Hi newbie here question digital or trimode?

Hi! My husband and I are switching from Cingular to Verizon and need to pick out our phones. What we don't know is if we should choose a digital or trimode phone. We like to camp in remote and rural places if that makes a difference in your response. The reason I ask is because there has been so much change and new and better service added but we don't know at this point in time (June 2007) if digital coverage is all we need. Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks, Carol

Carol,

I would go for the tri-mode if the specifications are what you are looking for. Verizon is eliminating anolog in the near future but as long as it still exits why not be able to use it. When we were in Alaska a couple years ago I had Verizon and my sister in law had T-Mobil which is only GSM. My phone was a tri-mode and I was able tol make phone calls where she could not. Maybe it was because of CDMA and maybe because of my being able to use the analog. I now have a global phone and had to give up the analog and go 100% digital for being able to switch the phone back and forth from CDMA and GSM. It is an expensive phone but with renewing the contract, it cost me $100. Verizon is a littlel more expensive to make calls abroad but the phone worked fine in GSM mode from Spain.

I guess I answered more than you asked but I hope this may help you if you have not already made up your mind.

Good luck, Dick

Thanks Dick for sharing your experience and for your comments. We would love to go to Alaska some day with our trailer. We will look over the phones again. I appreciate the info!

February '08 is the target for eliminating the analog signal. Personally, go for the all-digital phones, there are more choices and better features available to you.

GSM and CDMA service providers both use analog signal, in fact, GSM uses more analog than CDMA. Your ability to use your phone where your sister could not is more likely a result of being on America's most reliable network. Analog only gives you additional signal strength in certain (mostly rural) areas that do not have strong cell service to begin with. That is all changing as companies gear up to eliminate those analog signals and towers.

Hope this clears up some misconceptions about analog service.

Lots to learn about the different technologies., but I am absorbing a little through osmosis... The two phones we ordered are digital only but we got a free phone that is analog too. I was considering keeping the dualmode phone going as an extra line. At 10 dollars a month it seems inexpensive insurance to bring in a signal in the boonies and also to compare signal reception between all digital and dual mode. My biggest concern is for a 911 call from the trailer when in a remote area and also wondered if it would be good for carrying on a trail. All the recent Oregon lost people have me sensitive to that now. But I did read too about 2008 when it seems Verizon and others would like to make a quick exit from analog. If that is the case I wonder if having the capability in the phone would be of any benefit if Verizon coverage changes. The statement online from Verizon now is that customers with dual mode phones may see a difference in their coverage areas at that time. I am wondering what that really means in straight talk.

In "straight talk", it simply means that your phone will no longer switch to analog from digital. It could possibly mean that in some very isolated ares you may not get any reception. However, the addition of numberous towers around the network will keep these areas to a very minimal few and far between.

Having a tri-mode phone when the analog network goes away will not be of any benefit to you. Because there will not be any analog signal for your phone to capture, it would be like having a color TV in a black and white world.

Hope that helps.

It does help, entirely. Thank you!

I'm still dubious about this idea that all analog everywhere is cutting off at the deadline. Aren't there rural and remote areas with only analog, or where analog as better range and coverage? There's this Qualcomm document that says they think it will take years for analog to go away completely:

http://www.qualcomm.com/technology/a...ookintheUS.pdf

One thing I've wondered is how well the digital signals get into valleys and so forth compared to analog. I've also wondered how CDMA and GSM compare to each other in this respect.

If it weren't for coverage issues, I would get a GSM phone for all the freedom and features. I remain conivnced though that a trimode Verizon will give me the best coverage.