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Handhelds Hardware

Verizon's Wireless Road Warriors 219

Posted by michael from the surprisingly-mediocre dept.
Joey Patterson writes "CNN has an article about how Verizon Wireless uses technicians who drive around the country in station wagons filled with wireless gear to look for holes in the company's cell phone network and analyze the service of its competitors. This program isn't cheap (the cars cost $270,000 and $15/mile to operate), but it definitely helps Verizon find out where they stand relative to their competitors."
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Verizon's Wireless Road Warriors More

Verizon's Wireless Road Warriors

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  • Can you ping me now? Good...
  • Take a company like Microsoft, with $40-something billion in the stronghold. They should start programs like these to see what their customers want. Just random things like these that make them that little bit better. I say kudos to VeriZon for helping your customers!

    Hargun
    • Take a company like Microsoft, with $40-something billion in the stronghold. They should start programs like these to see what their customers want. Just random things like these that make them that little bit better. I say kudos to VeriZon for helping your customers!
      Microsoft has spent billions of dollars in research, and they have helped their customers. It's just that they don't care about all the open source fans. According to MS, we shouldn't know how an OS works or what source code is.
    • So Microsoft made an extra $40 billion without having any idea what customers want.

      I think that the problem is that the average Joe BagofDonuts doesn't want the same thing that all of us geeks want.
  • Maybe they'll just take over the whole country and then we can get that annoying guy off those Verizon ads because they won't need him anymore. :P

  • Ad campaign (Score:3, Funny)

    by Surlyboi ( 96917 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:37AM (#3546070) Homepage Journal
    While I do find that ad campaign highly annoying, it's
    pretty cool to know that those guys are out there.
    Pretty much everywhere I've been in the US (and parts
    of Canada, I've rarely lost signal. (Paid a lot of
    roaming fees, but that's my fault for not having a
    national plan, I guess)

    then again, they need to get a few of them off the
    road and into my office building, reception's awful
    in there.

    • Re:Ad campaign (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by 56ker ( 566853 )
      What I wondered about reading your post was why it only went half-way across the screen. Do you know you don't need to insert break tags because slashdot automatically word wraps posts?
    • I always wonder how your guys who are still on 40 column systems manage to make it onto Slashdot. Are you on a Commodore or an Atari? Maybe a TRS-80?
    • " they need to get a few of them off the road and into my office building, reception's awful in there." - Do you have a lot of computers? an air conditioning unit? - even just steel girders in the building can lead to poor reception.
      • My apartment is in a wood & brick building, I have only one PC, a window air conditioner, and my cell had such bad reception I cancelled it altogether. That was Cingular

        But my company cell phone was always fine in the same apartment. That phone is on Verizon.

    • To lose the signal, head West, young man... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      All the cell company's have lousy coverage out here in the west. No one wants to spend the money, especially considering we've got fewer people, and much less Congressional representation.

      Can't get Cable modem, because there's no cable.
      Can't get DSL -- too far from the phone company's POP.
      Can't get better than 34.4 modem connection, because the lines are sooo old.

      Can't get cell covereage, because there's no cell towers.
      Can't get cell towers, because there's no customers.
      Can't get customers, because there's no cell coverage.

      Look at:
      http://www1.sprintpcs.com/media/Assets/Maps/u smap_ 492f2.gif
      and see just how much uncovered area there is out west.
    • then again, they need to get a few of them off the road and into my office building, reception's awful in there.

      I wish they'd ratchet down the power on the tower that's maybe 200-300 yards from my office. My phone's service is through AT&T Wireless, but the signal from Verizon's tower swamps it out so badly that when I went across the street for lunch one day (where the only thing between the tower and my phone was a window), my service was cut off completely and the display switched from "AT&T" to "ROAM." I called 611 when it did that and found that the tower that was interfering with my phone belongs to Verizon.

  • At least here in the Twin Cities Verizon advertises that you will never have to pay a roaming fee. Of course you will never have to since Verizon doesn't allow your phone to roam. Either you are on their network, or your phone doesn't work. There coverage area in MN is pretty horrible unless you actually live in a large city and never travel out of it.
    • You can set any phone to do this. I have my SprintPCS phone set to "SprintPCS mode", which makes it only work when I'm in a Sprint area. So I never get hit with unwanted roaming fees.
  • I recently bought my first cell phone. I shopped around the few places in town, trying to determine who could meet my needs the cheapest. I needed to be able to contact my girlfriend 150 miles away cheaply and often. We'd been going through about $150 in phone cards monthly and needed to majorly cut that back. After explaining this, they tried to sell me a 300 minute a month plan. We've been known to go through 300 minutes in a day. Then they tried a few plans in the thousands of minutes, but they were rapidly approcahing the cost of phone cards, and for fewer minutes. Their main argument was that they had excellent nationwide coverage and none of their competitors' networks actually functioned. I left in frustration and signed up with a regional provider who offered unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes on their network, so I got 2 of the cheap plans and am now saving over $80 a month. In conclusion, Verizon sucks. Little guy rocks. Sounds like microsoft and linux :)

  • My VZW experience (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rkent ( 73434 ) <rkent&post,harvard,edu> on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:51AM (#3546115)
    Hm... since I suppose this thread will be filled with a ton of "verizon rules/verizon sucks" posts, I might as well chip in my 2 cents.

    Basically, the coverage is excellent -- I've been covered from San Francisco to Rocky Point (Sonora) to Toronto to Boston. Basically the only time I lose coverage altogether is underground. I used to have analog-only in southwest Michigan, but a quick roaming-software upgrade fixed that; I think now they're piggybacking on sprint's network here, whereas they weren't before.

    That said, Verizon leaves a TON to be desired in the customer service department. The reason I bought my phone is because I've truly been traveling across the country for the last year. Trying to change billing addresses is a HUGE hassle; Verizon was cobbled together from 3-4 disparate wireless companies across the country, and it still shows. You have to get a totally new account number when you move, and sometimes you get double-billed for up to a month.

    That, and you're basically not allowed to move out of their "preferred market" areas. My new address was about 20 miles south of the Verizon market limits in SW Michigan, same area code and everything, and they were adamant about not allowing me to change my address to that "uncovered" location (note: digital service works just fine here). Long story short, I ended up using a friend's address and paying all my bills online; it's not perfect, but I'm getting along.

    So, yeah. it doesn't surprise me that verizon has all these techs in trucks all over the country; their coverage shows it. Now if only they'd hire that clever IBM basketball team to integrate their billing across the nation.

    • Re:My VZW experience (Score:3, Informative)

      by weave ( 48069 )
      Hmm, there's about 50 miles of dead space along US 93 between Wickenburg and I-40 in Arizona. I travel that road about once or twice a year with my friend on road trips. As well as my Verizon phone, I also have a Nextel and my friend has Sprint PCS. At different points, there were signals on each of the three sets. I was surprised the Nextel did so well personally. Sprint was the worse of the three.

      And this didn't cost anything, just monitoring whether it could receive signals. I admit it doesn't give a full analysis of quality, drop rate, etc, but a lousy signal is better than no signal and that road (being the best road between Phoenix and Las Vegas) gets a lot of travel. I'm surprised cell service sucks so bad along it.

      Speaking of Sprint PCS, I've always considered their "100% digital ads" to be something to be ashamed of, not brag about. If I can't get a digital signal, I'd much rather have an old-fashined A or B side analog network to fall back on....

    • I had a Verizon phone that I used around my office in a rural location. It worked fine, with a good, strong signal, for months, and then it just stopped. Were it not for a few trees, I could see the tower from the office. I gave their tech support people a call and was told that they have never provided service there. Over the next week or so, I discovered that the tower was being worked on by their people (a tower they denied having,) so I waited until they were done working. The phone still didn't work unless I was within 100 yards of the tower.

      Eventually, after some escalation with customer service and tech support, I got them to admit it was their tower; however, they refused to fix the problem. I refused to take the phone in to them as it works on all other cells around. Ultimately, I insisted that they cancel the service contract and refund a month of service, as well as my deposit. They caved in and mailed me a check (just a short three months later.) I'll never use Verizon again.

      I sold the phone to another Verizon customer who still uses it today and never had a problem with it (different cell.)
    • I have to agree with this comment completely, in that Verizon provides one of the best coverage networks in the United States. The only complaint that I have lies in their billing process and customer service department. Over the past 2 years they have lost a large variety of my payments due to flaws within their mail, phone, and online payment systems. They are more than happy to take my money, which they always have, but have some times forgot to record my payments. From these experiences is how I know how poreply Verizon's customer service representatives are trained and how much they lack in the people skills department. In all, Verizon is great is long as you don't have to deal with any of their representatives after you sign a contract with them.

  • Dont focus so much on the competitors! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CySurflex ( 564206 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:51AM (#3546116)
    Interesting article. These "roaming station wagons" are pretty good P.R. for Verizon.

    You'd think they would be able to do this from their home office - except for the part about testing each of their competitors signal at the same point. Do they really need to do that though? What they should be doing is comparing signal strengh to usage, and concentrate on making the high usage areas have a good signal, regardless of their competitors.

    When I commuted across the Bay Bridge, there was a gap in the Sprint services on the bridge that lasted no more than 50 yards, but it would always drop your call. I'm sure that's one of the heaviest populated gaps in service in the country, yet it went uncovered for years.

    • What they should be doing is comparing signal strengh to usage, and concentrate on making the high usage areas have a good signal, regardless of their competitors.

      I understand this reasoning, but the most important reason for me to have a cellphone to begin with is for emergencies. And those tend to happen in lonely, deserted parts of the highway or dangerous parts of town. Neither of these may be high usage areas, but if they're green on the coverage map, I'll be mightily pissed if my phone doesn't work there after I break down. And I'll let them know afterward, if I live.

    • You'd think they would be able to do this from their home office - except for the part about testing each of their competitors signal at the same point. Do they really need to do that though? What they should be doing is comparing signal strengh to usage, and concentrate on making the high usage areas have a good signal, regardless of their competitors.

      I'm not really understanding what you mean by that "be able to do this from their home office." The point is to make sure people on their network, using a phone from where people use the phones from: on the ground. How would they be able to make sure the signal strength is good enough from their office.

      Maybe you are referring to when the network is overloaded, the article mentioned that, but even if they could tell that from their office, I'm pretty sure the point of their testing is primarily to make sure that their signal is good enough for people to make phone calls with acceptable quality (no cutting out for a few secs) and that the calls don't get dropped for no good reason.

      I'm pretty sure they are working to make sure that high usage areas have good coverage, hence all the rush hour traffic the guy says he gets stuck in. I've never seen one of those cars drive up my side street here.
    • You'd think they would be able to do this from their home office - except for the part about testing each of their competitors signal at the same point. Do they really need to do that though?


      That's like saying "Hey I can pull up the page using the loopback address 127.0.0.1, so I guess our clients can view the website now."
      You're forgetting DNS, IP address assignment, routing issues, packet loss, ping times, and all the other issues that can affect web browsing.

      Sometimes there's just no substitute for actually physically doing the test.
    • The problem with gaps in your carriers service is that your phone (if you have roaming) will pick up a competitors tower. So if Verizon's signal is really weak (or there's a gap), and lets say AT&T's signal is really strong, some Verizon phones may jump to AT&T for service, and leave you roaming in your home area. When that happens, generally no one is happy.

      (1). The customer isn't happy because they have to pay roaming charges in their supposed home area and

      (2). Your carrier isn't happy because they have to pay their competitors for you using their service.

      So it is definately beneficial for them to check on their competitors, because the wireless carrier wants to keep as much traffic as it can on it's home network, not on the competitors.
  • It's precisely programs like this which show the strengths of a capitalistic economy. I attend a Public University, and the service is terrible. The administration does not care about its students, because the large majority of their funding comes from government and corporate grants.

    To contrast, the competition in the cellphone market is forcing companies like Verizon to make sure that their service is good so that customers don't leave. The end result: more for the consumers at less cost.

    I'm not saying capitalism fixes all problems. Certainly, it doesn't, especially the problem that many markets tend to move towards a monopolistic market, but it has some MAJOR advantages, and this is one of them.
    • I attend a Public University, and the service is terrible.

      A university isn't McDonalds, and you're not a customer. You're a student. While you might be catered to a little bit more in a private institution, unless you're quite rich, you won't be paying the entire cost of your education there, either.

      For your tuition, you're entitled to be treated fairly, and to have the opportunity to get an education (you can get a degree without getting an education). You're not entitled to fawning "customer" treatment everywhere you go on campus. If private institutions are so much better, you're free to transfer.

    • It's a good thing thing those capitalist-loving companies are willing to give up those government mandated FCC fees on every POTS and cell phone bill.

      Oh, wait... those companies would fight tooth and nail to keep those subsidies, in spite of the fact that they're no longer needed. The telcos have more than enough money to expand, yet we're still paying those fees.

      Yeah, capitalism works well in this country.

    • Look at any mass-market manufacturer (Sony, Verizon, SprintPCS, AT&T, ...)'s customer service. It universally, unquestionably sucks (Dell and IBM are notable exceptions). When you're in the cell phone business, and there are only 2-3 competitors, everybody's mass market, so customer service will continue to suck.

      If my time is worth $200/hr, I should be able to pay an extra $10/mo (for example) for sane, decent customer service. (e.g. that which Diner's Club provides: instant customer service phone call pickup and competant service, all for $80/yr)

      Bottom line on cell phones: I'm switching to Verizon for the coverage and unlimited off-peak time, but I don't expect better customer service, due to the gov't regulated monopoly...
  • Here in Charlotte, NC, I can attest to Verizon Wireless' much better connection and clarity. I was at CompUSA with a friend a couple of weeks ago, and got a call on my SprintPCS phone. The connection was very poor and was quickly dropped. I tried to call the person back, and received a "Network is Busy" message.

    My friend let me borrow his Verizon Wireless phone and I was able to call the person back and get perfect reception.

    Also, my friend's Verizon Wireless phone works in the elevators at work, where as my SprintPCS phone reception is gone the second the elevator doors shut.

    I'll be switching to Verizon Wireless very soon.

    Anyways, just my .02.

    Have a great day!
    • It may be just your cell. The transmitters in various cell phones are very diffrent. I have a samsung m100 (the mp3 playing one). It was discontinued for signal problems, but at college, in the dorms, I was one of the only people who could continue to talk on my cell phone while in the elevator. I can get out to where there is not a cell tower in sight, and loose signal on that phone, but on my Samsung 8500 that I also have, I may still have three bars left, and I can still make calls. Another thing that bugs me with the signals, is that most cell phones say "i'm on the network" when it can recieve the signal from a tower, but You can't make a call for maybe 20 miles down the road.
    • Look at AT&T as well. I've never had problems with them. Even on Camp Pendleton CA which is descrobed as a black hole for cell service, AT&T reliably works.

      Of course, AT&T handling all the barracks telephone services may get them an advantage with the military allowing them to set up towers on the bases, and close them entirely to other providers...
  • the cars cost $270,000 and $15/mile to operate

    I thought it was just the one guy on a cell phone and a friend on the other end saying "Yup. Still hear ya'" Man, how I do get that gig?
    • I don't think it would be a fun gig. The article mentioned a former Marine was doing it and that he enjoyed spending hours locked in traffic jams. Although I guess it would beat being pinned down in a swamp for hours on end.
    • you forgot about the camera crew, the director, the m&m sorter for the actor (at least the Sprint guy isn't picky about his wardrobe), the ad agency, the cost of tv commercials, paying CNN for their endorsmnet, etc.
  • And for just a few grand I'll gladly give them my GPS coordinates of where I get dropped calls, without fail (or with fail, depends on how you look at it).
    • Now that cellular service providers are required to have some sort of tracking system on their customers, they should look to at least make it useful.

      Some cell phones are supposed to have little gps receivers in them and all phones have signal metering. Seems pretty easy to program the phones to record the position and the signal strength just prior to losing the signal and then transmit that data when the signal is restored. Then they could analyze the performance of different phones over a large area. (Of course all this should be optional for the customer to opt out of)

      I wonder if 2 million phones continually doing data aquisition would be as valuable as 1 $270K station wagon at $15/mile.

  • I always thought it would be funny if... (Score:4, Funny)

    by a3d0a3m ( 306585 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:57AM (#3546140) Homepage
    In that commercial where he is walking around saying "Can you hear me now?" he would stop in that forest and say "Hmm... can't hear me? OK we need a cell tower right over here." and then cut to an aerial shot of the forest with a big cell phone tower coming out of the tree line finally cut to families sitting around the clearing under the cell tower enjoying their newfound reception.

    adam
  • They better not forget to sock away a few more of those big bucks to pay for the medical expenses of those poor cats who have to drive around in those cancer-boxes they're driving around. :-|
    • those poor cats who have to drive around in those cancer-boxes they're driving around
      It's not like they're driving around with 50 kW transmitters. Since they're using normal cell phones to make the test calls, they must be limited to 0.5W, unless they're using external antennas, in which case they'd be limited to about 3W (or maybe it's 5W; it's been a while). In any case, not a big cancer risk there, unless you're an ambulance-chaser.

      A more interesting part of the article was this:

      Cingular also uses third-party tester Telephia, a 4-year-old wireless market analysis firm that says it observes 1 billion wireless calls a day on average.
      "Observes" 1 billion calls? How the hell do they do that? And what is "observing"? Is that like recording? OK, they're probably just recording the signal strength, but still. This is a paranoid's dream come true!

  • And, it wouldn't be that tough to figure out where: call enters a cell from another cell, there aren't many roads that allow that to happen. So they can figure the probabilities of calls being dropped on particular roads.

    Alternatively, they could ask customers. Their service drives me crazy: there are spots on every one of the freeways I use where calls are ALWAYS dropped.

  • If they want to know where they stand for coverage they could allow people an easy way to provide feedback. Any one who as has had the pleasure of walking around 'down town' Los Alos knows that VW doesn't really have coverage there. Stand on the major road in front of Banderas (a killer BBQ restaurant that is ALWAYS PACKED with the rich and beautiful) and you will find that the quality of signal varies drastically minute to minute and is never good enough to have a 5 minute call without a drop.

    There are similar holes in Mountain View of all places - near the old Sun Campus. I reported this one to them about 2.5 years ago. They've done a lot about it so far :-)

    • Re:Dumbasses (Score:2, Informative)

      by Triskaidekaphobia ( 580254 )
      Verizon's feedback form is Here [verizonwireless.com] (Nb. URL contains a ZIP code - replace it with your own).

      Select "I have a question about Network/Coverage" as the subject
      and "How do I report a network service or coverage issue?" as the question.
  • helps Verizon find out where they stand relative to their competitors.

    Why, the same place they stand relative to their employees, of course. Right on the windpipe.

    --saint

  • AT&T does it too (Score:4, Informative)

    by craybob ( 573635 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @12:13PM (#3546202)
    AT&T does the same thing, I've known a guy that does that for about 2 years now.
  • For fuck's sake Verizon how about upgrading you telco equipment to offer broadband for the rest of us? I live in an area with 30,000 people, most of whom own a PC and are dying for high-speed access. Try spending your money on projects that will actually turn a profit...
    something Bell Atlantic and Nynex never seemed able to do.

    "Now you've had enough... bitch."

    • Thats Verizon Communications, a distinctly different business unit.

      Multiple times Verizon Wireless has filed for an IPO, but so far has not done so.

      As to spending your money on projects that turn a profit, broadband is considerably lower profits than Wireless.

      Verizon Wireless has consistently been the highest profit margin business unit in Verizon Communications.
    • AFAIK Verizon Wireless and Verizon are somewhat seperate entities. Yah, they are very closely tied together but I doubt there's a big boss who's like, "ok take money from cellular and so this guy can have DSL."

      BTW, they don't offer me DSL yet either. ;-)
  • I was backpacking a few years ago in the Sierra Nevada. I came upon a group of people, and one of them had suffered a back injury. They needed an emergency evacuation. The leader of the group had been trying to use her cell phone for an hour. Fortunately, as a ham radio operator, I was able to call in a sheriff's helicopter. Verizon may have good coverage compared to it's competitors, but I think it's misleading not to tell people there's LOTS of places your cell phone won't work.
    • christ. if you are backpacking, of course your cell phone probably ownt work. people should know that.

      nothing like firing up a 5 watt 2-meter rig and hitting the autopatch when the damn cell phones don't work, though. 73.
    • You should never rely on any technology, especially cell phones, while in the backcountry.

      There is no replacement for people trained in first aid and proper supplies.

      The last thing I would ever take into the backcountry with me is my cell phone. That is one of the reasons I go *to* the backcountry - to get away from all of that stuff.

      I am also trying to figure out why you were backpacking with a ham radio, but I suppose that is just me.
      • Singularity does not know much about hams. A ham is delighted to lug his rig to a mountain location where he can get clear reception and minimum interference, then make contacts with hams worldwide on a backpack radio. The log entries and bragging rights are worth all the effort.
  • Not for Verizon, but another wireless company that begins with a V.

    Thankfully, I don't do it full time. I do do it several hours a week when troubleshooting.

    It's pretty boring. But it does make for some impressive phonebills.

    Our local paper had an article about the person in Minneapolis that does this for Verizon. She doesn't sound like she knows what she's talking about, but unless you're interpreting the data, basically anyone can do the driving.

    http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/2260767.h tm l
    • Hrm. I kind of wonder if Verizon has paid for articles such as this to be written... I've seen yet a 3rd article in another paper (forgot where) and thought that it was kind of interesting to suddenly have multiple articles about how Verizon is taking care of employees and trying to ensure quality service popped up at once.

      Sounds like you have a cool part time job. ;)

  • Next up... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mulletproof ( 513805 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @12:23PM (#3546237) Homepage Journal
    These same vans will be equipped with ECM gear to actively jam other services cell transmissions... Sort of the minivan equivolent of the EA-6B Prowler ^__^

    "Enemy cell tower, 9 o'clock! He's transmitting!"
    "Goose switch to active jamming!"
    "But what about that other tower!?"
    "Don't worry about the tower, you just keep those fighter off..." Um, Nevermind.

  • I thought that was just a gimick they used in their TV commercials. Somebody's smoking crack.

  • 3 Things. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19, 2002 @12:32PM (#3546259)
    3 things:

    1. Every wireless company does this.
    2. In britain, wireless companies have been sued by employees when the employee contracted a tumour, which doctors believed was caused by the large amounts of electromagnetic radiation that he was exposed to day in day out by useing a cell phone almost constantly to check signal.
    3. This whole article is fairly redundant, and seems more like some kind of "yay for verizon, they do something everyone else does, but look, theres an article on slashdot about them, they must be something special. yay"

    thankyou.
  • Just this past Thursday at work, we had a Verizon Wireless rep come in to demonstrate (read: sales-pitch) their new 144Kb/s wireless Aircards that transmit data over their digital network, and also function as a regular cellphone. He slipped the PCMCIA card into his laptop, plugged in an ear-bud/mic combo and used an app to make a call to the cellphone of a guy in the back of the room.

    The initial connection was a bit too quiet for them to hear each other, so after tweaking the volume setting on his end, the Verizon rep offhandedly said, "Can you hear me now?"

    The whole room burst into laughter for a good 30 seconds.

  • This is nothing new (Score:2, Informative)

    by jasoncart ( 573937 )
    Orange (phone company) in the UK have been doing this for years. They employed old ex-sailors in Bristol to drive around in small cars checking the signal strenght. They had four cars when I did work experience there in 97.

    They also use this data to help generate the coverage maps you see in shops

  • Verizon Internet. (Score:1, Redundant)

    by garcia ( 6573 )
    Honestly, if they are going to spend that much money ($275k + $15/mile) they should sink a ton more into DSL.

    When I had DSL the service absolutely blew. 1000+ms pings everywhere and only 70k/s for 768/128.

    I don't own a cell phone, none of that shit is important to me. They need to fix other problems first.

  • Odd (Score:2)

    by Sivar ( 316343 )
    A large company spending large sums of cash to actually improve their product? Their service? Kudos to them for doing this rather than spending the money on more marketing BS.
  • i wonder if there is a way that for reception in buildings to be relatively good. there are 2 cases when you would like to use your cell phone:

    case 1: in car, need help
    well, this case is rather trivial

    case 2: you are at a meeting inside a building and need to call someone

    the solution to that one is not quite as obvious. it is very inconvenient to have to walk outside in order to get good reception or attach a 6' antenna. perhaps if your whole BODY could act as one, (the phone connected to body) and some wires... just an idea

    QED

  • aggggghhhh (Score:4, Funny)

    by linuxbert ( 78156 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @12:54PM (#3546328) Homepage Journal
    you mean the anoying can you hear me now? guy really exists? maybee if were luckey, he will have an unfortunate run in with steve "dud your getting a dell" guy.

    or perhaps the maytag repairman can fix them, he has nothing to do anyway...
  • They don't seem to do anything about it once they
    find out the service sucks. When I've called in
    complaining that people call me and the calls go
    to voicemail since they can't find my phone, they
    say its because they don't have a tower close me
    me (even though the phone is on, and says it has a signal). They said they planned to have towers added, but in over a year, nothings changed.
    • Well, part of the problem is the NIMBY's who don't want towers in _their_ town!

      Of course, they want the best cell reception money can buy, but don't you dare irradiate my kids with your lousy towers!

      Sheesh. Study the numbers. Each foot you move away from the transmitter, the RF output goes down _exponentially_.

      Of course, these same NIMBY's are the ones who have _lots_ of time on their hands and go to the planning board meetings, so you don't get your cell coverage.

      Blame them --- they're what stop the cellco's more than anything :)

      --NBVB
  • Verizon Wireless appears to actually care (in the most hard-nosed, financial sense of using customer service) about its customers. I've been using them since the Airtouch days, and have had mixed experiences with service and billing. However, a couple of times recently, I've had, well, extraordinary customer service people on the phone who practically begged to come to my home and apologize for minor problems.

    I'm on a $120/month plan with tax (for home/office/roaming, 900 minutes, nationwide). Perhaps I'm escalated into a better support category. But still.

    The other day, I was off to Canada for a few days, and I called Verizon to see if I could get a Canada roaming plan. Not only did they have one ($10/month) but they would pro-rate it just for when I needed it and automatically turn it off. Zounds.

    Something went wrong, though, and it was applied for just three days instead of two weeks. I called up, they found the record, apologized profusely, added another note to their system, and said there was no way I'd be charged anything extra.

    Amazing. Weird. It's not the customer's fault. What a strange idea.

  • Excuse me... (Score:2, Informative)

    by cypr355 ( 573627 )
    but I read the whole article and it still just seems to be a large advertisement for verizon.

    Feel free to mod me down\flame me\whatever, but thats how it looks from here.

  • ...$15/mile to operate

    ..Which dwindles in comparison to my gas guzzling '72 Buick Riviera with the 455ci engine.
  • For people like me who lives in the Bay Area, CA, the one big hole is North Lake Tahoe. When I go up in the winter for snowboarding, the signal is so bad that I could barely make a call. I think the worst is Kings Beach where Northstar is.
    • Hey, Lake Tahoe isn't in the Bay Area. I know you may be used to 4 hour waits for BART to get you across the Bay, but that same amount of Time takes you a long ways up I80 -- past Sacramento even.

  • They're spending BIG BUCKS...not (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @02:54PM (#3546684) Homepage
    Wow! They bought SIXTY vans? At TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOU each? Why, that's 16.2 MILLION dollars! Big bucks for sure!

    They're spending a whopping 0.025% of their revenue (67.2 billion) or $0.52 per customer (31 million wireless customers) to see whether their customers are actually getting what are paying for.

    Be still my heart!

    (Say, I wonder how much they spent on the television advertising showing those technicians?)
  • Yeah, right. I live in the metro area of Boston, MA. The heart of Verizon-land. And while at home, I get a crap signal from them on every verizon phone I've used.

    Happily, AT&T gives me a much better signal - never a drop or a fade-out. So I dropped Verizon (after they dropped my calls dozens of times), and picked up AT&T.

    Drive around the country all you want. But if you can't service one of your biggest metro areas well, then get out of the business.

    Plus they changed their off peak from 8pm to 9pm. Who need their crap. AT&T rocks for me.
  • There's a big dead spot right in the middle of Irvine, CA- on the hill side of Turtle Rock, right between UCI, and the huge technology center of the Irvine Spectrum. This is really surprising- it's a big, wealthy neighborhood that must have hundreds of Verizon subscribers. It's been a problem for years. Everyone complains about it. But last I checked, a few months ago, the hole was still there.
  • I recently drove across the country on I-20. From just outside Shreveport, LA, to Brimingham, AL, there were plenty of holes, and no digital coverage at all. I'm sure the user density out there is pretty low, but I'm sure the people who do have cell phones really rely on them. The poor are being screwed again...

  • I recently learned the hard way how much more power an analog signal takes. Normally, my Star-Tac gives me a couple of hours' talk time. But with an analog signal, I only get 15-20 minutes! Obviously, digital service is what allows our phones to be so small these days. Big, bulky, heavy batteries aren't required. If you're going to be stuck with analog service in your area, be prepared!

  • AYBABT Verizon? (Score:3, Funny)

    by EvilStein ( 414640 ) <spam@BALDWINpbp.net minus author> on Sunday May 19, 2002 @05:49PM (#3547228)
    Verizon dude: "We get signal!"
    Customer: "What you say!!!"
    Customer: "Main screen turn on!"
    Sprint PCS guy "How are you gentlemen??"

    eh, you know the story...
  • um... you know that's just a commercial, right?
  • ...on the rail lines because it stinks on the LIRR right in Verison's backyard.

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