AT&T To Begin Un-branding Cingular Monday

Since VZW's network integration had happened quite a while ago, they probably have hammered out all the issues. That being said, there is no guarantee that you will not have any issues at all. It all depends on what the network coverage in your area is like. If others using VZW for data in your area have had pretty good experiences, it's probably safe to assume that the switch will be worthwhile.

I believe they have like a 15 day return policy before you are chained to your contract. You might want to try it out yourself.

Thanks for the response. What do you know about the penetration (i.e. through building and walls) of CDMA vs TDMA signals? Does VZW penetrate better thank Cingular/AT&T? And what is keeping VZW from going to TDMA/GSM? If they decided to, how much work is required? And what is the probability in terms of percent that VZW will go to TDMA/GSM?

well, TDMA, for the most part, is all but dead and burried (some rural carriers still use it), so you don't have to worry about that part of the equation at all... its either CDMA or GSM now. Both have their pros and cons, and while trying to decide which is better in a building, it all depends on what the building is made of, and how close you are to a tower.

The thing that is keeping VZW from going to GSM is the fact that CDMA is considered, by some, to be a more relaiable technology (tried and true). VZW will never switch to GSM, although they put capabilities in some of their higher end phones for roaming abroad, due to the fact that CDMA is a more localized technology set.

If they wanted to switch to GSM, they would have to fi...
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I like your ending... So what your saying is.... There is still a chance for the switch to GSM! 😁
Thanks for the info. The thing that is killing me is the customer service at Cingular... It is horrible at best. No offense to you (not sure if you still work there).

there is no chance at all that verizon will switch to gsm, they never will, it would be a complete waste of money and time, they spent billions of dollars and years on building their CDMA network, and they are now upgrading areas to EVDO, and upgrading their EVDO areas to EVDO rev.a. im in no way bashing gsm,
im just stating that verizon is cdma thru and thru, i actually use cingular and my service has been good(some days were horrendous) and i have no problem with their customer service, i barely call customer service.

From what I understand, TDMA was not a technological precursor to GSM... as in, GSM was not built on top of TDMA, but rather in its place. A carrier would not build TDMA in order to implement GSM.

Keeping in line with the broader topic, doesn't frequency have more to do with building penetration than handset protocol (CDMA/GSM)?

Thx

The data protocols for GSM and TDMA are what allows for TDMA to act as a precursor to GSM

Also, the frequency does play a big part in it, but it deals more with what the building is actually made of (steel beam construction, vs concreet)

What is Data Protocol?
Slightly tedious read but interesting.

Hope the link works.
http://www.3gamericas.org/pdfs/positioning_vendors.pdf »

I love wireless network technology. Where will it be in another 10 years!?

Orl, FL

TDMA is not a precursor to GSM. In fact, GSM is a TDMA tehnology. TDMA stands for Time Division Multiple Access where the spectrum used by calls is divided up into time slots. "TDMA" as was used in the US is TDMA with slightly differnt standards than GSM. However, since the air interfaces are almost identical it made more sense for US "TDMA" carriers to switch to GSM. CDMA (code division multiple access) allows multiple calls on one frequency carrier by dividing them into pieces identified by a code. This allows for more efficient use of the spectrum compared to TDMA and GSM but it is also very different. Thus it made more sense for CDMA carriers to stick with CDMA since a switch would have more complicated and would also have required a com...
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Thanks babydoc.

Happily, it is a moot point. I never liked TDMA.

Orlando - FL

1. The technology itself is not going to determining factor on how well signals penetrate through buildings, walls, etc... This is more related to the frequency of the signal. Higher frequency signals (ie. 1.9Mhz the PCS band) tend to penetrate walls and other obstacles better. That is why you see more phones with internal antennas on Sprint and Cingular handsets (which at least until recently used the PCS band as it's primary frequency). Furthermore, the strength of the signal itself will also affect performance. If you have a strong signal where you are, it's really not going to matter. To make matters worse, wireless signals are a lot like voodoo magic and there are tons of other factors that will affect your signals.

2. VZW has ...
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Actually, the higher the frequency, the worse the propogation characteristics. Higher bands such as PCS 1.9Ghz (1900 Mhz) have a difficult time penetrating buildings and are more "line if site" than say, the cellular bandwidth (800-850 Mhz). Take as an example a cordless phone. My first phone was 900 Mhz and it never had a problem anywhere in my house. Starting with 2.4 Ghz I started losing coverage and the 5.8 Ghz models perform the worst. Higher frequencies require more amplitude (power) to achieve the same coverage areas as lower frequencies.
2.) CDMA is internationally more widespread than many people think. Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Israel, Autralia, New Zealand just to name a few. It doesn't compare with GSM though. GSM is ...
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Japan's CDMA is actually WCDMA, which is in the GSM family of technologies. Cingular is currently implementing HSDPA, the successor to UMTS. UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA are all WCDMA.

Verizon uses CDMA2000 family of technologies.

CDMA2000 and WCDMA are not compatible.

There is more than one carrier in Japan. NTT DoCoMo is using W-CDMA. I agree that this version of CDMA is not compatable with CDMA 2000. I never said it was. KDDI uses CDMA 2000. How do I know this? KDDI subscribers can roam on the VZW footprint. So I reiterate my previous statement that Japan is a country that has an extensive W-CDMA and CDMA 2000 footprint.
I find it amusing that former GSM carriers don't like to admit that they are switching to CDMA technology, all be it one incompatable with CDMA 2000. This is why they use the term UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, OFDM etc....No matter how you slice it, they are no longer using the staple technology that defined the GSM standard. In one to two years, GSM will be CDMA no matter how many new acronyms ...
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I'm not disputing the fact that GSM carriers are implementing a version of CDMA, I just want to be sure everyone understands that GSM carriers are implementing Wideband CDMA, which is newer and often thought of as being technologically advanced to CDMA2000. It's just like saying that TDMA IS-96 and GSM are the same TDMA. They are not, although they are based on time division multiple access principles.

Michael77 said:
Thanks for the response. What do you know about the penetration (i.e. through building and walls) of CDMA vs TDMA signals? Does VZW penetrate better thank Cingular/AT&T?

I had heard that CDMA has more of a problem in places with a lot of fluorescent lighting. Not sure if that is an urban legend or fact. It fits with my experience. I switched from VZW to Cingy and now get better reception in my office. OTOH, it could be that Cingy has a tower in a better positioned for my office.

Fluorescent light interferance is urban legend. You got it right with the tower outside your office making the difference though.