Thinking of Sprint

[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

---

› See More: Thinking of Sprint

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).

On 22 Apr 2006 07:57:03 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

> <snip>
>
> 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!"

My wife's "just pick one" is usually prefaced with "you're such a geek!"

I have no argument! <g>

Notan

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.

In article <[email protected]>,
John Navas <[email protected]> writes:
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.attws - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <6lQ%f.65$_s5.55@trnddc04> on Fri, 14 Apr 2006 16:45:54 GMT, "Jeremy"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
[snip]
>>And SBC Communications' reputation for
>>arm-twisting their own customers has earned them a negative reputation in
>>their own right.
>
> Wrong there too.
[snip]

Surely you jest?

--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison