Hey all...

Just picked up my TL a few months back (Anth / No-navi) and am really digging it. I'm hesitant to get a bluetooth phone due to coverage problems with GSM. Since I'm not, by any means, a phone guy, I'm scared to get rid of my Nokia that actually gets a great signal everywhere that I go in the South Side of Chicago and Northern Indiana. (I was getting drops constantly with my old Motorola through ATT, but the Nokia I picked up 6 months back is fantastic.)

Anyway, questions are as follows:

1) Since the digital network area is much larger than the current GSM serviced network, is there a bluetooth phone that is digital rather than GSM out there?

2) Is there a better / preferred carrier for this type of phone currently?

3) If so -- what is the generally accepted best phone / carrier combination for the TL in the Chicago area?

I did a few searches, but nothing really answered this in full. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

1.) GSM is a digital network as well. Please clarify. GSM works great in Chicago and surrounding cities. Just make sure to go with a good provider (i.e. T-Mobile or Cingular). Check out the bluetooth forum as well. Go to www.howardforums.com if you want to go to the subforums to ask about call quality in your area.

2.) T-Mobile and/or Cingular

3.) Check the bluetooth forum. I would recommend the Sony Ericsson T637.

If you searched the bluetooth forum, there are tons of posts made about this. search for "bluetooth bluetooth bluetooth" thread started by yours truly.

 

i have t-mob with no problems

 

Thanks for the insight...I'll go there this week.

Guess I thought GSM was satellite based and therefore a different frequency, with land based amps to boost signal locally like XM. (Shows my ignorance, eh?)

Anyway, I'll keep digging.

 

Satellite phones are quite expensive.

 

I travel back and forth into Chicago about once a month and have had good luck in the areas that I normally have been in (both airports, I94, Skokie, Lisle, and even out in Island Lake). The GSM coverage that Cingular/ATTW provides seems to be doing pretty well in the metro areas. It unfortunatly doesn't work as well in the rural areas like Verizon does.

Cingular has acquired ATTW and it appears that both networks are now operating with each other.

This should be considered if you do a good bit of traveling. My phone rarely works in large sections of West Virginia. I actually keep an old TDMA phone (that can also use the old analog stations) in the car that I could use to call 911 if I needed to.