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Message |
Bristolview
Posts: 1
Phone Model:
Samsung i700
Service Provider:
Verizon |
 
Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:34 am |
I'm a current Verizon customer, and trying to understand the GSM/GPRS based services. With Verizon, I had a separate Phone and Data plan, I assume I need the same with Cingular? I've been told that the data is always on with a GSM/GPRS phone, is this true? On my Verizon phone, I had to initiate a connection everytime I wanted data. If it's always on with GSM/GPRS, does it burn up lots of traffic? How do you track it? Can you?
Are there any hidden fees on Cingular to watch for? I'm looking at the Cingular phones and plans and they look superior to Verizon offerings, although with somewhat less coverage in my area.
The phone I'm looking at with Cingular is a QUAD band, does that mean it'll work when I go to Europe? What frequencies are used in the US? What in Europe? One other phone I'm interested in is a TriBand, should I avoid it?
Sorry for all the probably dumb questions, but I'm just trying to get a handle on the whole GSM/GPRS offerings. Thanks all!
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JCMyersIV
Posts: 122
Phone Model:
V635 & BB 7290
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:10 pm |
Q: I'm a current Verizon customer, and trying to understand the GSM/GPRS based services. With Verizon, I had a separate Phone and Data plan, I assume I need the same with Cingular? I've been told that the data is always on with a GSM/GPRS phone, is this true? On my Verizon phone, I had to initiate a connection everytime I wanted data. If it's always on with GSM/GPRS, does it burn up lots of traffic? How do you track it? Can you?
A: If your accessing it from your phone, you will still go to an area of the phone to browse the web. I can't speak to the other phones, but when you end a web session with a Moto phone, it will tell you how many bytes were transferred as to track your usage.
Note - if you want to use it for more than browsing on your phone (i.e., if you want to use it for your laptop), you'll want to get a phone that supports EDGE as its significantly faster than GPRS alone.
Are there any hidden fees on Cingular to watch for? I'm looking at the Cingular phones and plans and they look superior to Verizon offerings, although with somewhat less coverage in my area.
A: If you were coming from AT&T, I would tell you that incoming SMS incur fees, but Verizon charges for that. I can't remember when I had Verizon, but Cingular will bill in advance... After the first month, it doesn't really matter, but just so you're aware - if you signed up for service on the 15th of a given month, and let's say your bill cycle was the 22nd, your first bill on the 22nd, would have 1 week's usage, plus the next month in advance. My local phone and cable companies bill this way.
Other than that, I don't think you'll have any surprises. A couple of plusses you should be aware of:
- M2M is from anywhere to anywhere (no need to be in just Cingular's calling area, nor do you need to worry where the person you're calling is) - all is covered.
- Rollover - could save you big bucks.
Q: The phone I'm looking at with Cingular is a QUAD band, does that mean it'll work when I go to Europe? What frequencies are used in the US? What in Europe? One other phone I'm interested in is a TriBand, should I avoid it?
A: Quad band will work virtually everywhere (Japan being a big exception - no GSM there). Generally speaking, the America's use 850/1900 mhz for coverage, and the rest of the world uses 900/1800 mhz. The triband is usally 900/1800/1900. To see the difference in coverage between 1900 and 850+1900 coverage, look at the difference between T-Mobile's coverage map and Cingular's. All the area not covered by T-Mo's spider-web map is 850 only.
Note: Some companies (Nokia) have made their phones support different frequencies depending on the market you're buying them in. Some will have 850/1800/1900, while others have 900/1800/1900. This would come into play if you wanted to buy a phone from an e-tailer or eBay.
Sorry for all the probably dumb questions, but I'm just trying to get a handle on the whole GSM/GPRS offerings. Thanks all!
Not dumb; you'll find most people that participate in this forum are interested in helping each other and sharing ideas/knowledge.
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NDogg78
Posts: 87
Phone Model:
Motorola V600
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:09 pm |
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As always, an informative post by JC. We should sticky this one since it answers the basic questions about Cingular/GSM asked in many times in different ways.
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philpfeif
Posts: 4
Phone Model:
Motorola v3
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:45 pm |
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If you travel outside of the US GSM is the only way to go. Most European countries have superior coverage using only GSM. Just remember that if you do travel abroad you have to activate international roaming with Cingular before you leave. While in Sweden last winter, I made a call to my opthalmologist from 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle as easily as I would from my home.
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toowoomba
Posts: 12
Phone Model:
LG
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:33 pm |
Even though your phone supports the European bands (900/1800 MHz), you still need to make sure that Cingular has roaming agreements with service providers in the country you travel to.
GPRS can be "always on" because its packet traffic, instead of circuit switched. This way they can charge by the amount of data you transmit/recieve, not by the amount of time you are on the network. If you're idle, you're not consuming any bandwidth.
You're phone will keep track of how many KB you transfer per session and I belive its about .01 cents per KB on the very basic plan. You can also purchase data plans that allow you to get more KB for cheaper.
Cingular also charges per SMS transmit and received. MMS (multimedia messaging) costs twice as much per message and still doesn't seem to work outside of Cingular (i.e. cant' send an MMS from Cingular to T-Mobile). MMS is sent over GPRS, while SMS is sent over a traditional circuit switched connection.
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