Cingular service questions

Okay, I currently have Verizon, my contract expires in November but if Cingular can do the job I'll dump those bastards at Verizon in a heartbeat.

So, I got some questions:

1. Can I upload my own custom ring tones?
I don't mean buying crappy ring tones that are irrelevant to me from some online store. I mean custom made MP3 or WAV ring tones made by me.
Without having to pay extra or subscribing to any special services to do so.
IE; can I upload ring tones to my phone via USB or Bluetooth?
I'm thinking of getting the Blackberry Pearl 8100 if that makes any difference.

2. The signal reception in my area sucks worse than suck. 1 bar is normal when I'm in the house and 2 bars is normal when I'm outside.
A friend told me that cel providers pretty much all use the same towers so switching providers won't do me much good. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

3. Assuming #2 is true, how tough is it to bail out of the contract?
I was thinking I would sign up, and try it out for awhile and keep my Verizon service in the meantime. If the service is just as bad I probably won't switch, but I will need to get out of the Cingular contract. How tough will that be to do?

4. Assuming the service is better and I do drop Verizon, how tough will it be to port my old number to Cingular given that I will already have a Cingular issued number in place?

Thanks for any answers.

So you "got" some questions, eh?.I love it.

(1) Yes, you can upload all the ringtones your poor little phone can stand, assuming it has that ability. Cingular doesn't place restrictions on the ability to upload things as some other carriers do. I make tones on my computer because I assure you, the stuff I listen to is NOT available for downolad on ANYONE'S site.

(2) At the top of this forum is a Cingular tower coverage page. You should be able to determine if you have adequate service in your area. One word of advice. While I'm sure our friends mean well, it's best to contact the provider regarding details of their service unless that friend is a bona fide card-carrying employee of that provider.

(3 & 4) While I'm certain that someone has a direct answer to this one, how much worse can the Cingular service be given the sorry state of what you have (and I'm referring only to the signal strength of your current provider, not the overall quality of their service)?
I'd do one of two things.I'd dump the current service, port the number on over to the new service and if it doesn't improve, I'd look into a signal repeater (http://www.cellantenna.com/repeater/building_repeater.htm) and see if there's an option here for you. Point being, if the current provider isn't working and you find that a new service has the same issues (apparently it's signal strength in thie case), then what is the point of returning to the old service that wasn't working for you in the first place? For that matter, you could try a signal repeater for your current service. Verizon is CDMA, Cingular is GSM, so there's a possiblity of differing coverage in a given area.

As "good" as we percieve mobile phone service to be or not to be, there's a lot more factors in place than just switching carriers. But because of fierce competition between the carriers these days, they would have us believe that their own service is great and wonderful and switching to their service will cure all ills, including baldness and foot fungus. As with my experience with Rogaine and Fast-Actin' Tinactin, "not always".

Hope this helps.Geri O

Yea, I "Got" questions.

I was having a "Brooklyn" moment when I posted that.

I was planning keep Verizon so I wouldn't be paying the contract termination fee for nothing basically.
If service is good here, I'll gladly pay it to get away from them, but if the service is just as bad, there's no point to switching.

I'm definitely going to look more at the repeater info as well, hopefully the HOA won't throw a fit about it.

Great advice, thanks.

Well, if you were in MS, it would be "I got a bunch o' questions, ya'll".

))

The repeaters do work pretty well, but they aren't cheap, as you probably noticed and they handle only certain number of calls at a time (no problem if you're at home), depending on the model you get. I was working at a Christian Youth Camp last week where there was a CDMA repeater, but it wouldn't handle GSM. I was gonna ask the camp ""IT guy" how it worked and if it could handle GSM, but he left before I could chat with him about it. I know there are models that will handle both.
Until I can afford one for our shop (good signal outdoors, but we're in a tin building and it goes to nearly zip), I have an antenna thrown on the roof that connects to my phone. Works mostly okay for now.

Geri O

1) Yes, the Pearl is easy, as is the LG CU500 and V3 some of the other phone's its a little bit harder.

2)You're friend doesn't know what he's talkin about, like Gerio said, Verizon uses CDMA and Cingular uses GSM they require different towers. Go to a Cingular location and ask the rep to pull up the MTI Map tool in CSP (they'll know what I'm talking about) and that will give you an Idea of what you're coverage will look like, also you can check it by Zipcode on Cingular.com and see what it looks like.

3)With Cingular you get a 30 Day trial before you're locked in. Verizon is 15 days.

4) You can port after the fact, just call customer service and they'll help you out.

Don't be so quick. Check your SIM card with the dealer and make sure it is up to date. Have friends with the other service provider use their phones at your most frequently used spot. See how it works. Verizon is expensive and does not synchronize with all computers, notably MAC.

I hate the bloody things. The software and cell phone businesses are the only ones I find are protected from the usual law of marketability. If it does not work there is no liability. That simple. That awful.

You need to be as careful about what phone you get into bed with as you do in marriage.
Research it to death and do the objective testing of equipment and cards in your frequent use spaces.

If you're in MS, you might be able to get out of your contract. If you're out of a VZW service area, you ARE able to have your ETF waived.

I notice that you refer to higher versions of a bootloader. What should I do if mine is ver: 3.08?

Cingular service questions

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