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Largest Coverage Area.... THE TRUTH

giojonny

Jul 15, 2005, 11:42 AM
I am sick of hearing everyone fighting back and forth on who has the best coverage.... Verizon or Cingular. There are a lot of intelligent people on this site and it confuses me that there is this much fighting. The answer is black and white. Cingular has the most customers out of any of the carriers. That has nothing to do with coverage area. A Verizon phone will work in more places then a phone from any other carrier. There are dead spots for everyone, but hands down there is no question that the physical coverage of Verizon's network is the largest. Cingular has great coverage and is large, but not quite as large as Verizon's. SO STOP FIGHTING.
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Buckock

Jul 15, 2005, 12:18 PM
lol..... can you be more contradicting? You state your tired of flame-wars about carriers, then to quote you "but hands down there is no question that the physical coverage of Verizons network is the largest."
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the_fish

Jul 19, 2005, 11:03 PM
Hands down, more like thumbs down for verizon. Where I live and the rest of my state wich is washington. Cingular takes verizon out with coverage. Sorry dude the whole west coast is like that! You may wanna pay your 150$ and swich to cingular and get what you have been missing!
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phoneexpert12345

Jul 30, 2005, 10:18 AM
Cingular has coverage in every state, and Verizon doesn't.
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alejandro

Jul 30, 2005, 12:26 PM
tell me what state verizon does not have coverage and i will tell you why you are wrong
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completewireless

Aug 2, 2005, 2:19 PM
haha verizon def has coverage in every state. anyway it has absolutely nothing to do with the number of towers, but having towers where people go. anywhere that has more cows than people, you shouldn't expect your cell phone to work. it would be rediculous for verizon or cingular to invest money in a network that will generate less money than they invested. And just for the record Cingular can put up all the little GSM towers they want, but realisticly, GSM is a much weaker and inferior signal. Since GSM uses such a high frequecy, their signals are much more effected by basements, tunnels, concrete buidings, and yes, even foliage. It blows my mind to watch that retarded cingular commercial of a guy bragging to his friend about having 6 bars ...
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DarkStar

Aug 2, 2005, 3:29 PM
dude you are an idiot. You don't even know what frequency Cingular uses. GSM is not a frequency. In many parts of the country Cingular uses the same frequency that Verizon does. In other parts it uses the same frequency that Sprint and T-mobile does. Do your reseach before you post.
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dcantin56

Aug 4, 2005, 1:59 PM
Darkstar you also are retarded cingular uses tdma and gsm verizon uses cdma which is proven to be superior. Get the facts straight before you start making posts.
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DarkStar

Aug 4, 2005, 3:23 PM
It is very interesting that you make a blanket statement and offer no proof. What facts? Now believe me I am a very loyal Sprint and Verizon customer, but I don't think they are gods. Tell how do you think that CDMA is better than GSM. Also tell me why the rest of the world uses GSM over CDMA? Can you tell me that? Where is your proof.
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danielson

Aug 4, 2005, 3:38 PM
who cares what carrier has the largest coverage??! Just be concerned with if it works in the area's you need it! If it does, then great, if not, switch to someone who does! Why are we always concerned with what everyone else is doing, why not just focus on what our carriers are doing here!? you guys are a bunch of children fighting about who has the largest overall network and things that don't matter
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skybound77

Aug 4, 2005, 4:50 PM
Verizon, thru roaming agreements with other CDMA and TDMA carriers, has the largest coverage area out there at this time. Both companies like Cingular and TMobile and other affiliates are GSM in the US. They didn't used to be as big, but are making great strides in building coverage around the US. Here in the midwest where I live, GSM is by no means as big yet as the TDMA and CDMA carriers. Like I said, they are taking off and growing fairly quickly now.
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batch1bl

Aug 5, 2005, 1:24 AM
I wanted to inform you that GSM is an older system and doesn't have the network capabilites compared to CDMA, Stronger Signal, fewer dropped calls, and much more clearer signal
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ZombieJ

Aug 5, 2005, 10:58 PM
What an insane argument by people who don't seem to have all the facts. "your a idiot", " no your a retard"... and so on and so forth. GSM can suck, if in your area they are using 1900 your phone sucks and your in a basement or driving using an 8(or 16)bit Cingular SIM card... dropped calls abound. Cingulars weaker SIM's are notorious for this.. at least they will be while this integration is going on 😈 . I'm not going to get in the reasons for this, because you should know them or you wouldn't be posting right? Also CDMA 1x is on 1900 Mhz where I'm at, just a thought. It also works on 850 (800) here too when I'm not on the 1x network, which is why I own a CDMA phone, I like being able to jump back to Analog when need be. So its no...
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skybound77

Aug 6, 2005, 9:27 AM
Okay..now I'll be even more specific! For those of you who do not live in the state of Iowa!!!!! I do happen to know that CDMA and TDMA are the largest cellular digital networks here! GSM is most definitely here and in a growing way as I said previously. But since I'm from here, been here, etc., I think I'm certain I know what I'm talking about for this state!!! Come on out! Glad to have ya!
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brentgodwin

Sep 9, 2005, 4:43 PM
Let me clear this up some.

I work for Verizon (indirect agent). Our main competitor here is Cellular One (now part of Alltel). Until you are here and experience what it is like to have no coverage as you walk across the street there is nothing that you can say about coverage. Verizon has the most coverage of any carrier. Check the websites and see for yourself. Nextel (IDEN is not even near here), Sprint barely works (ask the travelers that come through here), Cingular does work but worse than Sprint (very few have signal here). T-mobile is the same as Cingular. Like someone said in a thread that when the cow population is larger than the people population then that is what you get. Hell most of you have more people in your neighborhood t...
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robbied

Aug 31, 2005, 7:23 PM
CDMA is actually older technology them GSM. Just thought I would drop by and let ya know.
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Vox Dei

Sep 1, 2005, 2:19 PM
Technicly it has been used by the military for 60 or so years but in it's current form for cell phones it's newer than GSM.
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sprextel

Aug 28, 2005, 5:02 PM
Again, someone without a clue. Tell me one phone verizon has ever offered that operates off of TDMA technology......Time's up, there isn't one. It's no wonder the same arguments go round and round in here. People get arguing based off of bad info, and forget what they were talking about in the first place.
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skybound77

Aug 29, 2005, 5:46 PM
I don't have Verizon. Did have, but don't now. They don't offer "immediate coverage" for my hometown. Only IWireless, USCellular, MidwestWireless, and Sprint(a distant 7 miles to the nearest Sprint tower)!!! That I know for a fact! Worked in the industry.
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stevelvl

Aug 29, 2005, 7:40 PM
skybound77 said:
I don't have Verizon. Did have, but don't now. They don't offer "immediate coverage" for my hometown. Only IWireless, USCellular, MidwestWireless, and Sprint(a distant 7 miles to the nearest Sprint tower)!!! That I know for a fact! Worked in the industry.


are any of those carriers gsm?
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skybound77

Aug 30, 2005, 5:47 PM
Yes. I Wireless, ( a TMobile affiliate), is the only GSM carrier in my hometown community. All others are the CDMA network (and what's left of the analog).
Hope that helps!
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AnalogPimp

Aug 30, 2005, 7:10 PM
To end this debate.......CDMA does have more capacity than GSM........cingular may have more towers as said before but verizon doesnt need that many towers to process the call rate.......cdma towers are tested constantly to make sure there isnt any call probs. verizon towers have a 20 air mile radius for use the gsm tower is only 6-8 air radius so therefore the excessive towers for cingular. Verizon has the highest wattage for digital use as well so the clarity is better lowest dropped/missed calls, reception, and signal problems. Also verizon has coverage in every state it even has more coverage on the west coast. It nearly covers the whole usa cingular even after the merge didnt get much better in coverage at all, yes more cust. base b...
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skybound77

Aug 31, 2005, 5:01 PM
Amen to that! You said it thoroughly!
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BeachSlapped

Aug 30, 2005, 8:30 AM
sprextel said:
Again, someone without a clue. Tell me one phone verizon has ever offered that operates off of TDMA technology......Time's up, there isn't one. It's no wonder the same arguments go round and round in here. People get arguing based off of bad info, and forget what they were talking about in the first place.

It could be possible, when I had verizon I found myself roaming one time on Cingular. I was shocked! I wouldn't be able to tell you if I was roaming on TDMA or GSM, but I was roaming with Cingular. I called 611 to find out who I was roaming under and to my surprised it was Cingular. I usually roamed under Sprint or Alltel.
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stevelvl

Aug 30, 2005, 9:18 AM
BeachSlapped said:
sprextel said:
Again, someone without a clue. Tell me one phone verizon has ever offered that operates off of TDMA technology......Time's up, there isn't one. It's no wonder the same arguments go round and round in here. People get arguing based off of bad info, and forget what they were talking about in the first place.

It could be possible, when I had verizon I found myself roaming one time on Cingular. I was shocked! I wouldn't be able to tell you if I was roaming on TDMA or GSM, but I was roaming with Cingular. I called 611 to find out who I was roaming under and to my surprised it was Cingular. I usually roamed under Sprint or Alltel.


cingular al...
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BeachSlapped

Aug 30, 2005, 3:29 PM
Sorry, I forgot to add that I was on Extended Network (which means I was roaming on digital) If I was roaming on analog it would had said Roaming.
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Vox Dei

Aug 30, 2005, 3:44 PM
That is not possible. you cannot roam digitaly on Cingulars network with a CDMA phone. Your display was probably incorrect. You may have just come off a Extended Network area into a Cingular AMPS and the screen hadn't switched or something like that. But it is not posssible i am 100% sure of this.
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crazyeaglefan236

Aug 10, 2005, 2:58 PM
GSM = cheap to operate

But I would say it is getting fairly equal. Mostly at this point it is just the specifically "where you are when you need it" arguement. CDMA just has quality calls in weaker signal then GSM...that is one of the main reasons it appears that VZW has more coverage. Who knows though. It is all perspective. Someone in Washington stated "Cingular is best because they are the only ones that have coverage where I live". OK. So they are the best fit for you. Where my store is located VZW, Nextel and Sprint are the only ones that have coverage. Does that make them the best for coverage? Maybe for someone that needs it to work here...but once again, perspective.

It is all about fulfilling the needs with who will...
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djhavek

Sep 7, 2005, 10:40 PM
heh...which is why Cingular should have kept the "fits you best" motto instead of changing to the retarded "raising the bar" BS. and, yes, i work for them...so i'm allowed to say that. 😈
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Vox Dei

Aug 29, 2005, 3:38 PM
First of all the REST of the world doesn't use GSM. Most of the rest of the world does 😛 and there is one simple reason for that and it has nothing to do with who's better. It's because in the EU they are not alowed to use anything other than GSM...Why do you ask? Because the EU decided they wanted one technology throught the whole EU and they needed something with more bandwith than AMPS allowed them and they needed it now. TDMA/GSM was avaliable so they chose that. The Government made this choice not the providers or the people (well they government/regulating body is technicly elected by the officals elected by the people but that's another topic all together).
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mistercrinkles

Aug 30, 2005, 9:51 PM
i think this is a beyond valid statement here, darkstar.

THE ENTIRE GLOBE USES GSM AND NOT CDMA.

we rest our cases.
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Vox Dei

Aug 31, 2005, 11:23 AM
WRONG!!!!

Alot of asia uses CDMA. Most of the glob uses GSM because in Europe that is all the government will ALLOW them to use not because that's what they chose. Some of the carriers in the EU have tried to get CDMA licenses but they have been turned down...
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chessmaster

Sep 1, 2005, 9:12 AM
i was in walmart a guarter of a mile away from 1-65 hwy getting only 2 bars and the back of the store it goes to extentend network , why cingular had 5 bars everywhere in the store, why is that and this store is only 5 miles from downtown b'ham al
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djhavek

Sep 7, 2005, 10:42 PM
how come i get no coverage in new orleans anymore??!?!


...ok, I'm j/k
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Anxiovert

Aug 28, 2005, 11:18 PM
DarkStar said:
.... GSM is not a frequency. In many parts of the country Cingular uses the same frequency that Verizon does.


Contradictory statement!
Same bands. NOT same frequency dumb nut!
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sprextel

Aug 28, 2005, 4:58 PM
actually genius, the higher the frequency the better penetration you get. Physics 101 my friend
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Anxiovert

Aug 28, 2005, 11:21 PM
sprextel said:
actually genius, the higher the frequency the better penetration you get. Physics 101 my friend


WRONG. WRONG!
850MHz has better penetration in builings. Not 1900MHz.
Your physics are wrong!
You may want to get a refresher on physics 101.
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Vox Dei

Aug 29, 2005, 3:16 PM
Accually your both right. The higher the frequency the less bounce you get off objects. Now these frequency's are so close together in the spectrum that this is not the issue. The issue is the way each spectrum is used and the absorbtion rates of the frequencys. 850 Mhz has been known to get better pentetraion through buildings in tests. But this is more to do with the way GSM works and the absorbtion rate of the frequency that the accual frequency range itself.
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 8:37 AM
Verizon has coverage int he Dominican Republic

Cignular does not..
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Fenix1003

Sep 8, 2005, 9:23 AM
Who cares? 😛
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stevelvl

Sep 8, 2005, 9:34 AM
bigchieftoiletpaper said:
Verizon has coverage int he Dominican Republic

Cignular does not..


can people in the dominican republic even afford mobile phones???? it is a third woprld country after all.
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 9:55 AM
Im a dominican, and I can afford a phone. and so can the other projected 5 million cellphone users there.

In my fiancee's country, the Philipines, its 83 million in populaiton yet theres 60 million + users with cellphones.

Mexico alone has around 80 million users, and that number may be higher, that was one eyar ago.



Just becasue its a 3rd world country dosent mean they are phehistoric.


bacn on topic...


Verizon > Cingular
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lorna

Sep 8, 2005, 10:41 AM
Third World counties generally have 2 rather than 3 socio-economic classes: an upper and a lower, and no middle; an individual usually is one of the Haves or one of the Have Nots. Prehistoricity has nothing to do with it; ECONOMICS does. There are many people here in the USA who do not have cell phones and who are not prehistoric — just unable to buy and maintain a cell phone in addition to a land line, which has to be there for whoever lives at home while the cell phone owner is not at home.

-Lorna
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 10:52 AM
thats not the point......


anyway, Verizon has higher rated customer service, and its good to know that I can buy one here, and travel anywehre int eh continental 48, Puerto Rico, AND the DOminican republic, no need to buy or switch a Sim Card.

Cingular has crappy phones
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lorna

Sep 8, 2005, 11:00 AM
bigchieftoiletpaper said:
thats not the point......


.......... Lorna says ............................................. ...
I would like to broaden my knowledge base. Could you please tell me what percentage of Dominicans own cell phones? Most of them? Half of them? Just a small percentage of them?

Meanwhile, I think I'll do some reseach on the Dominican Republic.

-Lorna
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 11:04 AM
population is 9 million on the island with 1.2 million in teh states. Overall more than 5 million own cellphones


do keep in mind, maybe 65% of them do not use them for voice, but for text messaging purposes. vocie is too expensive or out of reach


Just as in teh Philippines, (The Text messaging capitol of the world) 75% of the users there use for text messaging only. Thats about 45 million people, that on average may send 15 text messages or more on a daily basis.

And yes, its quite shocking to go somewhere that people are struggling to eat, yet ot them text messaging is more in reach than food.

dont beleive me? google it
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lorna

Sep 8, 2005, 11:22 AM
Thank you for the quick response. While you were doing that, I was looking in the CIA Factbook. The main sentence I will copy at the top, followed by the entire text, which supports what i said in the post to which you replied. Raw stats don't speak the entire truth. Percentages give a better perspective or who has what, and how much of it. I would guess that "the poorest (sic) half" does not comprise the cell phone owners. -Lorna

-------------------------------
"The [Dominican Republic] suffers from marked income inequality; the poorest half of the population receives less than one-fifth of GNP, while the richest 10% enjoys nearly 40% of national income."

Economy - overview:

The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean representa...
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 11:26 AM
you jsut wasted a bunch of server space on things I already knew

I did not see anything there about cell phone usage.


If I had the ability to access google, i help you.
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lorna

Sep 8, 2005, 11:33 AM
I extrapolate that cell phone usage comes from the Haves, not the Have Nots. I also do not count Dominicans who are living and earning a wage here in the USA since the issue is the economy of the Dominican Republic.

Sorry you had to read information that you already knew, but keep in mind that when I posted it, I had no idea of what you already knew.

This will be the last I write on this thread, meaning I will not reply to any replies. I hope that you and the people of the Dominican Republic have a very pleasant day.

-Lorna
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 11:37 AM
i dont think you get it.

Dominicans are always TRAVELING back and forth to the Dominican.We like to be able to use our cellphones there when we need to.

this is not a matter of if an economy can support it.


The point of this thread is COVERAGE.

Verizon Covers MORE than Cingular. And dont get me started on who has better technology...please.....

Its a FACT

Live with it.

Verizon > Cingular

Have a nice day...
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Vox Dei

Sep 8, 2005, 3:42 PM
Cingular has coverage in Dominican republic to. Of course it's through roaming parterners and you must pay for it. It also has coverage in almost all of EU again it's through roaming parterners and it costs roaming costs. Cingular also has coverage in all 50 states (including alaska and HI) plus PR and US Virgin islands (which last i check is included for no roaming on the national plans). Granted alot of the 50 stats is through roaming partners but that doesn't matter because you still don't pay for it. Verizon is the same way. Most of their coverge is through roaming partners too. So the debate goes on.
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 3:51 PM
With congular though you have to go through their custoemr service and it takes about 5 transfers to get the phone to work. Thats personal experience. Verizon, you jsut show up and handle your business.
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Vox Dei

Sep 8, 2005, 4:23 PM
heh. ya Cingular's customer care is in shambles right now. The left hand isn't alowed to find out what the right butt cheek is doing and they are doing the stuppidest things to fix it. Like doing things like because customers are complaining about being transfered around they are telling CC that they can't transfer anymore...So what this do? Means they arn't alowed to fix the customers problem. Oh well i'm sure Cingular will do something soon like higher a third party company to audit their CC policies and fix them.
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lorna

Sep 8, 2005, 4:35 PM
Vox Dei said:
heh. ya Cingular's customer care is in shambles right now. The left hand isn't alowed to find out what the right butt cheek is doing and they are doing the stuppidest things to fix it. Like doing things like because customers are complaining about being transfered around they are telling CC that they can't transfer anymore...So what this do? Means they arn't alowed to fix the customers problem. Oh well i'm sure Cingular will do something soon like higher a third party company to audit their CC policies and fix them.



.......... Lorna says ............................................. ...
But...... once a person becomes a Cingular customer with a Cingular phone and the problem is not abou...
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Vox Dei

Sep 9, 2005, 3:37 PM
I really couldn't say. I was only on the migration team and i don't live in the US so i don't have Cingular. I have a feeling that most the problems and complaints have been from migrations but once your over to the new system you should be ok. I know they are really sticky with credits but as long as you arn't asking for the world for a penny you should be ok.
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AnalogPimp

Aug 3, 2005, 1:10 PM
I must say cingular dont have as much coverage on the west. cingular loses many cust every day way more than verizon and verizon wins every award possible every year wait what did u say verizon has been number one for how many years plus oh yea 9 plus years......recenly won jd power awards over all carriers man verizon sucks...........verizon grows with towers constantly and is always testing out towers to get the best cov. rec. signal possible. Analog is diminishing by digital and verizon is changin all their signal to digital it takes time but as said before signal is signal analog or digital dont matter none. lowest rate dropped calls fewest missed calls highest digital wattage for signal yea ur right cingular is superior to verizon.......
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AlwaysConfused

Aug 4, 2005, 11:30 AM
I am not trying to encourage an argument, but I believe you should choose the carrier which best suits the area that you are in. I live in Colorado and travel quite frequently up into Wyoming and Montana. I choose Verizon because there is little to no coverage with Cingular in these areas.

Again, I am not saying Verizon is better than Cingular or vice versa. 🙂
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Blacklikeneon

Aug 5, 2005, 4:04 PM
Thank you voice of reason,
The fact of the matter is that there are different services for different people, figure out what works for you and where, go with that...with a little bit of research, and talking with some honest people it won't take long to figure out
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Vox Dei

Aug 5, 2005, 4:57 PM
Exacly. Or take advantage of the carriers return policy. Most companys have at least a 14 day return policy or more (cingular has 30 days). You should be able to tell if the cell phone works for you within that time. Try and buy your phone so you will be doing you most regular traveling within that 14 days so you can tell how its going to work in the areas you most likely travel. It's one of the best things the US providers have that i wish us canadian providers would alow.
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ZombieJ

Aug 5, 2005, 8:11 PM
Canadian providers only offer swift kicks to the junk, from my experience anyway. CDMA service here is stellar though.
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PortlandPCS

Aug 15, 2005, 8:43 PM
Verizon does not have coverage in every state. Example Oaklahoma. If you look at their map you will see that. I should know I work for them
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dkhound

Aug 31, 2005, 11:54 AM
Ok...Cingular DOES NOT have coverage in every state Verizon does. They don't cover South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota. Cingular may have maybe 50 miles but that ain't nothing so phone expert I think you need to boned up on your maps and travel it cause I have.....
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dkhound

Aug 31, 2005, 11:58 AM
Oh and by the way Cingular isn't even licensed in South or North Dakota
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wwhizzard

Aug 3, 2005, 12:25 PM
Okay then explain this...since you say the whole west coast.
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/33917.html »

Cat got ya tongue?
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judog2g

Aug 4, 2005, 2:09 PM
Can u say setup? T-Mobile in the Northeast! 🤣 🤣
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getgsm

Sep 6, 2005, 4:50 PM
Here's the deal- I worked for Cingular for a LONG time and am now independent so I know: Cingular has a larger DIGITAL coverage area than Verizon, but Verizon's overall network is larger.
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operagirl25

Sep 9, 2005, 5:22 PM
Sorry man, gotta call BS on ya. Got family and friends all over west coast. BF used to have cingular. Didn't work in her house.....In SEATTLE!! oi! Verizon all the way man!
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jerrydock

Jul 15, 2005, 1:18 PM
You are absolutely correct; as long as you are counting the analog service. Take away analog and the prize goes to Cingular.
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Wizemaster

Jul 15, 2005, 11:17 PM
Coverage is coverage, Analog or Digital. Does not matter. Verizon has the largest coverage, and is always growing.

Verizon may not have more customer, but they have the lowest Churn rate. So that means that Cingular loses more customer then Verizon, period.
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jerrydock

Jul 16, 2005, 8:55 AM
You have not been paying attention. The FCC removed all obligations to maintain analog towers last July. The number of towers that have analog have been decreasing; I just lost one near my home. GSM towers are increasing; faster than any other technology.

Which way is the wind blowing in your neighborhood?
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dkhound

Aug 31, 2005, 12:09 PM
Not true digital is on analog towers...that would defeat the purpose of having tri-mode phones.
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Sabrina6902

Jul 16, 2005, 11:10 AM
Cingular looses so many customers because of some of the policies that people don't agree with not because of there coverage and this is about coverage so i agree with the person that said cingular wins
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everman

Jul 16, 2005, 1:08 PM
You guys are so annoying.
There have been so many threads on this topic and every argument has already been argued.
Stop chewin regurgitated threads.

'sniffs'
... "smells like somebody threw up"
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Sabrina6902

Jul 16, 2005, 1:10 PM
Ok that was a mental image I did not need for today thank you
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everman

Jul 16, 2005, 1:49 PM
You are the most welcome I have ever "you're welcomed" ever.
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Anxiovert

Aug 28, 2005, 11:34 PM
Wizemaster said:
Coverage is coverage, Analog or Digital. Does not matter. Verizon has the largest coverage, and is always growing.


Coverage is coverage? Mmmm let's see, if your phone switches to analog it won't have the ability to send/receive text messages, check voicemail? Nope! just make crappy phone calls (static) Now, this is good in an emergency but... that's a different subject. 😉
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MarkF

Jul 16, 2005, 1:19 PM
and if the take away the requirement of being terrestrial you give it to the satellite phone companies. The only thing that they don't give you is in-building coverage, but they truly have the largest coverage area with the highest price tag at about $4 bucks per minute! 🤣
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Jul 30, 2005, 9:38 AM
Actually when talking about coverage the most important thing to consider is tower capacity. CDMA technology allows up to 40 calls per channel (there are roughly 300 channels per tower). GSM, because it is an adaptation of TDMA technology, only allows 8 calls per channel.

And no matter how many towers GSM technology carriers have, a single call can only go to the same channel it originated from. Thus being a "hard handoff". When a call is registered with a tower it is assigned to a channel. When the limits of the tower comes near, on a GSM network, it searches a nearby tower for room on the same channel. When the channel on nearby towers are filled the call has nowhere to go and the call is dropped.

CDMA services allow for a "sof...
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Badibada

Jul 30, 2005, 12:36 PM
is that the reason why when i call someone who has like cingular it takes like 7 seconds to start ringin and that only happens when i call someone wit cingular.
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Aug 5, 2005, 10:31 PM
Badibada said:
is that the reason why when i call someone who has like cingular it takes like 7 seconds to start ringin and that only happens when i call someone wit cingular.


It could be because of tower congestion or service availability. That kind of thing happens with every carrier. Nextel's so bad they have a recording for the caller "please wait while your party is located". I hated that message when my ex-boss had a Nextel. (I wasn't working in the cellular field at the time.)
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saithkar

Aug 4, 2005, 11:49 PM
Tampa_VZW_Jim said:
Actually when talking about coverage the most important thing to consider is tower capacity. CDMA technology allows up to 40 calls per channel (there are roughly 300 channels per tower). GSM, because it is an adaptation of TDMA technology, only allows 8 calls per channel.


Dude, what the hell are you talking about? Code Devision Multiple Access or CDMA allows for 7 calls per channel, the calls are scrabeled hence the "code devision". TDMA is Time Devision Multiple Access which is similar but different; on TDMA the calls are chopped into "time blocks" and TDMA allows for 3 calls per channel so is inferior to CDMA.

However neither of these are similar to GSM and I have no idea where y...
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Aug 5, 2005, 10:27 PM
saithkar said:
Tampa_VZW_Jim said:
Actually when talking about coverage the most important thing to consider is tower capacity. CDMA technology allows up to 40 calls per channel (there are roughly 300 channels per tower). GSM, because it is an adaptation of TDMA technology, only allows 8 calls per channel.


Dude, what the hell are you talking about? Code Devision Multiple Access or CDMA allows for 7 calls per channel, the calls are scrabeled hence the "code devision". TDMA is Time Devision Multiple Access which is similar but different; on TDMA the calls are chopped into "time blocks" and TDMA allows for 3 calls per channel so is inferior to CDMA.

However neither of these are simila
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Al_Swearengen

Aug 5, 2005, 11:41 PM
Tampa_VZW_Jim said:
saithkar said:
Tampa_VZW_Jim said:
Actually when talking about coverage the most important thing to consider is tower capacity. CDMA technology allows up to 40 calls per channel (there are roughly 300 channels per tower). GSM, because it is an adaptation of TDMA technology, only allows 8 calls per channel.


Dude, what the hell are you talking about? Code Devision Multiple Access or CDMA allows for 7 calls per channel, the calls are scrabeled hence the "code devision". TDMA is Time Devision Multiple Access which is similar but different; on TDMA the calls are chopped into "time blocks" and TDMA allows for 3 calls per channel so is inferior to CDMA
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Vox Dei

Aug 8, 2005, 4:52 PM
The thing with CDMA is that it is more spread spectrum. You don't use channels in the way that TDMA or GSM does. CDMA systems can change the frequency range of any call and will do so. When a person is listning then he doesn't need as much bandwith as the person talking. Therefore his outgoing bandwidth get shrunk. Because of code division two phone calls can overlap on the same frequencys (to a limit before certain ranges become too over crowded and the tower won't accept anymore connections. CDMA doesn't so much have a hard capacity as a soft one. It does have a theoretical limit of about 80 in a GSM channel...of course that means none of those people can talk and all must be listning (very borring conversations 😛)

Unfortunatly ...
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springaf

Jul 30, 2005, 3:27 PM
If you will notice, any advertisement from either company never says they have the largest coverage area in the USA. Verizon says "The most reliable network in the country" and Cingular say "The largest voice and data network in America" and ""Cingular has more coverage than the CDMA technology that some other carriers (verizon) use." All are direct quotes from both companies advertising campaigns. Not very specific, are they. Verizon isn't going to be dumb enough to say they have more coverage cuz how do you accurately measure that, especially with cingular towers going up every other week. Cingular isn't going to say best reception cuz sometimes they don't have the clearest calls. In fact, both could be said for either company.

A...
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Aug 5, 2005, 10:36 PM
springaf said: Granted, it isn't by much but they are putting $8 billion into building towers while verizon is spending $0 on new towers over the next three years and isn't saying they'll build any later than that.


Actually Verizon spent $7 billion dollars in the last 12 months. They continue to build as we speak.
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Al_Swearengen

Aug 6, 2005, 3:53 PM
Tampa_VZW_Jim said:
springaf said: Granted, it isn't by much but they are putting $8 billion into building towers while verizon is spending $0 on new towers over the next three years and isn't saying they'll build any later than that.


Actually Verizon spent $7 billion dollars in the last 12 months. They continue to build as we speak.


Well I'm not sure how much Verizon is spending, but Cingular is spending $6.2 billion between now and the end of 2005. That's not even including the 15-20 UMTS markets going up by then as well. 2006 is going to be even more expensive, because Cingular says 'most' of the major markets will have UMTS by the end of 2006. I've heard estimates of ...
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djhavek

Sep 7, 2005, 10:46 PM
The companies are very careful with their motto's and their wording, so that they can't get in trouble with what they say.

Keep that in mind...and one of Cingulars is "the largest DIGITAL coverage in america"

I would say that if you counted that (YUCK!) analog coverage (please drink my battery life!) then verizon would be larger...which is why Cingular said largest digital coverage...which was true.
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stevelvl

Sep 8, 2005, 9:38 AM
djhavek said:
The companies are very careful with their motto's and their wording, so that they can't get in trouble with what they say.

Keep that in mind...and one of Cingulars is "the largest DIGITAL coverage in america"

I would say that if you counted that (YUCK!) analog coverage (please drink my battery life!) then verizon would be larger...which is why Cingular said largest digital coverage...which was true.


also along those lines sprint still does have the largest all digital all pcs network.

and nextel has the largest direct connect network in the country.

and verizon has the largest in network in the nation

and t-mob..... they do have the hottest spokesperson in the country! GO TMOB...
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djhavek

Sep 8, 2005, 2:41 PM
lol. See, you get what I mean. a regular customer (ie- not a cell phone nerd/junkie/rep/whatever) would hear the (now old) sprint motto and think "wow, they have the largest coverage!" ...that is until they started using Sprint. However we realize that their motto refers to being both all digital and it being the largest in the PCS frequency.
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chriscell420

Jul 30, 2005, 9:53 PM
Flat out this is how it is...

Verizon has the most coverage in terms of VOICE alone. They don't have more towers than Cingular, however they have more roaming partners when it comes to voice (IMHO, this won't last long). You can plainly see this if you compare a Verizon Map to a Cingular Map...although a giant rip off is that with Verizon you have to be on THEIR network to get mobile to mobile - with Cingular its no matter where you are.

Cingular has the most coverage in terms of VOICE AND (key word is AND) DATA. Cingular physically owns close to if not more than 2x the amount of towers Verizon does. And when it comes to business, Data is huge and just starting to explode...

...SO there is a little gray area, and you'll notice w...
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anishj

Jul 31, 2005, 11:01 PM
I had Cingular for a couple of years, I liked the true sound quality on the phones, but the coverage was just too spotty to stay with them. I live in L.A. and you would have signal in some areas and then not have signal in places you would expect coverage. You also had a lot of dropped calls. I also hated hearing that "all circuits busy" message when making a call during peak hours or the caller hearing it when they called you. Trust me, I had a great phone number and switched before the number portability because I just couldn't take the lack of service anymore.

I switched to Verizon, the sound quality isn't as clear and you can't take your phone all over the world, but at least I can get signal everywhere in L.A. and where ever I tr...
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wwhizzard

Aug 3, 2005, 12:27 PM
Everyone read this...VERIZON...the people have spoken!!!

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/33917.html »
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AnalogPimp

Aug 3, 2005, 12:42 PM
wwhizz.....I must agree when u compare to the cingular coverage its not bad but cant meet up to verizon standards.....cingular has a lot of dead spots and misses/drops many calls. Verizon also recently was awarded the jd power award six to be exact. Hands down verizon is better all together in every aspect of the service....more range on towers, more towers, higher wattage for digital service, ect......
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Vox Dei

Aug 3, 2005, 6:23 PM
WOOHOO. Way to open that can of worm AGAIN. i want to know how you came up with this educated answer? You do know that Cingular has twice as many GSM towers as Verizon has TOWERS.
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zjc2a

Aug 4, 2005, 10:26 PM
Vox Dei said:
WOOHOO. Way to open that can of worm AGAIN. i want to know how you came up with this educated answer? You do know that Cingular has twice as many GSM towers as Verizon has TOWERS.


I can't believe I am helping them out but, CDMA towers can handle more calls than one GSM cell cite. So Cing. needs more towers. Don't get me wrong Verizon burned me years ago and I am not ever going that route again.
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Al_Swearengen

Aug 4, 2005, 11:26 PM
zjc2a said:
Vox Dei said:
WOOHOO. Way to open that can of worm AGAIN. i want to know how you came up with this educated answer? You do know that Cingular has twice as many GSM towers as Verizon has TOWERS.


I can't believe I am helping them out but, CDMA towers can handle more calls than one GSM cell cite. So Cing. needs more towers. Don't get me wrong Verizon burned me years ago and I am not ever going that route again.



If you do the math, the company owned towers of Cingular can technically handle more calls than the company owned towers of Verizon. Verizon has LARGE roaming agreements with companies that beef up their network. So, when you look at the number of ...
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mox358

Aug 4, 2005, 3:12 AM
i have a cingular phone, but sell verizon at work... so i'm gonna give you the straight answer from my experience with both sides and what i've learned over the years.

verizon has the largest voice only coverage... literally meaning voice only... no txt, no get it now, nothing but making and receiving calls.

cingular has the largest voice AND data network. cingular's network isn't as large as verizon's, but their data features work in a lot more places than verizon's.

so depending on what you want from a carrier, go from there.
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TrkDriver

Aug 5, 2005, 3:23 PM
Care to argue with an Interstate Long Haul Truck Driver ?
Many opinions have been directed back at your BS "Brand/Service Promotion"
I run more miles a year in reverse then many of you here will drive in a lifetime of common commuting.
Crossing many states with various traverseing routes(All lower 48 States)Cingular has been the most dependable,getting better every year FWIW over the last 3-5 years over Sp,TM,Ver.All of which I have had the negitive experience of dealing with as a consumer.
Love them or hate them ............the TOP DOG is there for a reason.

T/
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Vox Dei

Aug 5, 2005, 3:37 PM
There you have it. unless you can say you run more or as many miles as him i doubt you can contest that except for you little area of the country. Not matter what company you are with i can find someone that will tell you they hate it bcause the phone doesn't work in their area but we talk over all.
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Aug 5, 2005, 10:39 PM
I certainly don't drive as many miles. But if Cingular is the only service he's had in the last 3-5 years I wonder which network he's on and if he's had another carrier in the interim. A lot has changed in 5 years.
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jssyjojo

Aug 10, 2005, 12:57 PM
You all want to know who has the biggest coverage area well the fact is it is ALLTEL with their merger with cingular wireless it is the largest coverage area. If you don't believe me research for yourself. Now as for Verizon the only reason Verizon has as much coverage as it does is because they have many roaming partners Alltel being a key partner. (check for yourself). Cingular only has as much coverage as it does because Western Wireless is a huge GSM Roaming partner they are putting up towers just so companies like cingular can pay them roaming fees (check for yourself) Now we can put this argument to rest. And if you don't believe me research first before talking about things you do not know.
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petenick

Aug 10, 2005, 1:01 PM
isn't alltel a cdma carrier? how would GSM coverage help any of their customers at all? 😳
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texaswireless

Aug 10, 2005, 1:17 PM
They sell CDMA to their customers but offer GSM, TDMA and Analog on their network (Western Wireless) to bring in roaming revenue.
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Vox Dei

Aug 30, 2005, 11:46 AM
So how does this help their customer? I don't understand. They have CDMA customers how does having a roaming agreements with Cingular help them? That's like saying we have the most coverage but you can only use half of it as our customer...
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texaswireless

Aug 30, 2005, 11:50 AM
Because their network works on both CDMA and GSM.
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Vox Dei

Aug 30, 2005, 12:04 PM
So they have the largest network but you can only use half of it. You can't say they have the largest coverage area if someone can only use half their network.
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texaswireless

Aug 30, 2005, 12:16 PM
Same towers, two technologies.

I am not stating anything.
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Tampa_VZW_Jim

Aug 11, 2005, 5:24 PM
i dont recall saying any one carrier has more towers than the next. i was speaking purely in terms of tower capaity. because quite frankly, i dont care if carrier x has more towers, if they don't have the capacity to hold my call it doesn't matter if they have 50 million customers or 20,000 towers.
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AshDizzle

Aug 29, 2005, 10:35 PM
I'm pretty sure Alltel has absolutely no roaming agreements with Cingular.

And anyways, everyone knows Billy Bob's Cellular has the best coverage in the the world. I don't know why you are all arguing.
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nextel18

Aug 30, 2005, 1:21 PM
"ALLTEL with their merger with cingular wireless"

um. they merged with Western Wireless.

cingular merged with Att Wireless.
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djhavek

Sep 7, 2005, 10:55 PM
haha, yea... i think that guy is the same guy that comes into my store and says "CINGULAR ONE" 🙄
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nextel18

Sep 8, 2005, 6:17 PM
hahahah.

probably. 🙂
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danielson

Sep 8, 2005, 7:43 PM
jssyjojo said:
You all want to know who has the biggest coverage area well the fact is it is ALLTEL with their merger with cingular wireless it is the largest coverage area. If you don't believe me research for yourself. Now as for Verizon the only reason Verizon has as much coverage as it does is because they have many roaming partners Alltel being a key partner. (check for yourself). Cingular only has as much coverage as it does because Western Wireless is a huge GSM Roaming partner they are putting up towers just so companies like cingular can pay them roaming fees (check for yourself) Now we can put this argument to rest. And if you don't believe me research first before talking about things you do not know.
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jmcingular

Aug 31, 2005, 6:25 PM
I will recomend a telecomm class to a lot of people posting. verizon is a great co wich uses cdma technology code division multiple access this is the way the call is made (not frequency)which is an old technology very strong. cingular on the other hand use gsm wich is a new technology is a standart in europe and asia eventually will be a global standart The pan-European digital cellular system standard (developed by a committee of European telecommunications administrators, operators, and manufacturers), now deployed worldwide at 900 MHz and gaining popularity at 1800 and 1900 MHz. Defines a radio interface based on 8-user time division multiple access (TDMA) with 200-kHz channel spacing and advanced features. Formerly called Groupe Specia...
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AshDizzle

Aug 31, 2005, 7:08 PM
will recomend a telecomm class to a lot of people posting.


And I would reccommend a grammar class for you. Great arguments, sure, but jesus man drop the caps lock and run a spell check or something. Work on your presentation.
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Vox Dei

Sep 1, 2005, 2:11 PM
First of all what do you mean by new and old? Yes the way CDMA works has been used by the military since about WW2 as a way of encripting calls but for cell phones it is quite a bit different. He has evolved alot it has been around for cell phones alot less time than GSM. GSM is also dieing and being replaced with UMTS but CDMA is just being upgraded. with a CDMA phone you don't have to buy a new one to use the new service but if you have a GSM phone then you will have to replace it to use UMTS towers.

GSM is the standard in EU because that is all they can use but it is not the standard is Asia. It is the most common in Asia but CDMA is gain ground right now in countrys like China, South Korea, and many other Asian countrys.

yes 7...
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Defiant_femme

Sep 7, 2005, 10:52 PM
First of all, It is funny that this thread was meant to stop an arguement, but has only fueled one. It does not matter what anyone says about who is better. The bottom line for most customers is "Will my phn work when and where I need it to"

I need my phn to work for me. Who cares if it will have a signal in a cornfield or in the desert, because those are not places that I will be.

To end this crap, If your phn works when and where you need it to then it is the best!




DEFIANT_FEMME
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bigchieftoiletpaper

Sep 8, 2005, 11:40 AM
GSM has nothing on CDMA, I support your notion
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employeeoftheweek

Sep 9, 2005, 5:11 PM
👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 👿 To put this to rest, the phone company I just started in my basement is the best there is. I launched personal satellites from my backyard and I have coverage in my winter home in antarctica and my summer home in central africa. Beat that.
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