Need POWERFUL Phone for Cingular

S

Sergey K

New member
I live in the San Antonio area and spend the majority of my time on the road or on ranches in "fringe" areas. I am a long term Cingular customer as they have the widest coverage area throughout South and Central Texas. I recently upgraded from an older Nokia 8265i to the LG CU500. The LG has been a huge dissapointment and is consistently dropping calls. The phone will lose reception more rapidly and more often than other Cingular phones when we are driving down the road.

I need to find the most powerful phone I can and have been unable to find the information I need on the web. I understand that most phones broadcast at 1/2 watt, but the towers may be able to broadcast at 3 watts. Is there any phone on the Cingular network which is more powerful or has a better antenna than other phones?
 
My trucks all have wireless repeaters for signal boost. I am pretty desperate and have tried just about anything. In a regular service area or in the truck with a repeater, the LG CU500 consistenly lacks the reception ablities of other phones and drops a lot of calls. My favorite message after losing a client on a dropped call and trying to dial them back is "Invalid Message Protocol State". This happens A LOT. I am just trying to research the power outputs of modern phones and find one that may have a little better capabilities than the rest of the pack.
 
Per the Cingular website, the Nokia E50 is not available in my area. Any other suggestions? Have the Razr v3xx phones performed well? Any thoughts on the Sony Ericcson phones? Bluetooth and tether abilities would be a huge plus. Thanks for the all of the help so far...great site!
 
Forgive my ingnorance, but since I have never had a non-carrier specific phone, what is a good resource to learn about the pros/cons of not having a "branded" phone? Any support or compatibility issues? If there are no major negatives, where should I look to purchase the E50?
 
Nokia E50 is quadband, it has both 850 and 1900mhz which cingular uses, so it wont be a problem to you, getting a non-carrier phone requires some knowledge, you save a lot of hassles, insurance (not worth it), and non carrier phones are free from restrictions, its a good start, sooner or later, youll kick yourself for not doing it earlier
 
I'm in! Point me in the right direction to get started. I want to try to find a good price on an unbranded Nokia E50. Again, many thanks for the great help.
 
You can try the Motorola M900. It's basically a modern version of those old-school fixed vehicle phones. It's GSM 850/1900 which is what you need for Cingular and it probably has a 2+ watt output.

The drawback is that you are tethered to your vehicle, but since it is GSM you can simply swap your SIM card to a regular cellphone when you are closer to a tower or urban area.

Specs:
http://motorola.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/motorola.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=16489&p_created=1158781896&p_sid=5JVmDpti&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTImcF9wcm9kcz0yMywxMzI1JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0yLjEzMjUmcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Vendors:
http://www.google.com/froogle?sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B2GGGL_enUS176&q=The+Motorola+M900&lmode=online&price1=225.00&price2=600.00&scoring=p

http://motorola.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/motorola.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=16486&p_created=1158781406&p_sid=lIIZFpti&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTImcF9wcm9kcz0yMywxMzI1JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0yLjEzMjUmcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1
 
By "non-carrier" I think the poster means UNLOCKED. Be careful what you get on ebay if you don't know what you are looking for. You can get burned very easily.
 
Verizon is not a candidate for our travel area. Verizon works great if you stay along the interstate corridor and major arterials. Cingular cover a larger spectrum of the rural area off of major roadways.

Is there any source of information for phones which not only details typical specifications, but will also show overall output (in watts)? Everything I have seen has size, network, battery life, etc., specs but nothing about broadcast abilities.

The Motorola above would not work for the fact that I would not be able to take it out of the vehicle. Any other suggestions?
 
You can move the SIM card out of the Motorola car phone and into a handheld phone though. Slight inconvenience, but probably the most optimal phone you can get to maximize your reception.

With GSM services like Cingular, your phone number is essentially in a little card the size of your fingernail. Whatever phone that card is in is your phone. You can have more than one phone and use the one that suits the circumstances.

If you know you'll be in the car travelling a lot you can put the card in that phone. If you will be out of the car a lot you can put it in a normal handheld phone.

The only hassle is that it takes a few seconds to move the card. Whether this is a nuisance or not depends on your specific situation and your patience.
 
You can try the M900 GSM 850/1900 bag phone. I mean it's totally retro and people will laugh when you carry it around, but you get a pretty good signal out there with its 2 watt output.

http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/il/en-us/public/functions/browseproduct/relateddocuments.aspx?navigationpath=id_803i/id_2629i/id_2796i/id_2818i&doctype=id_353i
 
I have heard the new Motorola V635 has great reception. Why not try a Wilson direct connect amp in your vehicles, much better then the in vehicle repeater that you are using. The V635 has a external antenna connection on the back of the phone and all you have to do is unplug the adapter when you leave your vehicle. I think that would be the best option.
 
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