Fed up with data and in-building coverage on VS...going to Nextel
Stanley Cline
in Atlanta, an old Powertel market; YMMV elsewhere.)
- WAP gateway and the IP side of the VS GPRS network are hopelessly
broken (70-90% of browser startup attempts fail with either no GPRS
connection at all or repeated "WAP Gateway can't find requested
object" messages that are only fixed by repeated reconnects; just now
I tried to get the iStream WAP home page to come up on my P280 and got
only "server not responding" three times)
- WAP gateway can't deal with WAP sites that Verizon/SPCS/etc. have no
problems with (Yahoo, canada.com, my own HDML site, etc.) -- either
"connection not allowed", nothing is loaded at all, or gateway errors.
AOL services, including AIM, work just fine, though, go figure...
- CSD still can't call virtually any (Atlanta) local dialups (*some*
"LD" dialups in Columbus, Macon, etc. work OK, but too much trial and
error is required)
- Slow/unreliable/lost incoming email (the VS.net outage a couple of
weeks ago appeared to be problems with NSI/VeriSign and not VS, so I'm
not faulting them for that, especially since I know of other domains
that had the same problem the same weekend. I learned long ago to
avoid NSI/VeriSign [I use Dotster for my domains]...)
- VS WAP is expensive anyway, unless you can force CSD (which you
can't with a VS P280 unless you have it unlocked and re-flashed, and
that doesn't even begin to address the issues with the gateway, CSD,
or SMS.)
I also have (personal) phones with Verizon and Nextel (my SPCS phone
is a company phone, and AT&T doesn't support data at all in Atlanta,
let alone on CallPlus prepaid; I refuse to use Cingular for myriad
reasons.) Verizon data is extremely reliable, but doesn't work
everywhere (i.e., when roaming on SPCS) and I can't get more minutes
without losing free weekends and I'm *NOT* giving up full US+Canada
coverage for the America's Choice crap plan to keep the free weekends.
That leaves Nextel; their WAP is quite expensive ($10/mo for Nextel
Online Plus + $5/mo for two-way text messaging; the basic Nextel
Online is very watered down and IME useless) but doesn't use up voice
minutes, and Nextel users I know (including some that work/have worked
for a WAP ASP) report no problems (I don't yet have NOL+ added to my
account; I'll have to call CS tomorrow.)
Also, I've determined that VS's in-building coverage is now the worst
of any carrier in Atlanta. (Best are SPCS/Verizon [I lumped them
together since Verizon roams onto SPCS in most areas, including
Atlanta], Nextel, and Cingular; Metro PCS, AT&T, and VS are bad,
worse, worst.) Something terrible has happened to VS here since the
Powertel days, and I'm not all that sure Sugar Daddy DT will fix all
that's wrong. At this point I've just decided to (more or less) quit
using VS and shift the VS usage onto Nextel... I probably won't get
rid of VS entirely; I'll probably just drop down to the $19.99 plan to
keep the account active (mainly so that I can continue to check out
GSM coverage; unlike AMPS and CDMA phones, inactive GSM [and iDEN]
phones show "no coverage" everywhere after they've been inactive
awhile, which makes them useless for coverage testing; inactive IS-136
phones are sometimes bumped to analog when they try to register on a
digital network, but being able to see analog is OK most of the time)
and live out my contract. I'll probably also spring for an i90c for
Nextel too...
-SC in Dunwoody
--
Stanley "roamer1" Cline -- that guy with *FIVE* cell phones now! :p
(VS,VZW,SPCS,Nextel,CallPlus/AT&T -- JUST SAY NO TO CINGULAR & US HELL)
Dunwoody (Atlanta), GA, USA -- http://www.roamer1.org/wireless/
If anything sucks in my email addy, *DON'T* remove it! **GO VOLS**
Donald Newcomb
> I have absolutely *HAD IT* with VS data (this includes SMS)... (I'm
> in Atlanta, an old Powertel market; YMMV elsewhere.)
Well, Stanley, all I can say is that I haven't been able to get CSD to
work twice in a row in the old DigiPH area. However, it works
perfectly for me in the Powertel market and always has. I've had
several calls to tech support about this that got kicked up to
engineering.
> Also, I've determined that VS's in-building coverage is now the worst
> of any carrier in Atlanta.
But no one ever said it would work inside a building. Thinking about
it, in-building coverage must be a function of cell redundency. Not so
much which signal will penetrate X inches of wall better, but which
carrier looks at building X from the most directions. The carrier that
has a better chance of looking in your north-facing window is the one
that will have "better in-building coverage."
Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
S. Byers
Yahoo!. I was having the same problems you describe with that site
until I used that URL.
JonManGo
"Stanley Cline" wrote ...
> I have absolutely *HAD IT* with VS data (this includes SMS)... (I'm
> in Atlanta, an old Powertel market; YMMV elsewhere.)
VS isn't so bad here in Nashville, although I do not use anything but WAP
and voice. In building is not great, but I've got Verizon too, so I have no
problems.
> Stanley "roamer1" Cline -- that guy with *FIVE* cell phones now! :p
Do you wear all of them at once? Does it make you look like Batman? :-p
J-Man
Stanley Cline
> VS isn't so bad here in Nashville, although I do not use anything but WAP
> and voice. In building is not great, but I've got Verizon too, so I have no
> problems.
Voice is no problem here with VS (aside from in-building coverage); they
show no signs of being oversold like SPCS does. It's just the data stuff
that's so damn frustrating...
[five phones]
> Do you wear all of them at once? Does it make you look like Batman? :-p
Generally no more than three at a time. :)
- When at home: SPCS "company" phone and VZW phone always with me;
CallPlus/AT&T stays at home; Nextel and VS phones get swapped in and
out.
- When on road trips in the Southeast all five active phones, as well as
two *inactive* Cingular phones, go with me (VS phone gets turned off in
NC to avoid roaming charges -- GM3K doesn't include NC)
- When in the US outside the Southeast: only SPCS, VZW, and maybe Nextel
phones go with me
- When in Canada: only VZW phone goes with me (yes, not even SPCS -- SR
Canada is cheaper than even off-network minute bundles with SPCS)
- When outside North America: that hasn't happened just yet :( but if I
were to go, only my VS P280 (unlocked by then) would go with me (unless
I were going to Japan, then none would go with me)
-SC
--
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
...
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might
be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune
Anshul Jain
> - WAP gateway can't deal with WAP sites that Verizon/SPCS/etc. have no
> problems with (Yahoo, canada.com, my own HDML site, etc.) -- either
Stanley,
I had problems with the Yahoo WAP site, through wap.yahoo.com, but
wap.yahoo.co.uk works just fine for me in my P280.
i30ipaq
I'm a VS user in ATL. Started w/ Ptel went to SPCS for a couple of years
then went "back" to VS in Dec. I agree about the WAP site issue. On the
GPRS issue, all my problems went away when I bought a T39. The GPRS connect
time is quicker, the site comes up more consistently and I find it an
overall MUCH better data experience than the P280.
I've also had much better luck w/ the T39 connecting to my laptop and PDA.
i30ipaq
"Stanley Cline" <sc1-...@roamer1.org> wrote in message
news:fgpgeusjscb36jj9u...@news.local.roamer1.org...
i30ipaq
I'm a VS user in ATL. Started w/ Ptel went to SPCS for a couple of years
then went "back" to VS in Dec. I agree about the WAP site issue. On the
GPRS issue, all my problems went away when I bought a T39. The GPRS connect
time is quicker, the site comes up more consistently and I find it an
overall MUCH better data experience than the P280.
I've also had much better luck w/ the T39 connecting to my laptop and PDA.
i30ipaq
"Stanley Cline" <sc1-...@roamer1.org> wrote in message
news:fgpgeusjscb36jj9u...@news.local.roamer1.org...
i30ipaq
I'm a VS user in ATL. Started w/ Ptel went to SPCS for a couple of years
then went "back" to VS in Dec. I agree about the WAP site issue. On the
GPRS issue, all my problems went away when I bought a T39. The GPRS connect
time is quicker, the site comes up more consistently and I find it an
overall MUCH better data experience than the P280.
I've also had much better luck w/ the T39 connecting to my laptop and PDA.
i30ipaq
"Stanley Cline" <sc1-...@roamer1.org> wrote in message
news:fgpgeusjscb36jj9u...@news.local.roamer1.org...
Special Agent Fox Mulder
read this.
That's One Giant Leap for FRS
http://www.strongsignals.net/access/boards/viewpost.cgi?board=message&num=5331
Posted by Colin [e-mail] on June 1, 2002 at 14:22:49:
Saw on the local Vancouver Island news last night that a lost hiker was
saved by two little girls and an FRS radio. But from over 25 miles away!
Seems the hiker got disoriented on Grouse mountain (just north of
Vancouver BC Canada). He had with him a GPS and a FRS radio, so he
started broadcasting a mayday on Ch. 1. Two young girls in Nanaimo BC
(on Vancouver Island, at least 25 miles away) heard his calls for help.
They then notified their father, who called the lost hiker's mother in
Vancouver. They then notified the authorities. He was picked up by
helicopter within a few hours.
<<
"It's the static on your cellphone ma'am."
-Sprint PCS man
--
http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/tt/Nokia3390.html
Read my review on the Nokia 3390 Gold
--
http://angelfire.com/tx4/tt/index.html
Visit My Site
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nokia3390ringtones/
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nokia5190
rkpatt
Stanley Cline <sc1-...@roamer1.org> wrote in message news:<fgpgeusjscb36jj9u...@news.local.roamer1.org>...
--snip--
Special Agent Fox Mulder
old neighbors they're the ones who go and protest towers.
--