I was in a TMO store yesterday and I was tooling around with 8700g and I was telling him my issue with TMO and the retention center not wanting to budge on the price. I told him when he was placing my SIM in the demo phone so I can play with it that his friend has Cingular and that theirs is actually better. He has the demo for the weekend and him and his friend compared models. He said the TMO g was the slowest conection of no matter where they went. He said the president of TMO has not been focusing on the data ability of TMO, just phones.

I am still looking at the different models I am with TMO and do not want to switch but I guess I will now.

Heavy

Don't believe everything you hear. I have an 8700g on T-Mo. Now, I also have 2 friends, one of which has a cingular bb 8700c and is on cingular, and one that has an 8700c but is on T-Mobile. My EDGE connection is faster than any of theirs, and we're all running the T-Mo OS. We're also located in NYC. I personally have nothing to complain about.

I am in the San Antonio TX, Killeen, Austin area. I bet NYC is pretty well covered. I need this input in this area.

If anything, it would seem Cing in more worried about 3G than they are about 2.5G. However, difference in carriers data speed would seem area specific along with other variables like traffic congestion. To bad TMO is slow where you live.

So we're clear, is your complaint about TMO vs Cing network or 8700c vs 8700g?

I also had a T-Mo rep tell me that the 7105t was an EDGE device, and that the 8700g was a wi-fi device.

A lowly store rep has first-hand knowledge of what the president of the company's focus is, eh? Yeah, that's reliable information right there. You should -always- trust a fairly low-paid store rep for all of the latest company insider information, especially when they go out and do their own testing and comparisons.

Cingular's recent focus has been 3G (UMTS) and 3.5G (HSDPA), whether they were meeting the global standards or not. T-Mobile's focus for the last year, in coordination with some phone manufacturers, has been on implementing UMA technology - obviously a whole load of issues would be present with this. T-Mobile will be bidding on and will win bandwidth in the 2100mhz spectrum and start their 3G and 3.5G initiatives at that point (globally standardized). Either way, the trip to that arena will be quite expensive, so expect the implementation to be slow with both carriers (although Cingular does have the head start).

As far as EDGE coverage is concerned, Cingular does have T-Mobile beat in that department. There's no contest, nor has there ever been one. This would have an obvious impact on bandwidth of the technology, as well.

Wirelessly posted (7105t: BlackBerry7100/4.0.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

I've used both the 8700c on Cingular as well as the 8700g on T-Mobile and IMHO the 8700g is faster on edge and has more features preloaded, such as IM and the ability to set up additional email accounts separately. Therefore, no need to have to send business email with personal emailby and vice versa.

Thanks for the info. I remembered reading about the IM not on Cingular or something like that. I guess I will stay with TMO for another 2 years. I wish they would add a few more towers here and there tho'

Heavy

Classic.

i have TMO in Los Angeles and I have no complaints. My question is how much faster is Cingular or how much slower is TMO? Is it really a big difference? I honestly don't think that it could be THAT much of a difference.

i had a Treo 650 on Sprint and i am much more satisfied with my 8700g's speed.

Cingulars plan is just way too expensive for me but if you have that much to spend or if the speeds are really that much faster than TMO then i guess that could be a good thing for you.

I haven't compared Blackberries, but in the SF Bay Area, having WAP races on EDGE phones, TMO is sloww ww. It all depends on which market you're in.

Just to note, the Cingular seems to be a bit slower as they are doing the access through the BB APN and that is putting a lot of strain on the browser due to balckberry security needs. However, it looks that Cingular will be changing that soon where browser access on the BB will hapen via CIngular instead. Oh yes, I also heard that the pricing on Cingular BB plans will also be changing for the better. the rumer has it that this will be out around June 5 along with BIS 2.0

I'm on T-Mo in Los Angeles with an 8700g and I use to be on Sprint. The speed with EDGE is fast, and based on my extensive time with an 8700c on Cingular, I can tell you that if there IS a difference...I cannot tell. The one thing I can tell you is that Customer Service with T-Mobile was excellent with porting my number over easily in an hour and my experience with Cingular in the past is horrible...they just don't care enough.

I second that. Cingular does have horrible customer service. When I switched my Cingular number to T-Mobile, my port went through while I was on the phone with the customer care rep. That's the best!!

Jibi-- are you sayin tmo edge is slower than cing or not the coverage?

You know, I'm not sure I'd trust the opinion of someone who can't tell the difference between the device (in this case, they're the same) and the network behind it...