I read a bunch of threads on this but, I just don't have a clear answer because many were too techinical with words like "GAIT". I have no idea what that means! My problem is as follows:

1) I travel everywhere in the USA. Not just major cities.
2) I have the old AT&T one rate plan on a nokia 6160 (I also have three other accounts for spouse, mom and employee with various phones)
3) I travel internationally each month also.

I would NEVER have thought of changing except the CIGULAR people seem worse than Nazi Germany. If I so much as blink, they will switch me to the GSM plans. I am VERY worried these won't work in the middle of nowhere. Second, their so called customer service, is the worst I have ever encountered... EVER. It takes me more than 30 minutes of screaming, and I mean screaming at their stupid voice prompts to get a human. And they can't help either. It is like nobody has a clue. So I am VERY worried about CINGULAR. I kind of scoffed at people saying they were being forced off the old AT&T plans...

But I swear the quality of my phone service is decreased perhaps 70%... I just can't make calls anymore. And in places like Las Vegas! I would swear CINGULAR is doing something to force me to switch. Like turning down the towers or reducing available bandwidth or whatever it is. Bottom line is something is very, very, wrong...

So IF I have to switch... who do I switch to? My cell phone is my office. I can't not get my calls, and I have to make calls. I need bullet proof USA service. I can always keep my T-mobile phone I use for international.

By the way, anyway to recieve on a USA number in eurpoe for under 99 cent a minute? I understnad switching SIMS and making calls for less. But my clients would have to call international long distance.

Thanks for the help!

Hi Cigarman,

You are correct that Cingular is slowly killing you. The Nokia 6160 is a dual TDMA/Analogue phone from the old ATT era. It will not work on the current Cingular GSM800 network, and Cingular is slowly dismantling the old ATT network.

You have several options;

1) Get a Cingular GSM phone and accept their plan (GSM). You are correct that it will NOT work everywhere. It will be fine in Vegas, or pretty much all other major cities in the US; but it will NOT work in rural areas or "middle of nowhere" roads. If you mainly travel to populated areas and are not stuck in a car in the middle of nowhere it should work just fine.

2) Your best option IMHO would be Verizon. They have the best coverage in the country. You can "port" the number from Cingular to Verizon. Sadly I have little to no experience with Verizon but I constantly hear good things about them.

T-mobile is not an option for you really; their US coverage is still pretty poor so unless you are mainly in areas they have coverage they won't help much.

As for cheaper T-mobile calls abroad; your only option really is to get prepaid SIM cards in each country and have your clients call you on that number, as you said; that isn't much of an option.

My wife and I have Verizon and love it. It works everywhere BUT the President's CLub on E concourse at IAH

GSM has poorer penetration into buildings, and Cingular's GSM network is not comprehensive -- there are gaps.

Verizon has the best coverage in the US, but is also the most expensive (and focuses on gimmicky phones so that it can charge for video-over-cellphone, still picture transfers, ringtones, etc.).

If you're concerned about coverage (and not a teenager), you should be able to find an affordable Verizon plan that meets your needs. Your Cingular phone will not work on Verizon's system.

Note that Verizon is pushing their all-digital phones, but still has CDMA/analog phones available. These are what you want if maximum coverage is desired -- there are still places out in the sticks that are analog-only.

Hey my Cingular GSM phone worked at Old Faithful in Yellowstone but was pretty useless except along major highways in the country. Go with Verizon for the best coverage if you spend a lot of time in rural Amerika.

In GSM's defense, what you're refering to is the 1900Mhz network compared to CDMA's 900Mhz. However, as you may be aware, Cingular is rolling out a network in the 850Mhz band, which has equal penetration into buildings as CDMA.

As for gaps, yes, they have more gaps. GSM is newer in North America, so they are still catching up. It would be like saying CDMA has gaps in Europe...

I didn't know that. I agree that an 850 MHz GSM phone will do just as well when it comes to buildling penetration.

If the OP was travelling internationally, I'd suggest a GSM phone, as a CDMA phone is virtually useless there. I'm not a big Verizon fan, but I travel all over the place in the US and need reliable service, so I have a Verizon phone. I keep a GSM phone specifically for travelling internationally. If Cingular builds their network enough, I'd consider switching, but not now.

My wife uses a Cingular GSM phone with a nationwide plan(no extra roaming fees or long distances fees).

She has had perfect luck using it everywhere she has tried for the last 2.5 years. And it has been used imn many far away places in the US and elsewhere. It works well where others' Verizon phones don't.

Sure, there are holes in the GSM system. But we've been delighted with the Cingular GSM coverage so far.

BTW, she has a Nokia 3100b (850, 1800, 1900 MHz tri-band) phone that we all love. A 3120b should would perform as well.

Oh, yes, I have a T-mobile (prepaid) GSM phone that does NOT roam onto most other GSM networks. I find the T-mobile GSM sysyem in the USA to be quite spotty at best. If you are going anywhere off of major interstate highways, stay away from T-mobile.

Here's a complete and comprehensive list (with maps) of GSM coverage around the world (you're welcome in advance ):

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

It's proved incredibly useful for me to determine if my GSM phone will get coverage (roaming or not) wherever I am in the states or internationally. It's ATT, still, because I refuse to be bullied into Cingular's plans when my ATT plan of old suits me just fine. But note, it is still GSM.

You'll have to look at the specs of your phone to see what coverages it gets you (if you go for a GSM, which I recommend). Most newer GSM phones sold by ATT/Cingular are at least Tri-Band (850Mhz/1800/1900). This is great, except for the parts of the world that use GSM 900, which is a lot of central America and eastern Asia (outside the big cities), in addition to the really rural parts of the U.S. or if you're in a basement. Alternatively, you could get a quad-band phone from Cingular (you'd have to change to a Cingular plan if you're still on an old ATT plan) and that quad-band phone will work almost anywhere in the world without any need for a SIM, etc. Roaming can be expensive, though. Over $2/min in some places.

As for nation-wide coverage...yes, Cingular's not the best. Your best all-in one solution is to get a quad-band phone so that if you can't find an 850/1800/1900 signal, you might be able to pick up that 4th band (900Mhz). Although, places like northern Iowa (from experience) have no GSM coverage whatsoever, so any GSM phone, regardless of service provider, will not work.

Other than a satellite phone, I don't think there's one phone that will work everywhere. So, you'll have to take a look at coverage maps and phones you like (i suggest a quad-band for the OP) and find the best comprimise. I don't think you'll be happy down the road if you stick with an old analog phone (TDMA) or get a competing phone to GSM (CDMA). CDMA is on its way out, as GSM is going to be the prevailing force here soon as the U.S. tries to catch up with the rest of the world in using a unified cell technology.

/phew. Good luck.

Consider a forwarding service like kall8.com. You get a toll free number here for 7 cents a minute and $2 a month, and when you travel you pick up a SIM where you are going, log into your acount from any internet machine, and forward the toll free to the SIM number. The rates for regular/special services calls are - France - .07/.37, Italy .08/.08, Germany .07/.35, etc.

Everybody gets one toll free number to call you at no matter where you are.

I use it, lots of people here do, it's how I found out about it, and I love it.

Respectfully I have to say that the 4th band won't help him in the US. 900 & 1800 aren't used in the US as they're reserved for other uses; those bands are used primarily in other areas of the world. Cingular & Tmobile run off of 850 & 1900, though Tmobile's 850 is primarily due to roaming agreements.

I have Tmobile & find it suits my needs, but if you need coverage in most places, I would recommend Verizon for their coverage. I don't like the way Verizon cripples the firmware on their phones, but I also don't need the sticks coverage they can provide.

You should be able to migrate from your old TDMA plan on ATT to a GSM one even though it's been taken over as a friend of mine did it a few months ago and stayed Blue; they managed to keep all the bonus minutes ATT gave them as well. They are cutting off the TDMA coverage to "encourage" people to migrate from the older technology so your reception won't be getting better.

And CDMA, the standard Verizon runs on, won't be dying anytime soon. They're gradually upgrading their network to run on one of the 3G standards CDMA2000. GSM carriers in the US will most likely be migrating to W-CDMA when they upgrade to 3G services.

If you want a pretty precise idea of coverage on T-mobile head over to

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/

They will show you coverage on a zip-code level.

You're right about 900/1800 being used elsewhere and not much here in the US. I tend to confuse 1800/1900 from time to time, but it's easy enough to look up and verify.

I do disagree though that W-CDMA will be the prevailing technology, though. The world is almost entirely GSM now and I've heard reports repeatedly that the U.S. carriers need to migrate to GSM in order to compete in the global telecommunications market. Time will tell, but I think everyone in the U.S. is sick of roaming without any coverage, and splitting back to GSM and any other number of "secondary" technologies is only going to be taking a step backwards.

Verizon offers a couple of "global" phones that have both CDMA (for use in the USA and South Korea) and GSM (for most of the rest of the world). No luck in Japan.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/m...hone/index.jsp

The phones are expensive, and the service abroad costs more than a dollar per minute, but it allows you to have Verizon's CDMA network in the US and still access GSM networks overseas all with a single handset and phone number. Unfortunately I don't think any of their CDMA/GSM global phones have AMPS (analog) capabilities, so you'd be giving up rural US access.

IMO, the forwarding service + unlocked GSM handset + local country SIM solution makes more sense. But then you'll have a gap in your connectedness while you hunt down a new SIM card in each country. And prepaid SIM cards in some countries are localized so they can't be easily "topped up" in cities other than where you bought them.

Cigarman:
Perhaps you could combine a call forwarding service like cordelli (Kalle 8?)mentions with the Riing sim. This a Lichtenstein(?) based organization that sells sims for outging calls at about $1/min, but free incoming calls to most of Europe.