I live in California and have Cingular and am using GSM and my reception is really bad. T-mobile and Verizon customers have better reception. My boyfriend has Cingular but he's using TDMA and his reception is really bad too but it's better than mine. Maybe it's my phone or the area I am in.

We've had TDMA since 2001, and GSM since 11-2004. Both work most everywhere we've used them, and continue to do so. I do take the TDMA deep into the Sierra's as it will grab an analog signal from the top of most mountains. GSM just won't work in these area's. When Cingular kills the TDMA, we'll get a Verizon tri-mode phone as a backup (if they've got Nokia's) or activate our old Verizon phone we had b4 going to Cingular.

Our GSM usage is primarily Sacramento & San Mateo counties; our TDMA usage is Sacramento county or when we can't call internationally on our GSM, which is a story unto itself. Sometimes when using GSM, we get ring-no answer, but the called party gets no ringing at all. We use the TDMA phone and both parties hear ringing ...
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the gsm coverage in Los Angeles is fine... never had a problem, never had a problem in San Jose or San Luis Obispo areas either... Don't know about tdma though

I hvae GSm service in the Sacramento area...its awesome here.....I think MAYBE 1 dropped call.....but it was to my brother who has Verizon..... I blame his phone dropping. I get better reception than he does. The phones make a HUGE difference.