On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:37:19 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <45598e4d$0$88700$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>Dave wrote:

>> I may give it a try. I mainly need downtown Los Gatos, Campbell (near
>> Winchester and San Tomas) and downtown Campbell.
>
>As long as you don't need good Santa Cruz mountains coverage, Cingular
>should be fine. I go up to the Saratoga Gap/Highway 9 area a lot, and
>points east, south, and west from there, and Verizon is excellent, while
>Cingular is poor.

Dave, be warned that Steven has a hard-on for GSM in general and
Cingular in particular, and rarely misses an opportunity to troll in the
Cingular newsgroup and claim Verizon is better.

I've compared Cingular to Verizon in the areas he mentions, and there
really isn't that much difference in general. There are lots of
coverage gaps with both carriers up in the hills. Cingular has actually
been a bit better than Verizon in areas I care about (e.g., Los Trancos
Open Space), but it might be the other way around in areas you care
about -- there is valid generalization, so be sure to check for
yourself.

>Remember, when you move to Cingular, you lose all the
>AMPS coverage which is still very useful in many parts of the Bay Area.

You don't get AMPS with Cingular, but you probably wouldn't get it for
long with Verizon either, as the FCC mandate will soon expire. In other
words, it's not a good longer-term criteria.

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