Thinking of Sprint

[email protected] wrote:
> Cingulars towers all look alike here. Alltel/Sprints look alike but
> different. Cingulars are mostly closed frame towers. Alltel/Sprint
> have cross member support construction. I can see on the maps where
> Cingular's tower at work is located and where Sprints is.

That could be true for your particular area/market. It varies by
deployment. Like in the Dallas, I cannot recall ever seeing a
self-supporting frame tower, much less a guyed one. All the carriers
used monopoles or rooftops. Out in the rural areas, you'll find the
self-supporting towers and occasionally a monopole. The rural guyed
towers are often stacked by a tower company for space rental - there's a
lot of them along the Texas interstates every ten miles.

---

› See More: Thinking of Sprint

What better way to test a service provider than test them out live.

I grabbed one of these CDMA Digital phone with Analog AMPs roaming
abilitys. I took it where I spend most of my time.

It doesn't work. The coverage is not there. I get 0 to 1 bars and I
can here the person on the other line, but they cannot here me. They
just get static when I talk. (I called my land line to test.)

The Cingular phone gets 3-5 bars and works just fine.

Most important about a service provider is that the service you are
purchasing works for you. Since Sprints towers are located in bad
places relative to where I am, since this service does not work for me,
then I am limited to T-Mobile, D'ampd(Nextel), or Cingular.

T-Mobile has great prices but horrible coverage in this state. It has
coverage where I usualy am located. D'ampd is expensive. Then there
is Cingular.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> What better way to test a service provider than test them out live.
>
> I grabbed one of these CDMA Digital phone with Analog AMPs roaming
> abilitys. I took it where I spend most of my time.
>
> It doesn't work. The coverage is not there. I get 0 to 1 bars and I
> can here the person on the other line, but they cannot here me. They
> just get static when I talk. (I called my land line to test.)
>
> The Cingular phone gets 3-5 bars and works just fine.
>
> Most important about a service provider is that the service you are
> purchasing works for you. Since Sprints towers are located in bad
> places relative to where I am, since this service does not work for me,
> then I am limited to T-Mobile, D'ampd(Nextel), or Cingular.
>
> T-Mobile has great prices but horrible coverage in this state. It has
> coverage where I usualy am located. D'ampd is expensive. Then there
> is Cingular.
>

Then your decision is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the benefits of
competition do not accrue to you at this time, and you must accept
Cingular's draconian terms or do without wireless.

Hopefully the other networks will build out their facilities, and you may
find yourself at a more favorable position for choices by the time your
Cingular agreement comes up for renewal.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on 20 Apr 2006
13:45:52 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

>What better way to test a service provider than test them out live.
>
>I grabbed one of these CDMA Digital phone with Analog AMPs roaming
>abilitys. I took it where I spend most of my time.
>
>It doesn't work. The coverage is not there. I get 0 to 1 bars and I
>can here the person on the other line, but they cannot here me. They
>just get static when I talk. (I called my land line to test.)
>
>The Cingular phone gets 3-5 bars and works just fine.

Don't you know that newsgroup posts should only be unfounded flaming?!
Shame on you for doing real tests and posting actual facts! I'm afraid you
have to spend the rest of the day writing "Flame! Flame! Flame!" over and
over. LOL

>Most important about a service provider is that the service you are
>purchasing works for you.

Well duh.

>Since Sprints towers are located in bad
>places relative to where I am, since this service does not work for me,
>then I am limited to T-Mobile, D'ampd(Nextel), or Cingular.

Nextel is actually iDEN.

>T-Mobile has great prices but horrible coverage in this state. It has
>coverage where I usualy am located. D'ampd is expensive. Then there
>is Cingular.

Which works best for many people, but by no means all people. As always, use
what works best for you, and don't presume that what's best for you is
necessarily best for other people.

Cingular currently works best for me, but I know of people for whom the best
carriers are Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, MetroPCS, etc. "Different strokes..."
and all that sort of thing.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://NavasGroup.com/>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <rxS1g.2305$gt.1445@trnddc04> on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:53:43 GMT, "Jeremy"
<[email protected]> wrote:

><[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...

>> T-Mobile has great prices but horrible coverage in this state. It has
>> coverage where I usualy am located. D'ampd is expensive. Then there
>> is Cingular.
>
>Then your decision is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the benefits of
>competition do not accrue to you at this time,

Of course it does.

>and you must accept
>Cingular's draconian terms

Nothing of the sort.

>or do without wireless.

Nope.

>Hopefully the other networks will build out their facilities, and you may
>find yourself at a more favorable position for choices by the time your
>Cingular agreement comes up for renewal.

The free market at work.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://NavasGroup.com/>

"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <[email protected]> on 20 Apr 2006
> 13:45:52 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
>>What better way to test a service provider than test them out live.
>>
>>I grabbed one of these CDMA Digital phone with Analog AMPs roaming
>>abilitys. I took it where I spend most of my time.
>>
>>It doesn't work. The coverage is not there. I get 0 to 1 bars and I
>>can here the person on the other line, but they cannot here me. They
>>just get static when I talk. (I called my land line to test.)
>>
>>The Cingular phone gets 3-5 bars and works just fine.
>
> Don't you know that newsgroup posts should only be unfounded flaming?!
> Shame on you for doing real tests and posting actual facts! I'm afraid
> you
> have to spend the rest of the day writing "Flame! Flame! Flame!" over and
> over. LOL

Damn, Navas- you are truly a whining idiot.

>
>>Most important about a service provider is that the service you are
>>purchasing works for you.
>
> Well duh.

And not very funny, either.

>
>>Since Sprints towers are located in bad
>>places relative to where I am, since this service does not work for me,
>>then I am limited to T-Mobile, D'ampd(Nextel), or Cingular.
>
> Nextel is actually iDEN.

Well, duh.

>
>>T-Mobile has great prices but horrible coverage in this state. It has
>>coverage where I usualy am located. D'ampd is expensive. Then there
>>is Cingular.
>
> Which works best for many people, but by no means all people. As always,
> use
> what works best for you, and don't presume that what's best for you is
> necessarily best for other people.
>
> Cingular currently works best for me, but I know of people for whom the
> best
> carriers are Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, MetroPCS, etc. "Different
> strokes..."
> and all that sort of thing.
>

But don't ever mention a service problem with Cingular here- John will
ALWAYS blame it on the phone and not the network. That's the problem with
being so blinded in your allegiances- you have no clue of what's going on in
the real world.

>>D'ampd(Nextel),
> Nextel is actually iDEN.

Sorry, Amp'd(Verizon) is what I should have said.
Verizon isn't available in my area, though they have decent coverage.

What I was refering to is Amp'd. Amp'd mobile is available here, which
runs off the Verizon network;

http://get.ampd.com/

Looks cool, but doesn't have a plan for my needs.

I was very close to making a decision away from Cingular until I got a
phone and found out that my coverage sucked where I would use the
phone. Now the person I bummed the phone from works in the same
building. But he works in an area that gets good coverage. I don't.
It's a large building.

Maybe in a metro your statement would be true, but I don't see how that
could be true in my case. The largest town in the area is 200,000
people. No town for 100 miles comes close to the population of this
one town.

I can see on a map where the towers are, who owns them, and who uses
them. I can then go to those towers at touch them. I can see that
when I get close to a Cingular tower my existing Cingular phone gets 5
bars. I can see when I go to a Sprint/Alltel tower that I have less
than 5 bars.

When I travel down the highway, between Cingular towers I drop down the
3 bars. The closer I get to another Cigular tower the closer I get to
5 bars.

I don't think this is complicated.

[email protected] wrote:
>
> What better way to test a service provider than test them out live.
>
> I grabbed one of these CDMA Digital phone with Analog AMPs roaming
> abilitys. I took it where I spend most of my time.
>
> It doesn't work. The coverage is not there. I get 0 to 1 bars and I
> can here the person on the other line, but they cannot here me. They
> just get static when I talk. (I called my land line to test.)
>
> The Cingular phone gets 3-5 bars and works just fine.
>
> <snip>

For the umpteenth time,

One should never look at the number of "bars" as any indication of
signal strength. They're put there by the manufacturer of the phone.
One manufacturer might decide that a weak signal deserves one bar,
while the next thinks two would be more appropriate. Etc., etc. Not
only is there no standard between manufacturers, there's not even a
standard between phones from the *same* manufacturer.

Notan

Agreed. I did state I also tried the phones out. I made calls, or
attempted to. I didn't just look at the bars. 0 bars *AND* not being
able to talk on one phone with one carrier, while getting bars on the
Cingular phone *AND* being able to talk just fine at the exact same
place at the same time does mean something, however.

>From what I gather, CDMA w/ AMPS & roaming (Alltel, Sprint, and Verizon
though not available here) in this area often means one has to go
outside to make a call and you get dropped calls but you get coverage
in areas where GSM (Cingular, T-Mobile ) or iDen (Nextel) do not have
coverage. Such as the middle of no-where. GSM has better voice CODECs
except for in noisy situations where CDMA is better. GSM handles
switching from tower to tower better than CDMA. CDMA is more frequency
efficient. bla bla.

Anyway, I'm not going with a CDMA technology because from discussing
with the people that have it through various carriers (mother in law,
brother in law, sister in law, step father, mother, sister, brother,
friends) experience of indoor use is not good where I live or at work
or in their homes. Cingulars GSM coverage is getting better all the
time. 2 1/2 years ago it was bad. Now it is decent.

So I got Cingular and T-Mobile which has an agreement to roam onto
Cingular's 850Mhz towers. Apparently not all towers, but along major
routes. iDen is probably a dead technology. Nextel seems to be
migrating to CDMA as a business plan. iDen coverage is not good in my
area. Apparently the CODEC for voice isn't that great, but I don't
know first hand.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who replied. I never expect this big
of a response to my post. I appriciate everyones information. I now
know more about cell phones than my wife cares me to know. She says
"just pick one!"

Good day;

Edwin

Well, I went with T-Mobile. T-Mobile is biulding a huge complex here
in town;

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/s...10/focus1.html

I got a 1 year contract I have 1000 anytime and unlimited
Wkend/Nites for two phones for $69/mo. $35 activation per phone.

I went with the SDA which gives me free Internet over WIFI if I can get
onto an AP.
It runs Windows, so that scares me. But so far so good. Wife went
with the Samsung t809. It's a neat media device. MP3 store is $1.99
though, versus $.99 on our iPod.

Notan wrote:

> One should never look at the number of "bars" as any indication of
> signal strength. They're put there by the manufacturer of the phone.
> One manufacturer might decide that a weak signal deserves one bar,
> while the next thinks two would be more appropriate. Etc., etc. Not
> only is there no standard between manufacturers, there's not even a
> standard between phones from the *same* manufacturer.

One manufacturer suggested to use a Sharpie marker to add more bars.

See "http://nordicgroup.us/cingular/cingular.wmv" (big file).

My step father's Audiovox gets 7 bars! hehe. And my stereo goes up
to volume 11. Maybe the bars should be replaced with signal strenght?
70%, 30% ? But then again, my 3COM 802.11g shows 70% when 15' from
my AP, while my Cisco 802.11b shows 90% at the exact same place. But
they both get 11Mb/s to my 802.11b router.

Scott wrote:
> "John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>> They actually look at both, as well as churn, trends, and financial
>> performance, which would be hurt by dumping low revenue customers.
>>
>
> Which is why Cingular performed so poorly financially in comparison to the
> competition.

The whole purpose in dumping low revenue customers is to improve
financial performance, not hurt it. If these low revenue customers were
profitable, it would make no sense to dump them.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 27 Apr 2006 01:17:50
-0700, SMS <[email protected]> wrote:

>Scott wrote:
>> "John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>> They actually look at both, as well as churn, trends, and financial
>>> performance, which would be hurt by dumping low revenue customers.
>>
>> Which is why Cingular performed so poorly financially in comparison to the
>> competition.
>
>The whole purpose in dumping low revenue customers is to improve
>financial performance, not hurt it. If these low revenue customers were
>profitable, it would make no sense to dump them.

Low revenue customers can grow into high revenue customers *if* they're not
left on unprofitable ATTWS contracts (high benefits for cheap). The issue
isn't low revenue -- it's not continuing to give away the store.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://NavasGroup.com/>