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Verizon's Wireless Road Warriors
Joey Patterson writes "CNN has an article about how Verizon Wireless uses technicians who drive around the country in station wagons filled with wireless gear to look for holes in the company's cell phone network and analyze the service of its competitors. This program isn't cheap (the cars cost $270,000 and $15/mile to operate), but it definitely helps Verizon find out where they stand relative to their competitors."
Hm... since I suppose this thread will be filled with a ton of "verizon rules/verizon sucks" posts, I might as well chip in my 2 cents.
Basically, the coverage is excellent -- I've been covered from San Francisco to Rocky Point (Sonora) to Toronto to Boston. Basically the only time I lose coverage altogether is underground. I used to have analog-only in southwest Michigan, but a quick roaming-software upgrade fixed that; I think now they're piggybacking on sprint's network here, whereas they weren't before.
That said, Verizon leaves a TON to be desired in the customer service department. The reason I bought my phone is because I've truly been traveling across the country for the last year. Trying to change billing addresses is a HUGE hassle; Verizon was cobbled together from 3-4 disparate wireless companies across the country, and it still shows. You have to get a totally new account number when you move, and sometimes you get double-billed for up to a month.
That, and you're basically not allowed to move out of their "preferred market" areas. My new address was about 20 miles south of the Verizon market limits in SW Michigan, same area code and everything, and they were adamant about not allowing me to change my address to that "uncovered" location (note: digital service works just fine here). Long story short, I ended up using a friend's address and paying all my bills online; it's not perfect, but I'm getting along.
So, yeah. it doesn't surprise me that verizon has all these techs in trucks all over the country; their coverage shows it. Now if only they'd hire that clever IBM basketball team to integrate their billing across the nation.
300 minutes in 1 day? You must still be in that phase where it takes 60 minutes to hang up the phone.
"Love you, bye bye"
"I love you too, c'ya later"
"You're still there. I love you"
"You hangup first, I love you more"
In that commercial where he is walking around saying "Can you hear me now?" he would stop in that forest and say "Hmm... can't hear me? OK we need a cell tower right over here." and then cut to an aerial shot of the forest with a big cell phone tower coming out of the tree line finally cut to families sitting around the clearing under the cell tower enjoying their newfound reception.
adam
AT&T does the same thing, I've known a guy that does that for about 2 years now.
These same vans will be equipped with ECM gear to actively jam other services cell transmissions... Sort of the minivan equivolent of the EA-6B Prowler ^__^
"Enemy cell tower, 9 o'clock! He's transmitting!"
"Goose switch to active jamming!"
"But what about that other tower!?"
"Don't worry about the tower, you just keep those fighter off..." Um, Nevermind.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
you mean the anoying can you hear me now? guy really exists? maybee if were luckey, he will have an unfortunate run in with steve "dud your getting a dell" guy.
or perhaps the maytag repairman can fix them, he has nothing to do anyway...