<p>Just wanted to know what companies seem to work the best at Berkeley. Like I heard from a friend that at Princeton, only Verizon works the best indoors since the thick walls. Does Berkeley have a specific company that seems to work the best in-doors and out? Thanks!</p>
<p>Cingular .</p>
<p>Cingular? Thanks, that means I definitely have to switch since I'm on Tmobile right now... lol</p>
<p>Tmobile is generally fine. It doesn't work in the mini suites (concrete and steel) and in some underground buildings. If you like it, stick with it. If you want to change, that's fine.</p>
<p>The way my dad makes it sound, many companies use the same cellular towers as other companies. Overall, there seems to be little difference between major services. My friends who have verizon seem to have slightly better service generally, particular in the mini suites (they actually work!).</p>
<p>my general understanding is that Cingular is best in Norcal and T-Mobile is best in Socal..</p>
<p>I think the areas are too broad to think about in such terms. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>Doesn't consumer reports have something? or some service?</p>
<p>Cingular and Tmobile either share all of their towers, or most of them</p>
<p>Cingular has free razr phones... winner!</p>
<p>lipanconjuring is right. In California and Nevada, T-Mobile uses all Cingular towers. So, same network.</p>
<p>All I can say is that I've never had a problem with Verizon service. Inside, outside, in an elevator shaft, it's all good.</p>
<p>If you're going to be stuck in the basement of buildings, get a CDMA provider like Verizon.</p>
<p>GSM providers like Cingular, T-Mobile do not work in the basements of many buildings like Etch and Soda.</p>
<p>I have two students starting Berkeley in the fall. Should they keep their Sprint accounts?</p>
<p>DarkPyr0, what's the difference between GSM and CDMA?</p>
<p>I end up posting the same things over and over.</p>
<p>So here's my post from 2005 on cell phones: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=80537&highlight=cdma%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=80537&highlight=cdma</a></p>
<p>DRab: The main differences are frequencies (which frequencies the signals are carried on), bandwidth (how much data can you push on those frequencies, cell carriers are pushing selling data services so you can download ringtones, videos, stream news, EDGE, etc), and how calls are divided.</p>
<p>Each cell tower can handle at least 50 calls, the technology (GSM and CDMA) decides how those calls are handled.</p>
<p>GSM is built upon TDMA, so the calls are divided into time slices.
CDMA calls are divided into slices with codes.</p>
<p>There is a lot more info on this at HowStuffWorks</p>
<p>Ah the CDMA and GSM things get complicated for me... But I didn't know that Tmobile and Cingular use the same towers O_O Wow, now that's not what the cell phone companies lead you to believe. Thanks this gives me a lot of things to think about...</p>
<p>See with my family we've had all the services once in our life: ATT, Verizon, Sprint, Tmobile (except Nextel and Cingular which combined with ATT?)</p>
<p>So now I guess since CDMA has better reception even underground or in elevators that seems better, (also they have the cuter Asian phones if I'm willing to be broke for like 2 months), but then our experience with Verizon was not good... Whereas Cingular seems to be offering a lot of good deals on phones except for the two year agreement and ... =_= huge jump between 39.99 to 59.99 plans.... </p>
<p>Too bad none of these things come with a : THIS IS THE RIGHT ANSWER lol</p>
<p>Cingular and T-Mobile no longer share towers, that agreement ended a while back.</p>
<p>My personal suggestion:
If you want reception all over, choose GSM (Cingular, T-Mobile)
If you want reception inside or underground, choose CDMA (Verizon, Sprint).</p>
<p>As for what to do after that:
Go buy a phone off of eBay or use your current one.
Take the phone and walk into your carrier's store and say you want a line. No contract.</p>
<p>You'll pay a premium for the phone because there's no contract, but honestly, it's a lot better to not be bounded by a 2 year contract.</p>
<p>If you don't like the service, cancel it and sell the phone to someone else or get a new carrier without a contract.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Latest News</p>
<pre><code>said by T-Mobile Press Release:BELLEVUE, Washington - 05/25/2004 T-Mobile USA, Inc. ("T-Mobile USA"), the U.S. operating subsidiary of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG ("T-Mobile International"), the mobile communications subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, today announced it has entered into agreements with Cingular Wireless LLC ("Cingular") to terminate their wireless network sharing joint venture and for T-Mobile USA to acquire 100% ownership of the shared networks in California and Nevada for $2.5 billion.
[/quote]
</code></pre>
<p>Yeah, I guess. I don't know what the timeline is for ending the actual use of the towers, but T-Mobile phones still state that they same networks in CA and Nevada in their instruction booklets.</p>
<p>i jus noticed the 2004 date in that press release. Time to get a new phone? :)</p>
<p>Your phone doesn't have anything to do with it. The technology doesn't change.</p>
<p>The phone only matters if you have an old AT&T wireless phone (TDMA, pre-GSM technology), and you're still using it on Cingular's network.</p>
<p>These phones cause extra overhead network wise and Cingular wants to get rid of them. If you still have them and still want a contract, Cingular will give yo ua deal to upgrade your old phone; in order for this to work though, you need the old AT&T phone and you must still have a grandfathered AT&T plan.</p>
<p>someone posted a few posts back about sprint. don't get sprint/nextel at berkeley. it sucked ( i had it this year) and now i switched to cingular.</p>