Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (
More info?)
"Kev" <Axekick> wrote in message news:ceGdnV6WsY3JIend4p2dnA@comcast.com...
> I'm going to try not to be a troll here, I swear...
> I'd like to hear some feedback as to why you all chose Cingular over
> services that have either a (proven) much larger network, (Verizon
> Wireless), or a service that basically wrote the book (in the US at least)
> on having the most advanced and data capable handsets on the market
(Sprint
> PCS)?
>
> By the way, where did you make your purchase? Has anyone noticed that the
> largest wireless phone retailer in the US (and has been since wireless
came
> about) carries prodominently Sprint PCS and Verizon? Wouldn't people
take
> advice from them rather than some no name booth in a mall somewhere?
>
> Try not to flame me too much!
I'm honestly just trying to start a
topic.
>
>
I'd like to know how it's supposedly been "proven" that VZW has a much
larger Network. I've had VZW for years. I'm currently a Cingular GSM
Nation customer. I travel all over the country (required to, by work).
Verizon has overall good coverage. But they do NOT have better coverage
than Cingular GSM. At worst, the few dead spots I've noticed on Cingular
were in the exact same areas that VZW has dead spots. Also on a recent road
trip, we had to let a friend use our Cingular handset to make her phone
calls as she had no signal on her VZW handset . . . anywhere in the state!!!
If you compare VZW to Cingular GSM nation with an objective mind, there is
no way you would state with a straight face that VZW has better coverage.
Of course, either carrier might have better coverage in certain locations.
So the more travelling you do, the more likely you are to conclude that they
are equal, coverage wise.
As for data services . . . I was reading an article recently about new data
services technologies that are aimed at cellular phone users. The gist of
the article was, these services are going to be a huge flop, as the vast
majority of cellular phone users don't care about data services. I agree
with that assessment. I'm addicted to the Internet, and I wouldn't want to
use it on a cellular phone. Even most heavy Internet users would rather
wait till they get home to their broadband (wired) connection to check their
e-mail, etc. I had to laugh my ass off when Nokia recently upgraded some of
their handsets to be AOL IM compatible. I'd gladly pay Nokia to REMOVE that
particular bug, errrrr . . . feature. Of course, the obvious result of this
is that now your movie is going to be interrupted by some teeny bopper not
TALKING on the cell phone, but rather sending IM (brrrrring!!!!, pause pause
pause, brrrrring!!!!, pause, brrrrring!!!!, pause pause pause pause pause
pause pause pause, brrrrring!!!!)
Oh, when I went to sign up for Cingular, I actually signed up at a local
Mom&Pop type store that offers Cingular Wireless (plus all phones and tons
of accessories) and Dish Network satellite TV (plus all hardware). I gave
them my business as they were very patient in answering dozens of questions
from both me and my wife about the Cingular service. Although we had to
leave Verizon, we wanted to make SURE our new service (whoever that might
be) was going to be right for us. After answering all of our detailled
questions to our satisfaction, the free trial period was enough to convince
us to go for it. No regrets.
Oh, and we had to leave Verizon due to frequent, outrageous billing errors
that were causing our monthly bill to be double or triple what it should be.
The last straw for us was Verizon admitting that it was their problem and
still refusing to correct it. Basically what it boiled down to is that
certain calls made ON THE VERIZON WIRELESS NETWORK (not roaming) were being
billed months later than they should have been. Thus, we would have very
low minute usage in certain months and incredibly high minute usage in other
months, because of Verizon billing errors. If it wasn't for these billing
errors, we would never have gone over our "anytime" minutes. Verizon came
right out and admitted to me that it was a billing problem on their end, and
that they refused to fix it. So I had to fix it for them. I don't deal
with Verizon's intentional billing errors anymore. I pity anybody who just
signed a long-term contract with VZW. They'll getcha . . . just wait.
(evil grin)
-Dave