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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."
Damn Leonids.
This space for rent.
The only thing that will give the providers incentive is if they start to lose subscribers. As long people limit themselves to grumbling and complaining, nothing will happen to make the situation better.
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
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.
I get a signal about 50% of the time...and it has this nasty habit of going from full signal to zero (dropped connection) and immediately back up to full signal....what happened in the middle?
Sons of bitches...do NOT get Sprint...they seem to have a "random service droppage" policy...or a major bug in the system.
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.
I live in a pretty packed section of LA (Hollywood Hills) and I have noticed over the two years I have been here that my cell phone has always been between 1 and 2 bars in my apt. out of 4 (signal strength) yet I used to be able to make phone calls and now I spend half the time not even on the network. The cell towers have gotten so crowded that when you call AT&T they tell you that only about 68% of all calls made from that area are able to get through due to overcrowding. Yet they have no plans to expand in our area for the next year.
It kinda sucks. And I'm locked in by a contract.
Honesty may be the best policy, but apparently by elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.
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
"Can you hear me?" "No" "Good!"
Don't sign any contracts that extended beyond that period.
At least here in the states, cell phone carriers will be required to institute true number portability on cellphones. They've been pushing it back for about 4 years now but the FCC told them it was do or die time.
This is from: clarkhoward.com:
"Cell phone portability stays alive - July 18, 2002
If you are one of our listeners who took the time to write to the FCC about the cell phone industry, Clark wants to congratulate you. A law passed in 1996 allowed you to take your cell phone number from company to company if you changed providers. It was called "true number portability" and the cell phone industry was terrified of it. So, they have tried everything they could to postpone the law going into effect. The FCC asked for you comments in this matter and your voice was heard. The FCC has issued a decision, saying the rule will stay in effect and you'll be able to keep your number. But reinstatement will not go into effect until Thanksgiving 2003. So, we will be able to take our number with us, but not for a while. And, when this goes into effect, many cell phone companies will go away because of mergers. As long as we have four major players, we will have a decent amount of competition."
Here's the original link.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
Capitalism = who rips off best wins
This may be modded as a troll, but in modern economics, it is a truth.
Someone correct me if I am wrong (And i think i am), but was not the justice department investigating the major cell providers for illigaly forcing customers to only use certain cell phones? For example, that nice new shiny Nokia I want will only work with AT&T wireless, not Sprint or Verizon. That, and some back door deals with the cell phone makers to restrict options raised some eyebrows, if i remember right.
Yeah, something is up with them. When I got my latest cell phone, I had a somewhat in depth discussion with the sales rep about the various carriers. He said that although Sprint has some excellent protocols and ideas for new network services, they are relatively new to cell phone service. As a result, they don't have as much experience with networks as Verizon or VoiceStream do. So that could be the source of your problems.
The sales rep also said that Sprint has problems with reception inside buildings (more so than other providers). I ended up going with Verizon as a result.
neurostarI have Sprint PCS and use it all over the country (it's 85% for when I travel). I've been pretty happy with the service I have gotten.
Sure its not your phone?
*comes home and tears open the packaging on a brand new cellphone that came with a 8 year service contract, then reads /.*
damn...
XML causes global warming.
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.
Of course! this explains why the USA's cellphone infrastructure is so much better than Europe's - the EU is just over-regulated!!
NB: That, like US cellphone systems, was a joke.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
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....
Some people can stand voting with their wallet because they do not absolutely require the cell phone service. However, many others do. So, just change your service often - forcing the sales representatives to give you good introductory rates but without a long term service contract. If you can get one of them to give you cheap rates for half a year and then standard rates for another half a year on a one year contract, then take it and cancel the service afterwards. Repeat. Not only does this get you repeating good rates, but it contributes to the service cancelation numbers for the companies to possibly motivate them to provide better service.
Funny thing to note that most of these bastage companies are just ripping you off even more: Where I live, we need to make a lot of cell phone calls from a certain area just South of town, but we can never seem to get good service there. So after switching providers a couple times and figuring out that none of them will give us good reception down there, we start looking at coverage maps for the cell phone companies in our area. Guess what, they all look exactly the freaking same. Not only do they all use the same towers, but a lot of them even use the same equipment, they just portion their usage off with each other. So, the only thing you are usually paying for is how much less of an a$$ one company will be to you over another company.
If I could mod you up to +10, I would do it in a split second.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Harumph!
I really do... need... it.
Umm... so I can find out where to go drinking!
Yeah, that's it!
Part of the problem is that there are several different standards for digital cellphones here in the states. Some networks use CDMA technology, some use TDMA technology, and some use GSM technology. If you are switching between carriers that use the same technology then you can probalby keep your phone. This is also how out of area roaming works. I have Dobson/Cellular One phone. AT&T Wireless uses the same technology as Dobson, so when I get out of my local area I start using AT&T phones. If you look at the model numbers of cellphones you'll often model numbers that only differ by one digit. A Nokia 8260 and 8290 for example. These phones are basically the same except that one can talk TDMA and the other talks CDMA.
"You can't fight in here! This is the war room" --Dr. Stra
I work for a wireless reseller, and I've seen the complaints flood in. We are often flooded with callers who cannot connect their calls, or once every 10 calls they might actually get through. This is more seen in big cities such as New York, Miami, etc. The systems are overloaded, and from my experiences, the wireless carriers don't really care. They need to take a step back, and look at the current infrastructure they have in place, and realize that this is not going to last much longer. The systems weren't designed to handel the amount of traffic they are currently holding, and it's only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down around them.
I know that they currently do not have the money to pump into upgrading the entire system, but right now, the cellular phone industry is at a place where a lot of people are relying on the technology, so it may be a time to have a small markup in the rates. I know where I live, it is cheaper to own and use a cellular phone then a landline phone these days. There's only so much that the consumer will be able to handel before they go back to their old ways of communicating.
tourettes
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.
The PUC is your best friend. I have a friend that had a subscription with T-Mobile. Their service was horrible and customer service was always jerking him around and billing was charging him for hundreds of text messages he never used. I kept telling him to threaten them with calling the PUC. One day he did it. They immediate dropped all the false charges and kissed his ass.
Each state has it's own PUC, for instance, this is Minnesota's. As you can see, they control telecom, electric, and gas. PUC really is your friend. For instance, PUC is responsible for penalizing Qwest for anti-competitive business practices.
Much as I dislike the local cell service and its "dead areas", it's not like ther's a flip-of-the-switch solution to fix it. Dead spots seem to come in for a variety of reasons. Locally, we have some that seem to have their signals blocked by large obstructions of nature (trees, hills, etc), or degraded by local interference.
It's not like the cell company can just go out and say, blow up a large hill (or business complex) to clear the way for your reception, and putting up repeaters to boost signal for 1 or even a few people is just not worth it.
Another thing is that some businesses/locations actively block signals. In one area of town, cellular reception often dies when you drive past the local call-center. This never happened before the call-center went in (it was a Kmart before), so I would assume that they are doing something that interferes with the standard cellular signal.
I do sympathise, I used to live in a house where my cell didn't work either, but in that case can you get one-touch-call-forwarding to your home phone?
While many GSM phones are locked to a provider, some times they will unlock them after a certain time (likely after your contract period expires). And if you buy your own phone of course it won't we locked at all. Then you can choose between Cingular, ATT and T-Mobile.
This will be great for competition once people realize they can do this... Right now many are probably unaware of this.
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
When my contract was up, I simply got rid of mine. Alltel was absolutely horrible, but Cellular One was no better, nor was Suncom. I now just use one pager, supplied by my employer. And you know what? The world didn't end when I got rid of it, surprise surprise. You find out that you DON'T have to be connected 24 hours a day. And the people constantly calling you discover this as well. I got my life back when I dumped that damned phone. I've now set rules on how I can be contacted. In an emergency, page me, but it damn well better be a real emergency. Other than that, send email, and I'll get back to you when I can. It feels so much better that way. When I had the phone, it seemed that I was on call to everone I knew constantly. Now it seems more like I'm in charge of my own time again. Dump your cell phones. You'll be surprised how much better you feel.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Because of this, I end up not using all the minutes I buy every month on my phone. Which means two things, I am not getting what I am paying for and T-Mobile is losing out on raping me on overage charges. So its a two way loss.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I've managed to go through the first 22 years of my life without a cellphone. Yes, there would be a few times where it would be handy to have a phone, but I've never needed a phone for personal use.
For my job, my employer provides me with a phone, which largely stays unused. In fact, it's used primarily as a two-way pager, for text, and infrequently for calls. I think that I've reported car accidents more often than I've called for any other purpose, in fact.
Wanna learn to chill out? Ditch the phone, ditch the laptop, palm pilot, GPS, etc, and go just do something. Do something that doesn't require to make a big deal about doing it. Stuff like sitting in a park under a tree with a novel. You'll find your stress level and blood pressure will drop dramatically.
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
I'm sure everyone will attempt to account their various grips about the vagaries of cell-phone customer service. But is this problem really just in the NE or is it elsewhere. I'm thinking along the lines of lot's of buildings, terrain, lack of relay stations. In Texas, we are flat as a fritter, so a 40 foot tower covers a major city. Our cities are very spreadout, so traffic is spread out over the infrastructure.
---- This is off-topic ----
I still crack up everytime I see that commerical, "I thought she said 'Get a Monkey with a cold.". The little monkey has his pajamas on, and a thermometer in his mouth, and then he takes a kleenex when offered. Oh, that cracks me up.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Depends on if you buy your cellphone or get it "free" with your plan. With local providers, they make the phone out to be a bonus you get with a term contract. Of course, the phone is completely useless on anyone else's network anyways, but the way they advertise you are only paying for the contract service, and the phone is a bonus.
Of course you can buy phones too, and the last phone I bought had the parent company absorbed by a larger one. It ceased to function at all when they ripped the high-range transmitter towers down and moved them to the east (I heard they had a swap deal when one company - Clearnet - traded western to Telus in exchange for eastern customers?). Not only is the phone useless on other networks, but it's useless on the network it was bought for, though it still exists just under different ownership. They were supposed to have a "buy-back" for the old phones and I had my name on a list, but it never happened.
The phone does work on analog but what seems to be piggybacking various networks, does the "our-network-only" restriction only apply to digital?
*Special note: Keep old phones for emergency. Even a disconnected one can still dial 9-1-1
So you can keep your number... big deal.
Or as Phoney McRingRing said: "Well, scientists have discovered that even monkeys can memorize ten numbers. Are you stupider than a monkey?".
Having 4 crappy choices isn't competition.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
I have Cingular in Milwaukee, WI and I have no complaints. I don't have signal problems, no billing horrors and a feature package that is just what I want. Naturally, everyone always wants it cheaper, no matter what it is, but I do not feel that I am being gouged.
I really think it depends where you are. I'm not seeing the problems that are discussed here.
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
Our business is located in Moses Lake, Washington... about 150 miles east of Seattle and 1/2 way between the Puget Sound area and Spokane, the largest city around. I commonly get the quick-beep indication of busy circuite and often have to redial 5 or 6 times to get out. This is on the AT&T network in a town of about 15,000 in an extended area of no more than 40,000. We don't expect much infrastructure living here but it's nice to know we're no worse off than the big population centers on the east and west coasts.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
About 2 years ago, I had service with Airtouch (now Verizon?) and the service had gone to hell in the Phoenix area. I got so fed up that I switched to Sprint and called Airtouch and told them to cancel my service. They, of course, said that I had a contract. I spoke with a supervisor, who reminded me of the contract. I reminded him that the contract also required that they provide cellular phone service, and that they were not holding up their end of the bargain. He agreed (I think alot of people were dropping them at the time), and I terminated the contract with no penalty.
Moral of the story: Talk to your provider, you might get satisfaction.
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
As always, YMMV. Do at your own risk.
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!
Within the last 2 years, I have owed or heavily used all of the major Cellphone providers. Below is my thoughts on each. All companies SUCK if you go over your minutes! Oh and I travel about 40% of the time so I am basing it on Nationwide coverage.
Sprint PCS: This is my current provider and I plan to keep it that way. Yes there are occasional places where the service skips, but a quick call using their VOICE COMMAND customer service gives me a credit minute, and away I go. Not to mention most of those places get fixed if you report the location to a SPRINT STORE. Not the phone customer service, but the actual SPRINT PCS store. Overall coverage is good in major metro areas. Have some of the BEST PHONES, and I have found often times the PHONE is the problem over the coverage area. However the new network they have does get hit heavily in rush hour.
Cingular: Overall a decent company. I like the no extra charge for analog roam. I dislike their customer service. THeir Digital Network is a bit weak in the coverage area though based on how much I travel and see. Literally cross a street in Manhatten and lose coverage.
Verizon: I would never use them now because of the "Can you hear me now" commercials. However when I used them, I found some cities had EXCEPTIONAL COVERAGE, yet others had HORRIBLE. Atlanta for one was HORRIBLE coverage for them. Their Customer service is an absolute JOKE IMHO. All in all would be near the bottom of my list of preferred companies.
T Mobile: If you job requires connectivity, DO NOT USE THIS. Its great for some of the trinkits and features, however if you are traveling its a PAIN! When you lose a call its INSTA DROP, not the usual "you are breaking up" if you would hear static on another phone with TMOBILE you LOSE THE CALL. The customer is ALWAYS WRONG with them too.
Nextel: Hard one to comment on. If you are in a city and use alot of intra company minutes this is the way to go. However if you are traveling about, their ROAM network can KILL YOU, and you need a credit card with you to use it.
Bottom line is NONE of them are perfect. I think overall SPRINT is the best. However time will tell if that will remain. I personally take my phone in every 2 months for a software and network update. That has made alot of difference to my service and coverage area over the past year. Its a hassle but I DEPEND on my phone.
Razzious Domini
I could be a GREAT KARMA WHORE if I could just shed the few morals I have left.
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... =]
There are a whole host of issues affecting network quality right now. I'll start with some history. Back in the late 90's wireless was hot. RF engineers were in incredible demand. Those that were good (and plenty who were not) became consultants making lots of money. Wireless carrier s couldn't get enough consultants to handle all the design and optimization work, and they still needed to hire their own in-house engineers. Obviously the relatively low salary positions with carriers didn't attract the best engineers who were making very handsome six figure salarys, but they did attract a lot of less qualified individuals.
Enter the recent downturn. Wireless carriers (many of whom have never turned a profit due to the massive costs of the ongoing expansion of their networks, Verizon, Cingular and other cellular providers excepted) suddenly became unpopular. In an effort to become profitable / look good to Wall Street, they suddenly slammed on the brakes and stopped or dramatically slowed their builds. They also got rid of all the high-priced, very talented consultants, leaving only their staff engineers to handle the optimization and new design.
In addition to getting rid of consultants, a lot of staff engineers have been cut as well. Those that are left don't have time to track down the obscure problems that arise in the complicated interactions between cell sites and phones that cause dropped calls (some are due to lack of coverage, but the vast majority of drops are due to the internal parameters that govern the behavior of the cells and phone not being tuned to provide the best service in a specific area. The phone needs to be told when to hand off, what to hand off too, and so on. Often the particular combination that will work for a user traveling on a certain road is unique to that road, and even the direction of travel. Each combination needs to be figured out, and then manually entered by an engineer.) Even when a problem is tracked down, money to fix problems is non-existant. The budgets reflect very specific priorities, and quality isn't nessesarily high up on the list (since it takes a long time for consumers to react negatively to poor network performance. They can't go anywhere else for years sometimes).
Oh, one poster mentioned that his phone seems to have several 'bars' of coverage and then suddenly drops to none. There are a few reasons for this. The first, and most common is what is known as Rayleigh fading. Wireless connections experience very rapid, highly localized signal fades. You may have experienced this phenomena when listening to a radio station at a stoplight. It may be almost unlistenable until you creep forward a few feet, at which point it returns. Mobile phones are afflicted by the same problem. Providers use multiple antennas per sector on each cell site (known as diversity), to reduce this effect, but tough zoning laws often force us to use only one antenna per sector , which increases the freqency of this effect. (cross-slant polarization antennas can help in some situations, but not all, and certainly don't perform as well as dual antenna configurations)
The rapid fading can also be a product of the way the phone displays the signal strenght. Some phones on CDMA networks (Samsungs in particular) do not display signal strength with their 'bars'. Instead, they show the signal to noise ratio. In a weak signal area with low interference, the phone will show a great signal to noise ratio when the signal is just above the receiver sensitivity threshold, but just a small change in signal strength can drop the signal below the threshold, at which point the signal becomes unusable.
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.
Cell companies built like mad during the 90s. It wasn't about profits or revenue, it was all about capital expenditures and building out infrastructure (sound familiar ?). Now that it's time to pay investors back, cell companies are having to layoff engineering personnel left and right and have had to stop building capacity sites. It's not about quality and performance engineering anymore, it's about quantity.
It also doesn't help that most cell companies have reached customer saturation in every market. Every last business person, drug dealer, soccer mom, and teenager has a phone. There's no more revenue out there in new sales, it's all goofy new services like being able to download pictures on your phone and other technocrap that no one really needs. And with the cutthroat pricing and marketing tactics going on it's going to get much worse before it gets better.
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
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.
if you don't need it, cancel your service.
I'm sick of seeing all these college kids/soccer moms/etc complaining how they need their cell phones...
YOU DON'T NEED IT!
you didn't need it 5 years ago, you don't need it now.
I've only met a handful of people who would "qualify" as needing it. one runs his own business, the other only has that phone, and no land line.
your NOT that important.
Looking for Book Reviews? Check out Literary Escapism.
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.
For some reason sprint just doesn't work in West Texas. I live in Abilene and have Sprint, it works fine here and all along I-20 going east but if I go any other direction more than a few miles out of the city its gone.
Its fine in Lubbock but then drops until you get close to New Mexico (I was in New Mexico a few weeks ago)
The Anti-Blog
This is a fucking tech site. What the hell do you expect?
Jeez - better not talk about new technology or the whining poverty-stricken anonymous cowards might start crying again, fer feck's sake.
So don't complain if you cant get signal in doors. You should have bought a larger phone....
Ah hah! And to think my friends laughed at me when I bought my new cell phone!
"And like that
Their advertising is pretty good.
I often think they should have their ad agency manage their network instead of whoever's actually doing it.
Sprint PCS was my first cellphone, and gave me absolutely abysmal service. No question.
D
You find the AT&T GSM network reliable because it is new and there is hardly anybody on it.
:)
Wait 3-5 years and it will be overloaded too, as AT&T discovers that GSM doesn't provide any capacity advantage over TDMA, just more whiz-bangy features and nicer handsets.
Until then, enjoy... you are an island, and your phone will work great!
instead, work towards making such thing illeagal. you don't get cars for free by signing a contract to only use special gas x and buy it from gas station y.
more expensive phones you say? that's the price you gotta pay for not being tied up in a crappy provider.
works here ok(finland).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I too have noticed a trend in things that just a few years ago were absolutely great
Seriously, something is fucked up in all the areas above if not more
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
If put to the free market, UHF stations would sell their spectrum in a minute.
Don't get me wrong - I do not have an opinion as to whether CDMA or GSM is the best technology, but just don't be too quickly fooled into thinking that network performance is the only factor here - something tells me that dollars and cents play a major factor here. :)
AT&T uses GSM 1900 just like Tmobile does. I dont know of anyone in the USA that uses GSM 900/1800.
Just give AT&T time. Their network has, in Tmobile's view, totally fucked up my service at least.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
The fact that there is huge tracts of underutilized spectrum is why the government needs to get out of the auction buziness.
This is odd, since they only seem to have gotten to the US West Coast a few months ago. I don't remember seeing VoiceStream; T-Mobile booths started popping up in the malls and that was the first I'd heard of the company. I think they replaced some multi-carrier companies in the mall, so I assumed they were a fairly new company going through a huge expansion.
I bought the T-Mobile SideKick about a month ago. Kudos to Danger; they really did get it right. I would like a colour screen, of course, and I'd like the option to use a larger font, but other than that, the device is darn near perfect for its intended use.
No, the problem is T-Mobile.
Voice service here in LA seems very similar to other cellular providers - not very good, but it works most of the time. I can't say I think it's good, but I don't think it's any worse than the bad cellular service provided by other companies.
My real problem is with availability of the data service. When it works, it's really cool to have lunch while exploring the Internet using the cellphone. When I first got the device, it was a real gas surfing the web in California Pizza Kitchen, the only restaurant in which it would reliably work. So I wound up spending $21 for my lunches instead of $8-11. Oops. But then my illusions were shattered when it stopped working even there!
So now I'm not sure what to do. I sold the service to myself by saying "Well, I won't have to buy books to read during lunch, so I will actually save money with the wireless Internet!" Now, I'm not so sure about that.
The problem is that I really like the device - a lot - especially when it works. So I'll keep it, and hope things get better over the next few months.
At present, though, the data service is so spotty that I'd claim T-Mobile is in breach of contract because I can't get the service I've been promised. Perhaps someone should start a class-action suit to get people out of unfair cellphone contracts when they are unable to get the service to work consistently. That might be the one time I'd be on the side of the lawyers; they would earn their (huge) fees fair and square by getting the little guy out of these contracts with the unfair termination clauses.
D
Hello, can you hear me now?
Didn't think so.
Well maybe if cell phones weren't sold for way under cost this wouldn't be a problem. With so much price dumping it has to be illegal..
oh wait, microsoft isn't involved so its a government conspiracy now.
geezus this crowd makes me sick these days. Intellectuals my ass. Find some news for nerds rather then this FUD/CRAP/GARBAGE.
but even though they swore I was in a fully covered area I could not EVER get or make a call from my house in the middle of the so-called coverage area. 4 phones later they refunded my years bill and I moved to nextel without a problem. The phones still suck, but the radio coverage works at my house at least, which is the minimum so work can reach me.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Actually, I think your statistics are off a little -- the highest rates of cell phone usage are often found in the poorest (and, coincidently or not, most minority) areas. More importantly, the growth rate of cell phone ownership among minorities tends to exceed that of white or middle/upper class people. To the extent you talk about broadband usage, I completely agree, but cell usage has a very different demographic. And when you factor in the greater concentration of people usually found in lower income areas, the reduced land costs, the reduced permitting hassles, there is simply no justification for the discriminatory cell phone coverage.
:)
On the other hand, a past GF attended a small women's college in the heart of one of DC's most affluent areas, and the coverage there sucked too -- so maybe they are just incompetent -- never rule that out
Glad to hear that you're happy, but if you want to talk about coverage, use a coverage map, not some anecdote about how your phone worked in the bar, and your buddy's didn't.
Why is "NEED" a requirement for obtaining something? Also who are you to define how important everyone else is? Are you some appointed Importance Authority? College kids and soccer moms have just as much need for a cellphone as anyone else. It makes them happy. Provides them with comfort. I'm sure you don't begrudge those same people for having computers, TV's , radios, MP3 Players, cordless phones, answering machines, alarm clocks...etc that they don't NEED. So why pick on cell phones? Whats the reason for the hate?
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
"Can you hear me?" "No"
That was me in the metro Boston region.
I found that with Verizon I had crappy quality of service. I don't live in the boondocks - I live about 3 miles from the city limits.
For those who don't know, Boston is one of the top 10 metro areas (in population) in the US. And Verizon is the largest cell phone carrier in the USA.
So due to my quality-of-service issues, I switched from Verizon.
I was going to go for Sprint, but their service was pretty much the same - my girlfriend had lousy service while in my neighborhood.
And so I switched to AT&T Wireless, and now I get good signal (except for a few days this summer, when things were just odd... maybe they had a local infrastructure problem?)
I'm not saying that Sprint or AT&T or Verizon is better or worse in terms of overall quality of service. What I am saying is that at least for me, quality of service is strongly dependent on where you live and the carrier you choose.
Does this suck? Yes. It sucks because instead of having the choice between AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, I only have one real choice. AT&T. They have a monopoly in my neighborhood. Maybe when my contract is up I'll look into T-Mobile or Nextel.
---
As for changing phone numbers - who cares! Tell your friends that you have a new number, and leave all the telemarketeers in the dust!
I thought this was NEWS for nerds? Since when has cell phone service in the USA not sucked?
Also, IMHO, the fact that providers in the US are switching to GSM means that they don't plan on ubiquitous 3G anytime soon. Phone companies use hardware until it crumbles into dust, so the GSM systems will be in use somewhere for a long long time. Many of those providers are still using their old TDMA & analog systems. They have a second network, selling no-frills service under a different name, or in areas that ccan only support the older service. The hardware is already off the boooks, so the added service is cheap.
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." --Napoleon Bonaparte
Actually the number of calls in one cell is limitited to the availability of slots in the time-division of one frequency and the number of available frequencies near your location (not necessaririly your cell). And for other types of communication than voice, like SMS (runs over the signalling channel via the MAP protocol), is limited to the bandwidth of the signalling channel (C7, or A7 in the US).
;-) (Don't do this at home, kids, GSM only)
:-)
And regarding emergencies: In GSM-networks it is allways possible to put the network into emergency-mode. In emrgency mode only subscriber with a special flag in their subscriber entry in the database (Home Location Register) are allowed to place phonecalls. And 911 or other emergency calls allways kick one call out of the line when there isn't no more bandwidth. Fun for new years eve. Tell your friends to call 911 and hang up immediately. 30 friends bring 30 free lines for 30 friendly phonecalls
The point that the basestations and "towers" aren't powerful enough is just... Well, NYT
Ahh, how common is GSM in the US anyway? Is it as common than in the rest of the world or is it still just available in major cities and sourrounding areas? Just for comparison: GSM coverage in Germany is ~97% for all providers in the mean. What is it in the US or Canada? (Except deserts, mountains and other very remote areas)
Alex.
You look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
Technology X has shitty service, both customer service and signal/bandwidth/etc. Providers refuse to invest in new facilities, claim they can't afford it.
Are we finding out that the technology house of cards we built we really can't afford? Is it possible that it's really not economically viable to have cell phones, high speed internet, etc?
It's not a matter of technological feasability, but economic viability -- you can't have it because it's too expensive. Like The Concord -- too expensive for everyone, but just barely affordable enough for the very wealthy.
Like the old radio phones you see in movies -- and you only saw them in limousines...
I agree, as I posted above, I've got a Samsung 3500 I've had for 3 years and have great service. What model are you packing?
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Anyways, even if you accept as fact that the US has substantively worse coverage in true metropolitan areas than the level of service throughout western europe (an assertion that I question), you still cannot ignore the importance of the overall density in the US. For instance, a significant city like, say, Seattle, may be relatively dense within city limits, but without having a cluster of other large cities nearby certain (meta-level) infrastructure considerations may not be economically viable. Unless you are intimately familiar with cell phone technology (more than just the summaries of CDMA, GSM, or what have you) to say otherwise, I don't think you can just ignore that. Furthermore, the fact that people in the US do often venture into less dense areas, whether they be suburbs, exurbs, vacation retreats, or even commuting to another population center, means that they will take the level of service outside their nearest metro area into great account. In other words, while GSM may make sense in Europe, that same technology may not make a great deal of sense, even in cities, BECAUSE it is not economically viable in outlying areas. This may well present the telecos with the choice of either: supporting multiple standards on a single service/phone (much more expensive), losing all customers that wish to have service outside of their city, or supporting a single standard that some may regard to be technically inferior (even though it's the only economically viable solution). Furthermore, besides just the density of the population, you must take into consideration the percentage of those customers that are willing to buy service. If the US has a lower overall adoption rate, then this must factor into the economic calculus of the telecos. I do not have the statistics on hand, but I would venture a guess, from my own experience in europe and in the US, that the US has a significantly lower percentage of the population using cell phone technology than the parts of western europe that you are comparing. Now you may assert that this is a result of poor service, but it cannot be held a priori, especially considering the fact that Europe's land lines have long been less reliable and most costly than the US (thereby encouraging the adoption of such new tech).
Lastly, if you want to argue that fragmentation of standards may be the root of the problem, then I can hardly see how you can ignore fragmentation of standards as a result of fundamental population differences. For instance, GSM hardly makes sense if it's not economically viable in less dense areas.
I have a Ken P. Prediction!
In 1-2 years the cellular companies will ask for federal assistance to salvage the industry. They will receive more than 100 million dollars in assitance while the top 5 executives will pull down well over 100 million dollars collectivly in their pockets.
God Bless companies like Qwest where they lay off thousands with no severance (And no warning) but the CEO when laid off walks away with 33 million.
Head out to tsewq.com for details on that.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
There is no doubt that the regulation regime must change. It totally fails to take into account new technologies. I do not, however, buy the argument that the "free market" alone is the solution. As someone who has installed radio transmitters (admittedly amateur radio repeaters, but the issues are the same), there does need to be regulation and enforcement. It is too easy for transmitters to create spurious signals and interference. A regulatory system is, IMHO, infinitely preferable to the only other recourse in a "free market," namely, the courts.
So, while I do think the present reulatory system needs to be demolished, I think it does need to be replaced with a regulatory scheme that takes TDM and spread-spectrum technologies into account.
The present model is based around uni-directional broadcasting. Dedicated "channels." That needs to change.
August 2001: Signed a year contract, got a new phone, got some rebates, got lots of minutes
February 2002: Lost my phone in Ecuador (yeah, probably shouldn't have taken it... I had service, which surprised me, but didn't try it out before I lost it). Had my parents call AT&T to tell them it was missing and suspend my account.
March 2002: Got back from Ecuador, ordered a new phone from AT&T. And to get this new phone, they made me restart my year contract. And they didn't give me one freeking cent discount on the phone!
August 2002: Find out that when they restarted my contract, they didn't bother to extend the time for my promotions to next March. So my promotions are about to end, and since this is my only phone, it's a horrible deal without the free LD and boatloads of minutes. So I have to start my year contract yet again to keep getting the perks!
Now, I probably would have renewed anyway, but I was being tempted by VoiceStream's nationwide no-roaming, and I wanted to have the option to switch.
But how in tarnation can they justify reseting the contract like that to just replace a miserable lost phone???? Corporate greed I guess.
I've wanted to write and complain to AT&T but haven't gotten around to it yet. I probably will NOT renew my AT&T contract next August, unless they do something to make this up to me. That's just inexcusible, in my book.
I have a few friends who work at customer service for a couple different cell phone providers, and one of the biggest tips they me is, don't believe the dealers. Dealers say whatever makes the sale and earns their commission. So before you believe their pitch (and sign a contract), call the customer service center and verify the facts.
All these people complaining about bad service should maybe examine their provider...
I have Verizon service and I have NEVER had signal or capacity issues except when indoors or inside my (shielded and unusually RF-noisy) car. I can use my Verizon phone at my *aunt's house*, which happens to be in the Middle of Nowhere, NY. It even operates in digital mode. Haven't tried AT&T, but no one with a Sprint, Cingular, or T-Mobile phone can get a signal on their network at my aunt's. (Cingular and Sprint phones MIGHT be able to get an analog fallback signal.)
In short, I'm a Verizon customer and have no complaints whatsoever about service quality.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
PCS technology is no more advanced than the CDMA technology used by Verizon, Qwest, and Virgin Mobile (who is probably just reselling VZW or Sprint tower access). In fact, it's the same.
Now if you compare CDMA as used by Verizon and Sprint to GSM... That's a different story. CDMA wins hands-down, which is why 3G in Europe will be CDMA based. (Unfortunately for them, they don't have a seamless upgrade path, they have to all-out replace all phones/networks/buy new spectrum. On the other hand, cdmaOne and all of the subparts of CDMA2000 (1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, 1xEV-DV) are all backwards/forwards compatible with one another. A cdmaOne phone will work on a cdma2000 network and a cdma2000 phone will work with a cdmaOne-only site, the features offered will be the lowest common denominator.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Even in the Princeton area...which is surprising since everyone here has the "NIMBY" attitude when it comes to cell towers.
I've had them all, Cellular One, Metrophone, Cingular, Omnipoint, Voice Stream, T mobile....and the only one who seems somewhat reliable in this area (and most of the north east) is Verizon.
No, I don't work for them.
-ted
First off:
I don't believe Samsung has much in the way of GSM equipment, they're primarily a CDMA company, at least cellphone-wise. So I don't think this is the reason for the phone not being tested well.
Second: It's a pretty well-known fact that one of the reasons Sprint offers a lot more phones than Verizon is because it's a lot easier to get a phone past Sprint's QA testing than Verizon's. I've heard of a number of Sprint phones being "duds" compared to Verizons, whereas I've NEVER heard of any particular VZW phone being much worse than any other in terms of call quality.
FYI, this is the reason Verizon doesn't have any more recent Nokia phones than the 5185 - Nokia hasn't been able to get any other CDMA attempts past their QA testing since then.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I'm in BC. We had a case awhile ago where a guy went over an embankment and off the road. After a day or two, he tried the cancelled phone and managed to get 9-1-1 and a rescue. Lucky for him though, half of the long highways I can't even get reception on a connected phone... not sure if it's crappy startacs or crappy Telus, perhaps both.
It was definately the latter (Revenue protection)
He was talking about taking a Sprint phone to Verizon, which uses the same technology (and has quite heavy phone overlap - The Kyocera 6035 for example).
Sprint subsidy-locks phones, Verizon does not. Why?
It has everything to do with how Sprint and Verizon sell phones. Sprint allows you to buy a phone from a large number of places (CompUSA, OfficeMax, etc.) without getting a contract. But that phone is pretty worthless without the service. Now if someone buys a Sprint phone and activates it on Verizon, Sprint is losing a lot of money.
Verizon, on the other hand, doesn't s-lock phones. That's because you can only buy a Verizon phone at a Verizon store or from Verizon's website (or by landline phone). As a result, you can ONLY get the discounted price on a new phone at contract signing. You can get a phone without a contract from Verizon, but they'll charge you a lot more. (For example, the Kyocera 6035 was $380 without a contract subsidy, $250 with subsidy.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
It just proves where there is no choice consumers do indeed get raped.
Local Phone company
Local Cable company
Local broadband ISP (either your phone or cable company)
Cell Phone carrier
All of the above companies and industries which are so vital to consumers fuck with consumers the most. Between the hidden surcharges, the lack of choice and the outright hostility of customer service reps its shocking there aren't more shooting. I mean have you ever tried to get a simple thing done with either your regular phone, cell phone, cable, or boardband account? Its a freaking nightmare of long hold times and CS reps who could give a crap about you since you literally have no choice but to deal with them.
The Communications Industry is the worst period. They are in serious need of some bitch slapping to show them who pays the bills. But considering there are no alternatives, and both the FCC and Congress(Cheerleader voice:Gooooo Big business Yeaaa!) are for sale, we the consumers will continue to take where the sun don't shine.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Comment removed based on user account deletion
AMPS - Analog mobile phone service. This still exists, but carriers are doing their damn hardest to phase it out. Every carrier in the US only provide AMPS as a fallback in areas they haven't upgraded to digital, which at this point are few and far between. (Mainly in extremely low-population-density areas)
D-AMPS - Often simply referred to as TDMA digital, although TDMA is too generic. Used by Cingular and AT&T. Most D-AMPS providers are moving to GSM. (Stupid move since that forces them into Yet Another Upgrade to UMTS since GSM is a dead-end technology with no seamless upgrade)
iDen - Only used by Nextel. Not much of a future seen for this protocol either.
GSM - Another TDMA format. T-Mobile/Voicestream was the only GSM provider in the country until recently, now AT&T and Cingular are upgrading. GPRS is the 2.5G extention to GSM.
CDMA - Split further into cdmaOne (2G) and cdma2000 (2.5G/3G). cdmaOne and cdma2000 are cross-compatible - a cdmaOne phone will work on a cdma2000 network and vice versa. Used by Verizon, Sprint, Qwest (small and being bought piece by piece by VZW).
CDMA has proven to be the winner in the USA - And its lead will continue once the GSM providers have to eat a full network replacement to provide 3G services (3G GSM is UMTS, a CDMA variant that is NOT cross-compatible in any way with GSM/GPRS, a problem that is causing financial troubles for many European carriers).
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I'm sure my local volunteer fire department will be able to successfully bid against Verizon for their emergency communications channels.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
"Another friend is on Verizon and said other then the shitty plan, he likes it."
You get what you pay for. Yes, their plans are the most expensive there are.
Is it worth the money? Yes. My phone works where no other provider's phones do. I've had nothing but pleasant dealings with their customer service. Call quality is excellent. And the cost is still reasonable - $40/month (including taxes) for 300 minutes of peak airtime and 4000 night/weekend minutes - More than enough for me.
Most other providers provide more minutes for less money - But I've heard nothing but complaints about most of them. (Look at T-Mobile, who offers the "most anytime minutes" but hasn't had a single favorable comment in this article.) So if you want service that actually works, you're going to have to pay for the higher quality. I live in Ithaca, NY for 4 years, and had cell service for 3 of those. Verizon (and its predecessors - I started as a Frontier Cellular customer and went through two mergers/buyouts) was the only game in town if you wanted service more than 2 miles outside of town.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Nobody says you have to pick up all those calls. Put it on silent, and either ignore it altogether or only answer calls you want to via caller ID. Did you really feel like you HAD to answer EVERY call that came in to your cell? No wonder you didn't feel in charge of your time. Seems a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to give up your cell phone over an uncontrollable urge to answer every ring.
Your world won't end without one, to be sure-- I have lived without one myself on and off. But it's certainly convenient to have it around. I just don't have the "talk to everyone" compulsion that it seems everyone has hardwired into their brains.
This sounds awfully ranty. I don't mean this as a personal attack on you-- I'm just baffled by people who pick up every single call on their phones, but seem perfectly capable of saving email until later. And they seem to be the rule, rather than the exception. Caller ID and voicemail are fantastic. Let 'em wait until *you* have time.
You CAN be connected 24/7 without giving up control of your life.
So far I haven't seen a post that seems to truly understand the CDMA quality of service situation.
Here are some things as I understand them:
There is a huge difference between signal strength and capacity. Signal strength, measured in terms of the Pseudo-noise offset level of the spread spectrum signal is one part, and the Ec/Io (that's "Eee-See over Eye-Naught"), the difference between the signal strength and the noise floor, which is the available capacity. When your phone reports signal strength in bars, it's actually making an estimate using some kind of formula to simplify this pretty complicated technology. You can have a strong signal but not be able to make a call. You could be sitting under the tower but but there are already a few thousand other people using it.
Also, for those of you who have older phones who experience better service with "more powerful antennas," please know that it has little to do with the antenna. It has everything to do with SID vs. PRL. When cellphones really exploded here in the states (three years ago or so) they were still being built using something called SID. The definiton of the acronym escapes me, but essentially the phone would look around, pick the tower with strongest signal and the most available bandwidth and use it. So with my Startac 7760 on Verizon, if I was closer to a non-Verizon tower my phone would use it, and then Verizon would pay the other carrier a tiny fee for my use.
A couple of years ago (in Verizon's world, with the advent of the Startac 7868, I think) they got rid of SID and came up with PRL, a Preferred Roaming List. Phones were programmed with lists of preferred towers where Verizon didn't have to pay a fee. So if I was using my Verizon Startac7868W and I was sitting on top of a non-Verizon tower, but there was a tiny, weak signal from a Verizon tower 15 miles away, my phone would use the weaker signal to save Verizon a few tenths of a cent.
The corridor from Boston to Washington, via Connecticut, NYC, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, can do what Europe does, because they are densely populated. Up here in northern New England, and over most of the "red states", things are different. It may not be profitable, or as profitable, to roll out the latest wireless technology in areas where the number of customers per square mile is significantly lower. Also, and don't flame me for this because it's just a theory, people in the more rural areas may not be as inclined as those in cities to run out and buy the latest thing.
I used to live in Philadelphia, where I could choose from T-Mobile's GSM, Sprint's PCS, Verizon's CDMA, and TDMA from Cingular or AT&T. Then I moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where we have TDMA and.... TDMA.
FWIW, I also see this lack of population density as a major reason we can't automatically take the same approach to passenger railroad service that Europe does....
grep -ri 'should work'
Well, I was finally able to call Tracfone back, and they think they found the problem:
They switched my calling area over to all digital, and didn't notify me and my analog phone about this.
So now, if I want to stick with Tracfone, I get to send them my old (and now useless) analog phone, and they'll replace it with one of their new digital phones, for free*.
I'm not sure if I'll take them up on the offer - it took the customer two phone calls and two weeks of waiting to find this out? Maybe I don't need a phone that bad after all.
* plus shipping
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
This was a shocking report by the FCC:
2 .h tml
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Powell/2002/spmkp21
Read it. No really, READ it.
They are finally getting it. I suspect we'll see some great changes by the FCC in the coming years - - They know all about spread spectrum, UltraWideBand, etc. They know how loaded the 2.4ghz part 15 space is - - and we're going to see them open up lots of new spectrum for 'real use', not just 'on the block for sale'.
-Eric Johanson
Seattlewireless.net
ACtually, the Finns even have mobile phones for dogs. I guess a dog may have problems changing his contract though!
See my journal, I write things there
I echo most of what I've heard here. I held off getting a phone until last year. And I thought I was the last one in the DC area to buy one. I went with Sprint because they didn't have a contract. For the first year, as long as I didn't have to deal with customer service, I was happy. But when I did, it was hell.
Since I got the phone, it has been a great tool. It's a convenient point of contact for people to find me. If I don't want to talk to you, I don't answer the phone. Most people understand this. Those who don't... they get over it. It has also reduced my long distance phone bill to nil.
The downside - Sprint's phone service is beginning to match their customer service. It sucks. Drop calls, lost signals, etc. I'm now ready to move on, but have created my own little trap of not wanting to give up my phone number. A lot of people know it. So, for one, I'm going to be happy next year when 'Big Government' forces the 'free market' to compete. Lack of portable phone numbers are a serious barrier to free competition. I, for one, have put up with a lot of sh!t from Sprint in the interest of keeping my number. Cheaper plans elsewhere, cooler looking new phones, and all the other things have been less important than keeping a stable number.
But after my encounter last week with customer service, I'm no longer willing to wait until next year. They have no concept of responsibility and no sense of why their customer's are unhappy. They rather blame their costumers than 1 hour waits. For example, one rep said they were 'too successful' and they why they were having problems. Huh???? In two years they can't hire more people? If they are so 'successful', then why are the call centers so overloaded and the reps so rude?
They don't get it. And sadly, based on other comments here, it seems to be industry wide.
My point is not that the rest of the world is wrong and we are right. My point is that you are making an apples and oranges comparison to support your conclusion that more or better regulation would solve these problems. Not only can it not be shown given my objections but it also calls into questions the conclusion itself. If GSM is not a viable technology in our many less dense areas, then you can hardly say that we should be using GSM to drive prices down. For instance: If all providers in the US were forced to adopt GSM that may well force them into fierce price wars would eliminate any profits that they make, but that does not mean that we would pay less or get better coverage than what we are receiving today, because we'd likely either sacrifice coverage outside of metro areas or have to somehow pay for its uneconomical use in the outlying areas (and no price war is going to cover that cost in the long run).
In summary, name a market that is similar enough to the US to truly demonstrate your point or prove that are truly expert on cell phone infrastructure and construct an actual plan that makes sense before you say that you can prove that this is the fault of the regulation (or lack thereof) and/or the wireless providers.
I mean, did you buy the phone at full price, or did you buy it for really cheap or free when you signed a contract?
How can you complain that you are being "held hostage" by your provider? You are ABSOLUTELY free to buy your own phone outright and activate it where you want.
Hmm. Did I just dream trapsing around europe and buying phone cards in whatever country I wanted a phone number in? Did I just buy those cards at the corner store? Yup. I did.
Buy your phone outright,and you won't be held hostage.
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?
Wrong. You're still responsible for the early termination fee. It's still applicable.
I recently quit my job at AT&T Wireless (Customer Care rep) - people would try that gig *all the time*
The account will auto-terminate after it's been suspended for 30 days, and will automatically bill the ETF. Even when you suspend your service for vacation/seasonal, it doesn't remove the ETF. It simply moves your service agreement end date. This is something you agree to (and should be explained to you) when you voluntarily suspend your service.
You want to know what may very well be the only way around the ETF? Have someone else call and verify your information and claim that you have died. They'll ask if you want to do a "change of financial responsibility," of course. Simply refuse, and state that you need to cancel the service because the account holder has died. The policy is to waive the ETF in such a case.
The company does NOT like it when reps waive the ETF and usually comes down hard on them. I told management to get stuffed on more than one occasion because I waived an ETF for a customer because I agreed with them - they were misled, and were getting screwed over.
So much for being an honest employee. They'd rather have people that can "empathize" and put on a fake happy face and act like they give a shit. Too bad many call center environments are like that.
The rest of the world apart from Korea uses GSM. While many international telcos have huge debts because of the UMTS licence fiasco (the so called 3g services) there is a middle solution called GPRS which enables 48kbit/s and is now in common use in europe and MMS the multimedia equivalent of SMS, enabling people to send images, short videos and sounds to others instead of plain text is already being marketed like crazy and all new phones here in Europe now support this. SMS has been available for longer than I can remember here in Europe and MMS looks ready to improve on this with phones from Nokia and Ericsson already sporting digital cameras in them (and they are massively popular). Not only this but almost all phones in europe use the Symbian platform (apart from Orange's SPV-MS Smartphone- which looks ready to fail before it even begins). There are many providers that are already proving Java games and utilities that can be downloaded and installed on one's phone. The mobile phone has a completely different status in Europe, where there are many people such as myself who no longer (in fact for a couple of years now) have a fixed telephone because the mobile has become cheap and far more practical. You can take your phone anywhere you want in europe and it works with the same quality that you have at home, albeit paying higher rates in some cases due to roaming. Here in Switzerland, which is a very mountainous country the mobile coverage is around 95% of the country. Mobile phones, such as Nokia's communicator are doing things that PDA's were origionally sold for. The future of mobile phone technology in Europe is rosy, and the reason lies primarily behind the fact that there is ONE standard, agreed upon by all participants in Europe. The GSM/CDMA thing is becoming another PAL/NTSC thing where PAL took most of the world by storm due to it's better quality. I would go with GSM if possible in the states as that is where the the best services lie in the future.
If you're ever in Europe go into a telco or mobile shop and give the phones a spin or let a sales person demo the stuff to you. You might be pleasantly surprised. Having one standard for all participants also has the added benefit of forcing the telco's in Europe to treat their customers better because they cannot lock them in, and one can switch to another telco if one is not happy.
My poor cell phone service is due to too many users on the network?
I always thought it was the fact that there was a cell phone coverage hole located directly over where ever I happen to be at the time.
Whew! What a relief it's just poor service.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I believe most new GSM phones support the 1900 MHz band used in the US, so there's no technical reason that people can't roam from the GSM-enabled US to the rest of the world, now.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I know you'll likely not see this because I'm AC and the article is a little old, but the "NIMBY" response futher down is right on the money.
How do I know? I work for a company which does RF engineering work for cellular providers. They are *always* trying to put in cell phone towers for coverage reasons, especially in densely populated areas. Believe me, they *want* to up the number of subscribers they can handle!
In populated areas, people can get a 'signal', but not connect, because everyone is chatting on the damn cell phone. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain tech issues to local planning commissions, especially with entire neighborhoods organized to keep antennas and towers out of their part of the city. How do you convince them you *need* to build a tower if there is already 'coverage'?
The NIMBYs are as usual, stupid, especially if they're actually concerned with RF radiation, since what the companies want to do is install many low-power antennas instead of a small number of high-power antennas ( which is what they already have ).
The truly ironic part is the folks preventing more cell towers and antennas of course mostly use cell phones... they're like single-passenger SUV-driving commuters complaining about traffic, gas prices and parking.
Of course, there are rural, unpopulated areas where many less well-funded companies just don't care about coverage. What, the cows in Montana are going to use their cell phones??
Me? I never turn on my cell, only use it to call out if I'm on the road... very infrequently. I wish I could sell my extra minutes... and I'm just rural enough without being too rural so that I usually get signal and connect, though my signal isn't always great...
Sedan.
But cars are mostly sheet metal except for the windows. That blocks a lot of lines of sight from the car, and even 800 MHz signals have pretty stringent LOS requirements. Also, glass isn't fully RF-transparent, especially to 1900 MHz PCS signals. (Some types of glass are worse than others - Many have impurities added to improve their durability and/or block UV, or other things. Many such impurities reduce the material's ability to pass RF.)
It's a fact - Unless signal strength is EXTREMELY strong, you're guaranteed to lose a bar or two of signal strength indication if you go inside the metal box that is your car. This is why external antennas for cell phones and WLAN cards give so much improvement even if their gain is not much higher than the phone/WLAN card's built-in antenna and is offset by cable losses.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
If it makes you feel any better, I meta-moderated your post. I don't think the redundant mod was fair.
"Derp de derp."