Major Problems with Cingular Network

Wabin writes "It looks like the Cingular GSM network is having serious trouble. My phone stopped working today completely, though my wife's was still able to make outgoing calls. Talking to tech support, they claimed some kind of massive failure across the country starting around 4PM yesterday and possibly a virus attack. Howard Forums is all abuzz, but there really doesn't seem to be any hard info. Glad I haven't totally given up the land line yet... redundancy is good."

Comments

Apparently this started in Atlanta

[halo1982]

Yeah...apparently the problem started in Atlanta. Something went out there, and it switched over to a backup in Chicago, and I guess it couldn't handle the extra traffic so there was a cascading failure? Wait a minute, this sounds familiar... This is only on Cingular's GSM, not their TDMA. Those with TDMA and GAIT phones are able to use the service normally. Also, it seems like its only around mid america to the east coast.

Re:Apparently this started in Atlanta

[Ingenium13]

Well, I have a good friend w/ a TDMA Cingular phone. Yesterday the service was flaky. I called him from my Sprint phone and I got a "unreachable" message from Cingular, not his voicemail. I tried a few more times and it went to his voicemail finally, but never actually to his phone. Today it was down all day. He couldn't make or receive calls. Another friend of mine has a GSM Cingular phone and she couldn't receive calls either. I'd get the same message. When I tried calling from a Verizon phone to both phones I got a fast busy signal instead. My friend said he could still receive the text messages I sent him though. At 11:30pm EDT he texted me saying his phone was working again, but I didn't receive the message on my sprint phone until midnight when he sent me another. I called him on his phone and it worked fine at midnight. So I guess whatever the problem was is resolved now.

Stuff from Cingular tech support

[taped2thedesk]

I called customer service earlier today... the techs sounded pretty stressed out. They told me if I wasn't having problems, I would be fine as long as I didn't power cycle the phone. When the phone is powered on and tries to reregister itself with the network, it can't. Of course, my battery died before I could get to a charger.

I'm still without a connection, and when people call my number, they don't even get my voicemail... just a fast busy signal.

Damn you Cingular! I'm switching providers! Wait, I'm locked into a two year contract :-/ I knew that was a bad idea.

Re:Stuff from Cingular tech support

[michaelhood]

I'm sure you could get out of that contract on the grounds that they didn't uphold their end. IANAL, but there are reasonable expectations on delivery of service in a contract.They are likely in breach of this, seeing as how their service is totally unreachable and unusable.

People cannot even reach your voicemail. This would cost me more money per day than the penalty for axing my Sprint contract, anyways.

Call them. End your contract. Get a better provider.
(FYI: Sprint is NOT one, as soon as number portability kicks in I'm out).

Problem started a week ago...

[sohojim]

My Cingular (Chicago-area) phone quit receiving calls 10 days ago. After 3 days of their horrible tech support, I finally found a rep who said that their system had no record of my SIM card, and that the records must have "gotten lost." He re-entered them, and all was well for two days, and then the problem recurred. This time, I was told that it was a national problem that had occurred a couple of days earlier. During all of this, I've called *611 dozens of times, and the hold times are well above average. I used to work in one of Cingular's Call Center IT departments; I just emailed a friend who's still there to see what's going on...

Re:sorry, but t-mobile is crap too ...

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

"If Deutsche Telecom can get it right in Germany, then why not in the US?"

Because the US is 4x the size of Western Europe and has less people.

"It's not like it's cheaper in the US, au contraire."

It actually is. At least when I looked into plans with major providers (Vodafone, T-Mobile) about a month ago, what we get in the US is far cheaper than what is offered in Europe.

For example:

T-Mobile Baisc Plus (USA)
$30
Do pay for incoming calls
300 Peak
Unlimited Off-Peak/Weekend (9pm-6am)
GPRS = $3 / mo for 1MB, $10 / mo for unlimited
No Long Distance In USA
No Roaming In USA, $.49 in North America, $.99 in Europe

T-Mobile Everyone 100 (UK)
21 GBP = $34.87
Don't pay for incoming calls
150 peak first year, 100 peak thereafter
0 Non-Peak
GPRS 0.75UK = $1.24 *per kilobyte*
No Long-Distance in UK
No Roaming in UK, 0.69GBP = $1.14 USD in rest of Europe

Let's recap
US Plan Advantages:
Cheaper
2x as many peak minutes
Unlimited (vs. 0) non-peak minutes
GPRS that's a lot cheaper
No long distance in a larger area
No roaming in a larger area
Cheaper to use in Canada/Mexico (by far) and even Europe

UK Plan Advantages:
Calling Party Pays

Frankly, I think that the US plan is a far better value. For $10 a month, you can even add unlimited calling *anytime* to other T-Mobile phones in the US (e.g. when I call my friends, it doesn't cost a thing).

I have found T-Mobile's coverage to be perfectly acceptable. I know that some experience signal issues, but, quite frankly, I have not had any problems. No, it's not universal, but it works damn well.

"why is it that i can go to the middle of nowhere in europe (scandinavia more precisely) with my t-mobile phone and get excellent coverage"

Ever been to Chimayo, NM? It's the middle of nowhere. Literally. There's 1 town within 20 miles. It has 900 people. And yet they have reliable T-Mobile GSM and GPRS service. This is not universal, but it's more common than you think.

One reason Sprint and Verizon phones get better converage is because of CDMA. CDMA *is* a better technology than GSM. It handles twice as many people per cell and the cells can be far larger (3x+). Add to that the faster data service and better call quality, and you begin to understand why CDMA is the preferred technology in the USA.

Post Summary:
- Mobile service *isn't* more expensive in the US. From my experience, it's cheaper in the US. Please show me otherwise.
- CPP is nice, but, quite frankly, it's becoming irrelivent in the US. From unlimited nights and weekends to the 600 peak minutes I get to the free calling to and from other T-Mobile phones, I have *never* run over my minute limit. And I call quite a bit. Also, in the US, calling a mobile phone is just like calling a local phone. It's free locally, and cheap long-distance ($.05/min).
- We have unlimited GPRS. I have yet to see an unlimited GPRS plan in Europe. If you know of one, please show it to me.
- We *do* have GSM. With SIM cards. 3 Providers. And GPRS. And 3G CDMA. The US has the largest 3G CDMA networks (Sprint and Verizon). 1XRTT may not be as fast as EVDO, but it *is* technically 3G.

So stop this line of "the US has primitive wireless". It hasn't been true for quite some time now.

I too have been having problems...

[ducomputergeek]

The switch over to GSM is not going well. I renewed my plan last summer after 2 years of great service with cingular, but I and my Fiance both got new Nokia 6340 (Which is a GAIT phone that works on both regular and GSM networks) phones and have had nothing but problems. I had just gotten back from Europe where I used Vodophone's GSM network quite well and was looking forward to it being in the US, but its horrible.

At first I thought it was the phone, as it started to drop calls, not ring when people called, and then it started to automatically turn itself off. I went in to the the store owned by Cingluar, I was there for 5 minutes and I had a new handset. This was about the middle of August. Now, this handset is having the same problems and my Fiance's phone has had nothing but problems too. (Her's sets off alarm clocks and electronic devices).

I live and die by my Cell phone as I use it as my Only phone, business and personal because I am a consultant and often out to visit with clients on a daily basis and perfer to work from coffee shops when ever possible, and to have people call and the phone not even ring has cost me in terms of business and just generally annoying.

So I finally we both get fed up, so both my Fiance and I walk into store and politely complain about the handsets, and the rep camly states that "They have been having issues with their network and voice mail". I explain, that since this is my one and only phone and I use it for business purposes that I cannot afford to have this type of service and wanted to know about switching handsets. Well, we "couldn't trade in our handsets" and would cost us retail, about $250 - 300 depending on what model, to trade buy something else.

Then I asked him, "How much is it to terminate the agreement?" and he responded studdering $150. And I then replied, "So it would be cheaper for us to break the contract and go to Alltel, then?" and he responded with silence for a few seconds then answered "yes" and then explained that it was problems with the network, not the phones.

I then asked him, "Look at it from my perpective. I am a consulant and if someone can't reach me, I loose money. Even a small contract usually totals several thousand dollars." And then I got the "any time with new technology, system, there is going to be problems" and I said, "This isn't a new system. Europe has been using it for quite sometime. In fact I used it when I was there working/studing abroad this time last year and it was great, I had no problems, so why are you? Why are you requiring all customers trade up for new phones that don't work?" He didn't have an answer.

My Fiance and I then went to AT&T, which isn't much better from what I have heard and way more expensive, and Alltel, which is pretty close to that of Cingular as far as price goes (about $5 difference a month) and for my Fiance is actully a tad bit cheaper.

That was Thursday and I didn't want to make a judgement based on emotion, because I ticked at the rep that gave me the run around on why the network isn't working even though its not his fault, and looked at the fact of the time it would take to call all of my clients and tell them I have a new number and the fact it would cost me about $8.50 more a month with Altell and decided to stick it out for a bit, but things have only been getting worse.

My fiance tried to call me 4 times today, only 1 got through and i continue to drop calls left and right. Before, I rarely had dropped calls unless I was in the middle of the sticks, now I get them all the time.

Bottom line, after reading that this is not just a local problem and speaking with several other providers in the area, that Monday morning my fiance and I are going to go back to the Cingular dealer and break our contract. Yeah its going to cost us $300, but both of us use it for business (she's a wedding planner) and losing just one customer for either of us will be an oppertunity cost of way more than $150. At the very least I go get to expense the cost off my taxes as a business expense so, I guess I break even on paper.

The only thing that sucks, is I just had a new set of business cards printed...always my damn luck...