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Cell Phone Service Degenerates Further
An anonymous reader writes "Almost everyone I know has been complaining about their cell phone service lately. These companies continue to add more subscribers, overloading their networks to the breaking point. They hold you hostage by not allowing you to switch providers and won't invest in new infrastructure. Customer service ratings are dismal for all the major providers. Doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon."
Cell phones are but one service that is starved in spectrum allocation. If the government was to let the free market allocate the spectrum, an entire new universe of wireless network services could become available.
The non stop aggressive advertising for cell services and the general status of a cell phone in daily life no doubt caused an explosion they weren't ready for. The constant rate wars make it harder and harder for them to invest heavily in infrastructure. A rates increase (timed charges? yay!) is probably the only thing that will pull the industry up again.
Would you pay a bit more for a better service, or will you always go for the most minutes?
---
When I grow up, I want to be a kid again.
Does anyone else find it slightly odd that cell phone companies are allowed to make cell phones that only work with their network? For instance, I can't ditch Sprint and use my Sprint PCS Samsung phone with Verizon service. Why is this allowed? I mean, what if Verizon required you to have a special type of phone for your local (land line) service. If you wanted to switch to a different provider, would you have to buy a new home phone? Most people would freak about that.
Thoughts?
Mike
-- bearclaw
I don't know about everyone else, but here's my experience:
I had a SprintSpectrum GSM phone when they first came out, loved it, then Sprint dumped it and went to CDMA SprintPCS. And I've had one of those since. Ever since it's deployment, service has gotten steadily worse in the Washington, DC area, and there are parts of major roads where you are guaranteed to drop a call.
Then I moved, and my phone got even more odd. I've been through several, and each has this behavior. If I stand up in my apartment, I have tolerable reception, if I sit down, zero. Seriously. I called Sprint, they said "well, we don't guarantee it will work in home or office, only outside". Wow, isn't that helpful.
So, since most of my friends travel a lot, they have GSM phones from Voicestream (now T-Mobile), and I decided to get one of those spiffy new SonyEriccson T68i phones for $50 from Amazon. When I finally got it from back-order, it was ready to go, and weighed nothing, and had excellent coverage at home, office, car, and has only dropped one call, when I was driving by the CIA.
Now, I didn't want one of the overlay numbers for Northern VA (571 area code), so I called them, and they thoughtfully changed my number to a 202 on the phone. Effective immediately. No cost, thank you for being a customer.
I have had only one problem with coverage, and that's my new office, in the middle of nowhere. But Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile work only sporadically in the building, so I don't take it personally. It's just annoying.
I do think what they do in Europe is more normal... you can get a cheap phone that's locked, or you can pay a bit more for an unlocked phone (T-Mobile gave me the unlock codes for my phone). Then, since *everyone* uses the same system, you can change carriers as you see fit.
Isn't the reason the shiny new Nokia only works on AT&T Wireless and not Sprint or Verizon because THAT shiny new Nokia is only for one type of mobile network?
The US has 4 different mobile phone technologies doesn't it? I'm sure it's at least 3. iDen, GSM (Crippled on a stupid frequency) and Sprint's PCS?
Why should Nokia make all their phones work on all the US networks when the market for them is the US and that's about it. They have better things to do making lots of lovely GSM 900/1800 dual band handsets for the hundred of GSM mobile networks around the works.
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
That said everyone I know complains about Sprint's coverage and has sworn them off, something I couldn't figure out. Then this summer a bunch of use started to do a phone comparison. And you know what, almost everywhere I had a few bars while they were dropping to roaming.
Then we realize that my older (and slightly larger) Samsung must have a more powerful antenna. All my friends super cool $300 migit phones made a signal strength vs. size tradoff.
So don't complain if you cant get signal in doors. You should have bought a larger phone....
Grumble all you want, but most companies (in the US at least) either force you or "highly encourage" (read: force) you to sign a 1 or 2-year contract. In return you get a neat-o phone that you could have purchased on your own anyway or you might get a few extra minutes or text messaging for free. This way, when service gets crappy, and you say.."I want to cancel, your service sucks!" They say "That'll be $150 early cancellation fee, please."
Here we go with the obligatory 1/2/3 business model for cell phone companies:
1. Get subscribers to sign a commitment to our service
2. Give those subscribers crappy service, sit back as they call in wanting to drop, and remind them of their commitment
3. Profit!
In 56 percent of the nation's households, someone now subscribes to wireless phone service, more than double the percentage in 1995.
The average per-minute cost has dropped to 11 cents this year from 56 cents in 1995. For the phone companies that has meant a decline in average revenue per customer to $61 a month, from $74 in 1995.
I wonder if the same would happen if cd's dropped to a fifth the price? You've got double the customers, so you're still making more money just not as much per customer.
A lot of people wouldn't have a cell phone if it still cost 56 cents a minute.
And in Europe... and in India. But when I get to the US there is a marked drop off. To the stage where I have often used two phones, one tri-band and one CDMA/analogue.
I can "roam" onto competitors networks outside of my home country, but not at home. Hence my tri-band phone often gets a signal as it has 3 or so networks to chose from, while the Sprint phone gets nothing because I'm in a Sprint zone.
Basic solutions would be for better roaming agreements between providers and one standard for phones.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
You made a good choice going with Verizon, as they are the largest carrier in the country, and work fairly well as long as you're within 500 miles of the atlantic. Verizons service in the midwest is touch-and-go and out west is somewhat nonexistant (other than really populated areas such as LA.)
While Sprint does have issues with coverage, it's not from lack of experience. The reason Sprints coverage isn't as great is because they use newer & better techs like CDMA as compared to GSM or TDMA like some companies (t-mobile(voicestream) still use.) PCS phones also work at higher frequencies than standard "cell phones" so sprint cannot just contract off of other companies towers all the time, especially in areas where digital signals as opposed to analog is still not widespread.
Basically, PCS technology is a little more advanced than other companies' and in turn is not as widespread.
Still PCS coverage is 10x the coverage of t-mobile(voicestream), which is why I think whoever your sales rep was might not know what he's talking about. They probably have the worst service of any national carrier, and the only reason they're even trying to get new subscribers is the fact they want to up the price when cingular (inevitably) buys them out.
I would avoid any PCS service. The high frequencies of PCS (1900MHz) don't penetrate walls as well as cellular (800MHz). Verizon is mostly cellular except for a few states.
Also, I've heard from some network engineers who claim that the cellular carriers have better tower placement, in bigger cities, because they came well before PCS.
If you want to know the history of Sprints problems you need to go back a few years. Its not the phones, its not the technology (CDMA), and its not anything technical. CDMA base stations (antenna + RF parts) used to be much more expensive then TDMA or GSM base stations. Sprint ended up doing a bare minimum network coverage when they build out their network, but advertising good "coverage areas" so while the network coverage area appears to be good, its like having a lake of 100 square miles that is 2 mm think. I beleive that they spend more money on marketing and advertisements then any other carrier.
As always, YMMV. Do at your own risk.
I'm not an expert, but as far as I know, the problem is mostly with CDMA technology. With CDMA it is always possible to add one more call in a particular spectrum. However, the more calls, the more dificult it is to pick up a clean signal, and the more often you get dropped calls. With TDMA (and GSM which is based on TDMA) it is not possible to go over a fixed amount of calls on a particular section of the spectrum.
I live in Costa Rica, Central America and our phone company (govt) sucks on everything but cell phone coverage. I think this is because they use TDMA and can't abuse their network like they could with CDMA.
please excuse my apathy
A little more then a month ago in the middle of a conversation, my Samsung SGH-Q105 went into emergency service only mode. Aparently AT&T had switched over to GSM in my area and all hell started to break loose. I was CONSTANTLY in Emergency Service ONLY mode with my phone and the phone for my second line (Samsung SGH-N105). Customer service from T-Mobile was crap. First they told me it was just maintence and would be done in a day or two. Then they told me it was a well known problem with those two samsung phones and it would be fixed in a day or two. Then it was a well known problem with no ETA on fixing. Through this whole time the people on the Customer Care line kept saying "We do not make gaurantees of service." Finally I couldnt wait for their bullshit so I took my phone into bestbuy where I have a 3 year service plan. I could not go back to the Q105s due to the problems on the network. So, I wanted to switch phones. This was a fucking headache too since T-Mobile refuses to formally admit that there is such a problem. Finally I went into a best buy at a different hour and just said that the phone drops calls and T-Mobile said get a new phone. So, I received the Samsung SGH-S105, the flagship of Tmobile phones currently. Guess fucking what. Even though I got the phone that the retail sales manager told me shouldnt be affected by this non documented problem, Emergency Service Only. On top of that, the box for the damn phone advertises that I can hook the phone to my PDA or Laptop and use it as a modem ... such a data cable has not been made by Samsung yet.
... although Sprint's new unlimited plan is much cooler. Also the fact that my phone will work in damn near every country (tri mode GSM) is very cool.
Then, I go to Denver for the weekend. The whole time I am in the Denver area my second line (also in Denver with me with my Girlfriend) could not dial me.
There is also the constant billing problems I have. Every month I have to take $2-$3 off my bill for text messages they charge me for. I have 350 and I use say 100 and they charge me for half of them! Then there is a problem where I call in and pay, and I never get charged yet they tell me I am late to pay!
Also, 9 times out of 10, the Wireless Internet, or T-Zones they call it now, does not work. Bad gateway response, server unresponsive, etc. Im glad I do not use that for anything important.
Voicestream and now T-Mobile are notorious for having phone manufactures issue special cippled firmware here in the USA. My Nokia was crippled and so is my S105.
I will say this. I do have a great plan when it does work. Unlimited between my two lines. Unlimited weekends. 800 shared whenever minutes. No long distnace, no roaming, detailed billing. Also, for the internet stuff -- when it does work its by MB not by minute
I realize that no matter who I go to, I am going to have issues. I had a friend with Sprint that would over bill him. His statement said X minutes and they billed him for Y and pointed to a clause that said the statement may not be accurate minute counts. Another friend was getting eronous charges with Cingular aka SwBell aka SBC who then turned off his phone line and internet for not paying a $2000 cellphone bill. My aunt has AT&T and she says half the times when she is in Wichita she can not get a signal. Another friend is on Verizon and said other then the shitty plan, he likes it.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
About five years ago, I signed on with a progressive wireless PCS carrier named Powertel. They were the antithesis of closed-minded carriers at the time, and saw that wireless telephone customers wanted high-quality service at affordable, predicatble prices. Powertel did not force customers into annual contracts -- which signalled to many that they were confident enough not to lock you into a poor service -- and ten-cents-per-minute pricing was in line with the rest of the industry. They offered fabulous features for a 1996-vintage carrier, like store-and-forward fax, and "Appear Local," which let me buy a local number in neighboring states in their service area so my clients would need to dial long-distance.
Deutsche Telekom made a bid for VoiceStream, with contingencies on VoiceStream's purchase of Powertel. They all became one big conglomerate on or about February, 2001. And service went down the tubes.
VoiceStream immediately ditched "Appear Local" because of a policy decision. They brought mandatory contracts upon Powertel customers, forcing long-term agreements if a customer wanted to modify their service plan.
When the change to T-Mobile officially took place, customer service seemed to slump. Billing errors became commonplace again (reminiscent of Powertel's earliest days), and credits to remedy the billing errors were somehow "unapproved" after the Representative ended the call. Their pricing plans became nearly identical to every other carrier, eschewing strightforward pricing for the free phone, high-priced service, long-term commitment style that so many other carriers have practiced for years.
Finally fed up, I called last month to cancel my T-Mobile service after nearly five years. The "Customer Rentention Specialist" threw all sorts of offers, pricing plans, and FUD at me, even suggesting that my new carrier of choice, Verizon, has "radiation problems" with their phones!
Now that I've received my second Verizon bill, I've already been erroneously overbilled $120+ by my new carrier.
True number portability would allow us customers to remind carriers that we can walk -- and take our phone number -- without the hassle of reprinting business cards, notifying dozens of friends and family, and updating PIMs and electronic directories.
Or better yet, let's organize a slashdot buyers' group and tell them what our pricing plan will be... =]
It will improve soon. We had a similar situation a few years ago in Europe.. you usually subscribe for a year and after that, you can cancel at any moment. And since you usually get a new phone with a new subscription, a lot of people switch after their subscription expires. Well, the tech savvy ones do anyway.
Of course here in the Netherlands (a little larger than Delaware, 16 million people) you can choose between 5 providers and there's a regulation where they must provide you with the option of keeping the same cell number. If there's less competition where you live, you might be screwed.
I went to a community meeting last summer about how to keep a 60-foot cellphone tower out of our little "historic neighborhood" and noticed I was the only person sitting around the conference table who wasn't packing a cellphone. Everyone wants to complain about their cellphone service, but no one wants a tower in their line of vision. Actually, we tried to steer them to a couple of churches who could have used help with their crumbling steeples. A lot of people were surprised to learn that the tower would benefit only those who were using Cricket phones, not wireless communication in general, and that there is no limit to how many companies can build towers within the same area. There was also some grumbling about Cricket, with its short range, being the choice of "hookers and drug dealers." As it turned out, Leap Wireless, hardly has enough money to keep their NASDAQ listing, much less fight a bunch of pitchfork-wielding homeowners, so they never built the tower.
I know, the CDMA concept was originally developed 50 years ago, but would have it been applied to mobile phones if the Laissez Faire US system hadn't gave it a chance?
People who invested their money in the Clinto Airwave Auction Scam took a big risk and should reap the consequences. Yeah, it sucks to lose but it happens all day long. Make a promise, keep a promise. Those big fat companies do not deserve a rescue as they stomped on others to get what they have.
Further regulation to protect these ineffient opperators will only preserve the problem. They did not build when the money was good. Now their technology is obsolete, paid for or not, it should be trashed to alow new entrants who will serve us better. That is how a free market works.
The New York Times Article is a troll on it's own, and has to be some kind of AP trash. "Oh the poor little telcos," they cry, "their problem is so hard and they are working so hard to fix it." The quotes about "robust competition" is a particularly bad joke. Clueless BS, all of it. There is no further technical reason to restrict radio transmisions.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I had the 'no commitment' with Sprint. My bill was 10 bucks higher per month than if I had signed a contract. I eventually dropped them b/c of bad service in my area and went to Powertel, I mean VoiceStream, no wait... now it's T-Mobile.
But... to the original poster: What difference does it make right now? Why would I want to hold off?
If I sign up for a 2 year contract right now, then I'll have that phone number for the following 2 years, and by the time my 2 years are up I can take the number with me... ?
I don't understand the point of the original post. There is no reason to hold off. If you're changing providers right now then it makes no difference. By Nov 2003 you can change providers and keep the same number.
The fact that there is huge tracts of underutilized spectrum is why the government needs to get out of the auction buziness.
lets clear a few myths on cell phones so everyone has a basic understanding of what we're talking about here. First of all i wanna point out the the US is not trailing europe in cell phone technology. Next i'd like to point out that sprint sucks, because it has the very bad coverage compared to other providers. Let compare providers first, these are genralization depending on where u live they may vary. The market is currently dominated by Verizon at 24% of the share, then comes Cingualr, Sprint, ATT, Nextel, Voicestream, in that order. Verizon had the largest network and can cover just about all of the us if u have a tri-band phone. Verizon and sprint both us cdma technology, this is in contrast to Att, voicestream and cingualr who are using tdma or gsm. GSM SUCKS...i'll tell u why...CDMA is far superior...DONOT GET ANY GSM ENABLED PLAN...LOOK AT THE COVERAGE!!! CDMA will evolve into cdma 2000 which is currently holding the market share in 3g technologies. CDMA 2000 competes with WCDMA which currently is the upgrade from gsm networks...as u can see to use 3g(get pictures and stream video on ur phone) u have to switch to cdma sooner or later. The upgrade cost for cdma operators such as verizon and sprint will be far less just have to change a network card and software upgrade...for gsm networks like att and cingular the upgrade cost is tremendous because u have to set up a whole new cell phone tower. Verizon and sprint will switch to 3G next year and they will have the push to talk feature currently in nextel phones. There by crippiling nextel who already has 14 billion dollar debt. A good move would be to switch to verizon and sprint and wait for the 3g technology to come out..something att cingular or voicestream won't have for another 3 years. whats bettter about cdma 3g compared to gsm evolved 3g(w-cdma)...number one thing Data transfer...2 mb/s on gsm eveolved service(w-cdma)...5 mb/s on cdma evolved service(cdma 2000)...in fact beacuse of such advanteages...Europe might actually because of lower cost to upgrde to a CDMA 2000 network compare to a W-CDMA network go with CDMA 2000. Not only lower upgrade costs but also the data transfer and performance is much better. This is not open to debate most of what i have sazid is fact. But do you own research and find out...REPLY TO THIS IF U THINK IT HLPED YOU OR IF U HAVE QUESTIONS.
I use my cell phone on average, less than an hour a month. They are simple calls to friends and family, to see where they are, what is going on, etc. I do not get family updates on my cellphone. This does not apply to everyone, but I'm sure there are a bunch of people out there like me with 4000 minute calling plans that they really don't need.
Prepaid is a better deal for light useage folks like me. I pay $30 and I have 60 days to use that credit (which covers the two hours that I talk). That's it. If I had the minimum contract ($35) I would spend $75 after taxes and fees for the same amount of time. It is a no-brainer.
I'll bet you the biggest problem is during the companies' "free evenings and weekend" periods. They did this in order to level the network load over different time periods. It looks like they may have shifted too much into that time period.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
A friend of mine shared this little tip with me and said it would work, but I've never tried it myself so YMMV.
After your contract expires (and they have finished subsidizing the phone) there is really nothing to keep you from jumping ship, so they are much more open to unlocking your phone if they think it will keep you as a customer. Call them up and tell them you are planning on traveling to Europe and would like to use some of the pre-paid calling SIMs available there, but you need them to unlock your phone for it to work. If they balk, tell them how you like the service, but if they can't help you, you'll find another provider who can. Apparently, once they unlock it in this fashion, it cannot be relocked. Has anyone else tried this?