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Sprint PCS Launches 3G Network
pdp1144 writes "Sprint PCS launched the first nationwide 3G wireless network today. Code named Vision it will allow wireless data speeds starting at an average of 50 to 70 kbps." The question is, how much? If the data plan is such that you can use up a month's allotment in five minutes of downloading... Simson Garfinkel had a good column on this recently.
At last I can watch porn wherever I go!
Je t'aime Stéphanie
it is called M-mode...
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
last I heard, any and all current US implementations of a "3G" system were only pseudo-3G in that they don't offer the full system capabilities.
What they offer is still way faster than any other wireless phone out there, but not the true 3G offering - I didn't read the article or look into this further, but were Sprint truly the first one out, that would be a big surprise.
I can recall msnbc talking about this recently and I *think* they also said that it wasn't full 3G
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
The states is finally catching up with Europe's telecoms... After many years of "waffling" on 2.5G and 2G. Even now, they aren't anywhere near Europe, but they are getting closer. What they really need now is the FCC to give them some more bandwidth to work with (take it away from the media conglomerates).
I say this takes another 3-5 years before it is as enmeshed as Europe's as well, and even then, Europe will still be heads and shoulders ahead.
~ kjrose
some folks sure are going to get a shocking bill next month.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
In a releated story from dc.internet.com:
Mobilepro Corp., with its subsidiary, Neoreach, Inc., a developer of semiconductor chips for third generation (3G) wireless communication services, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RF Microelectronics Lab (RFIC) at the Information and Communications University in South Korea to co-develop a new semiconductor chip.
Under the agreement, engineering teams from Neoreach and RFIC will devote joint research and design expertise, staffing, facilities resources, project management, and testing for the development of an RF CMOS, a radio frequency chipset.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Don't you just love a news site where a PMSing editor can delay a story by a week? :-p
The bandwidth is nowhere near broadband, more like GPRS, which I believe is still considered 2.5G. And GPRS has been around for quite a while, especially overseas.
Doesn't Sprint and Verizon have an agreement allowing cross-usage of their cell towers?
I know I have Sprint and I get better coverage across the nation than the people with me that have AT&T or Cingular.
PCS Free & Clear with Vision - Initially ranging in price from $44. 99 to $119.99, PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans will include megabytes for data usage along with varying amounts of voice minutes, depending on the individual plan. For a limited time, Sprint will offer special introductory rate plans that provide more Anytime Minutes than standard Free & Clear plans; allow customers to share minutes with another PCS phone for no additional charge and each phone will have two megabytes of data to use. An example of the introductory PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans include the $89.99 per month plan that features 2,000 Anytime Minutes that can be used by an individual or shared between two people.
If I recall correctly, 2000 anytime minutes right now is $149, so this could be a good initial deal! There's other pricing for laptops.
-DJ
Nationwide as in: accessible anywhere in the nation or is it Nationwide as in: there are spots of coverage dispersed throughout the country.
I have Sprint PCS Mobile service and I'm often dissapointed at the lack of digital coverage in many places that aren't right next to an interstate. Nationwide calling area is nice, but first you have to be on the network, and if you travel anywhere away from the interstate you'd better be ready to pay the analog roaming rate.
~ now you know
The more technology I live with, the more I like to abandon it and go to the country. I never like phone calls, I usually dislike TV, I often dislike the Web and email and computers...
I am beginning to see a pattern here. Does anyone else notice that the in the last ten years, the fun seems to have slowly bled from computing and technology?
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
***Screenshot from a Sprint 3G Cellphone***
(1) Weather
(2) News
(3) Pr0n
(3) Sport Scores
(4) Get AOL Now!
*********
Is THAT the reason I want wireless web at any speed on my cellphone?
I've had the opposite experience. Cingular seems
to give much better service nation-wide than
Sprint. Sprint seems to give good coverage
around big cities and interstates, but lousy
coverage anywhere else.
Just my own experience.
*sigh* back to work...
How many people said this about SMS messaging?
Now almost everyone with a phone in the UK uses it, and the advertisements are now gearing us up for sending picture messages.
A camera built into the phone so you can instantly send it to a friend? I kinda like the sound of it!
The expense will come down (it always does) and we'll forget what life was like before it all arrived (it always happens).
If you need to go and live in the woods, sure, but you were probably saying that when they invented the TV, so what's new?
Aaicheewahwah...
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Right after I invested in a new phone...
Well, this is nice news, because it should also give the others a kick in the rear to get their next-gen plans working. However, I want to know if all this bandwidth-boosting is going to improve call quality. I still get dropped calls in my home (brooklyn) and in certain parts of NYC I inexplicably go on analog roam for two or three blocks at a time.
I'd be really happy if this meant I could finally really for real loose my landline.
Howard Dean for president
saw this posted over at the treocentral forums...its from Salomon Smith Barney discussing the 3G launch.
"We have been tracking the signs for Sprint's upcoming "3G" launch, regarding
the brand, launch date, price, and handset selection. Our checks have
indicated that Sprint's new brand for its "3G" wireless data service is PCS
Vision, which will be billed on bits and bytes, rather than minutes.
On timing, we believe there is substantial confusion over the "official" launch
date. Based on our channel checks, "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the
indirect channels in stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on
August 8. The "official" launch in Sprint's direct stores may not occur until,
at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19.
On price, we find that Sprint PCS will build upon its national pricing
schematic with its introduction of data, rather than become more aggressive for
national voice minute pricing. We would emphasize the data pricing described
in this report are indications and are still subject to change ahead of the
launch. We have received indications that Sprint will maintain its current
pricing for national voice minutes, which is constructive for the industry.
However, the decision may limit the company's ability to improve its share
relative to the aggressive pricing tactics of its competitors. We find the
data pricing indications to still be somewhat expensive with a minimum
increment of around $10/month on the existing national plans for 2 MB and
likely around $0.02/Kilobyte thereafter. All-in, pricing is not substantially
cheaper than current data plans in the market.
On the handset front, we believe Sprint will launch with several new color
phones by Samsung, Sanyo, and LG as well as with a PC Card, likely from
Novatel. Price points for the handsets should range between $179.99 and
$279.99."
"* Branding -- We expect Sprint PCS to launch a new brand name for its "3G"
service, "PCS Vision." The service will offer applications such as MMS
(multi-media messaging), games, downloadable ring-tones and screen savers,
and ISP-like access for laptops/PDAs.
* Timing -- We find a substantial level of noise within the channels, regarding
the launch date of Sprint's "3G" service. Based on our channel checks, we
believe "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the indirect channels in store
such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on August 8. New displays may
not be constructed until the weekend. The "official" launch may not occur
until, at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19. Our conclusion is
that August 8 will begin somewhat of a soft launch, with the promotional
campaign set for, at least, 1-2 weeks later. We find few employees have been
trained on the service, based on our discussions. Some employees expected to
be trained within the next week. Also, several company stores expected to
receive their full "3G" displays from Sprint within the next 7-10 days. We
do not believe the direct PCS stores are stocking material levels of
inventory of the new phones, yet.
* Pricing -- We have learned that Sprint PCS is currently planning to maintain
its national voice pricing and charge a premium for data access by the
megabyte and kilobyte. Our data points on pricing are preliminary and are
subject to change ahead of the launch. We believe Sprint will begin offering
data packages at an access level of $49.99 with data plans going up to
$119.99. The company will offer these plans on several new color-screen
phones with data capabilities as well as a PC-card modem at launch. Services
will initially focus around multi-media messaging (including digital
pictures), gaming, and laptop connectivity.
Figure 1 highlights the preliminary pricing indications we have received from
our research. Sprint has essentially added a $10 charge for 2 MB of data to
its popular national price points at $39.99 and $49.99. For 8 MB of data,
Sprint has typically added $20-$25 to each of the access charges. We expect
the additional charge per KB to be around $0.02 if customers break their
buckets.
FIGURE 1. PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS ON 3G PRICING
Monthly Charge
$49.99 $59.99 $74.99 $84.99 $89.99 $99.99 $119.99
Peak Min. 350 500 750 750 1,000 1,000 1,300
Off-Peak Min. 3,650 4,500 5,750 5,750 7,000 7,000 8,700
MB Data 2 2 2 8 2 8 8
Source: SSB research and estimates.
To put the pricing into perspective, we return to our VEP, voice-equivalent
pricing model, that is far from perfect, but allows us to compare the price
for data services on an apples-to-apples basis with voice. The methodology
uses average throughput of the data network to convert data traffic into
voice minutes. This can give us a back of the envelope measurement to
compare with voice capacity and pricing. We calculate a voice equivalent
price (VEP) per minute for a given data plan as follows:
where VEM, or voice equivalent minutes, is defined by the following formula:
Using average throughput of 30 kbps (our average 1X experience on Verizon's
Express Network), we find Sprint is pricing these buckets at a healthy
implied voice equivalent price of $0.70 - $1.13/minute
FIGURE 2. VOICE-EQUIVALENT PRICE POINTS
VEP
Throughput 2 MB 8 MB
20 kb/sec $0.75 $0.47
30 kb/sec $1.13 $0.70
40 kb/sec $1.50 $0.94
Source: SSB Estimates.
The sensitivity analysis above shows that Sprint has flexibility to increase
the size of the data buckets, especially if the loaded 3G network offers
faster average throughput speeds. As the speed of the network improves,
Sprint is able to achieve better voice equivalent pricing per minute. Data
margins will be sensitive to the cost for content and subscriber acquisition
and education.
Sprint is clearly trying to hold the line on its national voice pricing,
which is constructive for the industry and the company's subscriber
economics. However, its national competitors have not broadly shared
Sprint's strategy. Thus, pricing is a double-edged sword for PCS as the
company is trying to improve subscriber economics at low access plans, but
may limit its marketshare in the process. We do appreciate Sprint's effort
to differentiate on its service offering, rather than on price, and view it
as a constructive signal that Sprint is focused on its subscriber
profitability. On the data pricing front, we believe Sprint's data pricing,
like its competitors, runs the risk of revenue cannibalization for customers
that use too much or too little data. We still believe material data revenue
is, at least, 12 months away given the pricing plans and level of customer
education required. We highlight the pricing of its competitors' 2.5G data
services below."
"* Handset Selection -- We are enthusiastic for the launch of Sprint's new line-
up of handsets that should begin with at least two color-screen phones at or
below $200 and a PC-card for laptops/PDAs. We expect Sprint's phones to
include the color Samsung N400 which should retail for $199.99 and likely a
color-screen Sanyo 4900 for $179.99. These phones should be 1X voice and
data capable. Sprint should also offer the Samsung A500 for around $279.99.
We also expect LG to launch a color-screen flip phone at or near the launch
date, but we could not ascertain the SRP (suggested retail price) from our
channel checks. We expect Sprint to deploy several PC-card modems that will
range in features and price. We expect PC-card modems to range from $249.99
- $399.99 at retail. The company should also shortly launch the Audiovox
Thera, an integrated phone/PDA using Pocket PC, as well as the color
Handspring Treo."
.. because it's impossible for you to switch the thing off when you don't want to be reached.
They're good for emergencies. Why not get one purely for that purpose? I bought a cheap shitty top-up-card thing for next to nothing, and I'm glad I did. Only the closest friends and family have my number so I don't get bothered unless it's urgent.
You've got mail. Pattern baldness. - Crow
Here is the submission I made just as the story got posted:
/. stories about things like the Treo.
Sprint has just announced their 3G stuff. Looks pretty sweet, and the prices look to be a heck of a lot better than that ION thing they tried. Compared to the Palm VII service, the 3G pretty much kills that right off as well. Also, be sure to check out the pretty pictures of the phones.
The phones look pretty cool, though there is nothing really new now that I go back and look at previous
The pricing is set to start at $50 and go up to $115/month. Not great, but not bad either. They are saying most people will do the $80/mo plan which gives you a few megabytes of data. Still not great. Though it is still cheaper than what Palm/Blackberry want.
... which fits right in with my visit to Tokyo last year.
... it would save you having to go visit your mum so much when you could send her a piccy of yourself instead.
;-)
We can seperate this out from advertisments though, truly a modern scourge. This is about communications between individuals
Saying that, it's not exactly a good advert for inter-family relationships then, so I see your point!
And you're not seriously suggesting on slashdot that streetside pr0n is a bad thing?!
It's sad to see something so cool being sold so horribly. I called their sales department, only to find that they are metering this service (no unlimited data service)
They use sierra wireless aircards (no model numbers, i assume 555 series) and novatel C201s
They had two prices, one was around $40-$50, and the other as $70-$80. You're limited pretty much to 1M/1$.
I stopped paying attention after they told me that there was no unlimited service. I guess it's "helloooo verizon", cept $1200 a year + modem seems to be a wee much. anyone know of any other carriers (preferably in the sf/bay area) offering these services?
So when can I buy the fancy new phones? And will they have bluetooth? Or better yet, can I get the T68i for sprint 3G and stand out infront of the Washington Monument and ask people from Texas to take my picture? :)
If I order new-and-nifty phone from Japane, will I be able to use it?
I'd hope this would be possible, but I'm guessing the answer's no... sigh.
Yet another person spews out regurgitated Sprint PCS "The Clear Alternative to Ourselves" commercials.
Verizon may be a patchwork, but even their digital area is larger than Sprint's puny "nationwide" network.
Look at a coverage map of Verizon's America's Choice plan (These are the digital coverage areas - I don't think the analog towers have the advanced roaming features needed for such a plan). Then look at the coverage for Sprint's plans.
Sprint's "roaming" area is about 75% of the map. Verizon's "covered" area with America's Choice is 60%+ of the map.
I have complete digital coverage with all features over most of upstate New York (the boonies), including where I went to school in Ithaca. Sprint??? Syracuse, Buffalo, and recently Binghamton, that's it. Oh, Ithaca now has service as of a few months ago, but if you leave town with Sprint you're roaming. The entire region was digital for Frontier Cellular (now Verizon) customers over three years ago.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I really enjoy how invariably the posts in each slashdot article about cellphones are split 50/50 between:
a) "I HATE CELLPHONES THEY ARE THE BANE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND SHOULD BE OUTLAWED, GREAT THIS JUST MEANS THAT EVEN MORE PEOPLE WILL BE YAPPING IN PUBLIC AND AT MOVIES" (seen here)
and
b) "FINALLY CRAPPY OLD AMERICA IS CATCHING UP WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, FINALLY, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, WE'RE STILL BETTER, TAKE THAT AMERICAN CAPITALISM, CELL PHONES FOREVER!!" (seen here)
he cares enough about his father in the nursing home that he carries it w/him. It has little to do w/anything else.
Nope, I hope to NEVER be in a position where I will be required to carry one around. That's just fucking ridiculous.
Vacation means just that. They don't call it that for nothing.
Greater bandwidth allows for greater voice transmission quality. I have this service in Canada and it is amazing.
Also business users can connect the phone to their laptop via USB or Bluetooth and connect to the corporate network.
With enough compression, can you say videophone?
Wrong, no they didn't. Read the fine print. No GSM carriers in the US are anywhere near rolling out 3G. AT&T Wireless = GSM
Sprint PCS = CDMA
It depends. In an effort to save on capacity and on power CDMA2000 uses a state machine for its packet connections, determining which access mode the phone is in. Depending on which state the phone is in will determine what the latency will be.
It also depends on packet size. Most of these features come in the next rev of CDMA2000. But this is what happens for the most part:
- If you're using a circuit data mode then you're connected all the time, which costs the carriers and you a hefty chunk of money. This mode is used in all versions of CDMA before IS-2000 rev 0.
- If you're using Packet Data, you can be connected with a high speed channel downstream and a low speed channel upstream, or any combination. Depending on the size of the packet the latency can change, that's just standard networking.
- But if you're link has been idle for a while your phone may have dropped the channels and gone into another mode. When you send a packet, if its small enough it will go accross the common signalling channel which everyone uses to tell the base station its alive or it wants to make a call. And if the returning packet is small enough then it'll go back accross the the forward common signalling channel.
- But if you need to send or receive a large packet, or a stream of packets you need to set up the forward and reverse channels again, and this can take time. Depending on which state the phone is in when it needs to set up the channels this can take as little as half a second, or as much as 3 or 4 seconds before the packets start flowing again.
So depending on which mode you're in, depends on how large the latency is. It also depends on the radio environment. CDMA is fairly good in noisy environments, but if it gets into a really bad area packets will have to be retransmitted several times.
Software Engineer & Writer of Military Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog: petermwright.com Twitter: WrightPeterM
From reading the first few comments it seems that just about everyone is confused about this 3G launch. This *IS* 3G folks. 2.5G was GPRS which provides data services, but is slow as shit (it can be faster if you implement more channels, but no providers really support more than 3 at a time).
Also, as far as plans go, there are several. All of which include a few megabytes of transfer allowed per month (except for the cheapest which is 1 meg I think). The prices for overage are NOT $1 or $2/meg it's cheaper than that (though, I can't remember off the top of my head what it is).
What kind of speeds/latency can one expect from this network? About 127 kilobits/sec and ~400ms. While that isn't anywhere near your cable/DSL speeds, it's lightyears ahead of the 19.2 kilobits/sec that was previously the norm for cellular networks.
This is NOT meant to be a broadband replacement. It's meant to take cell phones to the next level of service. Using computers with them is just an afterthought.
-Riskable
"Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
Everyone's using SMS? Not anyone I know... except in situations where SMS is the only possible solution. That is, in a bar with too much noise to talk, kids in school where the teacher would throw them out for talking on the phone, to notify someone who isnt answering their phone or for computer generated alerts. It's mainly used as a last resort, when you have no other more practical option. If you have email, some IM client or a practically usable phone SMS isnt the preferred method of communication for many people.
Things will get used if they fills a practical purpose and serves people for a reasonable price. WAP was a total failure because it didnt make things easier. The Internet was a total success because it sped up and simplified things immensly. The jury is still out on 3G. Nobody has managed to make video telephony popular for the last several decades despite the technical capacity available. Maybe sending sucky-quality pictures will get popular for some situations, but the price had better be right.
bound to fail more than charging the same for 100 megabytes downloaded through a tiny screen than it costs me for my car payment. I am not exactly a tight wad. I think my $35 a month for my cable modem connection is the best thing since sliced bread -- but you would not believe how many people refuse to even pay that for home high speed connects. (these are even people in the tech industry...) This is the market that these cell phone companies are going to try to tap for an extra $80 bucks or so to download a few megs through their cellphones??? What are they smoking?
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Sure you can! This is already available on 1xRTT networks in Canada. Although they currently reserve the right to limit your 'unlimited data' subscription to 100 mb per month. Bleh.
One other thing worth noting is that the provider I linked does not charge per minute for wireless web. I have it right now and you can browse online for a flat fee for as long as you have battery left as long as you stay within the 'free sites area' which gets gets bigger depending on the fee you pay. Otherwise, the services are 'per-use'
They're good for emergencies. Why not get one purely for that purpose?
If this is truely the only reason you want a phone, and you classify "emergency" as something where you need to get local authorities involved (and not call your extended family to let them start worrying early), then all you need is a phone and an in-car charger. You don't need a plan. Any phone, regardless of whether or not it has a plan, can dial 911 at no charge. This is federally mandated.
Get in an accident? Medical emergency? Afraid for your life? Call 911. The call will go through.
We gave my mother my wife's old cell phone for exactly this reason. She's lives in the midwest and drives a lot, and her only reason to get a cell phone was in case of car problems, accidents, etc.
Does it let you call random other number in case of a problem? Nope. And that can be useful, especially for things where 911 really shouldn't be involved (like car breakdowns not involving hitting anything), but just a cell phone and charger will do fine for true emergencies, and those can be gotten for a one time charge of about $10-20 at a pawn shop.
I wonder how long it'll be before the RIAA and the MPAA get it shut down for facilitating piracy?
Not only that, but it now gives us the option of using decent wireless internet access in our automobiles. I'm going to be using 3G in the dashpc (www.dashpc.com) project.
I think this is great news for the US. Somehow, we missed the boat on CDMA when Europe,etc. jumped on it.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
If you are considering a purchase of any kind of internet connectivity, wireless or otherwise, from Sprint, I have some advice for you.
Run. Run like the wind and don't look back.
I just had Sprint's 8 Mbit Down/ 1 Mbit up business ADSL installed a month ago. It worked beautifully, gave me 5 usable static IPs, and was a modest $160/month for a two year contract.
Within two weeks of having the service I got an email alluding to a "reorganization" of their DSL service.
Eight days later I got a snail mail telling me the service was being cancelled for "economic" reasons ("we would have held you to your two-year contract as a weak individual, but don't even think of trying to hold us to our end of the bargain, and here's a $400 refund on your $600 bill of shut-up money"). Oh, and we'll give you a service that is one sixth as fast (1.5 Mbit down, 384k up) for $130 month, installation waived, because we're such nice folks. Of course, I can buy the exact same service Sprint is reselling (Covad ADSL) directly from Covad for just $80/month ($50 less per month for the identical product!), so that great deal Sprint is offering isn't so great after all.
When I tried to get clarification by phone from Sprint representatives who apparently knew even less than I, I got as a response "look, half of us our losing their jobs, what do you want?"
I want the service I signed a two year contract to receive and am paying for, and I want to know what the hell is going on.
So, long story short: there is no way in hell I will buy any service, wireless or otherwise, from a company as flakey and unreliable as Sprint has proven themselves to be, and I would encourage anyone else considering any of their services to be extremely skeptical of Sprint's ability to deliver.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I have this service on a Canadian carrier and the quality is an excellent jump from my previous Sanyo 4000 phone ... unless of course the person on the other end is using a non 1x phone or is not on a landline.
I have yet to lose digital coverage and features with my phone in ANY area where my roaming light wasn't on, and I've done a lot of traveling up and down the Northeast. My roaming light rarely turns on. Verizon blew away Sprint in Ithaca, and it's marginally better where I'm currently living in Central Jersey.
If you want a better example, try inputting 08836 as your zip code for Sprint.
Compare Sprint's coverage of New Jersey (50% coverage of one of the most densely populated states in the country? You've got to be kidding me!!!) to Verizon's 100% coverage, which has yet to go to analog fallback or lose features for me. (I am now living in central Jersey.)
Basically, Verizon and its predecessors had superior coverage 2-3 years ago to what Sprint has now, and will always remain ahead of the game.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Simson Garfinkel had a good column on this recently.
read as
Simon and Garfunkel had a good column on this recently.
which made me wonder
1) when did they start actually working together again, and
2) what the hell do they care about this stuff?
stupid brain.
Ricochet is about 40-100Kb/s, so it's comparable to 3G. And it's flat-rate, at $44.95/month.
I had Ricochet service five years ago, and it was quite good. It was a viable alternative to dial-up at the time.
3G is a bit misleading I think. CDMA 1x is really more of a 2.5G technology. Sprint is following the CDMA 2000 evolution path, from 1xRTT to EV-DO and then EV-DV. Eventually CDMA will use OFDM (like 802.11a WLANs) over three channels to achieve 2+Mbps downstream but that will only begin to happen in 2004/2005. I think GSM->GPRS->EDGE->UMTS evolution path will probably be used by more telecoms worldwide.
:(
This news is good for the telecom industry. With several countries scaling back their spending on 3G, the day when i'll be playing multiplayer Doom3 on my cellphone seems even further away
Why do American companies seem to so not get this whole wireless thing? It's about consumers, and it's about content, stupid! Do these idiots think 30 million people in Japan signed up for i-Mode to play Cyracer or to access Google? Gimme a break! If you look at the wealth of content available on i-Mode, its pricing structure, its marketing (for God's sake, somebody please emulate DoCoMo's marketing, as they're obviously the only telecom company in the world that understands what the term means), then the essence of the thing and its success slowly starts to sink in.
To use one of DoCoMo's own failures in support of my argument, just look at the slow rate of adoption of 3G in Japan. Nobody cares about data speeds on cel phones, they care about content and pricing.
To paraphrase that famous Roman General Maximus, "DoCoMo had a vision that is wireless, and this is not it. This is not it." And neither is m-Mode, AT&T's poor attempt at an i-Mode knockoff, I'm sorry to say.
Sprint is by far the worst company with respect to service... customer and phone service. 3 out of every 4 calls I make/receive are dropped. I have been hung up on by customer service 4 times and been told that "Sprint will not allow its customers to take advantage of them". ? Isnt that what a company would want you to do???
No matter what new innovations they come up with, I will never subscribe to or use them. Anyone else ever have problems with them?? If so, what did do to resolve it? Me, i am going to sign up with a new service very soon.. bye bye Sprint...
100% Insightful
250 anytime/3250 nights $34.99/month 0mb data, no LD
300/3700 $39.99 0mb
300/3700 $49.99 2mb
500/4500 $59.99 2mb
650/4850 $64.99 2mb possible no LD
650/4850 $84.99 24mb possible no LD
1000/6500 $124.99 24mb
To compare to some of the old non-data plans, I've been paying $30/month for 300/3500 for a few years, so adding 2mb of data would essentially cost me $20/month. The cost of data does come down with the higher-priced plans, 50/3500 for $50 was a pretty common non-data plan
" For a limited time, customers can sign up for unlimited data usage plans for $49.99 for the first three months and $99.99 for the rest of the contract term" News.com story
i've had the opposite experience. When i lived in san antonio, TX, and had sprint i would get dropouts on sprint when driving around town. Had some rather inconveient holes in thier coverage in the city.
I switched to AT&T not long after having sprint and have been much happier. Recently drove from austin, TX to calgary, AB and had usable singal the entire way except a couple spots in montana (note that this is at&t's tdma service).
OK, here's the deal... the "patchwork networks" as you say are all CDMA. VZW _had_ a TDMA network which was just shut off about 2 weeks ago. Now everything is CDMA, and that's all compatible. Some of the switches are Nortel, some are Motorola, but the requisite switches are being forklift-upgraded to enable 1XRTT everywhere. This will be completed by the end of the year.
And as for the billing systems
You really don't _want_ to put all of your customers on one billing system. I can't explain why, but two makes sense.
And "MS isn't helping them." The MSN/VZW agreement is for mobileweb, and nothing more. It's just marketing spew; MS has nothing to do with IS or IT.
Seriously. Trust me. All the billing applications run where billing applications belong.... Suffice it to say that MS couldn't even think about writing software for the right platform
I'm still looking for a decent internet connection at HOME! Our in-home network is good (it's all 100 mbit) but the damn long phone loops limit dialup to 28.8 or 31.2 of I'm lucky. The cable and adsl are non-existant.
And of course I'd like an untethered IDSN class connection. That would be great for business and fun purposes.