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Cell Sites Vs tMobile

pwfb

Sep 6, 2007, 10:20 PM
I use VZW for Voice, and as they saying goes, you could not pry it out of my cold dead hand.

That said, I use tMobile for the Blackberry. Their customer service is excellent! That said, lately I am having service issues, even in major metro (Northern VA/DC, NJ, NYC, etc.) areas.

Does anyone know how many cell sites AT&T has in the US compared to tMobile?

Also, how is AT&T's international service, especially with data?
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RUFF1415

Sep 7, 2007, 8:28 AM
I'm not sure of an estimate for T-Mobile's cell site count, but you can rest assured that it is nowhere near as many as AT&T owns.

AT&T owns and operates the most cellular sites out of any carrier in the U.S. Last time I checked it was something like 52,000+ and that was before recent acquisitions.
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wombough

Sep 7, 2007, 9:09 AM
hmm thought sprint owned the most.
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jrfdsf

Sep 7, 2007, 4:40 PM
If you add the Nextel and Sprint sites together, they do, unfortunately, the only devices currently capable of utilizing both towers are the hybrid phones. If you are in an iDEN only coverage area, all you can do is use the PTT (except for 911).

BTW, read your profile (by accident), thanks for keeping America free! 🙂
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wombough

Sep 7, 2007, 11:28 PM
That is what I meant as a company because they are one now. And sprint put allot of cdma transmitters on iden and the other way around. So most iden towers has cdma and most cdma has iden. But not all. (And thank you for your comment! I have to change my location in feb to Iraq.)
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jrfdsf

Sep 8, 2007, 11:19 AM
Yes. I think someone said the overlap is at about 80% now, and I think their total tower count is well above the 52000 of AT&T.

BTW, we may not always agree on these forums, but agreement sometimes is overrated. I think it's far better to be a stand-up kind of person than to always be right (which none of us ever are, anyway).

I will be keeping you in my prayers as you go over to Iraq. Thanks again for putting your neck on the line for our country. It makes me sick to hear all the negativity surrounding our military these days. I think we have the greatest military both in terms of strength and character this world has ever known.
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jayinwny

Sep 29, 2007, 12:59 PM
Amen to that brother...amen. God's speed home my friend...be safe
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wombough

Sep 30, 2007, 4:31 AM
don't know how I missed that. Thank you.
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plmassey

Oct 2, 2007, 9:24 PM
I want to add my prayers also. God Bless!!!!!!!!!
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kbdabraham

Sep 12, 2007, 10:30 PM
God bless you my friend!! Hope to hear back from you when your tour of over.. Thanks for your hard work.
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WM6user

Sep 7, 2007, 8:51 AM
It's funny that I [as a person that has at&t and T-Mobile] can hold both of my phones up; and at times My T-Mobile phone will have all bars, while the at&t phone has little-to-no bars.
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Gustav26

Sep 7, 2007, 10:06 AM
Yes it is very funny and the reverse is also true. At least in the areas which I have traveled. Though I have noticed one very huge selling point for me, TMOs reception is much better inside buildings. This is strange because they operate on the 1900Mhz band and ATT says they also use the 850 (800)Mhz which is supposed to be the better of the bands for building penetration. This is not the case. Now I say that this is a huge selling point because I don't know about you but the way I work I am in buildings most of the time and without use of my cell I couldn't conduct my business and with out that I couldn't make money so the cell company can take it from me.
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WM6user

Sep 7, 2007, 4:22 PM
It can be reverse too, but my T-Mobile is usually sronger than at&t.
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pwfb

Sep 10, 2007, 8:28 PM
Well after a "bad" week of experiences in Northern VA with the Blackerry on tMobile last week, that was the final straw.

I picked up a curve with AT&T this weekend. According to their coverage locater, my home should be in their "best" coverage area, yet, the phone never gets over 3 bars and making calls is "iffy" at best. A friend with a non Blackberry came over, had 3G, but similar signal and call issues.

I will keep AT&T and the Curve. When I am home, the phone/email is less of an issue than when I travel, besides, I mainly use my VZW phone for calls anyway.

Still holding on to that tMobile bberry and number...just in case though ;-)
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nextel18

Sep 10, 2007, 9:06 PM
Not sure if anyone answered your questions.
I will take the tower question; AT&T has 56,000 and T-mobile has 36,400.
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nextel18

Sep 10, 2007, 9:41 PM
I am getting some conflicting reports about Cingular’s towers. they tend to hide their tower numbers, but more importantly, some of these are towers being de-commissioned. I think I would be more comfortable in saying 50k total towers for Cingular. (It could also be closer to 45k.)

T-mobile’s towers at 36,400 is correct.
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nextel18

Sep 10, 2007, 9:43 PM
See https://www.phonescoop.com/carriers/forum.php ?fm=m&ff=4&fi=1369478

"I think I would be more comfortable in saying 50k total towers for Cingular. (It could also be closer to 45k.)

T-mobile’s towers at 36,400 is correct."
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texaswireless

Sep 10, 2007, 9:18 PM
If you use a Blackberry AT&T has an international BB plan for $69.99 per month.
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Pictor

Sep 11, 2007, 7:13 AM
From my experience, where TMobile has coverage that coverage is MUCH better than ATT (Fewer dropped calls). International, TMobile is also much better (and cheaper) for voice or data vs. ATT but it depends on where you are going.
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nextel18

Sep 11, 2007, 6:02 PM
Globally T-mobile may be better but the talk is about domestically and they are not there yet to compare themselves against Cingular.
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pwfb

Sep 17, 2007, 7:34 PM
For what its worth, I have had Blackberry service with AT&T for about a week. A few thoughts;

1) I am glad that I did not port my tMobile number.

2) I am not sure why, but my tMobile blackberry worked in places that AT&T does not, especially in buildings.

3) For the largest provider, I have been surprised how many dead spots and/or GSM (versus Edge) areas I have encountered.

I like the Curve a lot, but, I just can't see me lasting the 30 days with AT&T. I know that tMobile is getting the Cure also, but I am starting to think the 'ole 8700 works, stick with it.
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q5ypdg9

Sep 18, 2007, 12:51 AM
Check out this site:
http://www.atttowers.com/towers/welcome.do »

Registration required to review tower location data.
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Copper Emeritus

Sep 18, 2007, 11:34 AM
I didn't register, but I noticed that to E-Mail that site the address is towers@cingular.com. What's wrong with that picture???
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joenash

Sep 18, 2007, 9:40 PM
Does anybody know how far a cell tower or cite is good for? 5miles 10 miles, curious cause you can check out where the cell towers are with this website, there are some in my area but they are kind of far, just curious?
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wombough

Sep 18, 2007, 10:02 PM
2 to 3 miles are ideal. They can go farther but most are located 2 to 3 miles from each other depending on terrian.
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joenash

Sep 18, 2007, 10:13 PM
then there must be more towers than they claim, cause they show on the coverage map you have good coverage in a lot of areas, but when you go to that towers site of at&t's it does not seam like they have a lot of towers. I live in Glendale, Az, and they show only 6 towers? must be more than that you think?
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wombough

Sep 18, 2007, 10:16 PM
Let me clarify. Its 3 mile raduis. So with that said they will be in around 6 miles of each. Sorry I wasnt' thinking. If you look on like sprints map you can see were their towers are just by what signal you are expected to get. Tmob has the same type of maps. And most tower sites that show were they are are always wrong sinc ethey put them up so fast its hard to keep track. I mean look at it then drive around and see how many you see.
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joenash

Sep 18, 2007, 10:43 PM
Yes you see a lot. But you do not know who's company they belong to, they all look alike. Sometimes I am right by one at a stoplight in my car, I look at the phone and see 2 or 3 bars, then I go down the road a bit and the signal if full. so I guess that is not a cell tower my phone is using. Just curious a 3 mile radius from the tower or from each antenna, it looks like their are many antenna on each tower. ?? they usually look like a triangle with about 6 antenna 2 facing each way of the triangle. ??
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wombough

Sep 18, 2007, 10:56 PM
well jsut because you see one does not mean it is your carrier's. Some have multiple carriers on it as if you see some on the top little further down you see more and rarly but sometimes you will see a 3rd set. Yes they all around it as it needs to provide a 360 degree coverage from the tower. I don't think CDMA and GSM can coexist on one tower.
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nextel18

Sep 19, 2007, 6:04 AM
There is really know way of knowing if that tower that you see is actually for your carrier other than looking at the technical data. Remember bars mean really nothing in this industry and there is a misconception in the marketplace when it comes to that. With one bar you could still make calls (also have calls dropped) and with five or four (the most) you can make calls and drop calls.
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joenash

Sep 19, 2007, 11:23 PM
yeah every time a phone I have had dropped a call it was when it showed full signal
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nextel18

Sep 20, 2007, 6:08 AM
Exactly. Exactly. Those most signal bar commercials are ridiculous.
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Icyhot

Sep 19, 2007, 3:32 AM
Supposedly, and Rich or Eric can correct me if I am wrong, but the old TDMA towers were good for about a 10 mile radius, whereas GSM towers are good for about 25 miles.
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wombough

Sep 19, 2007, 4:09 AM
The FCC limits the power. And with the handhelds now they do not transmit enough to reach the tower if it was 25 miles away. In beaufort sc there are 10 att towers and beaufort is not 25 miles big. Also even if they could that one tower could not handle the amount of calls that all the people within 25 miles would initiate. And GSM differs from CDMA on this. GSM you won't be able to call at all or get a droped call after a certain amount of calls on one tower. CDMA the call quality will degrade until you get a droped call.
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wombough

Sep 19, 2007, 4:10 AM
one more thing there is no sense for a tower to transmit any farther then a handheld can. Say a tower can transmit 10 or 25 miles. And a phone can only 3 or 4 miles what good is that tower doing for anyone further then what the phone is able to transmit.
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Icyhot

Sep 19, 2007, 4:20 AM
Towers are not 3-4 miles apart. I would really like Rich to chime in on this. Or someone who works in the field testing arena.
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wombough

Sep 19, 2007, 4:25 AM
just do a search on it. They limit the towers range for many reasons. One low transmitters in phones. Two capacity on a cell towers. They are only able to handle about 100 calls at a time. Can you imagine how many calls they would get if they were 10 miles apart. A 3 watt bag phone had a decent range. A .3 watt handheld phone does not have the range. In some areas like NYC they even point the antennas downward to limit the range even further. NYC probable has as many towers as the whole state of Vermont due to the amount of people!
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Icyhot

Sep 19, 2007, 4:30 AM
I think handhelds are .6 watts
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wombough

Sep 19, 2007, 4:34 AM
I think your right. I am not saying the tower can't transmit 10 mile. And handhelds are capable of 6 to 8 miles. But that is with nothign in between. No any other place like that besides the desert? Not many. Like I said it depends on population and the area it is deployed in!
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nextel18

Sep 19, 2007, 6:07 AM
The towers may go up to 25 miles but it is limited by many factors. FCC first, device second and spectrum band third.
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nextel18

Sep 19, 2007, 6:01 AM
It really depends on spectrum size and what band but it could be up to 10 miles. It would probably be 3-5 miles. Obviously, in the 1.9 GHz it is around up to 3 miles.
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gbr1ryder

Sep 30, 2007, 10:36 PM
q5ypdg9 said:
Check out this site:
http://www.atttowers.com/towers/welcome.do »

Registration required to review tower location data.


Whoa this is a great site, but when you search California they give 120 pages of towers with 10 sites on each page. that's 1200 towers in CA only? this must not be every tower ATT has...
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fyrmedic02

Oct 1, 2007, 4:25 PM
It doesn't have them all listed. I've noticed several that aren't for three foothill counties I work in.
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