So, Then, Which Is The Best Cell Service?
David Kaye
current situation. Should my old phone break down and Jeff can't get me a
replacement that works, which is the option for the best fidelity and fewest
drop-outs as far as technology that isn't the 1X constant bitrate system?
John Higdon
sfdavi...@yahoo.com (David Kaye) wrote:
Let me know if you find one that has any of those attributes, let alone
has them all simultaneously.
--
John Higdon
+1 408 ANdrews 6-4400
AT&T-Free At Last
Roy
It will depend on what kind of service you want and where you want it.
Consumer surveys seem to agree that Verizon has the best customer
satisfaction
In a recent survey, AT&T was the worst of the big 4 (Verizon, Sprint
T-mobile, AT&T)
David Kaye
>Let me know if you find one that has any of those attributes, let alone
>has them all simultaneously.
Oh, and I'd like it to be what I'm paying now...$39 a month for 8 hours of
anytime minutes...
heh...
David Kaye
>Consumer surveys seem to agree that Verizon has the best customer
>satisfaction
But I'm coming to think that this really means "least bad". As I said, I'm
happy with VZW's customer service and coverage. I just cringe at the prospect
of not being able to get audio fidelity as good as I have it now.
Does the state PUC or the FCC regulate cell service these days? Looks like
it's time for a revolt.
Roy
You forgot the golden rule of ba.internet: fast, cheap, reliable: pick
two. Covert to voice as: quality, cheap, wide coverage.
A few seconds of looking would show you that Verizon is $40 for 450 minutes.
David Kaye
>
>A few seconds of looking would show you that Verizon is $40 for 450 minutes.
Huh...not much different from what I'm paying now. Now, I have what used to
be called an "all California" plan which gave me very nook and cranny in CA
without roaming charges, but didn't give me rural areas in the rest of the
country. That's fine with me. It was the anytime minutes that were most
important to me and being able to chat with people from Alturas to Arbuckle.
VZW has been itching to sell me everything under the sun given that my
contract expired 3 years ago. I'd like mobile Internet, but then I lie down
for awhile and the thought goes away...
About the only thing that has attracted me to invest in anything cellwise is
the wireless cards. $50 a month for EVDO or whatever the current rage is for
unlimited Internet access. Pretty cool. But since I also like to live in the
wireless-wireless world (that is, a world without Internet) I'm not especially
ready to pay for the privilege of using my laptop on Mt Diablo or wherever...
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>I've been ignoring most of the discussion because it didn't apply to my
>current situation. Should my old phone break down and Jeff can't get me a
>replacement that works, which is the option for the best fidelity and fewest
>drop-outs as far as technology
I just looked at eBay and found about a dozen Samsung SCH-a650 phones
for sale. Typical price is $15 including shipping for the phone,
battery, charger, and cheezy headset. I think the easiest option
would be to just buy a spare. Be sure to practice switching phone
activations as I previous detailed. I'll still try to find you
another, but at $15, I think you can afford a spare.
As for the best service, they all suck in different areas and in
different ways. Verizon seems to be the least disgusting of the
bunch. Unfortunately, Verizon is also the most expensive. If you're
searching for the ultimate provider, that does everything right the
first time, give up now while you're still sane. It doesn't exist.
> that isn't the 1X constant bitrate system?
Ummm... wrong. You want the 13K constant bit rate system. It's the
variable bit rate EVRC that causes audio quality problems. Also, the
1x is short for 1xRTT, which is the *DATA* communications standard,
and has nothing to do with voice quality. What you're looking for is
a phone that does NOT support EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Codec), and
supports (by default) the 13k Qualcomm PureVoice CODEC.
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Travis James
> anytime minutes...
>
is, if I needed many more minutes), I'd jump to PagePlus. They use the
entire Verizon network. You can get 1200 minutes and 1200 texts for
29.95/mo or unlimited for $39.95. Nice thing (and this applies to my
T-Mobile also) is that's the price you see and what you pay. No taxes
tacked on from the quoted price.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans.aspx
And when you want to quit, you quit. No contracts, no hopping through
the CS agents trying to "save" your business.
Peter Lawrence
>
> What you're looking for is
> a phone that does NOT support EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Codec), and
> supports (by default) the 13k Qualcomm PureVoice CODEC.
So what phones do this?
- Peter
David Kaye
>I just looked at eBay and found about a dozen Samsung SCH-a650 phones
>for sale. Typical price is $15 including shipping for the phone,
>battery, charger, and cheezy headset. I think the easiest option
>would be to just buy a spare. Be sure to practice switching phone
>activations as I previous detailed.
Thanks for your help! I really had no idea tha I was driving the Cadillac of
cell phones. I just thought that everybody had as good a quality phone as I
have.
>I'll still try to find you
>another, but at $15, I think you can afford a spare.
Thanks. At $15 I can afford a roomful of spares. I'm still curious why the
thing freezes. It doesn't do it often, maybe once a month, but still I was
late for an appointment when I flipped open the phone and I thought it was 45
minutes earlier than it was. Come to think of it, the downside of the phone
is that if I'm away from cell sites, such in the Black Rock Desert, the clock
doesn't work. I take a WWVB clock with me now, but it is a little strange to
live timelessly...
>As for the best service, they all suck in different areas and in
>different ways. Verizon seems to be the least disgusting of the
>bunch.
Great slogan: "Verizon Wireless -- Least Disgusting".
>Unfortunately, Verizon is also the most expensive. If you're
>searching for the ultimate provider, that does everything right the
>first time, give up now while you're still sane. It doesn't exist.
I don't find $40 a month expensive. Add $5 more for web access and that's
fine for me. (I turned off the web access because I really didn't need to
check my mail that often...)
>Ummm... wrong. You want the 13K constant bit rate system. It's the
>variable bit rate EVRC that causes audio quality problems.
Yeah, that's what I meant. I meant that if I wasn't able to get a constant
bit rate system then I wanted something just as good.
>What you're looking for is
>a phone that does NOT support EVRC (Enhanced Variable Rate Codec), and
>supports (by default) the 13k Qualcomm PureVoice CODEC.
Yes, got it the first time. Sorry my response was so opaque.
David Kaye
>If my limited usage weren't adequately served by T-Mobile prepaid, (that
>is, if I needed many more minutes), I'd jump to PagePlus. They use the
>entire Verizon network. [....]
Thanks for the info. I'm keeping it just in case. However, I always consider
customer service in my choice of vendors, and VZW has been excellent in
talking with me whenever I needed them. The texting price seems really good,
given that texting has become quite a convenience.
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
I don't know. I couldn't find a list of such CDMA phones. I'm not
even sure if the original Samsung SCH-A650 data is correct.
This non-feature is difficult to find on the data sheets. I used data
from:
<http://mobilofant.com/en/brands/>
to identify if EVRC is supported. My LG VX8100 certainly supports
EVRC. Yet the data at:
<http://mobilofant.com/en/brands/LG/VX8100.html>
says that EVRC is not supported. Checking more recent LG phones, they
also incorrectly list EVRC as not supported. It appears that I was
wrong and that the database has at least one gross error. I'll see if
I can find a better source. However, with all the efforts put into
the WURFL cell phone database at:
<http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/>
I don't expect to find much different.
So, that brings up the original question about the Samsung SCH-A650.
The only way I can currently tell if it does EVRC is to look at the
"test mode" screen to see what CODECs are available.
Bummer...
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>Thanks for your help! I really had no idea tha I was driving the Cadillac of
>cell phones. I just thought that everybody had as good a quality phone as I
>have.
Ummmm... I may have goofed. I just dug through the database at:
<http://mobilofant.com>
and noticed that other LG phones, that certainly do have EVRC, are
listed as not having this feature. It appears that there's an error
in the original WURFL database:
<http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/>
At this time, the only way I can tell if your phone will do EVRC or
not is by looking at the test mode to see what CODECs are supported.
Sorry for the misinformation.
>Thanks. At $15 I can afford a roomful of spares.
I would buy a spare (or replacement) anyway. I have several LG
spares. When I accidentally leave the phone somewhere (usually at
home or a restaurant), I just grab the spare, punch in the magic
numbers to activate it, and continue merrily onward. It's also handy
for charging spare batteries without monopolizing the active phone.
I'm really surprised that Verizon doesn't offer this as a convenience
service as it would sell some phones and keep the old ones out of the
landfill.
>I'm still curious why the
>thing freezes.
Ummm... It shouldn't do that. No clue, but water damage and connector
mangling are the two most common culprits. (The average life of a
cell phone is about 2 years).
This week, I'm a big fan of LG phones. A few years ago, I was a
Motorola fan until they started failing and falling apart. Before
that, it was various Qualcomm models. Smartphones are fine, but VZW
will soak you for a mandatory $30/month data plan, even if all you
want the smartphone for is a better address book and few games.
>the downside of the phone
>is that if I'm away from cell sites, such in the Black Rock Desert, the clock
>doesn't work.
Worse, if you're out of range of a cell site, the phone will almost
continuously try to find a cell site. That will run your battery down
in short order. When we had the fiber cut last year, and all the
local cell sites went down, my cell phone battery lasted about 5 hours
from a full charge. The degree of agressiveness various from phone to
phone, but all of them will prematurely discharge the battery. Turn
it off.
>Great slogan: "Verizon Wireless -- Least Disgusting".
"Lesser Evil" also works. Watch out for creative billing and very
well hidden charges. The online service summary is easier to decode
than the paper bill.
David Kaye
>I don't know. I couldn't find a list of such CDMA phones. I'm not
>even sure if the original Samsung SCH-A650 data is correct.
The website you drove me to says they take their info from another site. The
other site apparently is an open source consortium for app developers. It
seems that they have a bunch of files that contain all this data. I haven't
downloaded any of it, but I'd assume that at least one of them would be
available in a .csv format suitable for input into Excel with all the specs
listed as fields. There are a lot of files to poke around in, but I think
there's got to be one there that has the answers.
David Kaye
>I can find a better source. However, with all the efforts put into
>the WURFL cell phone database at:
><http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/>
>I don't expect to find much different.
That's it, WURFL. I should have read the rest of your message.
David Kaye
>Worse, if you're out of range of a cell site, the phone will almost
>continuously try to find a cell site. That will run your battery down
>in short order.
When I'm on the coast south of Half Moon Bay I lose cell service entirely. My
phone apparently sleeps after awhile because when I open it I get some kind of
message to that effect. I forget the message, but it leads me to believe that
it's stopped trying sites while closed.
NoOp
And I'll ignore this one as it doesn't seem to have anything to do with
ba.*internet*... similar to your search for antivirus solutions.
j r pierce
wrote:
>
>I just looked at eBay and found about a dozen Samsung SCH-a650 phones
>for sale. Typical price is $15 including shipping for the phone,
>battery, charger, and cheezy headset. I think the easiest option
>would be to just buy a spare. Be sure to practice switching phone
>activations as I previous detailed. I'll still try to find you
>another, but at $15, I think you can afford a spare.
HIGH probability of a 5 year old used phone having a 5 year old
battery. in fact, moderately high probabiltiy of a "new" battery on
fleabay also being 5 years old, and not having much pookah left (liion
batteries tend to age whether they are used or not)
j r pierce
wrote:
>Thanks. At $15 I can afford a roomful of spares. I'm still curious why the
>thing freezes.
I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
removal. most annoying part was, most of the freezes, the UI was
still operational, you could dial a number, and the phone wouldn't
actually crash til it tried to make the connection.
drove me nuts.
this LG 'eNV2' I have now seems to be much better, bonus feature, its
bluetooth works better too. (oh god, don't get me started on
bluetooht and 802.11g interfering with each other)
John Higdon
j r pierce <spam...@here.not> wrote:
> I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
> whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
> removal.
Every cell phone I've owned in the past ten years has been that way.
Palm, Nokia, take your pick. Isn't that standard behavior for cell
phones in general?
Eric Weaver
> this LG 'eNV2' I have now seems to be much better, bonus feature, its
> bluetooth works better too....
I have one of those too!
Jeff, how does one set an env2 to 13K mode? Have that in your bag of
tricks?
Thanks...
SMS
You might consider PagePlus, a Verizon MVNO. For around $24-25/month you
get 1200 minutes (20 hours), 1200 messages (text or MMS), and 50MB of
data. Their unlimited service is $32-35/month but paradoxically includes
only 20MB of data. The MSRP of their 1200 minute and unlimited plans are
$30 and $40 respectively, but these are discounted.
It's not clear what you're trying to say about the 1x system. Since it
has the best fidelity and the fewest dropouts (well at least compared to
GSM), why would you want something different? With PagePlus they'll
activate older handsets without E-911 capability, so you could go find
an old handset with the higher bit rate CoDec (16 Kbps).
SMS
> If my limited usage weren't adequately served by T-Mobile prepaid, (that
> is, if I needed many more minutes), I'd jump to PagePlus. They use the
> entire Verizon network. You can get 1200 minutes and 1200 texts for
> 29.95/mo or unlimited for $39.95. Nice thing (and this applies to my
> T-Mobile also) is that's the price you see and what you pay. No taxes
> tacked on from the quoted price.
Actually, the prices are quite a bit lower than the prices PagePlus
advertises. You can pay the monthly fee on PagePlus with any of their
refill "cards" and these cards are highly discounted. A $50 card has a
face value of $56 and sells for as little as $45. So:
$29.95 * $45/$56 = $24.07
$39.95 * $45/$56 = $32.10
Sign up to be a fan of CallingMart on Facebook and they'll send you
messages when they have a sale. They just had a 10% off sale on PagePlus
which is the best I've seen, as usually they are 7% off. They have even
bigger discounts on T-Mobile refills.
I use PagePlus for my kids' phones, though not on the unlimited plan.
You can see a list of the pros and cons of PagePlus at
"http://nordicgroup.us/prepaid/pageplus.html". There are some things to
consider before moving to Verizon on PagePlus from Verizon proper.
David Arnstein
John Higdon <hi...@kome.com> wrote:
>In article <irm5k5dun6nep78mh...@4ax.com>,
> j r pierce <spam...@here.not> wrote:
>
>> I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
>> whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
>> removal.
>
>Every cell phone I've owned in the past ten years has been that way.
>Palm, Nokia, take your pick. Isn't that standard behavior for cell
>phones in general?
Interesting data point there. I have been using Motorola cell phones
for the past 10 years and I have never experienced a "freeze." Not
one.
My sample size is small though. I have only owned
Startac (multiple instances)
E815
W755
Anyway, it appears that Motorola does *some* things right.
--
David Arnstein (00)
arnstei...@pobox.com {{ }}
^^
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
That's an LG VX9100.
Download the document at:
<http://www.wpsantennas.com/pdf/testmode/FieldTestModes.pdf>
It describes how to get into the field test mode on various phones.
For the env2:
Press Menu 0. Enter Service Code: 000000 (six zeros).
It's in there somewhere. I found it yesterday on my VX8100but now I
can't find it. However, note that on most current LG phones, it
cannot be changed. I had to revert to an old firmware P_REV 4 to
force 13K. Also, don't be surprised if the Voice SO (service option)
display shows 4GV. That's what EVRC-B displays.
It's also possible that your LG env2 supports:
Punch in ##VOCODER#, END (not send), select edit,
enter your MSL (000000).
Also try:
##DEBUG#
For more detail, I suggest:
<http://www.howardforums.com>
SMS
We were outside the Grand Canyon in Tusayan and the only Verizon phones
that would work inside the hotel were the Motorola phones with an
external antenna. I didn't bring an AT&T phone so I don't know about
AT&T coverage there. The map shows partner coverage, and there was one
person down in the canyon using an iPhone who had one bar she said. I
had good Verizon coverage three miles from the trail head down into the
canyon, though personally I think that the NPS should have WiFi down there.
Eric Weaver
> On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:49:15 -0800, Eric Weaver <we...@sigma.net>
> wrote:
>
>> On 01/04/2010 10:28 PM, j r pierce wrote:
>>
>>> this LG 'eNV2' I have now seems to be much better, bonus feature, its
>>> bluetooth works better too....
>> I have one of those too!
>>
>> Jeff, how does one set an env2 to 13K mode? Have that in your bag of
>> tricks?
>
> That's an LG VX9100.
Oops, I spoke too soon, Mine's a 920(0) eNV3... When I do menu, I get
choices 1-9 and hitting "0" does nothing. Know any sites for that one?
Thanks...
David Kaye
>It's not clear what you're trying to say about the 1x system. Since it
>has the best fidelity and the fewest dropouts (well at least compared to
>GSM), why would you want something different?
I was only stating this because if VZW changed systems (they did a few years
ago and I had to replace my phone) then I want to be prepared. So, if the 1X
thingy isn't available in the future I'd like to find out what else is good.
And then there's Internet. I'm vaguely toying with the idea of getting a
net-enabled phone (well, something that does more than the simply
text-oriented browsing I can do now), so I was just curious about other
options, that's all.
All told, though, I'll probably be inclined to keep my computer as a computer
and my phone as a phone. Life seems so much simpler that way.
John Richards
> In article <irm5k5dun6nep78mh...@4ax.com>,
> j r pierce <spam...@here.not> wrote:
>
>> I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
>> whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
>> removal.
>
> Every cell phone I've owned in the past ten years has been that way.
> Palm, Nokia, take your pick. Isn't that standard behavior for cell
> phones in general?
Depends. I've never had my Motorola RAZR freeze on me.
--
John Richards
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
Sigh...
Download BitPim and find a USB cable. Connect the vx9200 to your
computer. Connect it as a modem (data) tethered device. To do that,
on your vx9200, go to:
Settings and Tools -> USB Mode -> Modem Mode
(or Ask on Plug if you keep switching between media sync and modem).
That way, it will connect to a COM port as a modem device. Open BitPim
and select LG VX9200 (enV2). Make sure that under the View menu in
BitPim, "View Filesystem" is checked. On the left panel, you should
see the Filesystem tab. Click it and the filesystem should be
expanded. Find filedB and change srvMenuAccessable from 0 to 1 to
enable editing. You're on your own from there.
I've done this with other fairly new LG phones with fair success. So
far, I've only destroyed one phone.
You really should be asking such questions in:
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>In article <irm5k5dun6nep78mh...@4ax.com>,
> j r pierce <spam...@here.not> wrote:
>
>> I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
>> whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
>> removal.
>
>Every cell phone I've owned in the past ten years has been that way.
>Palm, Nokia, take your pick. Isn't that standard behavior for cell
>phones in general?
No way. I've had my xv6700 freeze after I screwed around with the
registry, but never with the standard configuration files. Same with
my ancient QCP-6035 for the same reason. These days, I have a side
business refurbishing and selling used cell phones. I see about 15
phones per month. NONE of them freeze. Well, I do have a Motorola Q
that seems to be giving me trouble and requires an ocassional reset.
Cell phones have energy management chips with an internal indpendent
watchdog timer, which look for hangs and crashes, and will reboot the
phone if necessary. The phone might crash, but most users never see
it.
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>I was only stating this because if VZW changed systems (they did a few years
>ago and I had to replace my phone) then I want to be prepared.
That was Feb 2008, when all the providers finally killed off analog
(AMPS) service. If you had an analog only phone, or one that would
not do OTA (over the air) programming, Verizon demanded that you get a
new phone.
>All told, though, I'll probably be inclined to keep my computer as a computer
>and my phone as a phone. Life seems so much simpler that way.
Computers and cell phones do not make life simpler.
SMS
> On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:38:51 GMT, sfdavi...@yahoo.com (David Kaye)
> wrote:
>
>> I was only stating this because if VZW changed systems (they did a few years
>> ago and I had to replace my phone) then I want to be prepared.
>
> That was Feb 2008, when all the providers finally killed off analog
> (AMPS) service.
AMPS is still available in many rural locations.
SMS
<snip>
> And then there's Internet. I'm vaguely toying with the idea of getting a
> net-enabled phone (well, something that does more than the simply
> text-oriented browsing I can do now), so I was just curious about other
> options, that's all.
I like the PagePlus data service. On the 1200 minute plan you get 50MB.
Not a lot, but considering that the average smart phone user uses
40-80MB/month it's sufficient if you don't go crazy with downloads of
videos or uploads of large photo or video files.
It's occasionally useful to be able to use the net from a smart phone.
Not worth the monthly data cost charged by the major carriers, but for
less than $25/month for 1200 minutes, 1200 messages (text or MMS), and
50MB of data, it's hard to beat.
Peter Lawrence
Boost Mobile has good data rates too. It's just 35 cents a day for
unlimited data connection on their pay-as-you-go plan (in other words,
$10.50 to $10.85 a month).
Or you can opt for their unlimited calls, texting, data, and quick-connect
(iDEN walkie-talkie) service for a flat $50 per month (all taxes and fees
included in that $50.00).
The drawback of Boost Mobile data connection is that it's iDEN, so it's no
speed-burner, but it's definitely fast enough for general web browsing and
e-mail. OTOH, the Sprint's iDEN network the Boost Mobile uses is under
utilized so I never had any sort of congestion problems with it unlike
AT&T's data network and sometimes in Verizon's.
- Peter
Eric Weaver
...[good bits]
> You really should be asking such questions in:
> <http://www.howardforums.com>
Thanks, I shall....
Mark Shapiro
> Computers and cell phones do not make life simpler.
Except the combo of a new Mac and an iPhone.
ATT is not great, but the new iPhone/Mac stuff does simplify life.
Also a simple cheap wireless phone and a Peek Mobile is a
solution I use that simplfies my life.
Verizon is the only one that works everywhere I go.
SMS
<snip>
> Boost Mobile has good data rates too. It's just 35 cents a day for
> unlimited data connection on their pay-as-you-go plan (in other words,
> $10.50 to $10.85 a month).
>
> Or you can opt for their unlimited calls, texting, data, and
> quick-connect (iDEN walkie-talkie) service for a flat $50 per month (all
> taxes and fees included in that $50.00).
>
> The drawback of Boost Mobile data connection is that it's iDEN, so it's
> no speed-burner, but it's definitely fast enough for general web
> browsing and e-mail. OTOH, the Sprint's iDEN network the Boost Mobile
> uses is under utilized so I never had any sort of congestion problems
> with it unlike AT&T's data network and sometimes in Verizon's.
The problem with the iDEN network is that it's extremely limited in
coverage. As long as you never leave the core of major metropolitan
areas (and not even all of those are covered) you can get by with iDEN.
Forget about any coverage at all outside those areas.
Actually you can get Boost Mobile service on the Sprint CDMA/EVDO
network but they don't talk about it, and they don't offer smart phones
when you sign up. But people have worked around that limitation by
bringing their own Sprint smart phones and getting a CSR to change the
ESN to the smart phone. You have to go into a store to get that service,
it's not offered online. The downside is that there is no roaming off of
Sprint's own CDMA network so coverage is limited, but not as limited as
the iDEN network. Unlike the $50 price on Boost iDEN, there are taxes
and fees added onto the Boost CDMA $50 price.
Peter Lawrence
Actually I've found the iDEN network to have *better* coverage in some rural
places in California than Sprint's CDMA network. Specifically north
Monterey County between Prunedale and Watsonville, and also in many rural
areas of the Central Valley. Areas where not only there was no Sprint
native CDMA coverage, but no AT&T GSM coverage either.
The good thing of having a Sprint CDMA phone is that you can piggy-back/roam
often in other carriers' CDMA coverage areas. But Sprint's native coverage
isn't that great. So I would rather have a Boost Mobile iDEN phone than
their CDMA phones which are limited to only Sprint's native CDMA network.
And a nice thing of iDEN mobile phones is that they broadcast over the 800
MHz radio band, and not the 1900MHz radio band like Sprint PCS phones, so
the signal has a farther reach including a better reach inside buildings.
Still overall, Verizon and AT&T has better network coverage than the Boost
Mobile/Sprint iDEN network, but the iDEN network coverage is still quite
extensive (and many in locations better) than Sprint's native CDMA coverage
here in California.
And one last thing, I've found the sound quality of my Boost iDEN phone to
be superior to the sound quality of my old Sprint CDMA phone.
- Peter
SMS
> Actually I've found the iDEN network to have *better* coverage in some
> rural places in California than Sprint's CDMA network. Specifically
> north Monterey County between Prunedale and Watsonville, and also in
> many rural areas of the Central Valley. Areas where not only there was
> no Sprint native CDMA coverage, but no AT&T GSM coverage either.
I remember going to Alaska about six years ago. I'm at the airport
calling for a shuttle pick-up and the guy standing next to me is in a
panic because his Nextel phone doesn't work. No iDEN in Alaska, period
(and still none). At that time there was also no GSM service in Alaska,
period, only CDMA, TDMA, and AMPS. Still a lot of AMPS-only areas in
Alaska outside the cities. I suggested that the guy go to Wal-Mart and
buy a Tracfone.
John Navas
wrote in <hhrahg$u00$1...@news.eternal-september.org>:
>I've been ignoring most of the discussion because it didn't apply to my
>current situation. Should my old phone break down and Jeff can't get me a
>replacement that works, which is the option for the best fidelity and fewest
>drop-outs as far as technology that isn't the 1X constant bitrate system?
T-Mobile:
* Excellent plans and pricing.
* Great customer service.
* Very good coverage.
* Excellent 3G performance.
--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://wireless.navas.us>
John FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.navas.us/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.navas.us/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.navas.us/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
John Navas
>In article <irm5k5dun6nep78mh...@4ax.com>,
> j r pierce <spam...@here.not> wrote:
>
>> I had a samsung SCH-something verizon silver clamshell flip-phone
>> whazza that also froze, weekly or more often. required battery
>> removal.
>
>Every cell phone I've owned in the past ten years has been that way.
>Palm, Nokia, take your pick. Isn't that standard behavior for cell
>phones in general?
Never a problem with my Moto RAZR V3xx phones.
SMS
> Travis James wrote:
>
>> If my limited usage weren't adequately served by T-Mobile prepaid,
>> (that is, if I needed many more minutes), I'd jump to PagePlus. They
>> use the entire Verizon network. You can get 1200 minutes and 1200
>> texts for 29.95/mo or unlimited for $39.95. Nice thing (and this
>> applies to my T-Mobile also) is that's the price you see and what you
>> pay. No taxes tacked on from the quoted price.
>
> Actually, the prices are quite a bit lower than the prices PagePlus
> advertises. You can pay the monthly fee on PagePlus with any of their
> refill "cards" and these cards are highly discounted. A $50 card has a
> face value of $56 and sells for as little as $45. So:
>
> $29.95 * $45/$56 = $24.07
> $39.95 * $45/$56 = $32.10
Well none of this is true any more. PagePlus recently reduced their
rates significantly, but now all their cards give only face value. This
is good news for pay as you go customers since minutes are now as low as
4�, but not so good for those people that were taking advantage of the
extra bonus money over the face value.
While you can still buy the cards for up to 10% under face value you no
longer get a bonus over face value (the $50 card used to give $56, an
extra 12%).
Was:
1200/1200/50MB: $29.95 * $45/$56 = $24.07
Unlimited/Unlimited/20MB: $39.95 * $45/$56 = $32.10
Is:
1200/1200/50MB: $29.95 -10% = $26.96
Unlimited/Unlimited/20MB: $39.95 -10% = $35.96