How GAIT really works...

....at least with Cingular.

Apparently they define which areas are GSM (their own or partner's
like T-Mobile) and which are not - TDMA (Cingular or their partner's)
or other, like AMPS, I suppose.

So what's frustrating is that if you are in GSM area and you don't get
GSM signal for whatever reason (i.e. dead-spot or in the building),
the phone will _never_ switch to TDMA or AMPS, although I know those
networks I available (I had my old AT&T TDMA phone with me.)

On the "micro-level", e.g. in one-city boundaries, this defeats the
whole purpose of GAIT. On the "macro-level" - when I travel far, e.g.
to the mountains to ski, the phone will switch to TDMA, I hope. I am
still to see how this is going to work, because I have GSM stretching
for quite a bit around where I live (New York City). But there are
still some dead-spots still in this area which I hoped to cover by
having a GAIT phone and a corresponding plan.

I spent l-l-lots of time with their customer and tech support people
to gather this. Finally I got one guy on the phone who was really
knowledgeable and honestly explained me the way it works...

I tried Nokia 6340i and Sony Ericsson T62u: I went to the areas where
I knew there were dead-spots for GSM coverage - three on the highway,
one on the bridge, at my friend's house and at one other place - all
within ~20 mile radius from NYC where the whole area is marked as
solid GSM... BTW there is no way to force the phone into any
particular mode, they don't even indicate the mode on the display, so
you wouldn't know.

Is that how it's supposed to be?

Can anybody share their experience with GAIT? With Cingular or any
other provider.

Thanks

Vido