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Switching from TDMA to GSM.

yac

Oct 10, 2005, 2:19 PM
I had good service for many years with AT&T TDMA using a Nokia 5160. I was very happy with it until one afternoon this summer when I came home and found that my neighborhood no longer had TDMA service. Over several weeks I received a lot of misinformation about the problem form Cingular: “it’s a temporary problem and will be fixed soon” “there is no problem in your area – your phone has gone bad and can’t pick up a signal” (which in no way explains why I had a great signal other places, including the subway) “your phone is really old and must have gone bad – you need a new phone” (true, I needed a new phone, but not because the old one had stopped working.) Finally Cingular released a phone I was interested in buying (the Nokia 6102...
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SForsyth01

Oct 10, 2005, 2:33 PM
yac said:
I had good service for many years with AT&T TDMA using a Nokia 5160. I was very happy with it until one afternoon this summer when I came home and found that my neighborhood no longer had TDMA service. Over several weeks I received a lot of misinformation about the problem form Cingular: “it’s a temporary problem and will be fixed soon” “there is no problem in your area – your phone has gone bad and can’t pick up a signal” (which in no way explains why I had a great signal other places, including the subway) “your phone is really old and must have gone bad – you need a new phone” (true, I needed a new phone, but not because the old one had stopped working.) Finally Cingular released a phone I was intere
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cingularguy558

Oct 10, 2005, 3:45 PM
in my experience
GSM is inferior to TDMA with call clarity. GSM may have more features, but the call clarity isnt all that great. i would suggest looing for a new digital carrier in your area (Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, what ever works better) because CDMA is practically the same thing as TDMA, it just has differnt ways of transfering calls from tower to tower (there are more ways they differ). the sound quiality is overall better with CDMA even compared to TDMA.

i would suggest Verizon because they seem to be very dependable(i know people that have it and they would never switch from it), and i would leave Sprint as a second choice(i know they arent as dependable and as clear as Verizon, my dad has Sprint for his buisness phone and ...
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RUFF1415

Oct 10, 2005, 6:32 PM
Where do you live?

All of this could be the farthest from the truth where I'm at. I don't think that's the best advice for everyone.
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cingularguy558

Oct 10, 2005, 6:49 PM
i live in south nj
in some places gsm will have more service, but in more places gsm will have no service. i was in gloucester teh other day and TDMA had full service(my friend still has a TDMA) and i had none(i ahve GSM). where i am it really doesnt matter, they're pretty much equal. but the verizon part is true they are by far better than gsm or tdma, here atleast
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RUFF1415

Oct 10, 2005, 7:22 PM
That explains a bit. Verizon's headquarters are in New Jersey, so it would only make sense that they're going to concentrate on making sure their own service works best there.

I read that you were only 17 in the Verizon forum, and I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that you haven't traveled enough to know the extent of each company's coverage first hand.

Cingular's GSM and Verizon's CDMA networks are pretty equal more places than not. Of course there will be areas when Verizon exceeds Cingular, and you'll also have areas when Cingular exceeds Verizon. Overall it's pretty much an even balance between their network coverage.

Addressing the voice quality of each technology, I believe that they're too close to call. It's no...
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WonkotheSane

Oct 13, 2005, 3:45 PM
Actually, technologically TDMA and GSM are more similar. They both allow many users to use one tower by issuing time slots for transmission. CDMA issues a code to each phone. The code is overlayed on your digital signal. Everyone using a tower transmits at any time, and the tower uses the code to sort the data out. All three technologies are pretty much equal in this regard (although many will argue that point). The real difference is tower management: where they put them, how much capacity they have and what frequency they use. It's odd that you would see such a difference between GSM and TDMA with the same carrier. When switching from TDMA to GSM, a carrier first adds the new GSM equipment to their old towers. Now that GSM has b...
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sangyup81

Oct 14, 2005, 3:37 PM
Actually, there are some towers that are GSM only.
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sangyup81

Oct 12, 2005, 1:27 PM
I'm a Cingular Rep at an Authorized Dealer in Fairfax (22032), and they've allowed TDMA customers to migrate early in this Market.

The Nokia 6102 is inferior to the Nokia 6010 and 3220 in reception. In fact, you'll never get the best reception if you insist on a flip phone.
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SForsyth01

Oct 12, 2005, 2:38 PM
sangyup81 said:
In fact, you'll never get the best reception if you insist on a flip phone.


How do you figure that? I have had both bar phones and flip phones since 1997 and I have ALWAYS gotten better reception on my flip phones. The only phone I have ever had that beat all of the other flips is my Sony Ericsson S710a.
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sangyup81

Oct 14, 2005, 3:42 PM
Perhaps it's a market thing that can explain why we are experiencing different things? My solution to my customers who activated before the 30-day on a Samsung or LG is to give them a Nokia 6010 or 3120. They only come back to tell me what a world of difference it is. 🙄
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yac

Oct 14, 2005, 2:38 PM
I probably got my phone down the street from you (the “company” store in Fairfax.) I didn’t have any contract problems since I have been out of contract for a long time. I went to that store because I had good prior experiences there, and because I was told I had to go to Cingular directly to “migrate”. It used to be an AT&T store and they used to be very helpful. Even though some of the same people are still there, things are not the same. When I returned my first 6102 I tried to get advice on whether another phone would be better, but no luck. The guy just handed me a replacement for the same phone. Seems to be better but still not great, which is why I asked for advice here.

Sounds like the consensus is that the problem is p...
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ChaosBleeds44

Oct 14, 2005, 3:12 PM
I was there today too.
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sangyup81

Oct 14, 2005, 3:39 PM
The Main Street store? They are 100x nicer than the Arlington Blvd store from what I hear. I get people who come into my store telling me what A-Holes they were at that one so they decided to try mine out. My dealer is called Worldwide Communications btw.
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ChaosBleeds44

Oct 14, 2005, 5:02 PM
The main street one. I used to go to the Arlington Blvd one, as you said they are A-holes.
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