GSM not working when you are in your car. How about the cell not working when you're in your car . Period. Regardless of the carrier. One of the painful things of coming back from an international business trip, is coming back to crappy cell coverage. I switched to Omnipoint (now Voicestream) about two years ago due to crappy coverage by ATT in general and the seamless international roaming, and the seamless US roaming. Granted there isn't coverage everywhere, but you can't get VM notification in CT if you have ATT, and for long periods (for all I know it is still occuring) in the LA area you would never get message notification. It would be nice if the US had adotped all of the same bands as the rest of the world (and this is going to be a problem for 2-3G phones). ATT moving to GSM should be a positive thing. This should add some coverage in the areas that VStream hasn't hit yet.
I don't know what Cingular is going to do though, they have a mix of TDMA and GSM networks. I guess the next gen of stations should be able to handle both, but it will be expensive one way or the other to replace those handsets.
There are ways around it. I had issues with my install with every place dropping the ball. BA holds the power, the ISP was useless (I had to inform them (Globix) that my line was finally up). The key is that there are a few people scattered around the regions who are problem solvers. The problems reach them (at Covad anyway) and they get them fixed. They have the contacts at BA that they can reach by phone rather than their arcane CovadBA trouble ticket system.
My guy handled NYC and the surrounding area. And there were a couple others in his department on LI. I suggest causing enough of a ruckus at Flashcom to get your Covad ticket number, then deal with Covad directly. It's not perfect, but it get's one player out of the loop.
Now, somewhat stupidly, I'm trying to get a second DSL line, this time via Northpoint. Try scheduling an install date (or having them call you first).....
Omnipoint (or the other US GSM carriers) should now have 3 phones that work internationally. The Bosch and Ericsson World Phones are dual band. The Motorolla Timeport is tri-band. I'd suggest getting the Motorolla phone. I'm not a big Ericsson fan. I had it for a while but lost it on a train. The Tri-band is really a big benefit if you are in major cities. With the roaming coverage from the US via Omnipoint you generally have roaming ability on all 4 carriers. On the dual-band phones you only have the ability to access 2 of those (the other band is the US freqs). Prices differ per roaming agreement. Renting phones there isn't a bad idea. I ended up having to buy one. And whatever expense it is here, getting one in europe w/o a contract, expect to pay double what you pay here. Thankfully I had someone to run it through to. The benefit of the Ericsson is that it has a built-in IR modem, so assuming you aren't running NT, you can in theory connect to it w/o cables. Dial-up I used IBM/ATT Global services. They used to be really cheap before they implemented their "roaming" policies. They seem to cover most of the major cities with decent connect speeds. It does get pricey by the time you get your bill, or if you are on as much as I tended to be (work related).
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I don't know what Cingular is going to do though, they have a mix of TDMA and GSM networks. I guess the next gen of stations should be able to handle both, but it will be expensive one way or the other to replace those handsets.
My guy handled NYC and the surrounding area. And there were a couple others in his department on LI. I suggest causing enough of a ruckus at Flashcom to get your Covad ticket number, then deal with Covad directly. It's not perfect, but it get's one player out of the loop.
Now, somewhat stupidly, I'm trying to get a second DSL line, this time via Northpoint. Try scheduling an install date (or having them call you first).....
Omnipoint (or the other US GSM carriers) should now have 3 phones that work internationally. The Bosch and Ericsson World Phones are dual band. The Motorolla Timeport is tri-band. I'd suggest getting the Motorolla phone. I'm not a big Ericsson fan. I had it for a while but lost it on a train. The Tri-band is really a big benefit if you are in major cities. With the roaming coverage from the US via Omnipoint you generally have roaming ability on all 4 carriers. On the dual-band phones you only have the ability to access 2 of those (the other band is the US freqs). Prices differ per roaming agreement. Renting phones there isn't a bad idea. I ended up having to buy one. And whatever expense it is here, getting one in europe w/o a contract, expect to pay double what you pay here. Thankfully I had someone to run it through to. The benefit of the Ericsson is that it has a built-in IR modem, so assuming you aren't running NT, you can in theory connect to it w/o cables. Dial-up I used IBM/ATT Global services. They used to be really cheap before they implemented their "roaming" policies. They seem to cover most of the major cities with decent connect speeds. It does get pricey by the time you get your bill, or if you are on as much as I tended to be (work related).