No See Cingular owns the entire GSM network.There were/are basically 3 National GSM carriers, ATTWS, Cingular, and T-Mobile, now cingular ate attws,and got their network, nad cingular rents it from Cingular.Also they owned tdma network they overlayed all their tdma digital towrers onto GSM, and plus what they got outta the ATTWS deal,

Caller ID is standard with Cingular and 2nd to none, also they have fast foward, for call forwarding- you buy a base to put your wireless into,and pay monthly fee, and you get basically free unlimited call forwarding!!!

Also Cingular's GSM network is all digital, so you can get caller ID everywhere, While Verizon still uses analog in a lot of places on their coverage map.

pcrisp07 said:
Also Cingular's GSM network is all digital, so you can get caller ID everywhere, While Verizon still uses analog in a lot of places on their coverage map.

Most of Verizon's network is Analog.They bought up lots of Spectrum from other carriers selling theirs off when they switched to tdma and GSM

So the caller id is better with cingular. So how much does the thing that forwards your calls cost you to buy? Do you experience a lot of dropped calls with cingular or verizon? What about static on the line?

Also, about two years ago, i had cingular. I didnt have very good service up here at my place at school. Has it changed in the past two years? What is the diff between the old cingular and the new cingular with gsm? I am just full of ?'s tonight...Thanks for all of your input. It makes my choice easier and better thought out.

Also, about two years ago, i had cingular. I didnt have very good service up here at my place at school. Has it changed in the past two years? What is the diff between the old cingular and the new cingular with gsm? I am just full of ?'s tonight...Thanks for all of your input. It makes my choice easier and better thought out.

TDMA and GSM are closely related but have very different qualities. Cingular overlayed their entire existing network of TDMA towers with GSM technology just last year. Since then they have been adding strictly GSM towers to their network at an unbelievable rate. This is the reason that Cingular now has the largest digital network in the U.S. The GSM coverage is much broader and more reliable (due to call capacity per cell...technical stuff) than TDMA was. The sound-quality of GSM is said to be the purest sound in wireless technology, comparable to landline service. GSM is a great technology and is a better alternative to Verizon's CDMA than TDMA was. Things are only getting better and better with GSM and Cingular's network, and with t...
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Personally dropped calls hasn't been a problem with either company for me. With static on the other hand, Verizon's CDMA seems to have a more static-like sound to it, and sometimes almost a tinny quality to the sound. With Cingular it always sounds like I'm right there with the person on the other end. Cingular's sound is definitely more pure for me.

Verizon's entire network is digital. They own absolutely no analog whatsoever. They use smaller companie's analog networks to roam off of. Which is even worse than them owning the analog towers themselves, because then you get slammed with roaming charges because of another company.

That really says something about the size of Verizon's owned network. Can we say...small?

RUFF1415 said:
They own absolutely no analog whatsoever

You are incorrect. most of their coverage is in the cellular frequency band(800), and unless their is some sort of exemption with certain areas, they use analog. This is because their is a FCC regulation that all companys that have a analog network must maintain it untill 2007. although they have analog they can slice down that sprectrum to fit in their CDMA network so they can "coexist"
another example is cingular, although their main network is all digital GSM, they still have TDMA and Analog sharing on a 800(850)mhz tower.

No you are incorrect. Verizon does not own its own analog network, it uses the analog networks of smaller roaming partners. Cingular does own its own analog network but can only be utilized on TDMA phones.

Network Powered Services and Features

100 percent digital network, delivering the highest quality voice and data services

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/aboutUs/wirelessN ... »

Verizon owns analog in Sothern California. Airtouch previously owned analog on the B side.

What are you talking about? There are very few markets(if any) that mainly use analog.

sidallen said:
What are you talking about? There are very few markets(if any) that mainly use analog.

A lot of Kentucky. It is GSM, TDMA or analog. Only along the interstates there is CDMA, and the major few cities. Thanks to Bluesgrass Cellular.

-Z

zjc2a said:

sidallen said:
What are you talking about? There are very few markets(if any) that mainly use analog.

A lot of Kentucky. It is GSM, TDMA or analog. Only along the interstates there is CDMA, and the major few cities. Thanks to Bluesgrass Cellular.

-Z

Let back up what I say, I hope this link works.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorCo ... »

If the link does not work, go to the Verizon coverage locator for America Choice or whatever pretty much (Data IE) and select KY. Lot of white there?????? (Means no digital Coverage!)

-Z

Please, before you make statements like Cingular owns all of their network, do your homework. Cingular does have roaming agreements. One place in particular is Virginia. This doesnt take anything away from Cingular, but misinformation like this is what starts wars in here. Cingular has roaming agreements with Suncom and other companies. The coverage is still great, but it is not totally ours. As far as who is better, it will totally depend on where you travel.

exactly, In some of the Rural areas in the midwest they also have roaming agreements with cellular 1, because there are some markets that its just not smart to offer service in, but they need moderate coverage there.

BlueGuy said:
No See Cingular owns the entire GSM network.There were/are basically 3 National GSM carriers, ATTWS, Cingular, and T-Mobile, now cingular ate attws,and got their network, nad cingular rents it from Cingular.Also they owned tdma network they overlayed all their tdma digital towrers onto GSM, and plus what they got outta the ATTWS deal,

Caller ID is standard with Cingular and 2nd to none, also they have fast foward, for call forwarding- you buy a base to put your wireless into,and pay monthly fee, and you get basically free unlimited call forwarding!!!

Not to mention Verizon has to pay Qualcomm for every CDMA tower they own for licensing the techonology. Think of it like for every compute I...
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Your M2M will work ANYWHERE in the US, no matter who you are calling that has Cingular/ATT, or where you are calling from... No matter whose tower you are picking up, just as long as it is a tower in the US if you are on any GSM Nation plan

With a national plan, things like unlimited M2M, unlimited N&W, and free roaming apply everywhere. Whether it be on T-Mobile's network, Cingular's network, or any other company's network that your phone might be picking up on, it always applys.

if you are on a national family plan or a individual nation plan your m2m calling area is your HCA. so no matter what tower you are using and you are calling a cingular customer it will count as m2m.

Thanks for the explanations. So youll def recommend cingular over verizon? What are the main reasons? Do you work for cingular? Cingular is cheaper and they do have more phones i am interested in at this point.

My vote is for Cingular.

Largest digital network
True nationwide M2M, N&W, and free roaming
Wider selection of phones
Pricing
Largest M2M community
Rollover

Those are the key points that would make my decision.

I don't work for Cingular, but I don't know about the others.

Good luck.

Both companies are definitely seeking to expand their coverage considerably in the next year. However, things like upgrading their networks to EV-DO (Verizon) and WCDMA/HSDPA (Cingular) will keep them busy for the time being. From seeing how fast Cingular can affectively rollout new technology, I'm going to say that Cingular has the brighter future.

hence, the "take it for what it's worth"

this wasn't a survey meant to be released to the public. it was one that the wireless company actually wanted to know why people were leaving certain carriers. makes sense to know that information if you are trying to understand your competitiors' strengths.

Didn't the last JD Powers report rank T-Mobile and Verizon at the top for network quality in all markets while Cingular and Sprint PCS were in the middle or at the bottom? ATT and Nextel received the worst ratings if I remember correctly.