| Author |
According to ATT tomorrow is the day... |
highrez
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: 3
From: Seattle, WA
PM |
Deric,
First there are many cingular towers at least where I live. Note that I have sims from t-mobile cingualr and att. My ATT sim is unable to roam onto any cingular towers. Even when I manually select a cingular base station using an att sim its unable to roam. Infact cingular and t-mobile have o's crossed out next to them indicating that I'm unable to register on that base station.
I'm glad they're building towers together, but its not helpig att customers. We can't roam onto cingular's network but cingular customers can roam onto att's - no matter what the sales exec tells you. | |
|
SquiSh1717
Joined: Nov 24, 2002
Posts: 2
PM |
There are actually only a few spots in the US where ATTWS users can roam onto Cingulars network. Santa Cruz, CA, portions of north eastern GA, Western portions of South Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. Cingular and ATTWS are still in negotiations as to what areas they are opening up to each other, but bear in mind that there is no soft handoff between base stations, your call will drop, and you'll also be subject to roaming charges. Just my 2 cents worth!!! |
Deric
Joined: Oct 06, 2002
Posts: 10
PM |
hmmm... where to begin...
yes, T-mobile has highly aggresive plans, and honestly I'm not sure how they do it, but I'm sure that once the marketing people realize that they're a major player in the GSM game (instead of the joke in wireles overall) that we'll be a bit more competitive. I'm not familiar with T-zone, and yes ATT is going WCDMA soon
okay, I'm not in michigan... and yes, we are a bit more arrogant than your average wireless salesperson, However, I couldn't care less if you sign a contract or not. Filling customers heads with crap is a byproduct of no tknowing what you're talking about, people have a bad habit of not paying attention to what is said in meetings, e-mail's etc. unfortunately even in my store.
Thanks for letting me know about my Cingular snafu, as that's more info I can give my customers.
Again, I'm not a mouthpeice for AT&T, but I know they don't deserve a lot of the flak they get on this board.
Remember. AT&T is just starting in GSM, and that's where our money's going now.. it's getting better.
|
highrez
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: 3
From: Seattle, WA
PM |
Deric;Squish,
Thanks for the updates. For me where I live in Washington state cingular can roam allover the state onto att (as I mentioned before) and this roaming does NOT drop calls. I've done this many a time. So if ATT customers are being dropped roaming to cingular (in the few places its allowed), well thats just another example of ATT customers getting the shaft. 
I've TRIED to not be so hard on ATT, Deric - but its HARD. Customer Service has just made me mad one too many times. When I went from my cdpd service to a T68 (yeah, i was using a real old phone) on the GSM network I did so because it was a tri-band phone. I was going to take a trip out of country and noticed ATT did not have a romaing agreement in the country I was going to - no problem, I'll just grab an international sim. But nope, my phones locked. Well ATT HAS to understand my situation right, I mean being with them sice 97 (i think) and having signed a new one year service agreement MEANT that I'd be with them for a year longer so providing the NCK wouldn't be a problem for them right? I guess I was wrong cause CS (they should call it customer disservice cause they didnt service me!) flat out refused to give me the NCK. Needless to say I had to pay to unlock my phone that I had already payed a ton for (since att later started giving t68's away).
How can they call it international phone if I can only roam in like 10 countries?? The salesman sold it as being able to work in any GSM country - he was right, as soon as I removed ATT's lock it did. Needless to say there's a T-Mob sim in my phone now. I prolly would have put up with ATT poor network, poor customer service, and poor roaming agreements if I didn't have to unlock the phone myself to use it for what the salesman sold it for (being an international phone!), but ATT has lost my respect, and unless they come out with some amazing feature I can't live without I can't imagine I'll be using their network again (except for when my cingular (yeah I have a lot of sims) sim roams onto their network). |
SquiSh1717
Joined: Nov 24, 2002
Posts: 2
PM |
actually, ATTWS has roaming agreements in over 220 countries worldwide, but depending on which country you were going to visit, we may not have an agreement with the carrier in the area. And please don't give customer service (or disservice as you call it) a hard time, they dont have access to the NCK codes and never will. The only reason they are refusing to give NCK codes is because most of them dont know what they are, and ATTWS has made a company decision (for whatever reason) not to give out the NCK codes. If you want to harass someone, harass the stockholders, they are the ones that shape ATTWS.
Just my 2 cents!!!! |
Deric
Joined: Oct 06, 2002
Posts: 10
PM |
@Squish
You work for ATT too?? Awesome...
I know this is not the thread for it but I just found out... P800 in march!
WOOHOO!!! |
abudinsz
Joined: Jun 08, 2002
Posts: 63
From: USA
PM |
I missed the part where ATT has better rate plans than T-Mobile... the only plan I can think of is possibly the unlimited minutes plan... other than T-Mob kicks ATT's ass all over the place. Especially when it comes to GSM coverage and roaming agreements with Cingular and a number of other smaller local providers... and when I mean roaming agreement I mean FREE roaming nationwide.
Ps. Also the .99c / min international roaming is cool too... although I prefer to buy a local prepaid SIM card in europe.... which leads me to my last point of T-Mobile unlocking any phone on request in a matter of days while ATT pretty much doesn't unlock period! |
robertk232
Joined: Jul 26, 2002
Posts: 22
From: Portland Oregon
PM |
Deric, so att will have p800 in march? price??? |
GTakacs
Joined: Nov 21, 2002
Posts: 68
From: USA, Fort Worth, TX
PM, WWW
|
Abudinsz,
Could not have said it any better! T-mobile rocks! All the other providers are playing catch-up in today's GLOBAL communication. I give cudos for ATT for at least realizing that GSM is the way to go, the other idiots at Verizon and Sprint are still stuck in their "American only egoistic CDMA-better-than-TDMA crap".
I've been with T-mobile for 18 months and I'm not planning on chaning over to anything else anytime soon. Just name ONE other provider in the US (or anyhere else in the world for that matter) that unlocks your phone for free, gives you $125 equipment discount toward a new phone after 15 months of service, lets you roam all over the US for free, lets you roam to Europe and call ANYWHERE in the world (to the restaurant next door, back home or even to the middle of Africa) for 99 cents/minute. Oh and they have a fully working GPRS network for a measly $3 a month that you can use even when traveling to Canada or Europe (roaming charges of 1-1.5 cents per KB apply).
so my guess is that T-mobile is definetely the best deal in the US and all the others should really pull their pants up and pull their heads out of their butts and start realizing that T-mobile is kicking their but in a big way.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! |
highrez
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: 3
From: Seattle, WA
PM |
Another cool thing I found out about tmob was their prepaid cards. When ATT finally pissed me off enough, I grabbed a card from the local shop. I can't say it was cheep, but I gues $50 with 125 mins was ok (don't have the company tmob sim anymore;(). Anyways, I had to call the UK to fix get my account fixed so I could help a canadian friend unlock his phone. I was pretty surprised that the prepaid sim allowed me to make international calls. And the activation time on it was AWESOME! The sales lady (who was better looking than any ATT sales rep I've come accross  , scanned it gave it to me I put it in my T68 and like 10 seconds later had an SMS with my phone number. It was pretty awesome in comparison with the DAYS I've had to wait with ATT - first with my Nokia 6162, then with my T68. ATT was my first cell company I stayed with em for years, but I've just gotten too annoyed. The little things really matter. |
bigdawg
Joined: Jan 10, 2003
Posts: 0
From: New Jersey
PM |
Hey Folks,
I may be new here but I'm not new to the wirless industry. Although true that T-mobile has the largest GSM network in the US do you really believe that will be the case forever? In just 18 months AT&T has built a GSM network that covers about 75% of what Tmobiles covers now and lets not forget who has the largerst TDMA network in the US which is a lot larger than Tmobiles GSM network. If you guessed AT&T you would be correct. AT&T will surpass Tmobile in network size for GSM by end of 2003. Tmobile does have better International rates because they are owned by DT who has wireless groups all over the world. That is their one benefit. Rate plans on AT&T for domestic use are much better than Tmobile, you just have to learn how to compare them. Until just recently, Voicestream(tmobile) was losing money at a scary rate which is why DT was looking to sell them but just as it seemed as though Tmobile was gonna go through another sale and another name change, they posted a profit for 3rd quarter 2002 so the powers that be at DT decided to hold on for a little while longer. I love the fact that so many of you show such loyalty and dedication to Tmobile as I'm sure they have earned it but don't be so quick to judge others. AT&T and Cingular are on the move,AT&T has the drive and the $$$ to continue to build the best GSM network in the US, when you count in the affiliates such as western wirless, Suncom, CBW, and Edge wireless,3 of which launch GSM in 2003, you will found out that AT&T will have the largest and best GSM network in the US. |
T68iFan
Joined: Oct 18, 2002
Posts: 214
From: Los Angeles
PM |
Hi Bigdawg and welcome to Esato.
You seem to have a good idea of what's going on with AT&T and the other SP's. I'm glad you're here to share your info.
I don't hate AT&T, but I have some issues with the way they do things ( see my comments on http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=17663&forum=31 ).
I agree that their rate plans are quite good. And theire GSM signal is usually good for me. But they must improve in a few key areas before I become loyal.
I guess my main issues involve freedom. Freedom to access any web site. Freedom to download my own content (backgrounds, tones, etc.). Freedom to use all of a device's features (MMS). Freedom to upgrade my firmware. Freedom to use foreign SIMs when traveling in countries where AT&T has no agreement with local operators.
Sure, at this time AT&T allows me to access any wap site and download any content. But even that seems to be changing. I can understand if AT&T has experiencing delays in launching MMS, but in the meantime why can't they allow access to 3rd party MMS services like nowmms.com? Regarding SIM locking, they should at least make unlocking an option for those who are willing to pay a small fee. And how come European and Asian SE owners can easily update their phones' software at the local phone shop while U.S. users are basically screwed?
I would be the biggest AT&T fanboy if they would fix these problems.
Hehe, sorry for the rant. Again, welcome to Esato.
|
highrez
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: 3
From: Seattle, WA
PM |
I'm in the same boat as T68iFan. I don't hate attws, I hate their policies and customer service. They should supply their customers who will be traveling to europe (or in my case South America!) the NCK so they can use foreign sims. They should have better network coverage (i know they're working on it, but don't you think T-Mobile is also working on expanding their network too? Its not like the Germans to sleep on the job). When I buy a new phone and expensive service it shouldn't take a day for my phone to start working. I should be able to send international SMS's. If Cingular customers in my area can roam to ATT, whilst in general Cingular has better coverage of their own, doesn't it seem reasonable that I ass an ATT customer should be able to roam to cingular? I should be able to send MMS's. I shouldn't have to wait a couple of days for SMS's to finally be delivered. I shouldn't have to pay an additional monthly fee to be able to call europe - they're already making a killing in the perminute fees!
Now I should say here that Deric, Squish the rest of the ATT reps that are hangin' around this board - THANK YOU. I'm not mad at you, and I appreciate you guys being here to listen to the complaints of ATT subscribers, and hopefully report that info back. That said, for me ATT absolutely sucked. They didn't get my phone activated for a day (moving from their cdpd/tdma network to GSM), they screwed up my billing, I wasn't able to use my phone last time I went to south america, I had to unlock my phone myself, oh and to reitterate the obvious the coverage was terrible.
Sure maybe ATT's coverage will get better, but right now tmob works great for me, infact BETTER than my 6162 did on ATT's CDPD/TDMA network - and thats saying a lot. Even if their coverage did get better the question remains: would I switch back? Probbably not if their billing is still messed, international sms's still don't work, sms delivery time continues to suck, mms remains a pipe dream, sim activation continues to take days, they continue to charge customers monthly to call europe, they won't provide customers with their nck, sales reps lie about coverage, and especially if (like I heard rumors about) they lock their sims to only work with att locked phones. If they do that, well then theirs no chance I or many others will ever switch back to AT&T.
So take those complaints more as suggestions, the things you could do to make current att customers not order cables from europe (and pay three times the value of the cable in shipping and money transfer :/ ) to unlock their phones so they can join their GSM brethern with coverage. Afterall, if despite your coverage you were the best company because you cared about your customers you'd have a whole lot easier time trying to sell the network deficiency as only temporary.
My $0.02 - though in the cell phone world that won't even send an SMS. |
bigdawg
Joined: Jan 10, 2003
Posts: 0
From: New Jersey
PM |
Well, I understand where highrez is coming from. the problem with GSM in the US is money. People wnat to have Their phones unlocked. They want this, they want that. Always remeber that despite the fact that T-mobile(ominipoint,voicestream) or what ever their name is or will be tomorrow, the simple truth is tha here in the US GSM is new. Why would AT&T buy a phone from Nokia, in this case we'll use the 8390. Why would AT&T spend $255 per unit and sell it to their current or new customers for $100.00 and then on top of the $155.00 lost on equipment, pay out the commission to the dealers who sold it in the first place, allow you to unlock it and use that very same phone on another carriers network. $$$$$ money is the issue. Your head would explode if you knew what the carriers paid to carry some of these phones. MMS is not a pipedream, It's coming sooner than you think. Remember when I said that GSM in the US was new, well same thing with MMS. In order to offer MMS, AT&T had complete the construction of the GSM network, with that being done(except a few markets) AT&T has been getting ready to launch MMS( Gotta learn to crawl before you can walk). The phones that offer MMS are available in larger numbers so get ready. |
T68iFan
Joined: Oct 18, 2002
Posts: 214
From: Los Angeles
PM |
So the next question is...
How much will it cost to send or receive an MMS on AT&T? Will the KB be deducted from my data plan, or will I have to pay an additional 0.50 charge for each MMS in addition to the data fee?
Also, do you think AT&T will allow inter-operator and international MMS traffic? Will I be able to use my mLife account to send an MMS to my T-Mobile buddy, and vice-versa? | |
|
Access the forum with a mobile phone via esato.mobi
|
Posted: 2003-01-03 22:13
