Signal Problem Roaming on Cingular SMT5600

[Guest Nashcom]

Having a strange problem that I am hoping someone can help explain to me. I have a SMT5600 that is unlocked. I am using Tmobile as my service provider. I recently moved accrosss country to Nevada. In Nevada I am always roaming on a Cingular network. I have a very bad signal in my house. My friend recently visited me from chicago and has the identical smt5600 that i do. The only difference is that his service provider is Cingular. I noticed that he had full reception in my house, 5 bars. He does have a different ROM version but I cant see how this would effect the signal. Both phones show Cingular as the network they are connected to.

Am I missing something simple here?

Why would he have a good signal with the same exact phone when I have none?

Anybody have any idea why this would be or how I could get the same signal?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[Guest springtimesnow]

Maybe since he is using Cingular, he has access to 850Mhz?

[Guest gsmm0n]

Try selecting a network. It's possible you have an old AT&T phone or he does, and they each behave differently with the towers still being combined onto one network and one MNC. Goto Settings->Phone->Networks->menu->select a network and try to choose other networks. Where I live in Chicago I have to select an AT&T tower to get any coverage in my apartment. The Cingular tower it defaults to has 0-1 to bars of horrible coverage. The towers just aren't setup to work well together. In your case they both are apparently broadcasting Cingular but my guess is his ROM is programmed ot show AT&T towers as Cingular and yours won't fall over to the AT&T tower. You could also call Cingulr and have them push an updated MNC listing to your SIM. This can help in the tower searching, switching process.

Good luck! The good news is all the towers should be working together by this November (24 month integration plan set out by AT&T/Cingular is "on track" somehow...)