Cingular EDGE Coverage and Performance
 

My situation may soon require a subscription to a mobile data service, and I'm considering the Cingular EDGE network (mainly because one of the laptops I'm considering, the Sony VAIO T370P/L, has it built in). Does anyone here use this service, and if so, how are you satisfied with it? Do you get good coverage, and is the data throughput adequate for you? Any complaints?

I bought one. I sent it back. We are still arguing over the "non-refundable" activation fee.

It worked moderately ok in the US but I bought it for use overseas, where I was assured it would work (at a cost of course) to avoid the spotty and expensive availability of broadbad in hotel rooms.

It didnt work. Not even a little bit. Zip, Zero, Nada and yes I tried every imaginable configuration combination.

Well there are very few places outside the Americas that support EDGE. I don't think there are any countries in western Europe that have EDGE.

I thought Edge was Att's (Cingular's) name for 3G technology.

I just returned from Europe and the whole place is running on 3G.

Even if I have the first part wrong, my Blackberry (GPRS) works perfectly well.

Further, the brochure on the EDGE card explains the International costs in cents per kb downloaded.

EDGE is not owned by Cingular or ATT. It is used by many carriers, mostly in north and south America, but also in parts of Asia. It is generally referred to as 2.5G. 3G is UMTS. I took a look at orange.fr and they have a map which lists the 3G and EDGE coverage areas, so maybe Orange France does have EDGE. I haven't tried it though, nor do I know anyone who has.

GPRS is available in most every part of the GSM world.

I used to have the Sony Erricson EDGE PCMCIA card.

I've since simply started using my edge capable phone (moto V551) via bluetooth. This has the added ability to "throttle down" to GPRS where edge is not available. I'm satisfied (although there was a blip when the AT&T "blue" and Cingular EDGE nets were rolled together).

I don't anticipate any international travel. My use for the Cingular EDGE service would be domestic/U.S. only. It sounds as though most of the complaints about the service have been from international users. I really like this new Sony laptop, and I suppose that I could always dump the Cingular service and use an Aircard with Verizon or some other provider if Cingular wasn't doing the job for me.