HunterGreen

Hi all,

Does anybody here have any experiences with cell phone coverage in northeast Ohio, through AT&T? Especially with a European bought triband GSM mobile phone (Nokia 3100)?

ETA: or experiences anywhere in the US with a European bought triband mobile phone.

Thanks in advance!

Elaine

cathy22w

Are you thinking of any experiences in particular? What I mean is -did you want general information or are you having a problem with your plan or something.

'Scuse ignorance!

Ash UK/US

Are you planning on bringing a triband phone with you? Not sure if this will apply but... I have T-mobile (tri band phone bought in the US) my sister has T-mobile (tri band phone bought in the UK) On my last trip over we switched sim cards to see if they would work in each others phones... they would not.

Ash

HunterGreen

Well I'm planning on getting a triband cell phone, and the plan I'm going to use is Orange (Netherlands), they have a roaming agreement with AT&T (US), and coverage in the areas I need it.
What that means is I should be able to use the same phone without any alterations in both the NL and the US.
I'm just curious if it really works.

Elaine

bc1

Ash, just because the sim cards didn't work in each others phones doesn't mean the phones cant be used in each others countries. Hope that makes sense

Odd's are your are sim-locked to your particular provider so you cant take the discounted phone you got from your provider and use it with another provider.

They'll generally unlock them for you (usually for a fee) after you've had service with them for a given period. Of course you may have had tri-band phones that are not the same tri-bands (see below)

To the OP:

Unfortunately what is called tri-band in the UK/Europe/Most of the world is not necessarily the same tri-bands that are used in the US.

Most US triband models are GSM 850/1800/1900 mHz while most of the rest of the world is GSM 900/1800/1900 mHz. To make it more confusing 800 and 850 are used interchangeably in the US descriptions - they mean the same thing.

Check the cell provider details for the area you're going to be in. If they're predominately GSM 1900 then you should be ok. If they're 800/850 then your euro phone will do you no good.

There are some quad band phones out there that'll do the job anywhere like the Motorola V600 and V525.

BritGuyTN

I bought 2 Uk triband phones over - an ericsson t68 and a sonyericsson p800 (both unlocked)

both worked straight off with a att wireless simcard

att have been bought by cingular (who just sold part of their network to tmobile)

i think you will be fine, but YMMV

cathy22w

YMMV?

Ash UK/US

Yeah... I could understand them doing that.

Ash

Ash UK/US

Do you get a good rate for making/receiving calls that way? you might want to consider the cost too.

Ash

HunterGreen

Yep, it's both GSM 1900... I should be set then. YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary, I assume?!

Britguy, Orange actually have an agreement with both AT&T and Cingular, and both cover 'my' area, although AT&T seemed to cover it a bit better.... I guess if they took over AT&T they also took over their area? Last summer T-mobile didn't work in this area.

Ash, the rates aren't bad. I was actually expecting it to be more. I won't be using it too much in the US anyway, just for sending the occasional picture to the folks back here, and the odd phonecall. Mind you, this is for a vacationing trip, not for moving here just yet.

Thanks all for the info!

Elaine

BritGuyTN

- yes

receiving and making calls with the UK orange sim card will be horrifically expensive - I know because i got a 650 GBP bill for a two week stay a couple of years back - it may have got cheaper

t mobile is the smallest operator over here with the smallest network

with the recent acquisition i see no reason not to go with att/cingular - their customer service has long wait times but they usually sort things pretty well

i think coverage will be fine - you can swap between roaming partners in any case

HunterGreen

I just returned from my visit to Ohio yesterday, and wanted to follow up on this. I ended up getting a Siemens SL55 phone and it worked perfectly. It automatically switched from one network to another and I had no problems at all. Very pleased!

Elaine

James Box

Cingular customer service has sucked for us. We get different stories from whoever we talk to at CS and none of them has sorted it out to our satisfaction. Namely that they made us to give them a deposit for 2 phones as we didn't have a good enough credit rating and now refuse to acknowledge that we gave them any money. It was supposed to be returned to us after 1 year of service making payments on time.

snorkmaiden

I looked up the consumer reports and Verizon get the best score in pretty much all areas, particularly their customer service.

"Consider Verizon first. The company, which commands nearly one-fourth of the cell-phone market, has consistently topped our Ratings. If Verizon provides service where you need it, check its calling plans. Although its rates are not the cheapest (see our February 2004 report on Cell-phone plans), they are competitive. Remember, too, that Verizon was not always dramatically better than its competitors in our survey." www.Consumerreports.org


I still have the useless Go Phone (AT & T) but am about to get a contract. AT & T have been rubbish. Several times now they have billed me twice on the same day and when you ring them, they pass you around and around, with each person claiming no knowledge of what you are talking about or how it could possibly have happened.

Bryan Kellar

[QUOTE=snorkmaiden]I looked up the consumer reports and Verizon get the best score in pretty much all areas, particularly their customer service.

"Consider Verizon first. The company, which commands nearly one-fourth of the cell-phone market, has consistently topped our Ratings. If Verizon provides service where you need it, check its calling plans. Although its rates are not the cheapest (see our February 2004 report on Cell-phone plans), they are competitive. Remember, too, that Verizon was not always dramatically better than its competitors in our survey." www.Consumerreports.org

/QUOTE]
At least in several places on the west coast, where I have used cell phones, I have found Verizon to have the best coverage network -- to the point where I would not consider a slightly cheaper plan elsewhere.

My (grown kids) son has an AT&T phone that works neither at his home or my office, both in commercial places in Portland, Oregon. I have great service, his is spotty, and have seen the same type of results in Seattle, San Francisco, and Vancouver, BC. We have checked out his phone itself, and another person I know who has AT&T service has similar results on her phone.

Our daughter has T-Mobile service -- Her coverage area is better but not quite as good as Verizon.

One difference (big for me) is that while Verizon and T-Mobile are both good in the cities, I can count on the Verizon phone to be useable in more smaller towns around here -- places where the other companies don't even claim to have service. Since I travel around a bit, that is useful to me.

Bryan