switch to nextel?

I currently have verizon and am thinking about switching providers. I am contract free so no $ to leave.

What are some of the benefits of nextel? Anybody from the four corners area have a quality of service from down there?

direct connect, if u dont use it or will not use it then dont buy it. i currently have nextel and areas in ohio are very spotty.

I definately would not use dc .... just looking for cellular / text msg

I just switched to Nextel from AT&T. The main reason
is Cingular want's to kick everybody off the TDMA
network, the original Cellular One network that I think
works way better than GSM and most CDMA networks.
Nextel uses Motorola's proprietary (IDEN) network that
is CDMA based , but runs on 800 to 900Mhz, not like
the other higher frequencys. I think the lower ones
have better voice quality and may be safer to humans.
I do use Direct Connect with a few people but that is
not the main reason I bought it. The main reason I
bought it is for the Motorola i830 phone. It's a slim,
small , lightweight and comes in Bronze. It is a
speakerphone and I bought a real hard install car kit
for it which makes it 10 times more effective than having
signals bouncing around in the vehicle.None of the
other carriers I checked offered any phones of any
brand that had real car kits with external antenna. They
are pushing bluetooth kits that don't help increase
transmission at all, all they do is bombard the inside
of the car (and your face) with 2 frequencys.
As for coverage and quality here in Marin it is good now.
They just put up a new repeater in Bolinas - Stinson and
it works well on Mt. Tam and Muir Beach. Nextel does
not serve Eureka or Willow Creek now, but maybe with
the merger with Sprint they can start sharing towers
and hopefully expand coverage to as good as the old
TDMA network. It will take many years to catch up
but for the time being I'm happy with the coverage. When
I go through Eureka I'm supposed to be on vacation
anyway, and I can always call the voicemail backdoor
number from a land line to check messages.Just say MO!

You've got it backwards... iDEN is a TDMA derivative... CDMA is Sprint's standard.

800MHz is a tad safer than 900MHz for RF exposure, however, there is no benefit because TDMA devices, iDEN included, transmit at their full power allotments as defined by the FCC. So basically, any RF exposure offered up by the 800MHz iDEN/TDMA device would probably be equal to that of a lower-powered 900MHz CDMA devide.

TDMA = Time Divided Multiple Access

iDEN = Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (is a TDMA derivative because the calls are divided on the system into packets 15 milliseconds in length before being sent)

CDMA = Call Divided Multiple Access

a huge plus to nextels is the durability, their phones just dont break. DC is really good and the newer phones are awsome looking and fun/easy to use.

Thanks for correcting me. That just makes me feel even
better about choosing Nextel. I basically am self taught
and I learn from things I read, but some of the things I
read are horsepucky. I read somewhere that iDEN was
GSM based. I also read that that the new i930 was to be
a "world phone" , dual band using iDEN and GSM.
When I was refering to the higher frequencys I was
thinking about 1900 Mhz and up. Those high freques
kinda scare me, since they are so much higher than
traditional radio devices, not much research has been
published yet. I read somewhere that it is possible to
manufacture cell phones that would produce much less
RF radiation but it would be so expensive that it would
affect the bottom line. I have also seen special cases that
are supposed to reduce RF's.
It sounds like you really know your stuff about radio,
that must be your call sign. I also have business radios,
with some GMRS channels, and a couple of FTA satellite
receivers. I have Motorola VISARS., super small 4 watt
radios, which I use for work and camping trips. Sure beats
using a Nextel off network handheld. How much power is
a Nextel phone vs. a GSM 1900 Mhz phone ? Thats
something only a pro would know and the carriers would
never tell the public.

Here's the general rule of thumb the FCC uses in regards to frequency vs. ERP (Effective Radiated Power) for general handheld device safety:

The higher the frequency, the lower the ERP

The lower the frequency, the higher the ERP


Let's use the new specs on the i930 as an example:

Because NEXTEL does not produce a tri-band 800MHz iDEN + 900 MHz GSM + 1.9GHz GSM phone, there's no way to really make a determination on that aspect as it would be like comparing apples to oranges. But if you take the algebra into consideration, here's what it would probably look like for ERP: