Ride Along With a Real Verizon Wireless Tester

jonknee writes "So you're probably sick of the Can you hear me now? ads, but here's a new article about a real-life Verizon Wireless network tester. This guy logs over 3,000 miles a month in a station wagon decked out with over a quarter-million dollars worth of network gear (I dare say the most valuable station wagon ever?). An audio file is linked at the bottom of the article that has a few minute sample of the audio Verizon tests with. It's bizarre!"

Comments

Alternately, . . .

[Maradine]

(I dare say the most valuable station wagon ever?)

[Insert Race Team of Choice] Audi RS-6 Avant Wagon

Once described as having not so much an accelerator as a "comedy pedal".

Re:Alternately, . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say this is the most expensive SW ever:

http://www.qv500.com/ferrari456p3.php

$1.5M and "Can you hear me now" guy not included.

Re:Alternately, . . .

[severoon]

Wouldn't it be a lot smarter to just update the software on their phones to report signal strength when called by a Verizon customer rep? That way, they'd get much more and much better data from actual customer phones, different models, and in exact proportion to the people that actually use their services.

I guess they might have to do something else for areas they're trying to move into where they don't have much penetration...so maybe station wagon guy will keep his job after all.

Re:Alternately, . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess they might have to do something else for areas they're trying to move into where they don't have much penetration...so maybe station wagon guy will keep his job after all.

HAHAHA. You don't get much penetration. But the station wagon guy does.

Everyone, sing with me...

Don't want no short dicked man
Don't want no short dicked man

I gotta say...

[deutschemonte]

Go, go gadget grocery getter.

Re:I gotta say...

[Anonymous Coward]

shame they just ripped boing boing and didn't give any credit.

One word.

[FireballX301]

Wardriving.

Best, wardriving vehicle, ever.

As a customer

[DigiShaman]

I'm very happy with my cell service. I guess they really *are* doing something abount reception. Honestly, this is the best cell service I've had in terms of voice quality.

Note: I live in Austin, TX. So your MMV.

Re:As a customer

[SYFer]

What was that? You're breaking up.

Re:As a customer

[Skater]

I happen to be in Buckhannon, WV, and I only barely have service. The only way I got a reliable 1-bar signal was to go outside, so I turned the phone off entirely.

This is the first time I've had this problem with Verizon, though.

I saw a sign in town for another service provider that said, "What good are the minutes if you don't have service?" I guess they're aware of the problem Verizon has here and ready to take advantage!

Re:As a customer

[lowrydr310]

West Virginia Wesleyan? I've visited there a few times. I brought my Sprint phone there when I visited and I had a difficult time getting any reception.

Re:As a customer

[brontus3927]

I live near an Air Force Base. Their radar destroys cell signals. Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile, and AT&T are all horrible around here.

Re:As a customer

[dgatwood]

Can you hear me now? (expletive deleted) Can you hear me NOW? (long string of expletives deleted)

Maybe that was just that crappy Motorola cell phone they gave me. About a month after I got it, I went from consistent signal to constant call dropping (like ten drops a night) and half the time I had to walk up to two blocks to get a signal. They claimed that they had a tower down.... For several months?

Then I moved over to the south bay side of the hill and I kept losing calls, though only about a drop every other night. Still, with five bars of signal suddenly dropping to zero and the call disappearing, then the signal coming back ten seconds later....

I asked to upgrade to a new phone. They were only willing to do that if I accepted a new calling plan that moved the start of nights and weekends to 9:00 and would end up costing me about $100 a month in extra charges. I told them to bite me and switched to AT&T and have been there ever since. Apart from me accidentally pushing the 'end call' button a few times, I can only think of maybe two dropped calls in the year or so that I've been on their service.

Can you hear me now, Verizon? Good.

Can you

[mboverload]

Verizon: You there? Good
Slashdot: Nothing to see here, move along

Almost makes Verizon seem like the good one ;)

Re:Can you

[CSMastermind]

No it's, "Can you hear me now? Good."

Re:Can you

[ikkonoishi]

Cue the "I guess the server was hosted on a modem over a verison cell phone." jokes.

Station wagons and magtapes

[toddbu]

What's the old joke? - "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon carrying magtapes".

Nice map

[tealtalon]

I can see where my nextel drops me everyday on the way home on 275 talking to my wife. Seriously.
/me calls verizon.

Re:Nice map

[RevRigel]

That's their way of telling you to get off the god damn phone while you're driving.

Re:Nice map

[inKubus]

Why are you talking to your wife on the way home? You should be enjoying your last few moments of silence before dinner! dishes! hold me! sex and the city! blaaaaagh

Re:Nice map

[fox9397]

Yeah,That's what I tell my wife too everyday on the way home.....Phone work great when I talk to everyone else :)

Re:Nice map

[jaysones]

Phone work great when I talk to everyone else

I'm sure Mrs. Frankenstein is happy to hear from you.

;)

Re:Nice map

[ImaLamer]

Especially when I also drive on I-275!

Re:Nice map

[Anonymous Coward]

Temple Terrace, huh? yep, there's the big hole by my apartment, right on the Hillsborough River.

Re:Nice map

[michaelhood]

What is your hang up with people driving while talking on the phone? I can say to a certainty that in 99% of driving conditions (I live in SoCal, we don't have weather), my driving skills aren't affected by a phone conversation. In the other 1%, I stay off the freaking phone.

There are plenty of people who can't chew gum and drive at the same time, lets worry about the people who can't multitask. Phones just happen to be a common activity, and driving is too, so occasionally they overlap. And so they get martyred as "the only thing that distracts people!".

I commute outside of LA. I see people driving while reading books, eating cereal, shaving (?!), doing makeup (the worst by far), typing on laptops, etc. Phones are nothing.

Re:Nice map

[Hallow]

Heh, I'm a verizon customer, and there's a dead spot on the Powhite Pkwy. on my way home.

I must admit that verizon does have the best coverage. But they have the crappiest phones, they nickel and dime to death with text messaging, sending pictures, games, ringtones, etc., and their customer service is mediocre.

Re:Nice map

[KipCas]

I see that Slashdot posters have went from imaginary girlfriends to imaginary wives. Wait, now I'm a poster....Well, I have an imaginary booty call paging me, gotta go.

Re:Nice map

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, you're mister perfect. I bet you can drive drunk too because you're so awesome.

Re:Nice map

[daikokatana]

I have to agree that phones are not the only evil distraction in a car, but I do not agree with what you are saying. You would not believe how many drivers are out there talking on the phone while not paying attention to the road. Besides, where do you draw the line? If talking on the phone is allowed, then why not drunk driving? Both of which have been proven to influence the level of concentration a person has.

Re:Nice map

[bluGill]

Try calling nextel while you are at it. They can't fix the problem if they don't know about it. Even if they do know about it, they will fix problems people care about before problems that nobody seems to mind.

Re:Nice map

[zrk]

The ones that bug me are the ones who haven't figured out that a hands free set, either a headset or speakerphone setup. People with crooked necks have to devote extra brainpower to reorient their vision, and can't see as completely as others on the road. Those people need to be shot.

You're probably the exception, but there are a lot of people who can't walk and chew gum simultaneously, let alone drive and speak on a phone.

meh

[unleashedgamers]

A guy down the street from me does it for rodgers wireless, He has a truck though got all the other goodies except 3 laptops. dont know why he needs 3

Re:meh

[Strolls]

For posting to Slashdot, lam3r!

Re:meh

[LVSlushdat]

While unemployed a while back, my TekSystems recruiter called and asked if I'd be willing to do a short-term contract doing something similar. Apparently some co's outsource these test runs to co's like TekSystems. To make a long story short, they needed two people in each car, the driver (who was paid $10/hr) and the equipment tech, at $13/hr. I wasn't THAT desparate, so I turned it down...

Re:meh

[Anonymous Coward]

High speed porn downloading

hmm... greatest job?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting job, get paid to travel and test the Verizon network.

Re:hmm... greatest job?

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking on a cellphone all day in a shitty station wagon? Middle class american suicide.

kinda old

[ronchie02]

At least the idea of riding around with one is. They followed one around on TSS a few years ago (before G4/Comcast ruined the station)

Does he use tape playback?

[Anonymous Coward]

Continually saying "Can you hear me now" has to violate some sort of OSHA regs, never mind those states with laws about talking on a cell phone while driving.

Re:Does he use tape playback?

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA YOU FUCKSTICK... who modded this crap insightful? a stupid mod who didnt RTFA either

Mobile debugging

[mrm677]

I used to work at Motorola and we would, at times, have to bring an entire debugging setup out in the field. A van, with the phone test board, workstation, and logic analyzer all hooked up.

Re:Mobile debugging

[dubious9]

Wow. That was a fasinating story.

My friend does this for Nextel

[mo26101]

A friend of mine does the same thing, except he works for Nextel. Needless to say, the job is quite boring.

Re:My friend does this for Nextel

[dukeisgod]

Boring how? My Nextel phone constantly screws up, and there's some spots where it will drop 100% of the time. Sounds like he should have more work to do than he could deal with. If it's boring because there's no work to do, send him down to South Florida. Or maybe they could start working on getting Nextel up in N. Georgia.

I can't wait for this contract to end!

Re:My friend does this for Nextel

[Anonymous Coward]

Multiple laptops and a shit load of bandwidth -

Porn? Games? Slashdot? General Loafing?

Re:My friend does this for Nextel

[barnaclebarnes]

Boring becasue you just drive acround test paterns looking for problems and not actually fixing them. I just got back from a day testing the new 3G network in NZ and all you do is make sure the test equipment doesn't crash, log the data and fire it off to head office at the end of the day.

And the pay ain't that great!

Re:My friend does this for Nextel

[afidel]

Dude, it's not even that much driving. I do over half that much just doing my daily commutes for work each month. My father was a salesman with a multistate territory, his best ever was putting 120K miles on a car in 22 months. I believe the leasing angency was in sheer awe of someone that does that much driving =) If you drive every work day (average 20 work days per month) to do 3,000 miles a month you only have to drive 150 miles a day, that is simply nothing.

Can you hear me now?

[jmcmunn]

Uh no, not inside a building.

That's why I no longer have Verizon. Who cares if some jackass on a commercial can talk when he's in Death Valley...I couldn't get a signal inside. Now with my Sprint phone, at least I get one bar, which is just enough to get calls and head for the window. Verizon has nothing on Sprint or Nextel, both of which consistantly get better service here in Michigan. (at least for everyone I know)

Re:Can you hear me now?

[jasonmantey]

I have found exactly the opposite. I live in Lapeer area but go to school in Detroit. My friends have Nextel and I used to have sprint. They are constantly dropping in all of the buildings at Wayne State and Sprint really doesnt perform well outside of Metro Detroit. I have had both Cingular and Sprint while in Detroit and I would never go back to them.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[djbckr]

And my experience is just the opposite. My Verizon service is second-to-none. The only place I don't get a signal is inside the current building where I work, which has layers of RF-blocking layers. I used to have Cingular and service was quite spotty at best.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[jmcmunn]

I rarely go to Detroit (or the east side of the state). I live in lansing, and spend most of my time in the center and west side of the state. I do find that Cingular (ATT?) has better reception traveling north to Travers City, whenever leaving a major highway. But I have Sprint all the way into the U.P. when on the highways. In the U.P., all bets are off, no matter what carrier you have.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if the problem you're having has more to do with your wireless service provider, or the inverse-square law.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Meest]

If only sprint were actualy good where i live.

Living in North Dakota has its negatives, IE Broadband and wireless coverage. Sprint has nothing on Verizon.

I could care less if i'm in a building. If i'm in a building I'm probobly at work or doing something i don't want to be bothered with. Not that it matters because verizon will actualy go there when sprint won't.

Look up the coverage map of area code 58201 and see what i mean. Whats the point of a cell phone when i have to stay on the beaten path (the interstate). If i go off to a gas station on the side of the road half the time i lose reception. Now go look at verizon. They have most of the area covered.

I honestly wouldn't mind using sprint if they had decent coverage overall and not just in the cities, We don't have T-Mobile or Cingular up here at all yet.

I guess it goes to show you money talks. Sprint only caters to the Buisness people and kiddies that don't need actual coverage.

Call it flamebate if you want but instead of adding pictures and click to talk on your phones how about you do something productive and make your product you have now work in every place instead of just where you want us to go.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[jmcmunn]

I can understand that, Sprint does seem to have limited coverage in some areas. I have used it in Seattle, St Louis, Hawaii (all of the islands), San Juan, Miami, and all over Michigan and Ohio on various occasions. But like you said, all major cities for the most part.

Too bad they don't expand a little. You CAN get Sprint PCS and just get a plan with analog roam for like $5 extra, which gives you nearly the coverage of Verizon and Nextel (or so I hear) but then again, it isn't digital so it's a win/lose if you ask me.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[jasonmantey]

The west side of the state isnt too good for verizon, i will admit. Nextel is much better over there (verizon used to use another carrier on the west side of the state (kalamazoo?) And are now upgrading the area heavily.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[ksilebo]

Actually, I've found the opposite to be true.

While in Las Vegas, I had T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. T-Mobile blew. Sprint was decent, and Verizon had perfect signal absolutely everywhere I was, in almost any building.

Here in Michigan, Verizon also has the best coverage, with Sprint in second. My brother has Verizon and I can use his phone in my basement just fine, however, my Sprint phone doesn't work as well.

One caveat about Verizon, they never release phones that I want in a timely fashion. Thus, they lost a sale on the Treo 650 to Sprint.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[fm6]

I doubt if Sprint or Nextel has special inside-building towers. More likely they just happen to have a tower that's close enough to the various building you go into, and Verizon doesn't.

One sad thing about the U.S. cell system is that all there are so many incompatible cell protocols and systems. You get a phone that handles 3 or 4 different protocols, you worry about "roaming" charges -- and you still often find yourself in places where your particular provider just can't serve you.

The Europeans did the right thing when they agreed that all their providers would have to use GSM, so everybody's phone would work with everybody's network. U.S. providers complain that GSM doesn't use bandwidth efficiently. But from the consumer point of view, their hodge-podge of GSM alternates is really inefficient.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in Kalamazoo and Nextel is definitely better than Verizon- I've had both but I'm on Nextel now. Actually, I loved Cricket except that it was limited to JUST Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand why the US doesn't just use GSM anyway. I mean just about the whole freakin planet uses GSM... except the US.

It's like if the whole world used the metric system and the US used something else. Oh wait...

Meh, I'm just sick of not getting all the cool phones which always seem to be GSM phones.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

"In the U.P., all bets are off..."

That's for damn sure.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[flabbergast]

South Korea uses CDMA. And in Japan DoCoMo, KDDI and J-Phone all use some variation of CDMA (wCDMA, CDMA EVDO) for 3G services. China is also a mixed market like the US, so there's CDMA there as well.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[hobit]

It's just EECS Jim. :-)

Re:Can you hear me now?

[dpete4552]

What type of phone do you have? One of the things people tend to not realize is the fact that the brand and model of phone you have can drastically affect your reception. Make sure you are using a tri-mode phone, and stick with Samsung and Motorola on Verizon -- Samsung and Sanyo on Sprint. If you're using a free Nokia or Kyrocera or something then you got what you paid for heh.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[plague3106]

I heard GSM was good over short distances, and CDMA or TDMA are better for larger areas.

Assuming this is true (maybe not) then the US carriers would pick the latter so they can get the most out of each tower. After all, theyhave more to put up b/c they need to cover a MUCH larger area.

I'm in VT, and coverage is spotty due to the mountains. How to eurpoean cells compare in mountainous regions?

Re:Can you hear me now?

[TibbonZero]

I'll second that! In the Boston area, Sprint actually has a few weird assed holes outside that it drops, but part of that is that residents of certain areas don't want any towers to 'mess up the landscape'.

However, inside sprint is MUCH more workable than Verizon. My girlfriend drops all of her calls in her apartment, while mine works fine. Her phone is unuasable in most stores and even in my apartment. I get perfect sprint reception.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[LinuxHam]

The coverage sucks, and frequently cuts out.

Remember.. if you get close to going over your minutes, get in the habit of calling VZW to report each dropped call soon after it happens. Every carrier will take dropped calls off your bill. Each time the call drops, just call customer service and tell them "yeah, the last call I was just on dropped on me. I want those minutes credited back." If everyone did that all the time, I'm sure they'd get sick of it and start addressing the problems.

On a side note, Nextel has been doing some pretty sucky things trying to boost my bills. They recently "accidentally" deleted unlimited nationwide DC and they reactivated it seconds later less my free nights & weekends. My bill jumped from $82 to ~$400. I called and got the excess charges reversed, but had to get 200 more minutes on a new contract (for the same cost) and restart my contract clock. They've tried to delete my 100 bonus minutes in the past to my objections since it comes with my corporate discount.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[nxtw]

You CAN get Sprint PCS and just get a plan with analog roam for like $5 extra

With that addon, your phone will roam on a digital roaming partner if available.

which gives you nearly the coverage of Verizon and Nextel Nextel's coverage isn't too special. Much of Sprint's roaming is on Verizon, so coverage would be much closer to Verizon's coverage (which surpasses Nextel's by far.)

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Fulcrum of Evil]

The Europeans did the right thing when they agreed that all their providers would have to use GSM, so everybody's phone would work with everybody's network. U.S. providers complain that GSM doesn't use bandwidth efficiently. But from the consumer point of view, their hodge-podge of GSM alternates is really inefficient.

Ya know, we have GSM in the states now, and it works really well. I may have to roam if I'm off in Buttfuck IA, but I'll get signal.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[nxtw]

U.S. providers complain that GSM doesn't use bandwidth efficiently

It doesn't. Yet two of the five major carriers use GSM, one uses a GSM-like/derived system, and the other two use CDMA. CDMA is much more efficent and does a better job of providing a reliable signal.

You get a phone that handles 3 or 4 different protocols, you worry about "roaming" charges -- and you still often find yourself in places where your particular provider just can't serve you.

Romaing is supposed to be used when you're outside of your home area. Many carriers won't let you roam in areas where they have their own coverage (regardless of how good that coverage is.) Many holes are common between all carriers (due to building permit restrictions, geographical limitations, etc.) Some holes exist due to lack of demand for coverage in that area (at least some carriers -- T-Mobile in my experience -- determine where they build towers based on user feedback.)

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

One sad thing about the U.S. cell system is that all there are so many incompatible cell protocols and systems. You get a phone that handles 3 or 4 different protocols, you worry about "roaming" charges -- and you still often find yourself in places where your particular provider just can't serve you.

This is the price one pays for early adoption. The Bell system and the local B provided an extensive AMPS implementation long before Europe or Asia had shit. By the time Europe decided to implement infrastructure, RF and digital technology had advanced quite a bit during the 80s.

The relatively few advantages of GSM in the early 90s were not worth the cost of replacing AMPS infrastructure with a system that required costly incompatible equipment upgrades.. Also, digital hybrid systems like DAMPS did not offer much other than bandwidth and power efficiency (and privacy somewhat) pre-mainstream Internet (before 1995), so there was nothing at all to drive the industry away from AMPS until well into the 90s.

By the time CDMA came around, two camps developed. Those backing GSM because it was an international standard and the predication is that this would be the driving force for acceptance, and those backing CDMA because it was technologically superior and did not require hacks like GPRS for digital services. Then there were businesses like Sprint, that felt that the best way to do things was to provide PCS which would supposedly have enough value-add that they could get away with some hairbrained non standard... PCS really didn't end up offering anything you could get through GPRS or CDMA.. and how the fuck could it.

The US customer paid the price as these took the battle to the market. Interestingly, GSM actually came on strong in the mid 90s with carriers like Omnipoint in large metro areas, and then promptly died.. only to have a resurgence.

If Qualcomm had CDMA to market about 14-18 months earlier than they did (not that they could have)...I think things would be a lot saner in the US... As for Europe, there is a lot of shenanigans and protectionism. CDMA could have come out in the 1800s and the European phone manufacturers would have stifled its adoption.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[jridley]

I live in Chelsea, about 20 miles west of Ann Arbor. Verizon is the only service that works where I live (8 miles north of the expressway), and it sucks. I can be standing outside my house with 4 bars, and in the course of 5 seconds it'll fade and cut me off. This is the case with two different phones, and has been happening since we got the phones 3 years ago. I dropped my coverage a few months ago because it was useless, and now don't have a cell, because none of the other companies are any good here, either.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[JesusCigarettes]

which is just enough to get calls and head for the window

You know, if a window is expecting a phone call and a blow job, I wouldn't really interfere. You don't want the window to get pissed that you ruined his booty call.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[wolrahnaes]

"I don't understand why the US doesn't just use GSM anyway. I mean just about the whole freakin planet uses GSM... except the US." /me looks at my euro-spec Sony Ericsson T610 GSM phone, running perfectly with 5 bars in the middle of Ohio

What was that about GSM in the US?

Re:Can you hear me now?

[dasdrewid]

If you're looking for good service, Nextel is the way to go. My friend has Nextel. He also works in an underground, plated, shielded physics lab. And he can get service inside. Well, at least when the door is open. But even then, none of his colleagues can get a signal anywhwere on his floor.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[TheAmazingRando]

See, here in Indiana, Verizon is by far the best. I can get signal in a closed elevator at the underground floor of an elevator. (no joke!) Friends of mine have to hold thier head just right to get signal from sprint, and cingular will drop your calls randomly, for no reason at all.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[SillyNickName4me]

I have no experience with Japan, but I do with South Korea and CHina. I can just grab my GSM phone and use it in either country without much care for where I am exactly in those countries. The same is simply not true in the USA.

So, while you may be right that both have a bit of a mixed market, they both seem to have excelent coverage for the GSM system.

And well, as someone else mentioned before, you can basicly use a GSM phone almost everywhere in the world with an extremely good chance of good coverage, that is, as long as you are not in the USA.

When reading through the entire discussion, it really reads like a blast from the past, people complaining about coverage outside cities? no coverage inside buildings? having to rush to the Window to have a chance at all to have a phone conversation when inside?

That was the way things were over here like 15 years ago when they were introducing GSM on a large scale, but has been something of the past for quite some time now.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[SillyNickName4me]

> Assuming this is true (maybe not) then the US carriers would pick the latter so they can get the most out of each tower. After all, theyhave more to put up b/c they need to cover a MUCH larger area.

I don't know that, I do know that the rest of the world together is a lot bigger then the USA, while I simply cannot remember encountering a place without coverage in the last decade while being outside, and only a few while being inside. That includes places like the jungle in northern Thailand, the mountain areas of Austria, Spain, France, Germany, middle of the desert in Egypt and many more non urban areas. Places without coverage do exist, but as long as some form of human settlement or travel is taking place, you have an extremely good chance of getting coverage also.

> I'm in VT, and coverage is spotty due to the mountains. How to eurpoean cells compare in mountainous regions?

See above. No problem usually.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[SillyNickName4me]

Many places in Europe had cellular phone networks before the introducton of GSM. They were analog systems pretty similar to what was there in the USA.

The main advantages of GSM had to do with standarisation and management advantages of a digital network. The only feature beyond voice conversation that was there from the start was text messaging.

Usage of cellular phones was a lot higher in the USA at the time, but it wasnt like it was non existant in Europe.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[HardSide]

In New York City verizon is pretty good, once in a building its all over. Your lucky if you get that 1 bar. However a lot of my co-workers have cingular now, they have connection everywhere, we even went to a computer show in a stadium that had those metallic paneling on the roof (no idea what the name was) it was to disallow cell phone usage, i guess after 9/11 happening here in new york they wanna keep the usage of cell phones in stadiums/arenas in a minium, so to make a long story short my verizon connection was dead, so was everybody elses except for the people that were using cingular, they had all the bars and i was just amazed.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Wow8agger]

Blech, Sprint kills me - I was at the San Jose Hilton, and I had to sit outside on the balcony just to get enough signal to call the wife.

I mean, c'mon, I can hit one of the largest tech centers in the US with a rock from there, you'd think that there would be cellphone service.

In contrast, I was there last week with a Verizon phone, and after doing *228, I picked up consistent 5 bar coverage.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Anonymous Coward]

They DO have in-building "towers", a.k.a. building antennae. We had one in a bank I used to work for. It had antennae even in the basement. My Nextel rocks!

Re:Can you hear me now?

[bluGill]

Actually GSM coverage in IA is pretty good. Not most of the state, but all the major roads. Trust me, there is no reason to leave a major road when you are going through IA.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[bluGill]

GSM phone almost everywhere in the world with an extremely good chance of good coverage, that is, as long as you are not in the USA.

Strange, I live in the US, and I have had a GSM only cell phone for 5 years now. I've never had a problem getting a signal, Except in the middle of nowhere North Dakota. (places where even Analog cell phones get spotty coverage) Even Iowa has good GSM coverage.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[SillyNickName4me]

Hmm, do places like the Egyptian desert, jungle of northern Thailand or the mountains between France and Spain count as 'middle of nowhere' ? I found I could make and receive calls in those places without trouble whatsoever.

If coverage would be bad in areas with a relatively large human population that would be really bad, and I am sure that is no longer the case in the USA either, but honestly, when I read the stories here, or listen to my American friends who have cellphones, it looks like reading about how things were overhere more then a decade ago with regards to coverage.

I am currently sitting inside at my girlfriends house (in Berlin, Germany), and I have full 5 bar reception and perfect sound quality, and it may drop to 3 bars, but there is no place within an hour travel from here where inside coverage wont be good enough for reliably using a cellphone (and that includes all subway stations (which have repeaters here) and trains and office buildings and so on that I have been to)

The nearest place that I found without superb inside coverage is some 2 hours away from here by high speed train, and there you will find that the type of phone makes a big difference. My old Ericsson (T39m) with its external antenna still has a usable signal there, many cheap phones with internal antenna will no longer work reliably there when inside.

Ah yeah, having 4 or more networks to chose from (I can roam on all networks here) helps a bit there of course but in my 'home' area where I cannot use roaming, coverage is even better then overhere.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Gordonjcp]

Coverage is pretty good in the north of Scotland, even among large iron-bearing mountains. I use Orange, which is GSM1800, and it works just fine.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[fbg111]

CDMA is the better technology, but GSM's advantage is the portability provided by the SIM card and that it is not proprietary. Too bad there's no Open CDMA that uses SIM card equivalents for the world to standardize on. VHS vs. Betamax redux...

Re:Can you hear me now?

[plague3106]

I don't know that, I do know that the rest of the world together is a lot bigger then the USA, while I simply cannot remember encountering a place without coverage in the last decade while being outside, and only a few while being inside. That includes places like the jungle in northern Thailand, the mountain areas of Austria, Spain, France, Germany, middle of the desert in Egypt and many more non urban areas. Places without coverage do exist, but as long as some form of human settlement or travel is taking place, you have an extremely good chance of getting coverage also.

I agree the rest of the world is larger than the US, that doesn't quite fit the problem.

I'm sure Verizon would cover every square inch of say TX (roughly the size of France), if A) TX is the ONLY place they have to worry about covering; neighboring states would be covered by other companies and B) everyone in the US was squeezed into TX (TX is pretty sparcely populated given its size / number of residents). But if 260M people are in a very small space, there's alot of incentive to cover that area. As it stands now, there's only incentive to cover Dallas etc.


See above. No problem usually.


I suspect then that this is a problem because of sparce population density; the same reason much of VT doesn't have cable TV.

Re:Can you hear me now?

[plague3106]

Hm...too bad for me then.

I suspect then this is a population density problem (its not dense enough to offer coverage) and I suppose could also be a tech problem (maybe CDMA works well over a distance, but doesn't penetrate mountains too well).

Re:Can you hear me now?

[Gordonjcp]

Scotland as a whole has a pretty low population density - 64 people per square kilometer. Now, that's around 2.5 times the population density of Vermont, but the average is pushed up by the very densely-populated Central Belt. Up north, where I'm talking about, in the Scottish Highlands there's a population density of around 9 people per square kilometre.

wow

[Anonymous Coward]

seems to me that the station wagon would also have a built in sleeper as well....

"Let's see if we can pick up his snoring..."

"*snore*"

"Good!"

Mirror

[FunnyLookinHat]

And the server is already dying....

Mirror?!

no service

[Sperryfreak01]

My cell cost 200 dollars and i bet it does same thing, Shows that i never have service anywhere that i might use my phone

3,000 miles a month?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only 3000? Not so impressive. I know peole who commute that much.

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[jasonmantey]

3,000 CITY miles?

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[hoyty]

I do, I do.
Do I win?

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[thundercatslair]

Ya that is city miles, plus i am sure he is not driving the entire day, he probably has to stop like non stop.

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[dubious9]

I was thinking the same thing. 3000/20 working days is 150 miles/day. At the most he's driving within a 75 mile radius.

While I don't know many people willing to commute 75 miles, I do know that people that drive all day in the city regularly log such miles. Think UPS, USPS, Bus Drivers, Cabbies, etc. 150/6.5 driving hours (8 minus setup time and lunch) is about 23 miles an hour.

So he's not really traveling that far, just driving all day.

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[berniematt]

I know that when I'm working on the ambulance, I regularly log about 200 miles in a typical 24 hour shift (people don't stop calling 911 after 5:00 PM, after all).

If I were driving constantly (which I'm not), that would be 8.3 miles per hour. If you figure I'm maybe driving for 8 hours total, that accounts for an average speed of 24 miles per hour - the average speed on non-major streets in Tucson, AZ.

Re:3,000 miles a month?

[dubious9]

First kudos for working an ambulance. I've got more than one friend that does it and it's often a thankless job. So thank you.

Secondly, you work 24 hours shifts? Wow.

Lastly, IIRC and correct me if I'm wrong, but when you are out, you are suppose to stay in a cetain area right? So you spend a lot of time parked in central spots. This guy's job to cover as much area as possible. That makes 3000 mi per month even less impressive.

I beg to differ.

[kryogen1x]

A tank would be so much cooler. It would give new meaning to WarDriving.

Although, you can't pick up chicks in a tank.

Re:I beg to differ.

[QuietLagoon]

I don't think that I would want anyone must listen to that audio all day to be driving any manner of military vehicle.

Re:I beg to differ.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can pick up the kind of chicks that will double up on a dude like me.

Re:I beg to differ.

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like QuietLagoon is posting drunk again.

Re:I beg to differ.

[QuietLagoon]

Again? That implies that there was a first time.

In actuality, I left out one word. I do that from time to time, in spite of using the preview feature. (sigh). Anyway here is what I meant to post...

I don't think that I would want anyone, who must listen to that audio all day, to be driving any manner of military vehicle.

How's that? More comprehensible? :)

Re:I beg to differ.

[JNighthawk]

Yeah, I gotta wake my ass up at 5 in the morning, doing the drywalling at the new McDonald's in Vascelina.

Re:I beg to differ.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about Tank Girl?

Proselytizing makes me nervous re: As a customer

[Squonk01]

They're testing more than just reception on this roadtrip--looks like proselytizing to me.

Harvard Sentences

[eltoyoboyo]

The Harvard Sentences used to test, that are mentioned in the article, seem to be missing a key phrase:

I had an idea that we parked our car in the Harvard Yard.

(Boston Dialect article here or here.)

spinners

[Doppler00]

Yeah, but does the wireless tester have SPINNERS on it?

I hate those things....

Re:spinners

[inKubus]

Or even better, PALM FRONDS. Seriously, these things have really started popping up everywhere. Look around on your drive home...

Re:spinners

[Anonymous Coward]

We like Dolemite when we stop at the light, cuz the rims keep spinin' and the women keep grinin'.

Pimp My Ride

[Schwing84]

All that equipment but the guy really hoped that MTV and Xzibit would Pimp His Ride!!!

sigh - I've had a bad day...

[cliveholloway]

... so I can take the karma hit of being a Grammar Nazi asshole.

...the article that has a few minute sample...

So, is that meant to be a sample that is a few minutes long, or are their several tiny (minute) samples?

FFS, *somebody* buy the slashdot editors a copy of StyleWriter.

cLive ;-)

Re:sigh - I've had a bad day...

[KingSkippus]

Me too.

...or are their several tiny (minute) samples?

The word you're looking for is there, not their.

Maybe the Slashdot editors do have StyleWriter; I hear that it doesn't catch everything. Sorry, that just struck me as funny. ;-)

Re:sigh - I've had a bad day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, if there were several minute samples, they would say, "...the article that has a few minute samples...", so the editors are still right ;-)

Re:sigh - I've had a bad day...

[starwed]

It is mandatory when being a Grammar Nazi to include at least one error of you're own.

Re:sigh - I've had a bad day...

[pokka]

FFS, *somebody* buy the slashdot editors a copy of StyleWriter.

Ha, I know this is off-topic, but I find it hilarious that their site has an example image of a document that's been "fixed" by StyleWriter. One of the sentences has been corrected to "I assume you'll dealing this soon..." Are you sure the slashdot editors don't already have a copy? :)

Re:sigh - I've had a bad day...

[Motherfucking Shit]

Ha, I know this is off-topic, but I find it hilarious that their site has an example image of a document that's been "fixed" by StyleWriter. One of the sentences has been corrected to "I assume you'll dealing this soon..."

In addition, if you check the screenshot and look for the promotional blurb highlighted in cyan, you'll see that the word "following" is spelled incorrectly. You'd really think that a company trying to sell editing software would do a better job of proofreading their copy.

Down already

[numLocked]

The site is down already, and i saw someone requesting a mirror, so if anyone doesn't know about it, www.mirrordot.com mirrors everything slashdot links to. I've never seen it go down.

I'm not familiar with...

[MisanthropicProgram]

the Audi RS-6 Avant Wagon at all. Googling just brings up ads. What's the deal?

Re:I'm not familiar with...

[Maradine]

Never brought to us silly Americans. Try searching for pages im deustch.

Re:I'm not familiar with...

[virgil_attack]

How about auf deutsch?

No wonder their service sucks...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...the tester gets a skewed view because he uses equipment worth 3/4 million whereas real users have to use a crappy phone that costs a few hundred.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[Anonymous Coward]

The signals doesn't become better with 1/4 million equipment... sure you can probably get a better receiving, but it doesn't make the signal itself better. And perhaps his equipment does a little bit more things than your little mobile phone, such as mapping the receiving on a map etc.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[spagetti_code]

Just to expand on that a little - this guy is using large car aerials. Most people just use a cellphone with a hidden built-in aerial a couple of inches long.

Unless they are scaling their results back - they are getting skewed numbers.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Driving around with a cell phone will tell you you're losing your signal.

Driving around with an HP 8563 spectrum analyzer and a standard-gain antenna will tell you why you're losing your signal.

This is sorta important if you're in the cell-phone business.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[nxtw]

No, they are not getting skewed numbers. The special equipment provides much more informations and results (while most Motorola phones and some Nokias can tell you the signal strength in decibels with slight harmless modifications, along with some other cell site/network information, specialized equipment can provide more accurate signal strength information, along with signal quality and more than just "bars".)

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[radish]

Yeah, because the guys who run nationwide cell networks with thousands of nodes and millions of subscribers would never have thought of that. My god man, credit them with some intelligence!

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[CallFinalClass]

Correct. In addition, a fixed antenna gives the same results as it's.... uh, fixed. As is place. They're looking for accuracy and repeatability.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[afidel]

Yes, but between the arial and the phones aux antenna jack is enough line, connectors, and other equipment that it's probably producing about the same amount of signal as the built in antenna.

Re:No wonder their service sucks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. The equipment in the Taurus wagon was provided by Comarco wireless Technologies (Ticker:CMRO). It was literally DESIGNED to test cellular infrastructure and more importantly, assist in the placement of new cells to improve coverage.

What your spectrum analyzer won't tell you that this system will is how your coverage is across the spectrum during various loading conditions. There is a lot to the equipment that wasn't explained by the author of the article.

You would play hell trying to build a system that did what this does, at the house for less than list. Assuming you could, your cellular accounts would be cancelled VERY quickly because you were causing SERIOUS degradation of service.

No, I don't work for Comarco. Yes, I am reasonably familiar with their product line.

Great network. Poor phones.

[fox9397]

Verizon is still not carrying the Treo 650 (sigh) Great network, poor phone selection. Can you hear me now... on my startac

Re:Great network. Poor phones.

[SeaFox]

Join the club. I have the same issue with T-Mobile. I'm happy with the service overall, but their phones are just lousy. Nothing slim and high feature. I keep seeing the ones I'm interested in end up exclusively in Cingular dealers' windows.

I guess this is the price you pay for not being on Cingular or Sprint's rousters.

Re:Great network. Poor phones.

[Anonymous Coward]

You could always just buy an unlocked gsm phone and use it on T-Mobile's network. From what I hear, they are pretty friendly about unlocked phones on the network. Unlike Cingular who will give you virutally no help at all.

www.howardforums.com is a good place to learn about stuff like this.

Dropped Calls

[bleckywelcky]

"Dropped calls for Verizon Wireless are pretty rare these days, with some months of testing seeing none."

Well that's all fine and dandy for them. Unfortunately, I get a dropped call or two each week, in an area Verizon advertises as being completely covered.

Re:Dropped Calls

[NanoGator]

"Well that's all fine and dandy for them. Unfortunately, I get a dropped call or two each week, in an area Verizon advertises as being completely covered."

Are you inside a building? There is only so much Verizon can do.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Muchacho_Gasolino]

wtf? that dude should come to my neighborhood i tell my friends just to not call me on my cell when im in there the whole ~10x10 block place is dead and its in the middle of a city

Re:Dropped Calls

[barzok]

I'll take dropped calls over what I get now - calls that never come in.

I'll be sitting in my cube and then my Verizon phone starts chiming that I have a new voicemail, but no indication that I ever missed a call.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of phone are you using? I used a loaner LG phone while waiting for my Motorola to arrive, and it got TERRIBLE reception. When the Motorola arrived, the areas where my calls were dropped got perfect reception. The phone DOES matter.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Anonymous Coward]

> "Dropped calls for Verizon Wireless are pretty rare these days"

As a Verizon customer, I can honestly say that that idiot is full of crap. I use my phone in three different cities about 20 hours each week, and more often than not, my calls end before either one of us hangs-up. I've used seven different phones over the past two years so I know it's not the phone.

I really miss my Sprint analog phone. I used it about 50 hours a month in 1993, and while I did have dropped calls, they were always due to lack of signal. You knew why they happened and the static was a good warning that it was coming. With Verizon, I can be, like at my house, 500 yards from where two major interstates cross, and I still get dropped calls. At my office in Charlotte, NC, Verizon's tower is about 100' from our building, but Verizon still drops about 75% of the calls over two minutes long that our employees make. With our office in Greenville, SC and the other in Spartanburg, SC, they have even worse luck with Verizon. Verizon is a omplete joke.

Re:Dropped Calls

[kent_eh]

I get a dropped call or two each week, in an area Verizon advertises as being completely covered.

A few things:

This testing rig isn't able to do a lot of indoor testing (being a car and all). Some buildings are pretty effective Faraday cages.

The cell phone company I work for (no, not Verizon)ocasionally will take hanset testing equipment to large customers, and test their phones. We find between 40-60% of the handsets have some sort of service affecting fault.

No mobile phone company in their right mind will guarantee you won't ever drop a call. You want rock solid reliability? Use wires. There's too much that can't be controlled with any wireless technology (interference, multipath, signal blocking, faulty hardware...).

Re:Dropped Calls

[omahajim]

The cell phone company I work for (no, not Verizon)ocasionally will take hanset testing equipment to large customers

What, like the ones that buy two seats on Southwest?

Re:Dropped Calls

[omahajim]

I really miss my Sprint analog phone. I used it about 50 hours a month in 1993,

Didn't Sprint PCS start from the ground up with a fully digital network (ie, no native analog service in their system)? And dualband phones were just for compatibility with AMPS systems still in wide use at the time? (unless you didn't mean Sprint PCS).

Anyways, with analog, if your signal was poor, you could sometimes at least hear something through the static. With poor coverage on digital phones, al_ y__ _et __ w__ds clipped so i_'s h__d to und____an_ __meone.

Re:Dropped Calls

[nxtw]

As a Verizon customer, I can honestly say that that idiot is full of crap.

Your experience is very subjective. A low quality or defective phone can cause a myriad of problems. Early Motorola V600s had numerous issues regarding static and choppy calls; later ones don't have these issues. All opinions for wireless networks are extremely subjective. Reports on wireless networks in different areas should not be compared (e.g. because Verizon sucks in one city does not mean they suck across the country. Each individual network (e.g. one system for one carrier in one city/area) is built differently, may be licensed differently, and was built at a different time than another. Ameritech (now Cingular's) original network was built here in 1996; today, it has evolved through at least two (possibly three or four) different technologies. This network would be expected to have more coverage than T-Mobile's network, which was built in 2002, but less than Verizon or Alltel's networks, which were built before 1990. In some other cities, Cingular's network has been around since the 80s, and Verizon's is less than ten years old. Wireless experiences are specific to your specific location -- at most, a major metropolitan area or small state. Many cellphones suck or are defective or have subtle flaws that only are revealed in specific situations -- so unless your experiences are common between other people with different phone models in the same location, don't treat them like complete gospel.

I really miss my Sprint analog phone. I used it about 50 hours a month in 1993, and while I did have dropped calls, they were always due to lack of signal.

That network is no longer owned by Sprint. That network could even be Verizon's network now...

Re:Dropped Calls

[dreamer-of-rules]

_ c__ld r__d t_a_ with___ __y pr_b____.

__g___l c_ll_ s_u__ _et___r to _e a__way.

Re:Dropped Calls

[kent_eh]

If they have a few hundred phones, sure.

Re:Dropped Calls

[bleckywelcky]

Nope, I get dropped calls outside all the time. The only building I ever expect my phone to work in is my stick-built house. If I get dropped calls in a steel and concrete building, I don't complain - I expected it anyhow.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Anonymous Coward]

> Didn't Sprint PCS start from the ground up with a fully digital network

Yes they did, but this is before they sold their analog network to Alltel.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Anonymous Coward]

> common between other people with different phone models in the same location

Ummm, I said seven different phones in two years, and I hear the complaints about Verizon from my employees every week. If I had to take a wild-guess, we probably use 40 different phone models spread across most of three states. It isn't isolated to a specific city or phone model.

As an example, I have a Treo 600 and a brand-new Motorola RAZR V3 that I'm delivering to a (lucky) new employee. I kept-up with this since my last post since I think I need ammo to get us out of our Verizon contract, in the past four hours I've made 19 calls. Of those, 13 lasted more than two minutes. Of those 13, all 13 were dropped. Since I was calling Verizon phones in all 13 of those cases, I don't know if Verizon dropped the call on my end or if Verizon dropped the call on their end. Eight of the drops were with the Treo and five with the RAZR. This was in downtown Winston-Salem on the top floor of a motel within sight of I-40. This is exactly the place any cell-phone provider should have great coverage. Verizon's coverage, like most places I've been to in the southeast and in the bay area (I don't have any experience elsewhere) is simply unacceptable.

> That network is no longer owned by Sprint.

They sold every single analog tower they had. In SC & NC they were all sold to Alltel. Alltel had great coverage in NC, SC, & GA until they started selling-off some of the towers. Alltel still has great analog coverage in some areas in SC & NC. I keep a 3-watt analog bag phone in my car just because I travel a lot, and I can get coverage with it very often when I can't with Verizon. I don't use it except for emergencies since Alltel charges a minimum of 29 cents a minute, and I've been billed upwards of $4 per minute when on roaming!

Re:Dropped Calls

[nxtw]

You are lying. Verizon does not have the Razr V3.

If I had to take a wild-guess, we probably use 40 different phone models spread across most of three states. It isn't isolated to a specific city or phone model.

That's the problem; three states is too broad of an area to use for comparison. Each major metropolitan area almsot always has its own switch, which acts as a completely different system than the others. Throwing together experiences between different networks and regarding it as proof that Verizon sucks is biased and unscientific.

Re:Dropped Calls

[SillyNickName4me]

I would say that his entire story quite paints a picture of an unusable service.

The technology is not relevant, the result is. His results are unacceptable. Maybe they are not very usefull for doing statistics, but they are rather usefull for determining usability, and that is really the only thing that counts for a customer.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Matey-O]

v600's had more problems than just choppy calls. The wife and I bought two. I've been through three refurbs for problems and her's show the same problems --- these phones weren't fully cooked before they pushed them out the door. Less than a year later and I'm forced to pay another $100 for a phone that works dependably.

Now if you want a V600 that works, you can't get a new one, you're just getting someone else's phone that was returned due to THEIR problems. (exterior screen corruption, unexpected powerdowns, white screens, reboots.)

I will never own another Motorola cellphone.

Re:Dropped Calls

[nxtw]

The majority of those problems are caused by bad firmware or flex/files on the phone, and the firmware was fixed after the first few months it was released (in the USA). With a cheap data cable and pirated software, one can modify the files or firmware on his own.

Earlier hardware revisions had issues ranging from bad RF on Nokia 800MHz base equipment to intermittent choppy calls and worse. However, some phones are physically defective -- but most other problems are caused solely by software flaws. Most carriers should reflash refurbisheds phone with the latest firmware available. (If they don't, they should. I'm assuming all carriers plan on doing this, while some phones still "slip through the cracks".)

The most recent Cingular V600 replacment. The phones are noticably faster and much more reliable. There are no signs of the phones being refurbished.

Re:Dropped Calls

[popular]

Add a healthy dose of Sturgeon's Law and I don't think it can be said any better.

Re:Dropped Calls

[Matey-O]

With a cheap data cable and pirated software, one can modify the files or firmware on his own.

Got a URL?

These are/were AT&T phones, you'd think they'd flash the firmware on the refurbs, but they exhibited the same problems that the first phones did.

Based on my research, it seems like Moto is spending a LOT more time dealing with pretty, and not on QA. What's disappointing is, the newer V6XX models don't seem to have the same problems as the first model did, but at least with AT&T they're not fixing the problems that exist for current customers.

Re:Dropped Calls

[nxtw]

HowardForums's Motorola section is a very good resource, although they have some draconian link policies, so you'd have to find some or most files on other sites (not too hard to find on Google.) A new flash and flex will fix most problems.

Considering AT&T is now owned by Cingular, they may be distributing the same replacment phones. What's your firmware version? (press *#9999#, it's listed as "S/W Version")

Re:Dropped Calls

[Matey-O]

Firmware: TRIPLETS_G_0B.09.4AR I'll see if I can't dig up a datacable from a cow-orker...I'd been using Bluetooth for all my communications. I guess what bugs me is _more_ than the buggyness...Motorola Phonetools is a PITA, the address book on the phone is worthless, synchronization doesn't include notes (or todo's). The damn thing doesn't work in my kitchen (something that the last four phones had NO problem doing. From talking around, it doesn't appear to be limited to the V600 either. Their T720 and V60 had a ton of issues with folks at my office too. My v600 had a beautiful screen, good life, and reasonable Bluetooth connectivity, but it sure missed out on a LOT of details...Crappy display aside, my Nokia 6820 has just fallen into my life and worked.

Your phone

[phorm]

A lot of that depends on your phone too. I know that my flip-phone doesn't get great reception in the local mall, whereas friends with a standard nokia phone can manage in many places I can't.

verizon still sucks

[loonicks]

This doesn't change the fact that Verizon is an evil, evil company that you should avoid at all cost. Verizon's support infrastructure is useless, and they're so large that the individual customers aren't considered important anymore.

Re:verizon still sucks

[Stevyn]

What chaps my ass is how they only support areas easy and cheap for them to support. Whenever I see those commercials about the guy in the middle of the desert getting service, I wonder why can't they offer decent coverage in northern New Jersey. You'd think the most densely populated state where almost everyone I know between the age of 18-50 has a phone should be a higher priority.

Re:verizon still sucks

[nxtw]

This applies for all cellular phone companies.

Re:verizon still sucks

[Anonymouse Cownerd]

Verizon Wireless, though with the Verizon name, is a completely different company under completely different management. Verizon sucks, Verizon Wireless sucks much less. They may even not suck.

Re:verizon still sucks

[dougsk]

Aren't they the one's that went to bat over p2p? Geez you know they went out on a limb for lots of bucks protecting individual liberty. yeah they must be pure evil.

Re:Must. Resist. Urge. To. Attack. Oh, what the he

[carninja]

Also, anyone who tells you it's the fashizzle is just lying to your facizzle.

Also, anyone who trys to tell me what to think is gonna be ignored. I can make my own decisions, thankyouverymuch, and so can the mods.

Download the track?

[iCEBaLM]

Ok, what the fuck is an .amr file?

Re:Download the track?

[keeleysam]

Extension: AMR Program and/or Extension Function Company Adaptive Multi-Rate Codec Specific Notes Speech encoding format used in GSM telephony. MIME Type What's This? File Classification Associated Links * Player * Background Paper Identifying Characters: Hex: 23 21 41 4D 52 0A 34 ASCII: #!AMR.4

Re:Download the track?

[baconbit]

You can open it with QuickTime.

Re:Download the track?

[ForestGrump]

but i use quicktime alternative...and it works!

Re:Download the track?

[rizzo420]

RTFA... it says you can open it with quicktime.

Re:Download the track?

[iCEBaLM]

I use linux you insensitive clod.

Not only that, your post doesn't explain *what an .amr file* is, which was my question, not how to play it.

Re:Download the track?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Ok, what the fuck is an .amr file?"

In words possibly you can understand: RTFA you fucking fuckwit.

"To play audio recording of test file, you need a media player that can handle AMR files (e.g. QuickTime)"

Plays fine on Media Player Classic.

Now who the hell modded that idiot at plus 4?

Re:Download the track?

[iCEBaLM]

Again, I didn't ask *how to play* an .amr file, I asked *what the fuck is* an .amr file. Seriously, reading comprehension.

Re:Download the track?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, no you can't. I tried opening it with QuickTime and it gave me a 'format not recognized' error message.

Re:Must. Resist. Urge. To. Attack. Oh, what the he

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who actually LIKED the movie Napolean Dynomite (and yes, I really tried to enjoy it)

A shame you didn't really try to spell it properly.

Please say "Clam Chowder"

[ImaLamer]

What are you retarded?!?!?

(that was funny if you read it with a Boston accent)

Not Quite a Dupe?

[SomeYoungGuy]

Looks like Mobile Tracker.net is recycling old CNN stories.

Doing something about service..

[inKubus]

They've put up a shitload more antennas. It's interesting that people haven't noticed, because they've been camoflauged.

Re:Doing something about service..

[hanshotfirst]

I've got one near me camoflaged as a big evergreen in a park. It almost works, and is pretty much inconspicuous if you're just passing by and not paying much attention or "looking for a tower".

Re:Doing something about service..

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the church cross idea...that's classic. But the palms have to go. As a Californian I can say we do not need more of those ugly things.

Re:Doing something about service..

[silvwolf]

I did some contract work for Sprint when they were building a network in a southern city. Summer job in college really. I'd drive around to cell phone towers and make sure they had power so Sprint techs could come and do whatever they had to do. I remember two sites in particular that I had trouble with.

The first was on a church's property. Kinda wooded area, pretty big for a church. I drove around the area for a good 10 minutes before calling my boss and asking where the tower was. It was one of those camoflauged trees. I was looking for the damn cell phone tower and couldn't find it!

Second one was also a church. This time the antenna array was up in the bell tower. I was kinda prepared for that one and could barely see the antennas poking out.

Another interesting one was out in the middle of a cow field on the side of the highway. There was a mud road out the to the tower. Cows were too busy chowing down to give me a second look.

I guess these were created out of a catch 22 type situation.. People in rich neighborhoods wanted / needed cell phone service, but weren't willing to put up with the ugly looking tower next to the clubhouse. So the companies that build the towers had to come up with something.

Re:Doing something about service..

[sootman]

San Dimas? Excellent! Good thing this tower wasn't up in 1989--the guys would've never gotten their phone booth.

Re:Doing something about service..

[Motherfucking Shit]

I live in Memphis, fairly close to the "Six Carrier Pine" pictured on that site. Those photos are completely deceptive, except perhaps for this one.

There's nothing natural about that structure whatsoever. For starters, we don't have trees that tall around here, you can see how it dwarfs the real trees in the area. It's too uniform and deliberate to be a real tree; hell, my artificial Christmas tree looks more realistic. 6 cell carriers were footing the bill for this structure and they couldn't build something a tad more lifelike?

If anything, the camo tower draws more attention to itself. I've learned to "tune out" the regular cell towers, sort of like I can look around and not notice power lines or other common infrastructure. But there's no tuning this ugly thing out. I wish they'd have just put up a normal cell tower.

Some of their other stuff looks nice though. Considering the amount of churches around here, they should have gone with the tower-in-a-steeple idea.

Mirror

[winkydink]

Here

Annoying ads go away tomorrow (less annoying ones to return a a TBA date)

Thank you Verizon

[FlatCatInASlatVat]

'Cuz now, when I hear some a***ole on the phone in the departure lounge shouting at his secretary or some girl in the drugstore telling her friend in full voice about last night's 3-some, I give them a little card that says "I can hear you now".

Re:Must. Resist. Urge. To. Attack. Oh, what the he

[ImaLamer]

No, he's talking about that Napolean Dyn-o-mite!

The one that starred Jimmy Walker.

Re: The Audi RS-6 Avant

[phreakmonkey]

It's a 480HP SW, available only in Europe.

There's a page with some stats and some great pictures of it here: http://www.supercars.net/cars/2004@$Audi@$RS6%20Av ant%20Plusx.html

The 3/4 million car...

[s-orbital]

Um... are you sure its a good idea to publish a pic with the license plate number of a car carrying $750 000 worth of stuffZors?

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[DigiShaman]

Like who would buy it off e-bay once it's hocked? The serial number to such equipment could be traced to the customer/company that originally purchased it. So it could be traced back to the person on sold it.

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[NanoGator]

"Um... are you sure its a good idea to publish a pic with the license plate number of a car carrying $750 000 worth of stuffZors?"

Good luck catching up with a vehicle that moves 3,000 miles a month!

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[JNighthawk]

That's merely 4 miles a day (if the guy has caffeine for blood). Hell, I could walk and catch a car that travels 4 miles a day.

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[Anonymous Coward]

are you retarded? 4*30 is NOT 3000

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[NanoGator]

"That's merely 4 miles a day (if the guy has caffeine for blood). Hell, I could walk and catch a car that travels 4 miles a day."

Are you serious or is this a satirical poke at the US public school system that's just a little too clever?

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[Anonymous Coward]

s/day/hour/ and it'll make a lot more sense.

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you that perhaps with all that equipment in the car, they thought to buy a GPS tracker for it? Maybe even a tracker that, let's just be crazy here, connects to some sort of wireless network and reports its position every once in a while?

Naaaah, couldn't be.

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[JNighthawk]

It was me after 8 hours of Calc class, failing to do basic math correctly.

Re:The 3/4 million car...

[s-orbital]

Ya, its funny how college has that effect on you. You learn to do calculus, but forget things like how to subtract or divide.

Dude, where's my bar?

[mveloso]

I hope that wagon's got airbags, because the driver's gotta be drinking heavily during his job.

Re:Dude, where's my bar?

[dr_dank]

More to the point, I hope that passenger side airbag is disabled. Nothing disrupts the flow of your day like that laptop in the cradle propelled through your forehead at roughly the force of an exploding handgrenade in case of a collision.

or maybe you're blind

[DarkTempes]

most of the equipment looks like it analyzes and stores information from the phones...
if you actually RTFA and looked at the pictures would see a bunch of expensive equipment plugged into 4 different phones (one for each different company)

he doesn't have any special external antennas to boost the signal or skew the results.

the only possible thing i could think of is the phones may be getting a WORSE signal because they are all lying down inside of a metal case...

Re:or maybe you're blind

[sndtech]

yes, because reading is so important, if the parent had actually RTFA instead of just looking at the pretty pictures he would have known that they have special antennas on the roof of the car, and that each car individually has its antennas placed so they are tuned to reduce interference

/. effect

[grommet_tdi]

Can you hear me now? ... ... ... Hello?

Re:/. effect

[winkydink]

No, more like:

User: Can you hear me now?
Slashdort Community: SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Been there done that...

[EvWatson6]

My college internship was to do the same for AT&T Wireless. It was boring when I did it and would be even more boring watching someone else do it. The only plus was the use of a phone with 2500 hundred minutes a month (the full engineers had 5000) and the stops for nooner.

Real smart

[cryptor3]

Well, now if I see a White Ford Taurus station wagon with that license plate number, I'll know how much it's worth...

not new...

[MoFoQ]

didn't they have a Tech Now show (NBC11 in the San Francisco Bay Area) that covered this like a year ago?

Anyways, I'm sure there are more expensive station wagons out there....hell...wait until Pimp My Ride gets a hold of one....or some hip-hop rapper buys a dub version with jewels and crap.

Now I have the urge...

[Anonymous Coward]

The urge to raid Verzion Wireless stationwagons. Thanks alot /. I've raided regular phone trucks and ended up comitting grand larceny, though the cops don't know about it!

Bah

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny after all this time, PEOPLE CAN'T HEAR ME NOW. I live just outside one of the major metro areas in the US (about 30 miles as the crow flies) and reception at home SUCKS. However I realize that for a usable phone outside of a city proper, I'm pretty much stuck kissing their asses monthly anywhere but at home. Oh and why is it again its gonna cost me 4 bills for a phone with bluetooth that marginally works with my car?

Re:Bah

[dpete4552]

"Oh and why is it again its gonna cost me 4 bills for a phone with bluetooth that marginally works with my car?"

The Motorola v710 isn't the only bluetooth phone on Verizon and on top of bluetooth it has an MP3 player, memory card slot, huge TFT screen with equally large resolution -- inside and out, and pretty much every feature you could imagine having on a cell phone that isn't a PDA phone. That is what you're paying $400 for. There are cheaper bluetooth phones.

Re:Bah

[dhoffman]

"The Motorola v710 isn't the only bluetooth phone on Verizon and on top of bluetooth it has an MP3 player, memory card slot, huge TFT screen with equally large resolution -- inside and out, and pretty much every feature you could imagine having on a cell phone that isn't a PDA phone. That is what you're paying $400 for. There are cheaper bluetooth phones."

Last I checked about a month or so ago it WAS the only Bluetooth phone from Verizon. Lots of c**p I don't need and they crippled many of the standard BT functions that Motorola provided to generate more airtime revenue.

Re:Bah

[dpete4552]

Well whether or not you think those features are necessary, I'm just trying to answer your question as to why the phone is $400. This is another option.

Re:Bah

[dpete4552]

One more thing to add to that, the v710 is currently "only" $200 if you have had your current phone on the account for 22 months (e.g. eligable for an upgrade) or if you are opening a new line with that phone.

AMR Codecs

[Kjellander]

Use Realplayer 10.0.2 under linux. https://helixcommunity.org/download.php/806/hxplay -1.0.2.tar.bz2

For Win32 there is a decoder with source but I haven't tested it. http://www.voiceage.com/codecsite/openinit_amr.php

Or you can copy it to a recent Nokia phone and listen to it

Re:AMR Codecs

[assassinator42]

Realplayer works for windows also.

I did this as a summer intern back in '95 :)

[MikkoApo]

My assignment was to test how well the network handled peak hours in the busiest areas around the city's center. My equipment was a laptop equipped with testing software and a mobile phone. I was supposed to sit in bars (the boss marked the places very specifically) and take notes on how each test went.

The test took place in the middle of the summer, during probably the hottest two weeks of the whole season and the whole city was totally empty, dead, void of people. People went to the beach, parks and on vacation while I was testing the "peak hours". Most of the tests completed without any errors so it wasn't a really succesful assignment unless you count the nice tan I got from it :)

Expensive cargos...

[NotQuiteReal]

Heh, I remember once, in the early-mid 80's having about $350K of equipment in my car that I was taking down to a Navy customer site (let's just say it was lots of array processors to analyze underwater sounds).

At a stop light, before I reached the gates of the base, I had this sudden panic though - crap! If I am rear-ended right now, I wonder if all this stuff is insured!

Fortunately I didn't find out, nor was my nice little Datsun 240Z harmed in any way, but man, what a bummer if some little old lady confused her gas pedal for the brakes at that time...

3 laptops

[Hobadee]

Here are the designations for his 3 laptops:
1. Connected to his GPS for navigation.
2. Scanning for wireless signal.
3. MP3/Gaming rig for when traffic is bad.

Can you hear me now?

[fcrick]

Can you hear me now?

This is the question I'm constantly asking on my Verizon phone at home. The coverage sucks, and frequently cuts out. Occasionally, it completely dies for a few days, and I call Verizon every day, and eventually they say the problem is fixed, and it goes back to being crappy and unreliable.

Every time I see those damn "Can you hear me now?" commercials I get pissed because THATS ME every frikkin day.

Why don't I switch? None of the other networks work, even though I'm clearly in an area of full coverage, just a few feet from a major state highway (PCH).

So basically, yes, Verizon has a great network that works in most places. BUT, if you happen to not live in one of those places, even if you're in an area that should obviously have excellent coverage, your complaints are never answered. Eight months of complaints and no response whatsoever. Why can't the damn tester come to my house...

I love the palms...

[NotQuiteReal]

I mean, yeah, you notice them if you look, but they are SO much easier to ignore.

At least hear in So Cal - I am sure they use Pines up in colder climes... I am sure I have seen those too.

Do they measure latency?

[xtronics]

I hate the latency on most cell phone links - my experiance led me to t-mobile, but even they have more than I like. Sprint seemed the wosrt. (YMMV)

The time delay between when someone says something till when the other one hears it makes for inturupting each other and ticks off customers.

Re:Do they measure latency?

[Anonymous Coward]

That is because CDMA sucks ass.

Re:Do they measure latency?

[CallFinalClass]

Every single digital phone has this to the same extent. There's a time delay to vocode the voice (digitizing voice and compressing) and another to vocode in the other direction. Now, if it's mobile to mobile, then it's twice as bad: vocode (delay), vocode (delay), vocode (delay), vocode (delay). What's perhaps even worse is that vocoding is lossy, it introduces distortion every time you encounter it, and again mobile to mobile gets hit hard by this.

Re:Do they measure latency?

[xtronics]

" Every single digital phone has this to the same extent."

Not true - I measured it. latency varies by both network and phone. Sprint also seemed to be worse during peak hours.

One simple test is to call a land line put it on speakerphone and place the mobile near the speaker. Clapping your hands will result in a time delayed echo - the time delay in the echo is different with different providers. Routing this sound to a microphone plugged into an Oscilloscope lets you measure the latency.

What's WIth the Next Story? (OT)

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is it saying there's nothing there to see? And to please move along? Check this out. Maybe because of a very misleading headline?

Ownz0r

[Anonymous Coward]

In Russia, cell phones test you.. :)

The wagon isn't uber enough unless...

[Grandmaster Mort]

...it's a 2005 BMW 325xiT with said equipment! :D

Re:The wagon isn't uber enough unless...

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, I think that an Audi S6 or even a turbo Subaru Legacy wagon or whatever would be a way cooler choice.

Re:The wagon isn't uber enough unless...

[EmagGeek]

Yeah, it's definitely the coolest thing ever to have a seriously overweight car with a seriously underpowered engine and a pathetically inept 4wd system...

Ahhh... The good old days

[Pedrito]

It seems like a lifetime ago, but I guess it was only about 11 or so years ago, I worked for a wireless engineering consultant firm in Arlington, VA. Among our many projects, one of the biggest during my time there was designing and building out the first Sprint PCS systems in DC, Seattle, and Portland.

We didn't own the vans we did drive testing in (the process of checking the signal by driving around with special equipment and software). We rented them. That was fun. We'd rent a nice brand new minivan from Budget or some car rental place and the first thing we'd do is rip out the dash board so we could run power cables to the alternator (I assume that's where they were plugging in. I dealt more with the software side).

In addition to some fairly expensive equipment, some of which our company designed, we also had specially modded PCS phones that, with a serial cable, would provide signal strength and other information to the computers.

We'd have maybe 3 or 4 laptops, each with a phone and GPS attached, and then we'd just go cruising around town recording signal strength, intereference measurements, and so on.

And if it wasn't just plain old geeky fun, the young engineers involved were simply a great group of people and we had a blast doing it together. And somehow we usually managed to get the minivans put back together well enough that we never got sued.

Thanks for the memories. I haven't thought about the old drive testing days in quite some time.

Re:Ahhh... The good old days

[Anonymous Coward]

allright, I read that first sentance wrong, couldve sworn it was: "It seems like a lifetime ago, but I guess i was only about 11 or so years old"

made the rest of your comment very odd :-p

Re:Ahhh... The good old days

[Anonymous Coward]

The cables to the dash went to the electronic speedometer feed so the dead-reckoning gear could keep track of where we were when the GPS flaked out... Remember having to calibrate by driving in circles?
-Lee

Re:Ahhh... The good old days

[wramsdel]

Small world! I worked for Nortel on the Detroit 800 MHz CDMA overlay for Airtouch ca. 1997-98. I did a lot of drive testing and data analysis. Same deal there with the rented vans, Manpower drivers, hacked laptops with the Nortel suite of barely patched-together scripts. We used Planet for system analysis back in the office. I also spent a bunch of time in the MTSO doing data logging on equipment Nortel had *just* purchased from Qualcomm. That was coop job #1...job #2 was working for Nortel Technology Applications in Dallas on CDMA system simulation and deployment guidelines. Seems to me that some of the consultants I worked with in Detroit were from a firm in Va. as well. Good times.

Harvard Sentences...

[jpellino]

Also known as two years' worth of daily changed inscrutable SIGs.

the big secret

[Goldsmith]

The big secret is that many of these companies simply piggy-back on one another. In the area I work, Cingular put up a bunch of towers and really covered the area in the way it should be done. Note that I do not mean to imply that Cingular regularly does this. Other carriers, not wanting to be outdone by Cingular, but also not wanting to actually do any work, simply made a deal with Cingular to use their towers. The result is an impacted network, and crappy service for all!

If you go to any of the coporate stores to buy a cell phone, they will regale you with tales of the great service you will have when you switch. We are lucky to have an independant cell phone store, which will give you an honest answer, and indeed even show you that many of the different service providers are using the same local signal.

Re:the big secret

[CallFinalClass]

Do cell phone service providers share towers? Sure, at times. NOTE: by "tower" I'm using a very specific definition - this is the metal pole that holds the antennas. Do cell phone service providers share antennas on that tower? Damn near never. If they've taken the time to install the electronic equipment at the site, they're not going to let a measly few thousand bucks stop them from having the best signal they can have. In any case, it's not technically feasible in the vast majority of cases, so it's not done (plus, you don't want to be at the mercy of a competitor).

Do service providers have roaming agreements? Ya, sure, you betcha. I'm guessing this is what you're getting at, but you do realize that a CDMA carrier won't be able to roam onto a TDMA carrier, right?

Do service providers resell service under other names, or allow resellers to do the same? Sure they do. Boost is Nextel repackaged, same idea with Virgin Mobile, although I don't recall who they buy their minutes from.

So, no big secret here.

Re:the big secret

[Anonymous Coward]

The ones using compatable technologies that is. If Cingular provides the signal then the only national company that could use it is T-Mobile, and that's only if it's in the PCS band. Verizon and Sprint may share the tower but the technology is completely imcompatable.

cups and a string!

[deian]

All this talk of phones...I'm still trying to figure out the whole cups and a string method!

Beware fender benders

[AntiGenX]

I'd hate to rear-end that guy! I don't know about you guys but I don't think my insurance policy could cover the equipment in that car. I'll be more cautious tailgating white ford tauruses in the future.

Coca-Cola product placement...

[AntiGenX]

Note the subtle Coca-cola product placement in the background of one of the photos.

Ugh... Nextel...

[SaDan]

Nextel may be good in Michigan (and I have heard that from more than one person), but it SUCKS hardcore in Illinois and Indiana.

I... hate... Nextel.

Dead spots

[jachim69]

They need to come drive some of the roads by me (NW Chicago suburbs). There's more than a few dead spots on roads I drive on a regular basis. I'm guaranteed to lose my signal if I'm talking to someone while driving them.

Some College Students Tried This Already

[usdrowe]

Some college students started doing this already, but want to provide it to the public. http://www.signalmaps.com

I also do this...

[OverkillTASF]

It paid $15/hour, which I thought was great. I mean, all I have to do is drive, right? Well, when hours are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and you factor in the potential cost of meals and lodging... Not to mention the fact that sitting in one precise position for that long is KILLER... I drove 550 miles in one day, and didn't actually end up going anywhere, because we just drove every road back and forth to cover an entire area. I don't think I was ever more than 30 miles from where I started. It's really crippling, psychologically, to be all "Wow, I can't wait 'til we get there!" because you feel like you're on a road trip. And then you realize... "Oh yeah... I'm just gonna end up back where I started." After a while, it was pretty enjoyable though, because I went nuts and was entertained by everything I saw on the side of the road.

Didn't really learn much as far as wireless goes, though I talked to the engineer a lot... Long car trips not to. Here's what I don't get...

Sprint wants to test their cell reception and compare it to their competitors... They hire company A to do it. Company A calls Company B for staffing. Company A pays Company B, and Engineer is hired, and paid by Company B. Company B then calls Company C to inquire about a drive. Company B pays Company C, and Company C find and pays the drive. Turning in hours was maddening. And think about how freaking expensive these drives are when you figure that everyone is making a profit in that multi-tiered platform. Sheesh!

P.S... Normally, the signs say "Watch For Children". But there were a few in the Blacksburg area I think that said "Watch Children". I was quite disappointed when I didn't see kids on the side of the road twirling plates, juggling chainsaws, and performing magic tricks for my entertainment.

Re:I also do this...

[Motherfucking Shit]

P.S... Normally, the signs say "Watch For Children". But there were a few in the Blacksburg area I think that said "Watch Children".

I always get a kick when I see one that says "Slow Children" instead of something like "Children At Play." Who'd want to advertise that their neighborhood is full of special ed kids... ;)

Capacity, not coverage problem.

[katharsis83]

Verizon has serious problems with their cell phone service, and they're testing for it the wrong way. Verizon has excellent coverage in the SF Bay Area - I can get 5-bars of service almost everywhere I go; I can even sometimes get text messages underground on BART.

The problem Verizon has is capacity; they've over-booked each of their cell phone towers. I'm not sure but I think most CDMA towers for Verizon can handle 80-100 simultaneous calls, and this gets to be a real problem in densely packed metropolitan areas. I get 5-bars of reception, but I can't place any calls, or they get dropped within 1-2 minutes of connecting. Sometimes it takes 2-3 minutes just to connect when I dial. They need to stop this crap about super-coverage when their capacity sucks donkey nuts.

This is making me consider switching over to AT&T, but their "New Every 2" plan is coming up for me soon. Does anyone here have experience in the Bay Area with AT&T service? I used to have them in their TDMA days, but switched to Verizon ~2 years ago.

Re:Capacity, not coverage problem.

[CallFinalClass]

CDMA Base Stations (or "towers") can handle over 500 calls at the same time. This isn't reached often, but it's certainly not unheard of either.

Wouldn't disagree with you on VZW's Bay area performance, it's not stellar there. Other places I travel to are better though.

Re:Capacity, not coverage problem.

[Nickybob]

New Every Two is irrelevant now with the merger between Cingular and ATT wireless. I had cingular GSM service in the outer bay area, and never had problems with the coverage. One nice thing in California for Cingular/ATT folk is that with the merger, Cingular sold their 1900 only band netowrk in California to T-mobile, and are using it to reinvest in ATT's dual band network. Bottom line is better in-building coverage, and coverage further from the tower. (1900 MHz vs 850 MHz).

Re:Capacity, not coverage problem.

[Xochil]

That hasn't been my experience with Verizon Wireless in the last five years (some of which were obviously with GTE Wireless) of daily heavy useof their service in the SF Bay area. I live in SF, but do client calls all around Marin, San Mateo, and Alameda counties as well as all over SF. The only time I ever get dropped calls with them in the SF area is when I hit known dead spots (like much of Pac Heights as well as Diamond Heights). Sounds to me like you have a cr*ppy phone. It's best to stay away from the digital-only junk. Get yourself a dual mode tri-band phone, and you should have bette luck. --Mike

Brain Cancer lawsuit?

[jimmer_nmu]

I wonder if verizon covers there asses and made him sign a "if I get brain cancer I won't sue" clause ?. Its just a matter of time til someone finds a doctor that will say their brain tumor is from cell phones. Let the litigation begin!

mine

[BigBir3d]

love my verizon service (phone is crap though).

sultan of brunei has a more valuable station wagon: here.

Besides ....

[taniwha]

I'm sure it's not "the most expensive station wagon ever" if we're including the cargo, I bet there are coke smugglers who lug more than this every day, and probably in the most boring looking station wagons

Re:Besides ....

[NormalVisual]

Even not including drug smugglers, it's not the most expensive. When my dad used to work for MCI (pre-Worldcom, before it went to the dark side), his Suburban was full to the gills with test equipment. Two of his spectrum analyzers alone accounted for more than half a million bucks, and there's no telling how much his other radio and fiber gear cost.

His truck was fairly representative of what the MCI techs were toting around on a regular basis. I'm sure there are DoD or other special-needs platforms that have quite a bit more money than that stuffed in them.

do you have insurance?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would really hate to get into an accident with that guy...

Best wardriving vehicle? guess again...

[mrqcho]

WarDrive Van

Now that's what I call geek!

Re:Best wardriving vehicle? guess again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds to me like someone is attempting to fulfill their dreams of starring in Sneakers 2: Real life

Re:Best wardriving vehicle? guess again...

[holstein]

Now that's what I call geek!

A true geek would not be selling this...!

The Other Side

[Unca' Scrooge]

I'd like to see them air a commercial from the point of view of the poor guy stuck at his desk all day...

"....yes....yes....yes....yes....yes....yes...."

Re:The Other Side

[Anonymous Coward]

Or a commercial where he gets to the end of his route...

Walker: "Can you hear me now?"
Cubicle: "Yup. Thats it!"
Walker: "Oh! Great!"
Cubicle: "Yup, time to start the double check."
Walker: "Sigh... Can you hear me NOW..."

looks like it was hosted on

[killa62]

the laptop on the verizon dude's car...

say it with me...

[artifex2004]

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon" ...with wireless access?

Suggestions for more test lines...

[ZombieToast]

"The human torch was denied a bankloan."

Grayson Test Equipment

[Daa]

http://www.andrew.com/products/measurement_sys/inv ex_system.aspx

is the info on the system they use to gather the data

I must remember to tell my boss that

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Give me a PC and I'll confirm my code has a bug in it. Give me a cluster of several hundred and I'll figure out why there's a bug.

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it run Linux?!?!

in-building towers

[yppiz]

I wouldn't be surprised if they do have in-building towers in some places. For instance, some SF cell providers have coverate in the BART system in stations that are three to five stories under ground (Powell St Station, for one). I don't know if they have a tower or some sort of repeater, but I would be surprised if the signal was coming through fifty feet of dirt, power lines, reinforced concrete, and city water mains. --Pat

Re:in-building towers

[lseltzer]

Verizon Wireless also has signal in Penn Station in New York City and in the tunnels under the Hudson river that lead to it. If you're a train commuter in NJ Verizon Wireless is the only way to go.

Re:in-building towers

[SillyNickName4me]

No idea about that, I do know that many train and subway stations in Europe have repeaters, and so do many trains and subways.

Re:in-building towers

[WhiteDragon]

Also in the metro Washington DC area, Verizon has cell sites for their CDMA-2000 network in the subway tunnels, so they are the only carrier that gets a signal in the trains when they are underground. Since I commute from MD to VA every day via the subway, it was very tempting for me to get a Verizon phone, but they are just so much more expensive than Cingular. Also, I stuck with Cingular because I can get a quad-band GSM phone and have pretty good coverage in most of the world.

Re:in-building towers

[Gordonjcp]

The Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow has some sort of system like that. I always get a 5-bar signal. There is a cell tower on top of the office block for it, but I doubt it actually works underground - but there are funny T-shaped things that might be aerials in the tunnel.

Harvard Sentences

[plimsoll]

After I heard the Verizon Wireless testing audio track linked in TFA I had to google the surrealist sentences they chose. I stumbled upon the weird-ass Harvard Psychoacoustic Sentence List, and I don't know which is stranger; the official test sentences or the unofficial ones they added themselves.

Here are the first 20 sentences of the test, noting the gender of the reader and the stanza:

F[H21/08]: (unintelligible) taught the new maid to serve.
M[H06/03]: Adding fast leads to wrong sums.
M[H06/04]: The show was a flop from the very start.
F[ ???? ]: There was water in the cellar after the heavy rain
F[ ???? ]: They're not listed in the new phone book.
M[H01/10]: A large size in stockings is hard to sell.
M[H01/06]: The juice of lemons makes fine punch.
F[H39/07]: Smoke poured out of every crack.
F[H39/08]: Serve the hot rum to the tired heroes.
M[H07/10]: Those words were the cue for the actor to leave.
M[H08/01]: A yacht slid around the point into the bay.
F[H10/05]: The play seems dull and quite stupid.
F[H11/06]: Thieves who rob friends deserve jail.
M[H06/01]: The frosty air passed through the coat.
M[H06/02]: The crooked maze failed to fool the mouse.
F[H21/09]: He wrote his last novel there at the inn.
F[H21/10]: Even the worst will beat his low score.
M[H06/05]: A saw is a tool used for making boards.
M[H06/06]: The wagon moved on well oiled wheels.
F[H24/01]: Try to have the court decide the case.

That's just weird (in a Conet Project sort of way)!

Never fear, Slashdot is here!

[Anonymous Coward]

"My god man, credit them with some intelligence!"

Slashdot slogan: "We're smart, you're not."

UC Berkeley / Soda Hall / 2nd Floor

[krunk4ever]

for those who have attended or are currently attending UC Berkeley and is part of the CS or EECS program, you'll understand that it's practically impossible to get reception on the 2nd floor of Soda.

not with cingular, not with at&t, not with tmobile, and not even with verizon. every wireless company besides SprintPCS would not work on 2nd floor Soda Hall. whenever i talked on my sprintpcs cell on 2nd floor soda, people would actually come up to me and say, "wow. you get reception down here? which company do you use?"

How about the real workers?

[professorfalcon]

When will they do an article about the poor deer who help boost Nextel bars?

Re:Must. Resist. Urge. To. Attack. Oh, what the he

[BarryNorton]

Why is it you never have mod points on the days when you just HAVE to have them?? Grrrrr....

Because you use them to enforce your opinions on movies and get meta-modded down?

I am willing to bet...

[suman28]

They have never come to by side of the neighbourhood in Suwanee, GA. There is a 2 mile stretch where just about every phone I have owned (6 different phones from 3 different carriers, with Verizon among them) don't work. The signal drops no matter what. That is one way my wife can tell, I am close to home. What a way to keep track of me, Me: Yeah honey, I am only a couple of miles away. Wifey: No you are not. Then how come the phone is worki....(click). Then I show up a 1/2 hr later. :)

Bandwidth of a station wagon?

[forsetti]

Wow -- so what is the bandwidth of *THIS* station wagon?!?!

No, I can't hear you ever

[Theovon]

I hate Verizon. I could never get a good signal anywhere!

Not the service, the phone.

[caveat]

I've had VZW for almost three years now. First year, I has a shitty Motorola (v120c), dropped calls left and right, and if I had less than four bars of signal it got so choppy ans scrambled it wasn't much use talking anyway. Upgraded to an LG (VX10 now a 4500) and the only time I've ever lost calls is due to no signal. Gimme two bars and it sounds clear as a bell and holds on fine. Seriously, check your gear.

The test audio...

[trudyscousin]

...seems to be indistinguishable from most NPR content.

And if it were in print, it'd be great stuff for spammers to use to obfuscate their crap.

Nextel repeaters

[Aero]

Can't speak for Sprint, but Nextel offers repeaters, and they're the only reason why we get coverage inside the glass-steel-and-concrete cage that I work in. Before they got installed, you couldn't get a signal if you were more than 15 feet away from an exterior wall. That doesn't mean I like the service (I don't), but certain departments that I work with are absolutely in love with the rassa-sassa-frassin' PTT function (and have too many people who will ramble on and on for minutes at a time over a half-duplex link, with the recipient literally being unable to get a word in edgewise) and won't give it up.

The bad coverage in Westchester isn't VZ's Fault

[vudufixit]

It's due to the selfish NIMBY fuckhead community activists that pressure their local officials into not permitting additional cell towers.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Most expensive station wagon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't you seen Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters II? That station wagon might even break the million-dollar mark, what with all the ghost-fighting gear, the antennae, and the alarm and light system.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Well no wonder

[Syberghost]

Now I understand why their damn network only works along major highways.

I did this same job for SWBMS

[Anonymous Coward]

Boring job. I did it for 2 years with Soutwestern Bell Mobile Systems a.k.a. SWB Wireless, a.k.a. Cingular Wireless.

Sucky job to be sure, but at least I wasn't at a desk in cube hell.

This guy was on the news

[4Lancer.net]

in my area (Central PA, Sus-Q Valley) on WGAL, an NBC affiliate, when he happened to be rolling around the area.

Sound clip

[CrazyTalk]

Did anyone else listen to it and expect to hear "My hovercraft is full of eels"?

Alternatives to drive testing...

[drake]

We're developing software that can enable carriers to pinpoint drive testing. We analyze call logs and are able to triangulate call locations and generate maps and other reports based on where problems are occurring.

This is the next generation of RF analysis software which allows wireless carriers to pinpoint trouble spots faster than drive testing alone.

Our web site has more details: http://www.mobilemeridian.com/

Blackberry 7750 + SLC + Verizon == $$ * bad

[dougnaka]

We have people all over the country and most swear only Verizon works (East coast mostly) in their area, so we are stuck paying the outrageous rates. However, where I live, SLC, I get poor service and if I'm on a call more than 3 minutes I have about a 50% chance of the call randomly dropping. T-Mobile in the same areas did NOT have this problem.

I pay a little over $150/month (total) for 1200 minutes, and unlimited data. I used to have a T-Mobile sidekick (I miss it) for about $60/month for 1000 minutes + unlimited data, or $70/month for 3000 minutes + unlimited data. Both data services are useless for web browsing (way too slow). The Blackberry gets email about as fast as the Sidekick did. I downloaded a chat client for the blackberry ($35/year) which lost almost 30% of the IMs I sent.. I had been an IM junkie on my sidekick with being able to easily keep track of 5+ simultaneous chats, and never having lost a message. On the BB chat was horrible, the keyboard was too small, and managing more than 1 chat was almost impossible. The Blackberry has some nice corporate features like end to end encryption, but for email? who thinks email is secure to begin with? The only feature I actually LOVE about the Blackberry is the fact that if you enter the password 10 times wrong it deletes ALL of your data. Honestly, I think this is an amazing feature and should be on any mobile phone capable of storing personal data. It does have you type in the word blackberry after every other failed password to make sure you're 4 year old isn't just running off with your phone, so it's not like it'll happen by accident. But if someone swipes your phone they don't get all your secret corporate data.

I'm way off topic now, but I'm thinkin about getting the Motorola A630 w/T-Mobile from Amazon.com.. But no unlimited text messaging and 1000 txt's/month for a chat junkie just doesn't cut it.. So I may just get the sidekick II.. But I want bluetooth! I'd even go for one of the newer Blackberries w/bluetooth.. Since this one is ONLY good for email, and barely good for phone..

Anyone have a good chat client for the BB? Recommendation for chat/email/phone cellphone? I couldn't care less about a camera phone or "games"..

Re:Blackberry 7750 + SLC + Verizon == $$ * bad

[Zen]

I have no info for the questions you actually asked, but I'll warn you against the bluetooth crackberry. I have the 7280, and it works just fine for me, but I don't have any IM programs. Just poker, checkers, and Webviewer. Anyway, I can get 4+ days of battery power out of by 7280, but my coworkers with the newer 7290's get about 2 days or less. This is with mediocre use of the cell phone, but extensive use of email. If you talk on the phone constantly, you'll get even less time than that.

Make $$$ in your spare time!

[wcrowe]

I hear at night he moonilights as a streetlamp inspector.

Mr. Perfect

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. Here is how!! Awesome!

Say what you want...

[Super Happy Fun Chem]

about Cingular/ATT. Ill tell you this, Cingular is the only company that gets a signal in the building I work in (Phys/Chem dept.) The building is circa 50's construction with cinder blocks, and basically functions as an imperfect Faraday cage. I get signal in the NMR room, which in addition to having tons of EM running around, has to be shielded because of it. Only room I cant get good signal in is the X-Ray room, oddly enuogh. Good luck to the Verizon/Sprint guys trying to get a signal anywhere that isnt right next to a window (like the hallway right next to the labs).

You can use GSM in South Korea it's true...but

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a relatively new network (i think that both SK Telecom and KT introduced their GSM coverage in 2003) and I imagine it doesn't work well outside of the Seoul/Pusan/Incheon areas. My wife's old nokia phone didn't have perfect reception here in Seoul, but it was usually alright.

CDMA works perfectly fine here though, I can use my phone on a moving subway (and my phone is an old Samsung). I know there's a much smaller area to cover than the States, but it seems that even in major cities in the States, people have some problems with coverage. Which seems to be pretty unreasonable in this day and age.

Re:You can use GSM in South Korea it's true...but

[SillyNickName4me]

> My wife's old nokia phone didn't have perfect reception here in Seoul, but it was usually alright.

Hehe, well, Nokia usually sucks when it comes to decent reception.. but hrm, many people have them or have something rather comparable.

> CDMA works perfectly fine here though, I can use my phone on a moving subway (and my phone is an old Samsung). I know there's a much smaller area to cover than the States, but it seems that even in major cities in the States, people have some problems with coverage. Which seems to be pretty unreasonable in this day and age.

Exactly.

too valuable?

[juan2074]

(I dare say the most valuable station wagon ever?)

That's great. Now it will be a target for carjackers, thieves, and other neer-do-wells.

ASSHOLE

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to yak on the cell phone, PULL THE FUCK OVER! Your driving whilst on the phone is about as good as that of a drunk. I'm sure everyone else appreciates you putting their lives in significantly heightened and unnecessary danger, bozo.

If you can't understand...

[lorcha]

...the difference between being drunk and talking on a cellphone, then you will never understand this. Let me help.

Some symptoms of being intoxicated are:

1. Aggressive or moody behavior
2. Double vision
3. Motor skill difficulties such as stumbling while walking or slurred speech
4. Inability to concentrate or remember things
5. Inability to recognize familiar places (gee, think that makes navigation difficult? I have a friend who once passed out in a snowbank in the dead of winter because he couldn't figure out who he was or where he lived. Moron is lucky to be alive.)
6. Dizziness and/or tingling in the extremities
7. Vomiting
8. Passing out

Talking on a cellphone is not in any way comparable to DUI. I have never seen someone pass out or vomit from talking on a cellphone, but I see that from drinking every weekend. I certainly see aggressive drunks every weekend, but talking on a cell does not cause aggression.

You can't expect people to take you seriously if you want to make wild comparisons between unrelated things. Saying that if we allow people to talk on cellphones we might as well allow people to drive drunk is ludicrous.

Re:If you can't read...

[daikokatana]

... what I wrote, don't bother to reply. I merely stated that BOTH influence your ability to drive (albeit, not in the same matter), and that therefor there is a reason to ban one if the other is already banned.

Ever seen someone busy talking on their mobile while driving? Great drivers eh?

I do a lot of miles every year - people are always talking about how speed kills etc... Well, I'd rather have a focused driver pass me at 50 miles over the limit, than a driver who's talking on the phone at 10 miles over the limit.