vB Easy Archive - ATT GSM Phone advice

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ATT GSM Phone advice
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Posted by: gallowaystx

I am thinking of switching from TDMA to GSM in the Philly area, from what I understand the coverage is very good. I would like to have some advice as to what phone to purchase from ATT. The 7210 is out of my price range, but I'm considering the t720 and the Siemens phones. I WAS interested in the t68 but have read so many dreadful reviews that i am very turned off now, not to mention the price drop as an indication. Can anyone tell me which phones seem to have the best balance of cool features and indoor RF?

Posted by: kromix

Not that my reply helps but I am in the Miami, Florida area, and recently "migrated" from TDMA to GSM... I Saved money by buying my SIM Card off ebay they charge you alot more for one... In my area I could and did keep the same phone # and am very pleased with the service so far, far better than TDMA and GSM expands my phone horizons, S150 on AT&T , woohoo

Posted by: rayhook

Another option, especially if you travel is to get the Siemens multimode phone. I just got it and am VERY pleased. The reception is far superior to my old TDMA phone (Nokia 8260), even when I am using TDMA. So you get the ability to use both.

Some find the navigation difficult but I find once you learn the ropes, it is quite nice.

Ray

Posted by: lek

I migrated about two weeks ago. So for it's been great. I live in University City area and the reception on my 8390 is great around the city (4 bars all the time outside and in some buildings). In my living room, the bars jumps up and down constantly and sometime loses signal (once it roam onto Cingular for a sec), but in my bedroom it works great (3-4 bars). I recently drove to North Jersey (Newark rea) this past weekend and had 4 bars the entire right on the NJ turrnpke. I haven't travel to the suburs yet. My roomate and brother just migrated yesterday and they got T68is and my brother phone already dropped a call, something that my hasn't done yet.

Posted by: rayhook

I just posted a messaged to the AT&T forum asking for more information about roaming and how to tell. I was very concerned that AT&T seems to take no responsibility for ensuring that the phone displays correct information about what network you are on and whether your are roaming.

I used to have SprintPCS and could ALWAYS tell whether I was in their network or not. Perhaps AT&T has some technical problems with getting the partner networks to interact properly, but it seems like they should solve it rather than "When in doubt, but the customer for the mistake"

My hope is that they will solve it. I like the new phone which has GREAT reception. Also, if I can get national service at a better price, that is great. OneRate is TOO expensive. If can get AT&T GSM where available or AT&T TDMA everywhere else, except where there is only analog, that is fine. If I run the risk of roaming on TDMA at a lot places or worse roaming and not knowing it, that is not acceptable.

I still have the choice of returning the phone and switching back to Sprint in Oct/Nov when my old plan expired.

Ray

Posted by: lost_rebel

Unless you do not travel, I would not get AT&T GSM unless I had a S46 pseudo-gait mobile that works on both GSM and TDMA. AT&T GSM coverage is very spotty and you will be SOL if you travel out of the AT&T range as they do not have roaming agreements with anyone. The battery life with the S46 is horrible and as mentioned the menus are difficult to learn but the mobile is sweet for areas where GSM is very limited.
IMHO I would recommend to switch to T-mo which has very respectable coverage and maybe go back to AT&T when their network matures.

Posted by: rayhook

I do have the S46. I have only had it a little over a week, but my experience with the battery has been very good. My reception has been a dramatic improvement over my old Nokia 8260 both on GSM and on TDMA. I actually travelled out of the state last weekend. Note that it stays in GSM if it is available. If AT&T GSM is not available, it goes to AT&T TDMA. Non-AT&T GSM or non-AT&T TDMA is a last resort.

Posted by: lost_rebel

Yeah, I had one for a week and took it back, switched to Tmo and am much happier. My S46 was on TDMA most of the time and if I locked it on GSM, it had no coverage except when I was in the Atlanta metro. I had to charge my battery once a day or more often because it went dead, now I would have thought it was defective and took it back except I had bought one for the wife as well and it did the same thing!. Conversely, now I go 2-3 days between charges, still have coverage most everywhere I go and have a ton of features. I will say for fishing, I miss the TDMA as there is no GSM coverage in the middle of the lake currently, but hey, no nagging wife either

Posted by: brockley

It sounds like you were in an area of spotty coverage which uses more battery life trying to find a signal. I too have the s46 but have since gotten a v66 (unlocked from t-mobile) and I am much happier with it than with the s46. Gsm reception is much better than even tdma on the s46. This is surprising since the tdma network has been in place for a long time. I will mainly use my v66 and take my s46 with me if I am traveling outside the state of california (where most of att gsm coverage is) so I can use the tdma network. The menus on the s46 are very confusing and I was not pleased with voice quality and the amount of dropped calls I was experiencing. I am looking to get a v60 soon and keep it or the v66 (whichever I like better) and then maybe in the next couple months get a color screen phone.

Posted by: rayhook

It looks like I have something to look forward to. As I noted earlier, I have the S46. In comparison to my Nokia 8260, it is a welcome change. The reception and voice quality is much better. At this point, I have to stay with a multimode phone and am too cheap to pay for another phone. I guess I will wait a year or so for the AT&T network GSM upgrade to be completed and stabilized, but the good news for me is that it is an improvement.

I have gotten used to the menus and find them okay... I guess I have learned too many different operating systems.. In fact, there are some nice aspects to the menus once you understand how they are laid out. I think the confusion comes from expectations based on other mobile phones. I say this to encourage anyone who might feel they need this phone but are concerned about the menus.

Posted by: Daeyen

I use primarily my S46 and the reception is superior to my T68, T28, & 8290... plus having the ability to use TDMA...

I don't use TDMA much, but when it's needed it's a great necessity... I know Ericsson is coming out with a competitor for the S46, the T62u GSM/TDMA so I'm curious to see how that'll work.

When it comes to the network displayed on the screen, over new years, I drove from Virginia, through maryland and PA into Ohio and pretty much around all the cities and major highway routes, I had either "AT&T Wireless" or "AT&T" (on TDMA), on the screen most of the way... Then from Ohio down I75 into KY I had AT&T TDMA through Cincy (manually) since AT&T GSM isn't there yet... And then TDMA all the way to Southern KY... Once off I95, and through one major town, I finally lost AT&T for the rest of my stay until I left... I still had TDMA roaming which I would've used if I had the Multi-band One Rate plan.

Once I left, I did see T-Mobile on the screen once, and in Tennessee I saw it switch to Cingular for a little while... I was never without some GSM for more than 30-40 minutes...

I'll stop rambling now...

Daeyen

Posted by: kodiak

I switched over to GSM about a week ago. Coverage is pretty good in most of the Silicon Valley, but I only get 20 - 40% signal in my apartment. It is fine for making calls (actually better than my TDMA phone with equivilent signal) but I had full signal pretty much every where with AT&T TDMA, even in the hills around my office. But the battery life is great (nokia 6310i) and the new features that moving to GSM afforded me are well worth it.

~dnm