>
New Topic
>
Reply<
Esato Forum Index
>
Regional >
Americas
> Is there a Gsm / Gprs Provider in Portland, Oregon?
Bookmark topic
Yeah I understood your last post. You inferred that I didn't know what I was talking about on the false premise that a cingular sim would provide no value to Cunning Man. However, since a Cingular sim would provide value in that it would allow him to judge att's network without a contract your inference was without a base. My reply was to clarify my previous statements, since you didn't seem to understand I was telling the guy to check out all of his options and draw his own conclusion as to which network WORKS BEST FOR HIM. I didn't have a problem with you telling him that an ATT contract might be a pain because he's foreign, even though you neglected to mention it in your first post - where you did recommend ATT. When I decided to give my input as to his GSM options I did not suggest any one carrier - I suggested a way for him to effectively judge which network was best for him.
As for how to get a hold of a cingular sim. This isn't really that hard, you call Cingular. Give em a credit card # and $20 bucks gone from your account and have have a SIM. Then you have to buy minutes. Of course if he were impatient he could drive to the "south sound" part of washington (an hour and a half trip each way - if that) and pick up a sim at a cingular store. Lake Oswego, like Portland is on the very north end of Oregon near the Washington border. And really that drive will be an advantage for him as many people in the Portland area, being its so close to washington tend to roam to Vancover and sometimes Seattle/Tacoma - so it'd give him a chance to see which carrier is best up and down the I5 corridor.
--
Posted: 2003-01-15 07:15:00
Edit :
Quote
Yikes.
--
Posted: 2003-01-15 09:37:00
Edit :
Quote
@ Cunning Man
Sorry about all this. Mr. Highrez would have you call Cingular and give them a credit card # but the only problem is that you may not have one since you would be new to this country and again would need to pass some type of credit check to get a credit card so this in itself would be a problem. Besides even if you did give them a credit card and did have it shipped to you there is another problem. No body will ship you an active SIM card for fear that if someone else got their hands on it they could steal and use it themselves.You would have to call Cust service and have the SIM activated once you received it. But since you would be activating a Cingular SIM you would not be able to activate it while on AT&Ts network which means you would have to drive 1 1/2 hours just to get it activated. I LOVE THE LOGIC!!!
I doubt you would really want to drive 1 1/2 one way just to pick up a pre-paid SIM card just you could test the coverage along I 15 as Highrez had suggested. Every carrier in the US covers the major highways extremely well in their service areas so this would be pointless. Again, I love the logic. Save your self the hassle and trouble, Get a TMobile pre-paid SIM. I hear they have good coverage in their areas. It would the easiest way to go. Besides think of all the money you save on gas since you wouldn't have to drive 3 hours round trip. Good luck!! LOVE THE LOGIC!!!
--
Posted: 2003-01-15 14:43:00
Edit :
Quote
if you have sim from where you are now use that to test signals
This message was posted from a P800
--
Posted: 2003-01-15 15:02:00
Edit :
Quote
Hey bigdawg, you're a bit dated. There are these things called "check cards" that use the visa network "but withdraw the money right from your checking account". They show them on tv all the time, and I think infants can even get them.
As far as not wanting to test the major highways, well thats just wrong. If I had tested 405 between Bellevue and Renton wa I would have never gotten an ATT GSM account.
I still think Cunning Man has a couple of options when it comes to purchasing a cingular sim - if thats what he wants to do. Shoot it down all you want, I'm just presenting options.
Your coment about activating the sim is off. You don't need to be on your home carriers network to "activate" the sim. If you mean "provision" the provisioning is done on the sim before it is sent to you (with cingular). I admit I'm not up on the GSM specifications, but I know for certain that you do not need to be on your home network to "activate" the sim. Have you ever seen the swisscom "easyRoam" sims that are sold all the time for international travel? These sims come unprovisioned, that is you have to call swisscom to provision the sim (get a phone number). You do NOT have to be in switzerland to do this, you can do it from anywhere in the world where they have roaming agreements.
Speaking of Swisscom, they have roaming agreements with ATT Cingular and T-Mobile America. They may be a better solution for Cunning Man or anyone else who may want to compare GSM networks in the US (or just about anywhere else in the world).
gsm1: I had thought about your suggestion previously but just testing specific areas does not give you indication of how well the network is able to switch your calls between base stations etc while driving. I like doing the old "can you hear me now?" test.
Also, I don't know about the P800 but my T68 won't show me the signal level from a specific base station unless I'm able to register on it. There are some base station's (ATT at my house for example) that show up in the network search but being able to see a station in the network search and being able to register/make a call on that station are very different things.
--
Posted: 2003-01-17 09:28:00
Edit :
Quote
@ highrez
I hate to nit-pick but if you can do it, so can I, you terminology is off Provisioning is setting up an account, activation is the moment when you can actually use the sim, I've never heard of swisscom, but chances are their activation is done through a series of affiliates.
--
Posted: 2003-01-17 21:36:00
Edit :
Quote
Deric,
In the traditional telecom world provisioning means making available to facilities required for communication (either dropping copper at the dmark/niu, or making available to a circuit off of a MUX etc). This includes the loop between any two points and any provisioning of circuit switched information required. "Turnup" is what I guess would be equivalent to your "Activation". But certainly provisioning is NOT setting up the account (in the traditional telecom world). Yeah I did nit-pick his terminology, and I still think its wrong. Please read GSM 11.11 Section 4.3.2 "Activation and Deactivation". You will find that sim activation has nothing to do with the negotiatons between the handset and base station, but is a term used to describe the physical relationship between the handset and the SIM. Don't have a copy of the draft? Here you go:
http://www.ttfn.net/techno/smartcards/GSM11-11v6-2.pdf
But nit-picking is wrong, and I'm sorry for that. I'll try not to BS around with symantics in the future, as they seem to draw attention away from the bigger point. That said let me dig into this "sim activation" thing real quick. The assertion that you have to be on your home network for the sim to be activated is wrong technically, because the sim need not be provisioned to be activated. Activation occours (According to the GSM Spec!) the moment you power on a phone with a sim inserted into it. But thats REAL nit-picking.
What I disagreed with here was BigDawg implying you have to be on your home network for your sim to register the first time. This is NOT true. As long as the base station knows where to route your SubID (roaming) while registering and your carrier permits you to register (they send a pseudo registration request) on that network you will be able to register. Now thats not to say that the carrier cant block you from registering on another carriers base station, but why would they?
But what do I know, I'm not some technical support guy working for a carrier - i'm just a loley programmer who has written code USED BY THE CARRIERS.
Wakka wakka wakka.
--
Posted: 2003-01-18 03:44:00
Edit :
Quote
New Topic
Reply
