Alltel offers direct service in 56 prevent of the country. It offers its full suite of services to its customers in 96 percent of the country that is evEry major metropolitan area through reciprocal roaming agreements with Verizon and sprint. So you can use your phone basically anywhere with no didfrence in how your service works.
My point is not about alltel it is about service quality in general. Cingular is not good in most places it offers service. That is proven in both the most recent JD powers surveys and consumer reports.
Truth is not FUD. It is a fact that eVrc is superior to the half coded GSM vocoder that Cingular uses in its major metropolitan markets. Why because gsm is not as efficient at using spectrum than wcdma or CDMA. They have to do this. Just look at the JD powers and consumer reports for network quality comparisons on all the carriers. Cingular is not at the top of these lists.
It is just a poor choice. It is a great idea just bad partner.
I think you don't understand what I mean in my post or what largest means. I personally work for Alltel so if that reveals any bias I want that out upfront. Cingular is the largest GSM operator... there are only two major GSM operators in the US T-Mobile and Cingular. There are three major CDMA Carriers, Verzion, Sprint, and Alltel. The Majority of US Mobile Customers use CDMA service. They use it because it works better in more areas. Even using the fairly inaccurate marketing maps that the Major carriers use you can see that CDMA coverage is significantly more widespread. There is nothing wrong with GSM... there is something wrong with Cingular. In most major Markets see JD POWERS and CONSUMER REPORTS show that Cingular is ranked in the bottom for customer satisfaction. Customers report more dropped calls, network busy errors, poor sound quality. This is also true for Sprint usually. Again markets vary.
Cingular is a bad choice because it is a bad operator.
Alltel provides GSM service for Roamers only along some major highways in places like Montana and South Dakota where there are no gsm providers at all. This is more complicated than can be discussed in a slashdot post.
Alltel's network is defined by the size of the coverage. This is actually the most important factor. It is really great to be able to call n-million people for free until your phone says no service or there is functionally no service. I don't want to sound like a sales pitch.
GSM is not the logical choice. WCDMA(UMTS) would be the best choice as a start. It would limit the release to certain markets in the US, however, it would be the better upgrade path. WCDMA has significant release in the world. The problem is two years from now everything will be WCDMA in the rest of the world. So for two years it will be a US only product. Also many phones this year will be opting for a dual WCDMA and CDMA1x\EVDO on one phone. Qualcomm has chipsets that will do this as of now. So... you design one handset on one of those chipsets.
They would have been better off partnering with more than one company for this. They should have focused on worldwide release for real.
This argument is pointless though. They just made a bad decision from a Technology and Partner perspective.
I think what is funny is when a GSM user first uses a CDMA handset and notices the following things:
1)People sound like human beings. They are not androids talking in a tunnel.
2)When you are anywhere rural your phone works like a charm not just on the highway.
3)If they are talking for more than 5 minutes in a busy area their call doesn't drop.
4)If they have a highspeed phone(ie smartphone) It is not slow as molasses in January.
The thing that is wrong with Cingular is the four above things. Their voice quality is not as good as Verizon or Alltel, GSM build out in America is terrible and you can blame Cingular and AT&T for that, Call Capacity and basic technology of GSM networks is less able to cope with heavy use than a CDMA carrier, EGDE is no EVDO.
I think you may need to investigate your facts. There are only two major GSM operators in the US. Cingular, and T-mobile. The majority of the US is covered by CDMA service. The build out of CDMA network in North America is so drastically superior it is not even a close call. The largest carrier by actual land mass is Alltel. And they run CDMA almost exclusively except for some GSM, for roaming revenue in some major corridors in rural areas. Verizon would most likely qualify as the next largest for physical network build out. Sprint and Cingular are consistently rated the the worst carriers for call quality, dropped calls, network capacity, etc. The Fact of the matter is that there will have to be a CDMA/EVDO version of this eventually because it makes economic sense in North America, Korea, Japan, etc. CDMA users buy more expensive phones, use more minutes, use more Data services, have higher speed internet access, etc. Verizon does lock out functionality of phones and that is because they are jerks. But you can't deny that between Alltel and Verizon most US customers have really really good choices for mobile operators for actual call quality, Data Access, etc. These people are not going to go choose a lesser product because of the phone. In fact it would be in Apple's best interest to be partnered with any other carrier. The technological limitations of GSM as compared to CDMA1x\EVDO or even WCDMA(UMTS) are huge. They won't be overcome with a good user interface if the call drops half the time, or sounds like you are speaking with a robot. GSM is on the downturn overall in the US. Verizon will most likely surpass Cingular in subsribers this year, and with the rollout of WCDMA and some new chipsets that are due this year, phones will be able to run on both CDMA1x or WCDMA. Thank you for standards finally getting closer together.
So in summary, you accurately informed the above poster that it is GSM only, however, you inaccurately inform them that there will probably never be CDMA version. I don't see how there won't be one eventually.
Slashdot Mirror
Alltel offers direct service in 56 prevent of the country. It offers its full suite of services to its customers in 96 percent of the country that is evEry major metropolitan area through reciprocal roaming agreements with Verizon and sprint. So you can use your phone basically anywhere with no didfrence in how your service works. My point is not about alltel it is about service quality in general. Cingular is not good in most places it offers service. That is proven in both the most recent JD powers surveys and consumer reports.
Truth is not FUD. It is a fact that eVrc is superior to the half coded GSM vocoder that Cingular uses in its major metropolitan markets. Why because gsm is not as efficient at using spectrum than wcdma or CDMA. They have to do this. Just look at the JD powers and consumer reports for network quality comparisons on all the carriers. Cingular is not at the top of these lists. It is just a poor choice. It is a great idea just bad partner.
I think you don't understand what I mean in my post or what largest means. I personally work for Alltel so if that reveals any bias I want that out upfront. Cingular is the largest GSM operator... there are only two major GSM operators in the US T-Mobile and Cingular. There are three major CDMA Carriers, Verzion, Sprint, and Alltel. The Majority of US Mobile Customers use CDMA service. They use it because it works better in more areas. Even using the fairly inaccurate marketing maps that the Major carriers use you can see that CDMA coverage is significantly more widespread. There is nothing wrong with GSM... there is something wrong with Cingular. In most major Markets see JD POWERS and CONSUMER REPORTS show that Cingular is ranked in the bottom for customer satisfaction. Customers report more dropped calls, network busy errors, poor sound quality. This is also true for Sprint usually. Again markets vary. Cingular is a bad choice because it is a bad operator. Alltel provides GSM service for Roamers only along some major highways in places like Montana and South Dakota where there are no gsm providers at all. This is more complicated than can be discussed in a slashdot post. Alltel's network is defined by the size of the coverage. This is actually the most important factor. It is really great to be able to call n-million people for free until your phone says no service or there is functionally no service. I don't want to sound like a sales pitch. GSM is not the logical choice. WCDMA(UMTS) would be the best choice as a start. It would limit the release to certain markets in the US, however, it would be the better upgrade path. WCDMA has significant release in the world. The problem is two years from now everything will be WCDMA in the rest of the world. So for two years it will be a US only product. Also many phones this year will be opting for a dual WCDMA and CDMA1x\EVDO on one phone. Qualcomm has chipsets that will do this as of now. So... you design one handset on one of those chipsets. They would have been better off partnering with more than one company for this. They should have focused on worldwide release for real. This argument is pointless though. They just made a bad decision from a Technology and Partner perspective.
I think what is funny is when a GSM user first uses a CDMA handset and notices the following things: 1)People sound like human beings. They are not androids talking in a tunnel. 2)When you are anywhere rural your phone works like a charm not just on the highway. 3)If they are talking for more than 5 minutes in a busy area their call doesn't drop. 4)If they have a highspeed phone(ie smartphone) It is not slow as molasses in January. The thing that is wrong with Cingular is the four above things. Their voice quality is not as good as Verizon or Alltel, GSM build out in America is terrible and you can blame Cingular and AT&T for that, Call Capacity and basic technology of GSM networks is less able to cope with heavy use than a CDMA carrier, EGDE is no EVDO.
I think you may need to investigate your facts. There are only two major GSM operators in the US. Cingular, and T-mobile. The majority of the US is covered by CDMA service. The build out of CDMA network in North America is so drastically superior it is not even a close call. The largest carrier by actual land mass is Alltel. And they run CDMA almost exclusively except for some GSM, for roaming revenue in some major corridors in rural areas. Verizon would most likely qualify as the next largest for physical network build out. Sprint and Cingular are consistently rated the the worst carriers for call quality, dropped calls, network capacity, etc. The Fact of the matter is that there will have to be a CDMA/EVDO version of this eventually because it makes economic sense in North America, Korea, Japan, etc. CDMA users buy more expensive phones, use more minutes, use more Data services, have higher speed internet access, etc. Verizon does lock out functionality of phones and that is because they are jerks. But you can't deny that between Alltel and Verizon most US customers have really really good choices for mobile operators for actual call quality, Data Access, etc. These people are not going to go choose a lesser product because of the phone. In fact it would be in Apple's best interest to be partnered with any other carrier. The technological limitations of GSM as compared to CDMA1x\EVDO or even WCDMA(UMTS) are huge. They won't be overcome with a good user interface if the call drops half the time, or sounds like you are speaking with a robot. GSM is on the downturn overall in the US. Verizon will most likely surpass Cingular in subsribers this year, and with the rollout of WCDMA and some new chipsets that are due this year, phones will be able to run on both CDMA1x or WCDMA. Thank you for standards finally getting closer together. So in summary, you accurately informed the above poster that it is GSM only, however, you inaccurately inform them that there will probably never be CDMA version. I don't see how there won't be one eventually.