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what carrier best for GSM phone in the US?

scp

Nov 8, 2005, 10:22 AM
I really want to buy this phone, the SE w800, but i dont know what carrier would give me the best service. the guy at the sony store said that i could use nextel (which i think is BS), cingular, t-mobile or verizon i think. i have nextel and i'm pretty sure that it only uses 850 so thats gotta be wrong. i talked to the cingular guy and he said that i shouldnt sign w/ them b/c the phone doesnt support 800 frequency. the t-mobile guy said i could do it through them and have good service but i know they work off commission so i'm a little hesitant to trust them. verizon is a good carrier here. probably has the most consistant service or so i'm told. they are expensive though.
i'm a little confused about all this. if the phone supports GSM 900...
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 10:49 AM
nextel isnt gsm...

i think cingular is the best in the united states.. (not tmobile)

verizon and sprint arent gsm either.
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scp

Nov 8, 2005, 11:02 AM
thank you. any reason why they are better then t-mobile?
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 11:07 AM
I just think in my opinion that Cingular is better then tmobile because cingular is just a bigger company with bigger pops and more customers then tmobile. Remember, you do have those 15 and 30 day trials so you could always see which one is better. I just think because cingular has already established themselves and grown by buying out att wireless and increasing their tower positions that they are better then tmobile. Tmobile has been doing quite well with sub growth while cingular has been declining. I think perhaps you should wait when the integration will be completed before you even attempt to get cingular, but remember, tmobile doesn’t have this integration so you could try them first.
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scp

Nov 8, 2005, 11:51 AM
that makes sense. i could try them out prepaid too. wel tmobile i could, not sure if cingular has that. whats this integration you speak of?
i dont mind waiting, i was planning on waiting untill january to do this anyway. sprint/nextel renewed my contract without telling me so i'm kinda stuck with them for a while, plus i think the price of that phone is gonna drop at the beginning of next year so plus everyone knows i've been lookin at it maybe i'll get it for x-mass who knows?
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 12:12 PM
Just trying to say some things that can help you determine your future carrier and giving you options. 🙂

That is why there are trial policies for one to try out to see if it fits your needs.

Well, not sure, if you remember but cingular bought out att wireless and they have been in the process of the integration of the networks to combine them into one. Whenever you have integration, you have to be worried about capacity, coverage and decommissioning of cell towers, which impacts coverage in those markets. I would wait until it will be completed until you go to cingular because customers I have been talking to that have cingular have had problems, I also had problems when I had them, with them.

They renewed your contract without ...
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scp

Nov 8, 2005, 6:55 PM
thanks for that generous reply 🙂
the phone i want is a SE w800i. its gotta be the best phone/camera/mp3 player i've seen, although the nokia n80 might be up there as well, not sure tho, its not out yet. i'm hoping that the n80 wil drive the price of my phone down a little. i wonder how the reception is going to be on the w800 though. i havent heard any complaints about it and i've read lots of reviews.

yeah i got a new rate plan, but i asked the lady on the phone "does this renew my old contract?" and she said "i dont think so." sigh. i should've known that really meant "no but, now you're bound to a new one" but i also didn't know i was going to want to change carriers a couple months later, so i really didnt care. blah. i'm s...
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colione112

Dec 16, 2005, 12:55 AM
Alot of the markets are done, but as always, there are some stragglers.

Problems customers have had, have deminished quite a bit. People were dropping calls (due to tower handoffs when it involved a cingular-att tower, or vice versa) this has largely been fixed with the newer sim cards.

Other than that, I'd agree with him, use the trial periods with each carrier to see which one would fit you best.

Cingular doesn't make you sign a new contract (or an extension) if you change your plan.. not sure about tmobile on that front.

Cingular has T-mobile beat hands down with the coverage aspect, so it really depends where your going to be when you use your phone.
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sigmamason

Nov 8, 2005, 12:12 PM
Cingular is in the process of new tower integration, integrating the old ATT network into the Cingular newtwork, adding UMTS (High Speed Data/Video Services) to their Edge network, revamping their customer service dept and upgrading their stores.
While on paper it looks massive, in reality, it is just time consuming.
Cingular has also cut back their advertising budget until they feel comfortable that they are able to deliver better services for the dollar.
As a Cingular customer, I can attest to the fact that there have been problems, but I was on Verizon when that company was formed and they had just as many if not more problems with building out their network. Difference is that you now have internet experts that point every flaw and w...
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 12:15 PM
well said. 🙂

those trials are there to help consumers not to hurt.
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Wireless Consultant

Nov 8, 2005, 2:04 PM
The phone will work better on T-Mobile because of the 1900 frequency.

Cingular is 850/1900 but the phones work best with reception when the have both frequencies.

I unlock phones and put on the various carriers. When we unlock a phone with only the 1900 and not the 850 for Cingular they have less reception.


http://www.wirelessconsultant.net »
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 2:07 PM
well 1.9ghz is a horrible frequency for penetrating buildings... so tmobile wouldnt be the choice here, but cingular will becuase as you mention the 850/1900 when they have both freqs...
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Wireless Consultant

Nov 8, 2005, 2:13 PM
But the phone he wants or has does not have the 850 in it.
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 2:19 PM
yea, that is true...

i just meant to tell him that cingular is the best gsm carrier here becuase of the things i mentioned, but duly noted.
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mrcamp

Nov 8, 2005, 3:26 PM
Since it seems like the phone you plan on using has only the 1900 of the 2 bands (850/1900) used in the US, you are better with tmobile. Tmobile is a 1900 ONLY network. Using a 1900 only phone on Cingular will only give you partial coverage of Cingular’s potental coverage. You might get a way with a 1900 only phone on cingular in a few cities though. The bottom line is: Go with tmobile if you have a 1900 ONLY phone.
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nextel18

Nov 8, 2005, 3:29 PM
yea, very true... but 1.9ghz has tons of problems with in-building and coverage so that is why i hinted to go with cingular and help from another forum member who said if they were going to do 850/1900 it would be better...

🙂

tell your post to scp becuase i am not the one who started this thread.
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stevelvl

Nov 8, 2005, 8:55 PM
Actually t-mob is singing a lot of new roaming agreements that are in the 850 mhz bandwidth. this means that even with t-mob you will not get good reception.

my recomendation DO NO GET THAT PHONE!!!

if you get a phone that only does 1900 mhz you are cutting your reception in half! with tmob you would get ok local reception but when you travel it would greatly decrease your coverage. if you were to go with cing for get about makeing a call any where cing has very little 1900 mhz coverage they are prodominately 1900 mhz.

in the us it is stupid to buy any phone that only does 1900 mhz. do your self a favor and do not buy this phone.

I love sprint and would recomend it to any one but if you choose to go gsm atleast do your self a ...
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