Cingular cell phone service - Has TDMA been cut back sharply in Tulsa?

Author

Has TDMA been cut back sharply in Tulsa?

George

2006-07-29, 10:33 pm

I have a CallPlusWireless prepaid phone, which uses the Cingular
Blue network - the old AT&T Wireless TDMA network.

I haven't had the phone on in a few days, but today when I turned
it on, it seemed that most of the bars have gone away. In the
parking lot at the gym, I even lost the "D", and then a minute later
it went to "No Service".

Since I'm in the middle of Tulsa, if this is deliberate it would
indicate a very substantial cutback of TDMA. Or, I suppose, they
could just be having problems.

Anybody know what the story is?

Kevin K

2006-07-29, 10:33 pm

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:41:52 UTC, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
wrote:

> I have a CallPlusWireless prepaid phone, which uses the Cingular
> Blue network - the old AT&T Wireless TDMA network.
>
> I haven't had the phone on in a few days, but today when I turned
> it on, it seemed that most of the bars have gone away. In the
> parking lot at the gym, I even lost the "D", and then a minute later
> it went to "No Service".
>
> Since I'm in the middle of Tulsa, if this is deliberate it would
> indicate a very substantial cutback of TDMA. Or, I suppose, they
> could just be having problems.
>
> Anybody know what the story is?
>
>

My father got hit by this last weekend with all 4 phones on his plans.
He decided to finally "upgrade" to GSM, since it was important that
he have a working phone for his business.

Apparently, CS was claiming that work was being done on a tower. (3G
for later this year?, push to get people off TDMA?).

Saves about $50/month with the new combined plan.

--

Anon E. Muss

2006-07-29, 10:33 pm

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:41:52 -0500, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
wrote:

>I have a CallPlusWireless prepaid phone, which uses the Cingular
>Blue network - the old AT&T Wireless TDMA network.
>
>I haven't had the phone on in a few days, but today when I turned
>it on, it seemed that most of the bars have gone away. In the
>parking lot at the gym, I even lost the "D", and then a minute later
>it went to "No Service".
>
>Since I'm in the middle of Tulsa, if this is deliberate it would
>indicate a very substantial cutback of TDMA. Or, I suppose, they
>could just be having problems.
>
>Anybody know what the story is?

No, but I can tell you this:

I was in Tulsa earlier this year, and Cingular's GSM coverage was just
fine.

George

2006-07-30, 10:33 am

In article <KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2- sm0HzuvkpKll@localho
st>,
kevink4@gmail.com says...

> My father got hit by this last weekend with all 4 phones
> on his plans. He decided to finally "upgrade" to GSM,
> since it was important that he have a working phone for
> his business.

> Apparently, CS was claiming that work was being done on
> a tower. (3G for later this year?, push to get people
> off TDMA?).

> Saves about $50/month with the new combined plan.

Well, this morning I have all my bars back. So maybe they
really were working on something.

I have a prepaid phone that's dirt cheap for the few calls
I make, and I'm gonna use it as long as they'll let me.
Normally, local coverage, and even AMPS service out on the
road, is great. This was the first problem of this type
I've had, and as I said, it seems to be working ok now.

When they turn out the lights on TDMA, or when I just
can no longer reliably complete calls, I'll switch to
something else. But not before.

marka2k

2006-07-31, 10:33 am

My father has a old ATT TDMA phone and he is having issues with signal
strength, infact I am considering porting him over to Cingular Orange today.
He is in the Tulsa area

"Anon E. Muss" <anonymous@example.org> wrote in message
news:ujvnc21fccu3v5h
59s3d4nqup41u9joiv3@
4ax.com...
> On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:41:52 -0500, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
> wrote:
>
>
> No, but I can tell you this:
>
> I was in Tulsa earlier this year, and Cingular's GSM coverage was just
> fine.

George

2006-07-31, 10:33 pm

In article < IMydnUbh1PJFiVPZnZ2d
nUVZ_qydnZ2d@giganew
s.com>,
marka_2k@yahoo.com says...

> My father has a old ATT TDMA phone and he is having
> issues with signal strength, infact I am considering
> porting him over to Cingular Orange today. He is in the
> Tulsa area

I think they were just working on the towers. I saw them up
on one tower near my house this morning, and at that point
the signal strength was very weak. But this afternoon when
I drove by again, the work had apparently been completed,
and I was back to maximum bars.

I seriously doubt you would do better on Orange (also
TDMA) than the Blue network your father and I are on.
Assuming they would even let you make that switch.

Unless you're just anxious to go to GSM and get a new phone,
I'd give it a day or two and see if things revert to normal.

Kevin K

2006-07-31, 10:33 pm

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:16:28 UTC, George <gh424NO824SPAM@cox.net>
wrote:

> In article < IMydnUbh1PJFiVPZnZ2d
nUVZ_qydnZ2d@giganew
s.com>,
> marka_2k@yahoo.com says...
>
>
> I think they were just working on the towers. I saw them up
> on one tower near my house this morning, and at that point
> the signal strength was very weak. But this afternoon when
> I drove by again, the work had apparently been completed,
> and I was back to maximum bars.
>
> I seriously doubt you would do better on Orange (also
> TDMA) than the Blue network your father and I are on.
> Assuming they would even let you make that switch.
>
> Unless you're just anxious to go to GSM and get a new phone,
> I'd give it a day or two and see if things revert to normal.
>
>

Cingular actively WANTS people to switch from blue to Orange, and from
TDMA to GSM. My dad switched last week, and got good phone service
again.

I guess the issue is whether they are deliberately making TDMA look
bad to get people to switch now, or whether they are just incompetent.

--

John Navas

2006-08-01, 4:33 am

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:34:07 GMT, "Kevin K" <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote in
<KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2- 1TUYpQ5epHDm@localho
st>:

>Cingular actively WANTS people to switch from blue to Orange,

No, the networks are being integrated.

>and from
>TDMA to GSM.

Yes.

>I guess the issue is whether they are deliberately making TDMA look
>bad to get people to switch now, or whether they are just incompetent.

The actual issue is that TDMA is being phased out, as that spectrum is
migrated to more efficient GSM.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

marka2k

2006-08-01, 12:33 pm

..
>
> The actual issue is that TDMA is being phased out, as that spectrum is
> migrated to more efficient GSM.
>
> --
> Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
> John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

This is also what I was told when I called Cignular's Migration Dept, they
expect to phase out TDMA totally by 2008

Kevin K

2006-08-01, 10:33 pm

On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 05:40:59 UTC, John Navas
< spamfilter0@navasgro
up.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:34:07 GMT, "Kevin K" <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote in
> <KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2- 1TUYpQ5epHDm@localho
st>:
>
>
> No, the networks are being integrated.
>

They may be integrating the networks, but hasn't the experience over
the last 1 1/2 years been essentially 1 way migrations? If they
aren't trying to migrate people to Orange, wouldn't they eagerly
support my going into a store and changing my plan to a Blue plan?

When I changed from blue TDMA to GSM, they didn't give me the option
for Blue GSM.

It may not matter so much for the towers, but since they lock SIMS to
either Blue or Orange, they have to maintain an inventory of phones
for both.

If, as you claim, they don't want people to migrate to Orange, are
they providing the new 3G phones such as the CU500 in Blue variants?

>
> Yes.
>
>
> The actual issue is that TDMA is being phased out, as that spectrum is
> migrated to more efficient GSM.

Which may be what happened in Tulsa. They may have too drastically
cut back spectrum dedicated to TDMA a couple weeks ago. I've been
told that they will be rolling out 3G there later this year, so maybe
they have started upgrading towers to support 3G. I don't know how
long it takes to transition a market the size of Tulsa to 3G. I doubt
it is something you can install over a weekend, but would it take 4-5
months?

Also, I suspect that Tulsa may have a higher proportion of TDMA
customers than some other, larger, cities. They had TDMA from both
pre Cingular SWB days as well as extensive ATTWS coverage. Having a
lot of rural areas, migrations were probably slower.

--

John Navas

2006-08-02, 4:33 am

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 23:21:18 GMT, "Kevin K" <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote in
<KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2- X7QOddJnH60V@localho
st>:

>On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 05:40:59 UTC, John Navas
>< spamfilter0@navasgro
up.com> wrote:
>
>
>They may be integrating the networks, but hasn't the experience over
>the last 1 1/2 years been essentially 1 way migrations? If they
>aren't trying to migrate people to Orange, wouldn't they eagerly
>support my going into a store and changing my plan to a Blue plan?

You're confusing carrier with network. There are still places where
there are two Cingular networks, blue and orange, and it can make sense
to be homed on blue rather than orange, even with an orange SIM.

>When I changed from blue TDMA to GSM, they didn't give me the option
>for Blue GSM.

An orange 64K SIM can be homed on either the blue or the orange network.

>It may not matter so much for the towers, but since they lock SIMS to
>either Blue or Orange, they have to maintain an inventory of phones
>for both.

They aren't maintaining an inventory of blue phones. All that's needed
is an orange 64K SIM.

>If, as you claim, they don't want people to migrate to Orange, are
>they providing the new 3G phones such as the CU500 in Blue variants?

I'm not claiming that.

>
>Which may be what happened in Tulsa. They may have too drastically
>cut back spectrum dedicated to TDMA a couple weeks ago. I've been
>told that they will be rolling out 3G there later this year, so maybe
>they have started upgrading towers to support 3G. I don't know how
>long it takes to transition a market the size of Tulsa to 3G. I doubt
>it is something you can install over a weekend, but would it take 4-5
>months?

It can take weeks or months, depending on how much tower work is needed.
What makes it hard is the integration of two large networks, something
that's never been done before.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

Kevin K

2006-08-02, 7:33 am

On Wed, 2 Aug 2006 05:53:15 UTC, John Navas
< spamfilter0@navasgro
up.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 23:21:18 GMT, "Kevin K" <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote in
> <KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2- X7QOddJnH60V@localho
st>:
>
>
> You're confusing carrier with network. There are still places where
> there are two Cingular networks, blue and orange, and it can make sense
> to be homed on blue rather than orange, even with an orange SIM.

Actually, it is you who appears confused by what I wrote.

I never wrote that Cingular wanted to move people off of traditional
Blue TOWERS. They are trying to move people off of Blue PLANS. You,
yourself, have made posts in the past about, for example, the lowball
plans ATTWS offered to some people that Cingular no longer wants to
offer.

>
>
> An orange 64K SIM can be homed on either the blue or the orange network.

Isn't an argument that Cingular doesn't want to move people to non
Blue plans or Blue SIMS that would work in locked Blue phones.

>
>
> They aren't maintaining an inventory of blue phones. All that's needed
> is an orange 64K SIM.

Again, has Cingular started selling Orange phones to legacy Blue GSM
plans without wanting you to migrate over to Orange?

>
>
> I'm not claiming that.

It would have appeared so. If you have to change over to Orange to
migrate to new technology, that is a push to get people to Orange.

--

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