at least one thing has stayed the same since the hurricane: cingular's coverage still sucks. it was bad to begin with and it hasn't changed. dropped calls, no reception, incoming calls missed or routed to voice mail, no indoor reception, etc. looks like no one here has anything good to say about them. where do I sign up for the class action suit?

Little to no service in eastern New Orleans

Calls do not come through. They go to voice mail 7 out of 10 times. Calls have to be retried to go through. They have never gone through on the first try.

terrible. I have to stand in my backyard or in the street with the rest of my neighbors. please set up a tower. its ridiculous.

I can never get reception in buildings. I have had Cingular send me several new phones to no avail. They claim the network is great here but I've been in large buildings in Dallas and could call without problems. The network in New Orleans is awful and Cingular will not recognize the problems. In the last conversation with them, I was told to go to the store, get a new phone and if it didn't work, they would replace it or I could use the 30-day guarantee to cancel my contract. Now I ask you, do I want to give Cingular another dollar? When I see the commercial about more bars in more places, it makes me sick!

Overall, service is good. I found it essential living in a concrete walled building to have a phone with an external antenna, instead of the built in one that you see with the base Nokia model. The typical Sprint dropped calls applies here, but I seem to get it a bit less. What I get most is the "never processed calls". You dial a number, push send, the timer begins and there is nothing. You hang up and try again, and it goes through. Overall, I have found the Sanyo base / mid phones to be better than the base / mid Nokia phones

I've had a AT&T / Cingular GSM (Moto V600) phone for over a year. Reception is spotty all over the New Orleans metro area, with lots of dead areas. Reception is good in the outer office / upper floors of my high-rise office, but disappears when you move to an interior hallway. Reception is poor if you're inside your home in the suburbs. I live in Terrytown, just across the river from downtown N.O., and I cannot send or receive a call without walking outside to the street. Everyone at the office has had the same trouble. My family signed up for a Cingular GSM account 1.5 years ago; nothing but complaints, regardless of phone type. I talked to a fellow from out of town today who was complaining about how poor Cingular service is in the N.O. area. Bottom line -- DO NOT sign up for Cingular GSM in New Orleans. A number of people at the office have dumped Cingular for Verizon, with good results.

No Reception along Highy way 90 (Chef Menteur Highway)

No reception at all at home downtown! My old walmart tracfone actually has better reception. I've called Cingular repeatedly and they replace the antenna on my phone or tell me they're adding more towers or some other nonsense that doesn't help at all. You can't use your plan's minutes anyway with such poor reception. Might as well get a prepaid tracfone- I would have saved $400 this year. (and no I don't work for tracfone, I'm just really! unhappy with cingular)

Nextel's cellular service has become increasingly poor in New Orleans. I don't know what alternative carrier to turn to since they all seem to especially suck in Louisiana. Nextel used to be okay up until two years ago; I'm not sure what happened? Many individuals choose not to go with Cingular because of the corporation's goat-screw tactics of the past. Cingular is out to monopolize the market; nevertheless, screw-over the world as it always has.

service is not existant please build a tower asap

Reception is spotty, move four feet and the signal gone. get reception is the den but nowhere in the rest of the house. Rather annoying.

Cell phone reception is pretty good, no dropped calls inside of house.

I get 2 to 3 bars at Tulane Medical School, and can only call from the side of the building closest to Tulane Ave. At Audubon Park, coverage is usually 3 to 4 bars, but I get more dropped calls, it seems like.

I have had so many problems with my Sprint service here: hundreds of dropped calls etc. Other services are stronger in New Orleans

Coverage is spectacular now with GSM. A year ago it was a different story. The only place in the city where I consistently drop calls is on I-10 / I-610 merge near City Park. Every time I go through there I drop the call.

Had a motorola V60t (TDMA) and the service was horrible so I "upgraded" to GSM and got the Motorola T721. Service may actually be worse now. I maintain a PC network that stretches from Kenner to the Westbank so I use, or try to use, my phone all over NO. The service is absolutely horrible overall. In fairness though, I just got a Nokia 6820 (GSM) and I have actually been able to have 60 and 90 minute phone conversations for the first time since I left Sprint (their coverage was spectacular).

Step outside the door and the reception is great. Can't use the phones in any of the apartments though. Several friends with different models (GAIT and GSM) don't get reception in there apartments either. Cingular has a wide coverage area, but Sprint definatly had stronger signal.

Only problem I have had is customer service over the phone. I have had a very big problem with reps giving the incorrect information and not adding the correct features & promotions to the line.

TDMA works great all over southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi and has reliable to excellent service in every city/airport around the country as well as on all the highways and interstates even off in the country it works pretty well. the point is, if you must travel for work, and not always in major cities, then stick with TDMA , GSM is not reliable yet and you will miss important calls due to gaps in coverage