really like it. No Cingular for me since I live in Mexico.

[cd34]

last September or so, Cingular started shutting down the AT&T TMDA towers that overlapped their Cingular towers. The problem around here was that there were too many people for the number of towers they had left. Switching to Cingular's GSM service immediately fixed the problem.

It wasn't without its costs -- my monthly bill went up, I lost the unlimited SMS that I had, but, through some searching around, I was able to get a plan that costs me about $14/month more for the two phones that replicates what I had.

However, cellular networks in every area are different. I've had verizon and sprint in south florida and both were incredibly bad. In the three weeks that I tried those other two networks, I had more calls end up on voicemail than I had missed in a number of years due to the call never making it to my phone. TMobile down here also runs a GSM network that is fairly robust.

In Maryland, I had Bell Atlantic Mobile (later Verizon) and AT&T, and the call quality was about the same -- AT&T at the time had a plan that fit my needs.

Figure out what plan works, go down there and get a GSM phone. You have 30 days to return it if it doesn't work for you. You can do this with each network. Run around town, go about your normal business, make calls from it to make sure you get the best coverage you can. And make sure you get back a few days before that 30 day limit.

Verizon used to put their towers where demand dictated which gave them a less robust network. Cell One/McCaw Cellular used a company in DC that took the topographical maps, building height maps from the FAA, and determined what would be the optimal placement for cell antennas so that they could put the fewest towers up. Additionally, they added 80' to their antenna height which gave them a larger footprint. Coverage on Cell One versus Bell Atlantic Mobile was like night and day with BAMS having incredible call clarity.... until Cell One went digital.

Its all very environmental and depends on the strategy used by the local carrier when they put up the towers. Best advice, find local people in your area and find out what they are happiest with. Asking for data from people not in your calling area (short of plans and customer service experience) probably won't answer the questions you have.

[emmanuelle]

Weird about being charged for incoming text spam. Up here, nobody pays for incoming messages whatsover, just the ones sent.

And yes, it would be very easy to spam cell phones using an online sms client, like the one built into your icq/msn

[Linkster]

Ive used Cingular since day 1 - of course I do use the GSM - I pay for two phones with unlimited nationwide - never had a roaming charge in 4 years and Ive called around the country from all over the country
The text messaging costs me $4 a month for unlimited and incoming never had a charge - I also have bluetooth on it for free as well as web access - I can make my own ringtones and graphics from my own MP3s and jpgs , upload them anytime I want without buying a damned thing, and all together I think my bill monthly is around $75 for both phones - Ive never had a problem with signal/dropped calls and I live way out in the country. The only place I saw one of my phones not work was in one valley in Penn.
And most important is since I refuse to pay for MP3s at those ripoff music services like Itunes - I can use my phone as my MP3 player and use any of the MP3s I can fit on whatever memory card I install since it has the mini flash cards as well that hold Gigs of stuff
Should add - since any minutes I dont use roll over and I never use more than 4000 mins I always have some rollover (I think thats what the plan gives me)

[Jim]

You are lucky Linkster and I wish you luck in the future. Try searching cingular sucks in google. You will see a lot of stories like mine. I loved cingular until the middle of January and I have used them since they became cingular. The roaming charges started January. You might not have noticed it yet.

And, you only get charged for the text spam if you don't have text enabled. But, if you don't have text enabled, you can call them and tell them to stop all text messages.

[Linkster]

Jim - I just went and looked from Jan 1 till today and the only calls Ive been charged for is a total of $1.60 for 3 different calls to Spain - all the roaming calls are showing as no charge

[docholly]

Originally Posted by cd34

Best advice, find local people in your area and find out what they are happiest with. Asking for data from people not in your calling area (short of plans and customer service experience) probably won't answer the questions you have.

The main problem I have is that I'll be traveling about 2.5 weeks out of the month. When traveling internationally, I'll have a world phone that can beam off the satellilte but domestically i need something that everyone can use and still talk to each other whether in NYC, Vegas, Seattle, Atlanta or South Florida. Since most plans are bascially the same give or take a few features, what i'm really looking for is if ONE in particular stands out in service.

Sprint is terrible both in-store and on the phone. Going to the Sprint store is like 1 step up from the Drive-thru. And the CSRs on the phone are even less helpful as every other line out of their mouth is "but if you renew your contract for 2 more years" instead of answering the questions.

T-Mobile and Cingular were my at the top of my list until I read this thread, now I'm back to square 1 in trying to do this. I was with AT&T since the days of mobile phones were in a carry box but when I moved back to Vegas they really had very spotty service being pushed out by Sprint.

Thanks for the back story, Sparky, it really helps in knowing what i'm going into with this. If it was just me I would just go with anyone but I have like 2 other people on my service and about 8 to think of when considering who to go with. Right now with everyone on sprint, there are no extra charges.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Linkster

Jim - I just went and looked from Jan 1 till today and the only calls Ive been charged for is a total of $1.60 for 3 different calls to Spain - all the roaming calls are showing as no charge

Linkster, maybe your case is the same as my phone. I have 5 in total but my personal phone was setup back when Cingular offered unlimited service. I think that ended years and years ago but since that was my plan, it was Grandfathered in. I pay $49.95/month for my phone. Month after month the same. But, the other 4 phones combined fluxuate between $300 and $500/month.