I know it's a nokia because I have to progam numbers into it. He is not anywhere near computer or technology literate. On top of my regualar shop and boiler installs I am the computer tech,fabrication welder,automechanic and what ever else he needs done.

 

I'd be interested in getting a nokia nextel ( I dont like the current moto ones) could you get me a model number?

 

verizon on 1 phone, & sprint on the other. just my opinion, but upstate NY, verizon is by far the better service. customer service, dispute fix, and billing issues. and when i go to florida (last yr) my verizon phone always worked. my sprint phone pukes in some areas.

 

I believe VZW has the largest network

 

You can all kiss my rebel @$$. I work for T-mobile

In all honesty, our service is very good in the city, and most of the major highways. Much better than Alltell in town. Just as good as Cingular and Sprint. Verizon is the best service in the market, period. They also charge you a arm and a leg for decent minutes. Did you know we won JD power and Associates best service awards for every region of the country, for the past two years?

Nextel does only use motorola phones for their push to talk features. Nextel will be a thing of the past next year, you will only see the sprint name, as soon as they can wipe it off of NASCAR. Sprints PTT is better than Nextels now anyway, so the Nextel network will no longer be needed.

Cingular is loosing money, not because they are growing either. They are actually selling many of their cell sites in town, I know, were buying some.

Everyone seems to think the only way we can compete with Verizon is to merge with Alltel, that may be true, we'll have to see. Alltel does have excellent coverage in the boonies, but none in major cities. They'd be a good match for us, were good in cities, but not great in the boonies. However, we have grown our coverage by 15% this last year, and were growing quicker this year. For the money, and the service, I'd say were in the top two, so give T-mobile a try. If you've got deep pockets, buy verizon. Sprint has terrible customer service, and they charge to much for what they have. As I said before, Cingular is probably on the way out.

 

My wife has Alltel, and she received notice they are merging with US Cellular. Out here, T-mobile doesn't even offer service. Our main choices are Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, or US Cellular. Alltel's home turf is right at the state line, so when we move north, Alltel is no longer a choice.My sister has Nextel, and is reasonably happy with it. I haven't been unhappy with US Cellular for the 2 years we have had it, but the pricetag was a bit rough before, they got better recently. Sprint's fine and dandy if you live close to the cities or a major highway, but wander awayf from thoise areas, and it no longer is worth much. I looked into Sprint a while back when I was living in South Dakota, and in order to have Sprint without being in roam, I had to live within about 2% of the state's area. Sioux Falls, Brookings and Sioux City were the only areas of service, along I-29. I lived near Huron, which is 80 miles west of Brookings. In order to have digital service, I had to have a tower within 15 miles. so with that, to go home each day, (I worked in Brookings) I would be roaming most of the time. Didn't see where that kind of service was worth anything to me... At that time, Cellular One was the choice, but they weren't competitive, so I ended up with Verizon prepay for a while. That was a bit on the early days, but recently researching again, and Sprint still is poor for coverage.

 

I wonder does t mobile even go up in good ol canada?

 

Yep, we use Rogers in Ontario, not sure about the rest of Canada, but probably the same. We are the second largerst cell company in the world. Only 4th in the states, but we are only three years old here.

 

In my area if you dont have cell one then you are pretty well not going to be able to talk. If you have one of the old cell one digital phones you were much better off than the current gsm like I have but I still get reception in more places than any of my verison or sprint carrying friends. We also have unicell up here and while they work great in town and have by far the cheepest rates, once you get out in the country (where I spend most of my time) they are just as bad if not worse than sprint or verison.

 

Thats because the older phones are blasting out as much as 10 watts. The newer GSM phones are around half a watt (blame the FCC).

Cell one, Alltel, and some of the other rural carriers got into the game to late to buy RF in metropolitan areas. They spent all of their money on rural areas. I'm surprised Verizon isn't covering your area well. They do most places, but Verizon has been around forever. As the major carriers build more sites in the boonies, mark my words, the rural carriers will be absorbed.

Oh, back to the phone thing, thats why Nextel had as good as coverage as they did. With the PTT you could have a higher powers coming out of the phone because it wasn't constantly broadcasting.

If anyone is interested in T-mobile coverage, please go to our website, we have a ACCURATE coverage map of the country. We don't BS you like the other carriers.

 

I use Telus. My wife and I have the "free family" thing going on, but our last bill was $132. So I might have to restrict her text messaging, and have her leave her phone at home when we go out of town. Oh, yeah. Roaming is a major pain, as well as ld roaming. Plus long distance fees because you are roaming, but otherwise a local call.

Then, you get a dog who chews on everything. He ate my wife's antenna, so we got that replaced, only to have him eat mine a week later.

Anyway, back on track. I don't know who Telus makes deals with, but I've never had bad reception in the States. Either no bars or full bars. Mind you, I don't go off the beaten path either.

 

I just wish that I could back to my old contractor phone. Sure it was huge and analog and didn't have most of the features that the new ones do but the thing worked anywhere. For the most part todays new phones can get thrown in a lake for all I care they stink.

As for the coverage maps, I know that cell ones is bs. It says I should have coverage in Fargo. I used to go to Fargo once a week and never got any signal at all with my gsm phone. Digital was another story. It would work just fine.

 

do you have any sort of study on this, or is this your opinion?

I heard last night that att (cingular) and bellsouth were going to merge

 

As far as Nextels PTT going the way of the dino, Ford just purchased from Sprint, PTT phones for at least one factory that I know of here. I asked the guy who told me if it was Nextels old service, and he told me know, Sprints is just as good as Nextels now, about 1/10th of a second longer response time. Thats about it. Nextels cell network sucked to. Its not opinion, its a fact.

As far as ATT and bellsouth merging, that has little to do with the wireless portion of the industry. Bellsouth already sold cingular service, so nothings changing there. Cingular did lose money last year though, the first cell company to ever do that. We talked about it in one of our meetings, its because of their merge, but they are selling quite a few of their sites to other carriers.

 

I have a phone thats on rogers, but here in saskatchewan it doesnt work in alot of places, which is why I went to virgin