[coreyg510]

But TMO coverage is not as vast as Verizon or Cingular. Once they start expanding, only then will they truly become a competitor to Cingular and Verizon. For instance there are no stores in NC for TMO. How exactly can they compete with Cingular for me in that aspect?

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by coreyg510

But TMO coverage is not as vast as Verizon or Cingular. Once they start expanding, only then will they truly become a competitor to Cingular and Verizon. For instance there are no stores in NC for TMO. How exactly can they compete with Cingular for me in that aspect?

[matrix]There is no NC.[/matrix]



On the real though, having the roaming agreements in place allow T-Mobile to claim the coverage, but they obviously can't gather users from those areas.

[Wnt2Prtct]

Originally Posted by coreyg510

But TMO coverage is not as vast as Verizon or Cingular. Once they start expanding, only then will they truly become a competitor to Cingular and Verizon. For instance there are no stores in NC for TMO. How exactly can they compete with Cingular for me in that aspect?

In major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, New York, etc it isnt a problem.

[junior1790]

There is one main reason to go to cingular, 8700c. by far the best bb to date and cingular hanldes the highest volume of bb users nationwide (so i'm told). while a certain phone model or bb is never a god reason to pick a carier, try out cingular and you will be sold on the 8700c. By the way i use a verizon razr for 90% of my voice calls, being a 2 device guy is ok....

[Dubdub]

The connectivity issue depends on where you are at the moment you are trying to connect. I use both Cingular and Verizon in the New England region and there are areas where one or the other has no service, hence one reason for carrying both brands. Cingular for the BB and Verizon for a phone, with the Cingular/BB being my primary.

You really have to look at where you use your phone - live, work, play, travel, etc. to really answer the connectivity question.

[Blackcrack]

none of those providers... chose nextel. the direct connect is great. tmobile is cheaper though and cingular has a great 8700c model. verizon has great coverage and evdo.

[aristobrat]

Originally Posted by coreyg510

But TMO coverage is not as vast as Verizon or Cingular. Once they start expanding, only then will they truly become a competitor to Cingular and Verizon. For instance there are no stores in NC for TMO. How exactly can they compete with Cingular for me in that aspect?

Although NC/SC residents can't sign up for T-Mobile (because T-Mobile doesn't have native spectrum in those states yet), T-Mobile still has excellent coverage in both states (by letting its users freely roam on SunCom and other networks down there).

They expanded their US network coverage by 56% last year. They're still smaller than Cingular/Verizon, but it's getting to the point where you really have to look to see the differences (vs. T-Mobile's coverage from like 2 years ago)...

Edited to remove broken link.

[cjmac49]

Cingular and other GSM based providers use GPRS (at the moment) for data. You can get EMail while on the phone and phone calls while on data (getting or composing emails browsing) but I am not sure about tethering.

CDMA providers - Verizon and others - use CDMA for all. If you are on one medium you can't use the other.

In upper NYS I find Verizon more to my liking for service. Support is another matter.

[aristobrat]

If you get a voice phone call on GPRS or 1X while the device is actively transmitting or receiving data, the voice call goes to voicemail.

On Verizon's EVDO (with the 7130 or 7250 anyways), a voice call will suspend the data session (even if the modem is in the middle of transmitting/receiving data) and allow the call to ring thru.

[sla07]

thanks for the great replies everybody!!...i think it looks like its a matter of location...someone asked where I am...im in norcal (santa clara) and out here tmobile reception and cingular reception has been horrible for me and the locations i personally roam around...i moved out here from southern florida about a year and a few months ago and i had a cingular phone for about 5 years...my work cell phone was/is verizon and out there the verizon reception was not great...so i used cingular 99% of the time...

once i got out here...i could barely use my cingular phone and my verizon work phone worked FLAWLESSLY everywhere i went so i switched my personal phone to verizon...NOW i have a tmobile BB AND my verizon cell phone for work (and my personal verizon cell phone)...the tmobile voice reception is just as bad if not worst than cingular for my areas...so what i want to do is get a verizon bb for work...and just forward my personal cell phone to the verizon bb and just carry one thing...

i think for my purposes...verizon is the winner from what i can read...i think my only other concern is whether or not i can still connect to the BES whether its a verizon or tmobile or cingular BB.....from what ive read and the answers i received from another post, yes i will be able to connect to the BES....so it solves that problem

[aristobrat]

Right, the BES doesn't care which carrier you're using.

[apple85]

I've got a 7130e on Verizon and I'm just north of you (san Mateo county) and it works GREAT EVERYWHERE, hell I got almost to Arnold (mountains out highway 4) and everywhere else... Just wish they'd hurry with the 8700...

[EricaJ1074]

T-Mobile BlackBerry LOYAL customer here....have had all of my BB's, except my 950, thru them and have had very few problems with signal (only on 2 out of the 5 had problems), getting upgrades or replacements. Their other phones? I won't even go there especially the 3 sidekicks, 3 iPAQ 6315's, and the Samsung E635 I had.

[CyberJack]

Someone correct me if I am wrong here, but I keep seeing the message repeated that T-MO has the ability to use Cingular towers where there is no T-MO coverage. But is this really valid? I live in SoCal and with my 7100t I had no coverage whatsoever going up the coast to San Simeon on the other hand there was coverage with Cingular. Yes, I did switch over to Cingular several months later but I am loathe to believe the coverage level changed that dramatically in such a short time. Love to hear the input. Otherwise I fail to see why there would not be an exodus to TMO if their customers can use Cingular towers. Thanks

[stripesace]

I find TMo works great as long as you're on an Interstate Highway, or in a metropolitan town. Once you start getting away from one or the other, its a different story. I have Cingular. A good friend of mine had Tmo but the coverage killed him. His job travels take him places out of mainstream traffic and thats where he looses his signal. I have family that lives in South Louisiana. I was just down there a few weeks ago for a funeral and had GREAT reception and reliability. Ever since I got my GSM phone with cingular (over an old TDMA phone) there have not been alot of places where I did not have signal.

[aristobrat]

Originally Posted by CyberJack

Someone correct me if I am wrong here, but I keep seeing the message repeated that T-MO has the ability to use Cingular towers where there is no T-MO coverage.

http://compass.t-mobile.com shows you where T-Mobile officially allows roaming. It'll even show you which areas require a 850mhz phone for roaming.

The general rule is that if T-Mobile has their own towers in an area, you're more than likely NOT able to force your phone to roam. Makes a bit of business sence on T-Mobile's end, as they have to pay another company everytime that one of their users roam. There are a few areas where this rule doesn't apply, but they're few and far between.

[radimus]

Originally Posted by apple85

you mention verizon and their fine print may i ask what your referring too?

Take your pick. In my case it the little point that no one, floor rep or phone rep, bothered to tell me about was that if you change your rate plan it resets your contract start date. At about the time I thought the contract on my wife's phone I called them to verify the date and found that it was not for another year and a half yet. When I asked why then I was told when you change your rate plan, which is what I had done some months back, it resets the contract. When I tried to explain to them that no one informed me of that I was given the run around of "it's written in your contract terms that you got when you signed up" and "according to the notes on your account the rep you spoke to says that he informed you" in a most arrogant and unfriendly manner, which was uncalled for as I was being polite. A couple weeks later I canceled the account anyway, paid the early termination penalty, and decided that I don't need to do business with them again.

T-mobile was running a special at the time where you could get free prepaid phones. So I got the misses one of those instead and life could be happier.

Technically, was it my fault for not catching this and not reading the fine print? Yes. I'll admit to that. Regardless, I don't need to put up with their arrogance and condescending manners (at least that's how it was in my local area at the time that I was dealing with them). I get enough of that when I have to deal with Verizon over issues with my landline or at work over data issues.

[pierre15208]

I'm on T-mobile, and I like their customer service, and their $20.00 all you can eat Blackberry plan is the best price in the industry. I originally joined T-Mobile because they were one of the few providers that had one year contracts, but that changed this year. Of all the wireless portals , t-zones is probably the worst, but it's easy to go off the grid w/a BB. I have a two line setup/ the second line being used by my BlackBerry as a data only service.

[rohardi]

As far a s service, I would have to say Verizon hands down. EV-DO is supper fast!!!!! Always have a signal on my 7130e. The down fall is that I want a 8700 and I will have to wait. Not to say that the 7130 is bad in any way, I just want a full key pad with EV-DO.

[KonTiki]

Originally Posted by rohardi

As far a s service, I would have to say Verizon hands down. EV-DO is supper fast!!!!! Always have a signal on my 7130e. The down fall is that I want a 8700 and I will have to wait. Not to say that the 7130 is bad in any way, I just want a full key pad with EV-DO.

Yeah but can you picture 8700 WITH EVDO. If only Verizon decided to put it into the 7250 case format, then that be heaven. Or to quote Jackie Gleason:"How sweet it is."