How's Your Cell Service? 342
Coldeagle writes "Well for those of us who are fed up with your current leash...Cellular phone providers... Here is an interesting article on various US cell phone providers and how their service adds up."
And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm' without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones
A note about SprintPCS + Vision (Score:5, Informative)
You still have it. They've 'grandfathered' your account into having unlimimted vision anyway. Set that next to the fact that since the christmas season, the novelty of the vision network has worn off, and I'm now getting comparable to ISDN speeds off my phone using a USB cable hooked to my powerbook.
Ja ne!
Verizon Wireless (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Interesting article but (Score:5, Informative)
Well, I've moved a few times, and it seems that in some areas this network over-subscription began in 2000, combined with the fact that their newer phones didn't always get the best signal. I had an old Qualcomm 1100 and never had any issues, then I got an LG flip phone, and the signal was miserable, and a 2G phone too. Now my sanyo 4900 will get full signal right next to that LG phone that gets none....wierdness.
Some R+D and catchup work on their network would do them a world of good. I realize over-subscription is the profit ticket to a network provider, but it has to be done INTELLIGENTLY.
Since last christmas (left that part out)... (Score:5, Informative)
Hate to see a bunch of people remove it and find out they are getting metered because they didn't fall in that group. I'm saying if you've removed it since christmas, not to go do it now.
Cingular (Score:5, Informative)
Does anyone have any good URLs showing what network types all the providers use, and maybe compares them?
uhh (Score:1, Informative)
Cingular and T-Mobile use the same network. They are constantly rated to have the worst reception among all cell phone companies.
Nextel and Verizon are constantly rated as having the best.
However, T-Mo is cheap. Nextel is expensive. It all depends on what you need.
But if you're too poor to pay more than $30/month, don't get a cell phone.
aka - Don't get Cingular or T-Mo!
Re:sprint PCS sucks! (Score:3, Informative)
Both plans reported that they had coverage on the highway we were driving on.
Re:You get what you pay for (Score:3, Informative)
Sprint Feedback from recent trip (Score:2, Informative)
And if you're sick of your provider... (Score:5, Informative)
FCC press release [google.com]
I'd wait until November.... (Score:5, Informative)
Don't use Sprint! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough (Score:2, Informative)
This guy used public information to build a very thourough mapping of communication, transportation, power, etc. infrastructure. IIRC, it included cell phone towers.
Of course, this caught the attention of politicians and various agencies, and he can't share his research.
Re:Cingular (Score:5, Informative)
Tower Location (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.berkana.com/tower.php3 [berkana.com]
Todd
Don't get AT&T in LA!.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How's My Cell Service? (Score:5, Informative)
Since cell phone companies' service plans seem to change all the time, you can usually luck out and get them to change you to more minutes for less money than you're paying now.
Try it some time. If you can stand wading through the 7 layers of Phone Menu Purgatory, you may just be pleasantly surprised.
Re:Verizon Wireless (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A note about SprintPCS + Vision (Score:3, Informative)
My general comments on Sprint..
Overall, very happy with the phones and the service. Occasional dropouts when driving but not an issue for me.
Pros..
The phones they offer are very good with many gadgets and gizmos and are not expensive to replace.
The Vision plan offers unlimited and unmetered internet access (+$15/month or free with 2000 minute plan). The phones work with many portals including /. (I specifically recommend www.sprintusers.com portal)
Your phones email account is web based accessible from the phone, any web browser, or your favorite email client via POP3 or IMAP. Your email address is selectable and changeable. You get 10digitnumber@sprintpcs.com and pick-one@sprintpcs.com
The Free and Clear America Plan (FCA) (+$10/month) gives you free roaming when off the PCS network. Basically, if you get a signal, the phone will work. If you use more then 50% of your minutes roaming they reserve the right to remove that option to prevent "abuse".
There is no smaller "home" concept area like some of the Cingular plans have.
The phone to phone option (free with 2yr contract or $5month) is unlimited, some carriers charge for this.
The add-a-phone plans (Family Plan) are $20 for each extra phone (the 2000 minute plan offers the second phone free) and it carries the same options as the main plan (Vision + FCA + phone to phone etc..) at no extra cost.
Unlimited N&W, pretty standard but some providers still have limits on the minutes.
Not sure if Sprint specific but there are portals that allow you to download games, pictures, ringers, and upload your own content [sprintusers.com] to the phone with no charge. You can get stuff from Sprint directly but they charge.
Cons:
Although you recieve unlimited messaging and unlimited download, you can not send SMS messages directly from the phone without going "online" first. Basically you have to be on the web to send SMS messages.
Customer service - Touchy issue and really only messured by your own experience. I have had billing issues since day one, the CSR's are friendly and helpful but not very knowledgeable of the billing system. Luck of the draw I guess.
Niether:
Signal quailty - Really depends on the buildout of your area. In Northern VA and Western PA, I have not had issues. I took the coverage maps into consideration with the FCA option when I chose Sprint and dropped Cingular. For me, the overall plans and prices outweighed the potential coverage pitfalls.
YMMV depending on what you plan on doing with the phones.
Re:How's My Cell Service? (Score:3, Informative)
I was basically told no.
Funny, I thought the biggest profit for cell phone companies was retention of customers.
I changed to T-Mobile and have been happy so far.
You are violating Sprint's TOS (Score:3, Informative)
Enjoy your service while it lasts, eventually you'll get a phonecall from Sprint saying 'Mr. So and So, you have three options, we can cancel your vision outright, you can purchase a monthly service plan (20MB for $$, 40MB for $$$, etc) for business connections, or you can pay a per kilobyte charge on your data.
reference 1 [sprintusers.com] reference 2 [dslreports.com]
Re:Sprint Feedback from recent trip (Score:2, Informative)
The handset was OK, but service was atrocious, between Troy (my hometown) and Ann Arbor at Umich.edu, I was lucky to be able to make calls. I thought "Signal Faded/Call Dropped" was the home screen on my phone for a while. Then there were probably a half dozen billing snafus, an finally I was fed up when my last phone, a StarTAC, would refuse to ring (calls went to voicemail) and my voicemail notification would come maybe 48 hours after they were left with me.
I swicthed to Nextel in 2001 since that is what everyone in my company had--plus, they were buying. I've had 3 phones (all upgrades, no failures!) and I couldn't be happier. I pay $54
This poll makes no sense (Score:3, Informative)
My mother and sister have Cingular. It is by far the worst I've ever experienced and we can never talk to them because they are constantly breaking up. My father has a Nextel phone which is pretty good. I have a T-Mobile phone which is almost as good, though in some areas I get this bad echo which I believe is in fact my phone's fault and not the network (the echoing problem didn't start happening until they replaced my previous phone with a current phone, and they are the same model).
A good cellular article will be broken down by region, or will be left to regional news outlets. Otherwise its little more than pandering to national phone companies.
Re:Verizon / Nextel / Sprint (Score:3, Informative)
I have a (company-owned) Sprint SCP4900 dual-band digital phone through Sprint PCS, and I get analog when I get outside of their digital network.
Re:Cingular (Score:2, Informative)
I've just recently switched to a Cingular National using a GAIT SonyEricsson T62u phone. I haven';t had a chance to test the extended calling yet, but I now get calls in areas that the TDMA phone wouldn't work. Mind you, this is by roaming on to ATT, but it is included in my minutes. It just messes with mobile-to-mobile figures when I do that.
One interesting wrinkle in the Detroit area. The GSM coverage for Cingular seems to be a bit thin, so they have this interesting arrangement with ATT. When they are running out of channel space in a thin area, they hand off incoming calls to ATT to handle. Other than producing a strange call record, this is treated as a local call for mobile-to-mobile purposes. I get a 248/FollowMe line on my bill when this happens. Also, they have feature transparency wuith ATT so my text messaging works the same.
Re:Interesting article but (Score:4, Informative)
The OP was talking about interchangeable phones, something currently only GSM provides. Part of Sprint's and other proprietary networks' strategy is platform lock-in; even if someone licensed the exact same technology as Sprint (as some very well may have) you can be certain that Sprint would NOT interoperate their phones with them, other than on a roaming agreement level. While T-Mobile might have poorer coverage in some areas at the moment (which is what I was talking about regarding poor service), their trend is to improve this. With time their coverage will equal or surpass the proprietary ones, while those proprietary phones won't at the same time become less proprietary. IOW, switch to a GSM carrier if you want to send a message that you don't care for proprietary phones.
Re:Verizon / Nextel / Sprint (Score:3, Informative)
And if you think about it, that's what really counts. If you're out in the middle of nowhere and stranded, having a signal could be a real life saver. I've done a lot of hiking in remote areas of the southwest and almost always had a verizon signal. If not, I could usually just walk up to the top of some hill or mountain (not always that easy I admit) and grab one!
Re:Tower Location (Score:3, Informative)
Another thing to realize, is this doesnt carry all towers, just those high enough that they have to be registered with the FCC so the FAA can avoid them.
BTW, for any Mississippians, I'd had cellular south for a number of years and they do a swell job of coverage in rural areas where as some of the big timers don't. Sometimes it's better to go local if you need good local coverage. Cellular south seems to know where to invest it's money, putting towers at home.
I don't work for cellular south, I'm just a very satisified customer.
--
Todd
Re:sprint PCS sucks! (Score:2, Informative)