Cingular-->Verizon (South Carolina)

My Cingular (used to be BellSouth) service used to be pretty reliable
her in South Carolina. In the past year or so it has started dropping
calls with no warning and not being able to initiate a call has gotten
pretty frequent. So I'm changing providers.

On a day-to-day basis I don't use the mobile phone much. Maybe check
in on my voice mail once or twice a day and that's about it. The only
times I use significant minutes is when I'm out of town. I prefer to
use my mobile phone rather than hotel phones or pay phones or
whatever. I don't travel much but three or four times a year I'll make
a long-weekend trip to Columbus, OH or Pittsburgh, PA or maybe
somewhere else in the eastern half of the country. On one of those
trips I might use 150 minutes or so over a period of several days.

It looks to me like Verizon's "America's Choice" plan would be a total
no-brainer for my usage. Do I understand it correctly that with the
$40/400 min plan I can just carry the phone everywhere and talk with
pretty much no regard for long distance? Looking at their map I can't
find anywhere I've been in the past 10 years that is outside their
national network. It also appears that long-distance calls I make from
home are no charge, too (aside from regular airtime minutes). Is that
right? I think I'll get the Nokia 3589i phone which has the full
complement of signal types, 1.9GHz and 800MHz digital plus backup
analog capability. Is that correct?

Unless some of my impressions are incorrect it sure looks like I just
need to stop by a Verizon store and move my old phone number to their
service and I'm in great shape. I hear from other people locally that
Cingular has about the worst out-of-service problem of any carrier in
this area and that both Sprint and Verizon are much better in that
regard.

Oh, one other thing. What exactly do you get for the $5/month internet
"VZW from MSN" thing? Does that mean you can access the web from a
Nokia 3589i? Does it cost anything besides airtime and the $5/month?

Thanks,
Brent Hutto

Well, to answer my own post...

I went by the Verizon store at lunch and the answer to all my
questions was pretty much "Yes, that is correct".

However, I believe I may have made a mistake in actually choosing a
phone. I fell for the Audiovox CDM8600 instead of the Nokia. The Nokia
seemed clunky and uncomfortable to use in comparison to the flip
phones and the Audiovox was so small and easy to carry in any pocket.

Having played around with the '8600 it has a pretty much deal-killing
flaw. It plays a loud tinkly tune whenever it is powered up and there
is no way to defeat that "feature" (per E-mail I exchanged with
Audiovox support). Also, the lowest setting of volume on the ringing
is too loud by far. Unless you want to broadcast the bell sound far
and wide you're stuck with either vibrate or vibrate-then-bell.

So it looks like I'll be taking Verizon up on its no-question 15-day
exchange policy, perhaps as soon as this weekend. I think this tiny
phone is perhaps more suited to someone looking for a toy as opposed
to an unobtrusive tool. Either the Nokia or maybe a Motorola V60s will
probably be more my speed.

Brent Hutto

Brent Hutto wrote:
> However, I believe I may have made a mistake in actually choosing a
> phone. I fell for the Audiovox CDM8600 instead of the Nokia. The Nokia
> seemed clunky and uncomfortable to use in comparison to the flip
> phones and the Audiovox was so small and easy to carry in any pocket.

I've become a LG and Kyo fan myself.

-Quick

I love my LG phone. I've used this service in MA, NH, FL, NC, PA, NY and
never been charged roaming or any extra fees. The only time I was ever
charged for calls on America's choice was in Punta Cana on vacation. Even
those rates were reasonable and my phone was one of the only ones that could
get service there. Hope which ever phone you choose works out better than
the last!

"Brent Hutto" <brenthutto@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:db5n905hnlpr1b23lcs52t5rcg018aibf0@4ax.com...
> My Cingular (used to be BellSouth) service used to be pretty reliable
> her in South Carolina. In the past year or so it has started dropping
> calls with no warning and not being able to initiate a call has gotten
> pretty frequent. So I'm changing providers.
>
> On a day-to-day basis I don't use the mobile phone much. Maybe check
> in on my voice mail once or twice a day and that's about it. The only
> times I use significant minutes is when I'm out of town. I prefer to
> use my mobile phone rather than hotel phones or pay phones or
> whatever. I don't travel much but three or four times a year I'll make
> a long-weekend trip to Columbus, OH or Pittsburgh, PA or maybe
> somewhere else in the eastern half of the country. On one of those
> trips I might use 150 minutes or so over a period of several days.
>
> It looks to me like Verizon's "America's Choice" plan would be a total
> no-brainer for my usage. Do I understand it correctly that with the
> $40/400 min plan I can just carry the phone everywhere and talk with
> pretty much no regard for long distance? Looking at their map I can't
> find anywhere I've been in the past 10 years that is outside their
> national network. It also appears that long-distance calls I make from
> home are no charge, too (aside from regular airtime minutes). Is that
> right? I think I'll get the Nokia 3589i phone which has the full
> complement of signal types, 1.9GHz and 800MHz digital plus backup
> analog capability. Is that correct?
>
> Unless some of my impressions are incorrect it sure looks like I just
> need to stop by a Verizon store and move my old phone number to their
> service and I'm in great shape. I hear from other people locally that
> Cingular has about the worst out-of-service problem of any carrier in
> this area and that both Sprint and Verizon are much better in that
> regard.
>
> Oh, one other thing. What exactly do you get for the $5/month internet
> "VZW from MSN" thing? Does that mean you can access the web from a
> Nokia 3589i? Does it cost anything besides airtime and the $5/month?
>
> Thanks,
> Brent Hutto

Brent,

I swapped from Sprint to VZW last year, and don't regret it. I, too, live
in SC. I have the LG4400. I even dropped my land-line based on my
satisfaction with VZW!

Steve

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm really leaning toward just
getting the Nokia 3589i as I originally planned...darn these impulse
purchases ;-) I've always liked my Nokia phone other than the Cingular
service becoming unreliable. Looking at an online PDF of the 3589i
manual it has basically the same user interface, just with a bunch of
additional features.

One thing I hadn't figured on. These flip phones don't seem easy to
manipulate one-handed. I had gotten used to doing just about
everything with my left hand only on the old phone. Having to flip the
new one open while driving isn't optimal. It would probably take quite
a while to learn to reach for the phone, flip it open and say hello
all without looking at the phone or taking my second hand off the
wheel. The main advantage is basically taking up less room in your
pocket.

Oh well, live and learn.

Brent Hutto

On Fri, 07 May 2004 19:15:49 -0400, Brent Hutto wrote:

> The main advantage is basically taking up less room in your
> pocket.

The flip phones are also better in noisy envirnments since your mouth is
closer to the phone's microphone.

Brent,

I would highly recommend the Motorola v.60s phone. I purchased it after
having the LG vx4400. While the LG was a pretty descent phone there were a
couple of things that I really didn't care about it.

1. The color screen (which most color screen phones do this) washed out in
bright sunlight. I had to place my hand over the screen in order to see the
screen in bright sunlight.

2. The ringer selection I was never really that impressed with. It sounded
more like a video game then a cellular phone. It didn't have very good
ringer choices for business environments. The v.60s has better sounding
ringers that also include MIDI ringers too that don't sound as obnoxious.

After purchasing the v.60s speaker phone, I have been more then satisfied
with it. The ringers are great, it's slightly smaller then the vx4400 and
the speaker phone on it works incredible. I enjoy being back with a b/w
screen too. Don't have to strain or cover the screen in order to see the
screen outside. I can say the only one NEGATIVE about this phone is the
phone book could be a little better on it. You can't store multiple numbers
for each contact you had in the phone like you can with the LG and other
phones. I have found this really isn't that big of a deal though once you
get to know how to look up names and different contact phone numbers.


Hope this helps.

Welcome to Verizion.
"Brent Hutto" <brenthutto@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:47sn90hjb63cak325iq5lddm6p6aqdj8pf@4ax.com...
> Well, to answer my own post...
>
> I went by the Verizon store at lunch and the answer to all my
> questions was pretty much "Yes, that is correct".
>
> However, I believe I may have made a mistake in actually choosing a
> phone. I fell for the Audiovox CDM8600 instead of the Nokia. The Nokia
> seemed clunky and uncomfortable to use in comparison to the flip
> phones and the Audiovox was so small and easy to carry in any pocket.
>
> Having played around with the '8600 it has a pretty much deal-killing
> flaw. It plays a loud tinkly tune whenever it is powered up and there
> is no way to defeat that "feature" (per E-mail I exchanged with
> Audiovox support). Also, the lowest setting of volume on the ringing
> is too loud by far. Unless you want to broadcast the bell sound far
> and wide you're stuck with either vibrate or vibrate-then-bell.
>
> So it looks like I'll be taking Verizon up on its no-question 15-day
> exchange policy, perhaps as soon as this weekend. I think this tiny
> phone is perhaps more suited to someone looking for a toy as opposed
> to an unobtrusive tool. Either the Nokia or maybe a Motorola V60s will
> probably be more my speed.
>
> Brent Hutto

Brent Hutto wrote:
> However, I believe I may have made a mistake in actually choosing a
> phone. I fell for the Audiovox CDM8600 instead of the Nokia.

Just for the record I have now completely removed support for the
Audiovox CDM8900 from BitPim. It is extremely unlikely BitPim
will support any Audiovox products in the future unless Audiovox
seriously gets its act together.

In the two different Audiovox devices I have dealt with, both
have had serious issues with the internal software. The phones
are rushed to market with what looks like a good set of features
and price, but one area that they take shortcuts in is the
software.

They may also take shortcuts on the hardware as well. I managed
to burn in the screen on a CDM8900 in about 10 minutes (long
story tied to locked up software).

Roger

On Sat, 08 May 2004 13:55:29 GMT, AximGuy <aximguy@no.ipaqs> wrote:

>On Fri, 07 May 2004 19:15:49 -0400, Brent Hutto wrote:
>
>> The main advantage is basically taking up less room in your
>> pocket.
>
>The flip phones are also better in noisy envirnments since your mouth is
>closer to the phone's microphone.

You know, I think you have a point there.

I knew from the beginning that people I called sounded better to me
than they had with my Cingular Nokia phone but yesterday I did the
reverse test. I had my wife use the new phone to call me on our
landline. It sounds worlds better than my old one ever did to the
person on the other end. It must be a combination of having the
microphone closer to your mouth plus Verizon's better system voice
quality.

After three days I'm really starting to warm up to this little guy.
There are still several aspects that are just ridiculous (startup and
shutdown music, Verizon logo obscuring caller ID, poor screen
viewability in bright light, little rubber plug over charging jack,
joke of a "speaker phone") but they really got all the most important
things right. Sound quality is great, it's as light and small to carry
around as you'd ever want, battery life so far is quite good and it
gets a signal everywhere I've been since Friday.

I may end up eating my words and just keeping it. At any rate, the
Verizon service coverage and voice quality is a night and day kind of
improvement over Cingular.

Brent Hutto