So I've been with Cingular for 5 years now, had all kinds of different phones (SE, Motorolla) but continue to have dropped calls all over the place (North Raleigh, on the Beltline, on Kaplan, walking through tunnels...basically everywhere)
They seem to be the cheapest per minute but they seem to have the worst quality too...I'm not sure if this is due to GSM technology or Cingular itself.

Everyone I talk to on Verzion says they barely ever have dropped calls, and have a good signal all over Raleigh. Anyone on Verzion have different experiences than this? I did a scan of past threads and didn't find Verizon customers complaining of bad service, but there are a bunch of pissed off Cingular customers.

Any info comparing these two providers in our area would be great

8/24/2005 1:52:00 PM

it today's world it is more about the phone and less about the company - especially with the ability to get "free roaming" with most providers

8/24/2005 1:52:47 PM

I know verizon has a lot of dead spots and places IN raleigh where you fallback to analog roam. My wife was previously with them. At least for the places we frequent in the triangle, cingular is solid.

8/24/2005 1:54:19 PM

I've got Verizon and I find their digital network works pretty much all over Raleigh. If you go east, you go to their extended network (no additional charges).

All-in-all, I had sprint, hated it, switched to verizon although they were more expensive... but verizon has treated me well... except my current phone bill of $146.00

I have 900 anytime minutes... yeah, I used 1064.

Ass ramage.

8/24/2005 1:57:54 PM

good luck walking through tunnels with any service

8/24/2005 2:03:15 PM

I've had Cingular for about 5 years now too - I get great coverage, especially after the AT&T Wireless merger.

Cingular-to-Cingular and rollover minutes rule

8/24/2005 2:16:32 PM

my friends that have verizon for the most part like it and they seem to have less dropped calls than me and service in more rural places. im still with cingular becaues of the rollover minutes and because i can switch phones so easy with the SIM card

8/24/2005 2:18:49 PM

my old roommate would have to walk out of our house on verizon and walk to the end of the driveway to make calls

if i didnt want cingular verizon would be my choice, but i am happy

8/24/2005 2:43:59 PM

Quote :

"I know verizon has a lot of dead spots and places IN raleigh where you fallback to analog roam."

so does this mean I can actually roam and incur additional charges with Verizon even though I'm within the "coverage zone"?

Quote :

"because i can switch phones so easy with the SIM card"

whats involved with switching phones with Verizon? Would I have have to call the customer center and give them my new ESM number or something like that? I assume they don't charge or anything...I do like to buy phones off ebay from time to time and switch them out.


If I did sign up with Verizon, wouldn't I have some sort of grace period: a period of time when I could give the phone back, get my money back and have my contact released?

8/24/2005 3:00:05 PM

coming from sprint, verizon kicks as. i like it a lot and always have signal

8/24/2005 3:01:21 PM

Quote :

"whats involved with switching phones with Verizon? Would I have have to call the customer center and give them my new ESM number or something like that? I assume they don't charge or anything...I do like to buy phones off ebay from time to time and switch them out. "

I'm not sure with verizon but i know on alltel which is a similar network i just took them the old and new phones and they'd take care of it for free

8/24/2005 3:05:58 PM

Your better off not wasting your time.

Here's whats going to happen:

1) Switch, prolly get a nice free phone.
2) Extreme satisfaction.
3) Try and convince yourself all is well amid the same Cellular carrier bullshit to continue extreme satisfaction.
4) Switch back to cingular or go to Sprint.

Its all the same.

8/24/2005 3:07:02 PM

people that change services usually just get a better phone and the network doesn't have much to do with it - people are too stupid to realize this - rinse - repeat

8/24/2005 3:28:15 PM

When I get a new phone with Verizon they put put boths phones up to this little machines and all your contact info is transfered. Pic, preferences and those type things werent able to transfer. If you have to get the contact info transfered because you bought another phone not from them, they charge you $10 so says the price list they have.

They had to send me a replacement phone recently and I could call Verizon and they could put your # into the phone for you.. I dont know if they would have just talked me through it or done the change by signals... but I just went to the store so I could get all my contact info transfered... it may be different though if you didnt buy it through them.

8/24/2005 3:44:23 PM

Quote :

" If I did sign up with Verizon, wouldn't I have some sort of grace period: a period of time when I could give the phone back, get my money back and have my contact released?"

30 days prorated.

Quote :

"whats involved with switching phones with Verizon?"

call CS and give them your IMEI.

8/24/2005 8:14:42 PM

^ i believe IMEI is a GSM thing. CDMA uses ESN

8/24/2005 8:51:54 PM

My family has cingular and my wife has an old ass SIM card from Bellsouth DCS...yeah, old. A few weeks ago her phone started saying SUNCOM instead of cingular. We got our phone bill today and noticed a charge of $134 when it's normally $61-$63.

We have a pretty kick ass plan. Free mobile to mobile, 900 anytime minutes, plus rollover, vm all that jazz...but it's a NC/SC plan. She was charged for roaming from Charlotte to Charlotte. I called and bitched, and the nice customer service person said they'd credit the account and made a note because I told her I'll be getting the problem fixed again next month since this bill only had 4 days from Aug 1-4th. If we upgrade her SIM she said that may take care of it, but otherwise we're to get a new plan. I had to go to the phone settings and select only cingular network instead of auto to stop the madness.

Cingular sucks but they are cheap.

8/24/2005 9:09:43 PM

i've been on verizon for awhile now, and even before i got my new phone i had hella better service than a friend on cingular. now that i have my v710, i've been very few places that i didn't have a full signal, and reception only dropped off slightly down in clayton, and even though it was the extended network i still had a clear and consistent signal.

always been clear, and amusingly enough the only times the call has dropped was when i was talking to someone on cingular.

[Edited on August 24, 2005 at 10:00 PM. Reason : ]

8/24/2005 9:59:42 PM

so from the responses I'm reading here, it really does sound like I can look forward to better service with Verizon


I will probably end up getting a phone off Amazon.com, they have some pretty sweet phones for free after rebate, seems alot cheaper than going through Verizon or Best Buy or whatever. I figure if I go through Amazon that would make it harder for me to get out of my contact and get my money back for the phone if after using it for a while I get out...anyone have any experience with this?

8/25/2005 12:14:33 PM

This past Christmas I went the opposite direction. I went from Verizon to Cingular. I like Cingular's Nokia phones and it was going to be cheaper. TennisAngel and her family have Cingular so it's free to call them anytime. My only gripe is the damn call dropping in the oddest places and only for a few seconds. It's like I fall and out of wireless black holes.

8/25/2005 12:20:05 PM

Quote :

"My only gripe is the damn call dropping in the oddest places and only for a few seconds. It's like I fall and out of wireless black holes."

yeah thats why I'm switching, Verizon has pretty nice phones too

8/25/2005 6:22:01 PM

Quote :

"^ i believe IMEI is a GSM thing. CDMA uses ESN"

i dunno. i used sprint and they asked for IMEI whenever i switched phones.

IMEI is also a TDMA thing.

It's a bitch to get the ESN of a phone that isn't in english.

8/25/2005 7:06:25 PM