Im going to be placing a order for new cell phones for all of our employees. The new cell phones are the treo 180 quite fancy pansy, anyhow, now i need to know should I go with cingular or voicestream for the service.

Ive used voicestream in the past, and havent been all that happy, and ive never used cingular. We use sprint right now so im sad to switch. Anyhow anyone who has exp. with cingular and voicestream please let me know. My main needs is a very clear and reliable network.

In a major metropolitan area, I prefer Sprint due to the clarity. However, elsewhere they do not have the same coverage. Haven't tried voicestream, but not at all enthused about cingular (my in-laws have it). But, best to check with people using them in your immediate area.

I was using Verizon for 2 years, but then I realized they just charged too much. I am now using Cingular with no problems. It was a tossup between Cingular and VoiceStream, but friends had warned that VoiceStream was only good in the big city's and had bad service in less populated areas.
Conclusion? None... I still have not used VoiceStream...
During my research, Voicestream had the best price with the most included service, but reputation is they have few towers. Cingular is very well known and also good price.

It depends on your area. Here in LA, I thought Cingular's coverage was poor and have liked Sprint's much much more. This might differ in another city/town/country.

I've used Voicestream for a little over a year and they are okay. As Sesran said, great features but few towers (Sprint's old system). It's a digital system, so you have just a 5-mile coverage radius from any tower. Voicestream has the best international rates, if that matters at all. It does to me.

Originally posted by Chicken
It depends on your area. Here in LA, I thought Cingular's coverage was poor and have liked Sprint's much much more. This might differ in another city/town/country.

Exactly! Try to find someone you know that has Cingular in your area to see if it's reliable. In my area, Cingular is great but in Columbus, OH apparently it sucks. You might want to try looking at this site (http://www.berkana.com/tower.php3), it will display maps of any wireless radio tower in the USA that are registered with the FCC. Good luck!

oops, double post

Singular BLOWS.

We use Nextel and it has been great.

I had a huge billing problem with Voicestream the last 4 months I was with them, that was the reason I left... They were trying to billing me for $2000 worth of calls that I never made, once I got it cleared up, I got a new carrier....

I have a both Sprint and Cingular phone and my Sprint is worse here in some areas of Kentucky then the Cingular the Cingular / Bellsouth is excellent.

Cingular. I don't use either, but I think they have one of the best logos I've ever seen :)

Greg Moore

Mod note: In case people miss it, Tim revived a thread that is over 3 months old.

:blush: whoops... I usually catch that happening too

Greg Moore

Not to keep something old going but it looks like it already is :) ...

Personally, I prefer Sprint. I have used Nextel a few different times and most recently the service was horrible. I have also used Verizon and am not pleased whatsoever. As for Cingular and Voicestream I haven't used either. Some people I've spoken to like Cingular but I've yet to find anyone in my local area that doesn't like Sprint. I've had very little problems with them and consider them to be the best for me.

Quick note about the cell industry...

Comparing services across the US is extremely difficult.

Service all depends on number of towers they own or lease from, the closure (completeness) of their coverage, and the number of users using the system.

Where I live Sprint was the dominent carrier for about 2 years running. Voicstream came in to keep them from getting a huge hold on the area. Sprint already had a huge infastructure and maintained great service. Voicestream dumped a huge amount of money into the area buying and building towers. So with almost no people using their networks my service in unbelievable. So with VStream matching Sprint prices with better service Sprint begain to really lower their prices. Therefore greatly increasing their customer numbers which drastically impacted thier quality of service....(i.e. more people same number of towers [think bandwidth])

It's really really hard to judge cell service withouth knowing the direct numbers of people, equipement, and prices in the area.

But, another thing. Depending on whether or not any of your employees travel internationally you might consider rethinking your choices in phones. The Treo brands (great phones if you want your employees to get PDA's at the same time) are only Dual-Band phones and won't work in some places in the UK and Japan where the use the 1800Mhz band.....


About your reliable and clear comment. Cell might not be exactly what you want. Consider NexTel if they have it in your area. CellPhone/2-Way Radio. The 2-Way radio option in most areas is a flat fee for unlimited talk time. And the structure in user management is great. You can build groups, and exclusive talk groups that work great for teams of individuals working together but, in geographically different area. I used to help wire buildings for Cat5. We had 4 teams of 4 people doing different parts at a time. Each group could talk exclusivly with each other or talk to another group if we began to work in their area.

Wow... Rambled for a while... Cell stuff is a fun little hobby of mine so you found a topic I like to ramble on. Good luck with your choice, hope I could help.

If Cingular is TDMA in your area, definately go with VoiceStream. GSM is vastly superior in audio quality, IMO.