Goodbye Dobson Cell (Cell One)...Hello AT&T

[Mr Tony]

Today AT&T bought Dobson Cellular who pretty much runs the Cellular One name. Saw the e-mail this morning. (I work for AT&T Mobility formerly Cingular formerly AT&T Wireless)

Here in MN Northern MN is Cell One...and I already talked to a buddy and he is pissed about this buy out.....why??

simple...Cell One has a $50 UNLIMITED minutes in MN plan.

So just a heads up if you have Cell One via Dobson...you'll soon be AT&T

 

[LER]

The BORG continues

 

[cybok0]

Out of all the cell phone companies I had, I liked AT&T the best. When my contract is up with Sprint I'll be going back to AT&T.

 

[Mr Tony]

Sprinyt works pretty good for me right now but soon I'll be switching to AT&T (employee plan)

Only thing I am worried about is this whole GSM thing. Other than Nextel every phone I have had either was TDMA or CDMA/PCS and they could go to the old network if need be. Hopefully the GSM one will allow me too also. There are some areas I go where its a podunk area so I need the old digital backup

 

[navychop]

Nope. Most, if not all (& I really think it's all), Cingular/AT&T GSM phones are GSM only. You'll have tri and even quad band, but they're all GSM, just different frequency bands.

GSM is digital. The old analog AMPS network is going away fast.

Yep- Nextel's iden system was a real winner, eh? NOT!

 

[Mr Tony]

Yep- Nextel's iden system was a real winner, eh? NOT!

Nextel worked fine in the Twin Cities...but when we went to the lake house you could always tell when the signal would go in the crapper..

Sun up....great signal
Sun down...signal in the crapper

 

[TheForce]

Iceberg- Not that you have to worry about this but in a very heavy usage area, GSM will fall apart. It uses slicing technology and the more users the lower the voice quality on the channel. as the fixed spectrum gets sliced smaller and smaller. I discovered the result of this during convention week in Las Vegas where the GSM phones (T-Mobile and Cingular ) would begin to suffer voice quality and worsening until the busiest time when you just could not make a call.
CDMA uses a different way to spread the spectrum using different access codes. In this case the background noise may increase but noise reduction technology added will keep that to a minimum. The net result is CDMA is a good technology that continues to work even in ever increasing call density for an area.

 

[navychop]

Nextel really had a limited service area. But that was the market they aimed at: Contractors that liked playing GI Joe with a walkie talkie, in large urban areas.

GSM and CDMA are variations on a theme. The entire world, with few exceptions, uses GSM.

 

[Ramy]

Alltel works really good in my area. It just depends on where you go. Nextel and At&t both sucked for where I go all the time. Alltel works all the places I need it to.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

Out of all the cell phone companies I had, I liked AT&T the best. When my contract is up with Sprint I'll be going back to AT&T.

You were probably on the AT&T cdma system. Mine was great for a good while after cingular bought AT&T. Then I upgraded and was forced to go to the Cingular GSM. Worst mistake.

There is no comparing AT&T of today with their old cdma. Or was it tdma?

Verizon kicks ass!

 

[Mr Tony]

AT&T used TDMA back then..Verizon was CDMA

 

[cybok0]

You were probably on the AT&T cdma system. Mine was great for a good while after cingular bought AT&T. Then I upgraded and was forced to go to the Cingular GSM. Worst mistake.

There is no comparing AT&T of today with their old cdma. Or was it tdma?

Verizon kicks ass!

I will never go back to Verizon, When I was over the road I paid extra for no roaming, but when I went over my minutes they charged me for roaming. I don't think that was right, So I went to Nextel.

I've had so many cell phone companies it's ridiculous.

 

[navychop]

AT&T used TDMA back then..Verizon was CDMA

Yep. And Cingular was TDMA & analog way back, too. They've just about removed all their phones that do anything besides GSM. The GAIT phones might be around a bit, but not long.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I will never go back to Verizon, When I was over the road I paid extra for no roaming, but when I went over my minutes they charged me for roaming. I don't think that was right, So I went to Nextel.

I've had so many cell phone companies it's ridiculous.

What, do you think you were entitled to free roaming on minutes that were not part of your plan??

 

[cybok0]

What, do you think you were entitled to free roaming on minutes that were not part of your plan??

I gladly paid for going over my minutes, but for paying for roaming when I paid extra for no roaming is different, maybe it's just me but I paid extra for a service that I didn't receive.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

Just me, but I think the free roaming charge was based on the number of minutes in your plan? Do you expect it to be unlimited?

 

[cybok0]

Just me, but I think the free roaming charge was based on the number of minutes in your plan? Do you expect it to be unlimited?

It's history, I'm not gonna argue with you(outside the Pit), I had my own feelings about this, plus if we keep talking about this, lets stay at the Pit, going back and forth making me dizzy.!sadroll

 

[dot_null]

I believe the AT&T/Cingular TDMA sunset date is sometime next year. AT&T has already started shutting down TDMA in some markets.

 

[navychop]

Odd. I thought it already passed. But maybe that was just the date for activating any TDMA phones. Certainly, many TDMA towers are gone/reprogrammed. And analog coverage is shrinking.

 

[Mr Tony]

nope it hasnt passed yet....but supposedly around Feb 08 most of TDMA will be shut down. Been reading the info here at work (AT&T) about it