[sivartyad]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

I am in Boston all the time and have no problem with Cingular. The only problem areas in New England that I have found over the last several years are on I-89 between Concord and Lebanon, north of Augusta, ME, and in a few areas inthe hills of CT. BTW, I have an 8700c.

I'm in Boston every day of the week and you can't tell me that it works well because I know at least three dozen people in my company that are all having the same poor voice quality that I am in the city. Same can be said for dropped calls, lack of signal, etc. Cingular may be great and the new 8700 may be great - but the two combined are ruining my life. There must be a problem considering there are A LOT of threads on here about the issue and everyone seems to have the same complaint.

In reference to your problem areas over the last several years - not sure that it applies because this is in reference to the 8700 which hasn't been around for several years.

[whoscalling]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

Perhaps it is a coverage problem. How strong is the Cingular signal. I know with my 8700, when I go into areas with weaker coverage (2 bars or less) I have had connection and voice quality problems.

I have these problems with a strong signal and it just gets worse as the signal gets less strong (kinda obvious)

Also, I don't know if this is 8700c or Cingular related but I too have the issue of dialing a number and having to wait 30+ seconds for it to begin to ring or it just sits there and says "dialing" but never goes through. On occasion it will give me some strange tone sequence and I have to retry the call.

Finally, has anyone on Cingular placed a call and after the press dial the audio that comes through is almost like a loud bad connection with extreme static? This doesn't happen too regularly but when it does it sounds more network related rather then device.

[serpico]

I have a 7100 on TMO, and voice quality for my callers is pitiful. They hear lots of background noise. My prior phones were LG and Motorola Startac, both on VZW; both much better voice quality.
In the 7100 forum, there are lots of threads that complain about poor voice quality for the 7100 series on various providers, so it may not just be a Cingular issue.

I've seen a number of posts here and in other threads that suggest that CDMA is better for voice than GSM. Anyone try CDMA and GSM versions of the same phone in a major metro area?

[whoscalling]

Originally Posted by serpico

I have a 7100 on TMO, and voice quality for my callers is pitiful. They hear lots of background noise. My prior phones were LG and Motorola Startac, both on VZW; both much better voice quality.
In the 7100 forum, there are lots of threads that complain about poor voice quality for the 7100 series on various providers, so it may not just be a Cingular issue.

I've seen a number of posts here and in other threads that suggest that CDMA is better for voice than GSM. Anyone try CDMA and GSM versions of the same phone in a major metro area?

I would bet it is the 7100. The background noise cancellation on those devices is not very good at all.
________________________________________

I am convinced that it is Cingular (in my case). My RIM product(7130e) on Verizon was crystal clear.

[serpico]

Originally Posted by whoscalling

I am convinced that it is Cingular (in my case). My RIM product(7130e) on Verizon was crystal clear.

7130 is a different design from both 7100 and 8700, so maybe that had something to do with why it sounded so great on VZW? Also, PC Mag had a review on the 8700 where they described voice quality as "mediocre". It seems to me that most commercial review sites are not nearly as harsh as they should be on products (CNET being the worst offender IMHO), so when I see "mediocre", I interpret that to mean "very poor".

[serpico]

Originally Posted by rjhouck

I had the same issue going from the Razor to the BB8700c. The Razor had great audio quality on my ear and no one on the other end complained about my audio. However, when I went to the 8700c the audio on my ear was fine but everyone complained about background noice. I tested this on my office voicemail and it is true. The BB8700c does not cancel out the background noice. I have tried several different Bluetooth devises but there is still lots of background noice.

I see you've tried the Plantronics 645 - that's their top-of-the-line, right? With DSP to provide noise cancellation? How does it compare to the Scala 500 (which is what I'm currently using)?

[sanjeevjoshi]

I had a Nokia on Cingular before my 8700c, my call quality (on my end, and as reported on the other side) actually improved with the switch, across my travels in the US and abroad. Only issue I have noticed is an occasional glitch in connection with my Motorola 810 (or perhaps 850) headset, occasionally people have trouble hearing at the other end. Could be an issue of compatibility with the headset, not sure. No issues with the wired headset.