<p>What is the best cell phone company to use at Berkeley? Cingular, AT&T (TDMA), Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Nextel? THis topic might have been addressed earlier, but I’m not sure if there was a clear cut conclusion. Thanks for the input!!</p>
<p>my tmobile reception was pretty good at berkeley</p>
<p>There are a few factors that you need to make note of</p>
<p>1) Network type: CDMA (Verizon), TDMA(AT&T/Cingular Blue) and it’s variants: GSM(Cingular and T-Mobile), iDEN (Nextel)</p>
<p>You can not sign up for AT&T/Cingular Blue unless you are grandfathered under it.</p>
<p>GSM is built on top of TDMA and iDEN is built on top of GSM. iDEN will be phased out by Sprint in favor of CDMA.</p>
<p>The general consensus in regards to network is that: CDMA is a very good but you will either have signal or no signal.</p>
<p>GSM quality is less than CDMA but you will be able to receive a signal weak or strong. GSM also runs in 4 different frequencies, only 2 are used in the US, 850MHz and 1900MHz I believe. (Someone correct me on thte frequencies)</p>
<p>2) Location of the cell tower. You can find locations of cell towers on the internet, just google around for it. I’ve seen a site that lists the locations of the towers according to FCC filings.</p>
<p>3) Phone. Each phone has a different RF quality. Obviously the more advanced the phone, the better RF quality, and the more expensive.</p>
<p>4) Personal:</p>
<p>Free mobile-to-mobile(M2M) is obviously very handy but not so much if everyone else you’re in contact with is on a different network. Family-talk/sharing plans fall under this.</p>
<p>Direct connect / Push to talk - Beep beep :). Nextel’s signature. Verizon also offers it. Cingular has started rolling it out on certain phones, Symbian I believe.</p>
<p>Rollover - Marketing gimmick by Cingular, obviously if you aren’t using all your minutes, your plan is too big. However they may come in handy when you need to use your phone extensively for a certain period of time.</p>
<p>Free incoming - Only Nextel offers this I believe.</p>
<p>Data - EDGE and EV-DO are high speed data networks sprouting up for data access via a smartphone or even PDA/notebook tethering. I don’t know how well these services are supported in the bay area by the providers due to a shortage of bandwidth.</p>
<p>Roaming - Service providers may have agreements with one another to allow free roaming such as the Cingular and T-Mobile agreement which is, if not already, going to expire.</p>
<p>5) Contract length - Cingular will force you sign a 2-year contract. Verizon has a 1-year option.</p>
<p>6) Final cost - The markup on cell phones is practically 100%. Expect to pay full price if you do not sign a contract. The service providers can afford to give phones away for free because they’ll make that money back after the 2 year contract.</p>
<p>Personal stance: I believe that all the mobile providers are corrupt and I need to look for the lesser of evils. For instance, Verizon cripples Bluetooth phones in order to force you to use their pay-per-use services. Cingular forces you into a 2-year contract and has increased their prices in order to raise their ARPU (average revenue per unit).</p>
<p>In the end, I have went with a black razr v3 with Cingular for a few reasons.</p>
<p>1) My family and roommate is on Cingular; free M2M.
2) The v3 phone has a very good RF quality. Better signals.
3) Verizon phones suck 
4) Nextel is expensive.</p>
<p>Howardforums.com - A great cellphone resource.</p>
<p>Do not get T-mobile here. It may seem like a good idea for what they give you, but the reception is horrible in the bay area. It is by far the worst is. </p>
<p>I’m using Cingular and I found that the reception is just as good as Verzion here if not better. Verzion is really good too. Can’t really go wrong with either here.</p>
<p>wow, thanks so much darkpyr0 for all that info!! it’s really helpful. I currently have AT&T CDMA (yep, from a while ago) and I’m thinking of upgrading to a camera phone and switching to Cingular GSM. The phone they are offering is the Motorola V551 for $50 (2-year contract like u said). There are mixed reviews about reception for that phone though…=/ I really like the new Motorola razr but cost is quite high. what would you suggest? stick to CDMA, change phone and plan (to cingular), or diff company?</p>
<p>Honestly, I would have gone with Verizon if they didn’t have a bad selection of phones nto to mention not offering any discounts.</p>
<p>Amazon.com has plenty of phones for free and many where you get money back with a 2 year contract.</p>
<p>And as an AT&T CDMA, Cingular should be bending over backwards to get you to switch over to their GSM network by offering you a special plan + phone. Call Cingular and see if there are any specials as a Cingular Blue customer.</p>
<p>I know that the Moto v551 is free at the very least from Amazon. The Razr is free.</p>
<p>hey do i HAVE to get a bundled cellphone… or is there any service provider which allows me to use a cellphone i already have… by giving me a SIM card instead of a phone</p>
<p>also since most companies offer free mobile to mobile within their network…in ur opinion which is the most widely used on campus ( so chances are that the person ur callin will be on the same network)</p>
<p>Since you already have a SIM card, you’re on a GSM network. I believe it’s possible to just buy a plan.</p>
<p>However, you’re phone may not be compatible (wrong frequency). And they may force you to change phones in addition to being the wrong sim size.</p>
<p>its tri band so i think it should work…
well i wanna get pay as u go (or prepaid or watever its called), and the bundled phones with those plans are TERRIBLE</p>
<p>I’m sure it’ll work since it’s tri-band seeing as only 2 frequencies are used in the US.</p>