[geeks] Opinions on T-Mobile and Verizon

[Michael Parson]

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007, James Fogg wrote:

<snip>

> The CDMA network is the old TDMA network, which is the old AMPS
> (analog) network. It's the oldest system and has been continuously
> expanded from it's beginnings 20 years ago. The GSM network is
> far newer, and the providers are financially much smaller and not
> willing to invest in infrastructure. And I don't care what Cingular
> says, dropped calls and sucky connections are a much bigger problem
> in GSM-land. CDMA solved the inter-cell drop problem that TDMA
> had. Sometimes VZ calls fail to complete though, but at least you
> aren't mid-conversation.

GSM is built on top of the old TDMA with FDMA.  CDMA is a competing
technology developed by Qualcomm.

The major US GSM providers are Cingular^Wat&t and T-Mobile, though I've
seen my phone connect to a few other networks over the years, including
i-Wireless while I was driving through Iowa a few months back, and
Cellular-One, which I didn't even know was still around.

A friend of mine was just recently forced by at&t wireless to move from
an old TDMA account that he's had for years to GSM.  He got the account
back before Cingular existed, under the original AT&T Wireless.

Sprint and Verizon are the two major (only?) CDMA providers in the US.

On paper, CDMA is supposed to be a better technology, my experience
around the both of them, I'd say it's a wash.  CDMA does have faster
wireless data abilities, but if you want a phone to be a phone, you
don't care about that part.

>>  From what I have read, they don't lock the phones up as much, and
>> almost all unlocked phones work with their service as well.
>
> And, does it matter? Most things you want to do can be done with a
> work-around. VZ has begun to welcome using a cell phone as a modem,
> sometimes even by Bluetooth (more often by USB). I find only children
> use the big pay-for features like sending photos, watching videos and
> continual TXTing.
>
>> The plans are another story: none of them are what I want, and all
>> of them cost more than I want to pay, but there seems to be no way
>> around that.
>
> VZ is a bit more expensive. But after 3 years with them I find it
> worth the money. If you want to use the VZ network (but not their nice
> software) look at US Cellular.
>
>> On a related note: cell data plans cost too much.  Are there any
>> decent phones out there with WIFI?
>
> I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. If you have WiFi,
> just use a laptop (I know, big and heavy). I think some PDA's and
> Smartphones have WiFi, but it seems like overkill and it's counter to
> your phone-only desires.

Some people want a WiFi phone that can do VOIP on the WiFi, not everyone
wants to update their myspace page via their phone.  BTW, T-Mobile
offers this.

> Honestly, I find only techie business users really ever push a
> phone to it's full abilities. That's why I got the Samsung with the
> keyboard. I rarely use the advanced features, but they are there
> in a tiny package. I use a business Treo and as a pocket access
> device it's cute, but they all *suck* and are hard to use compared
> to a laptop. After the gee-wiz factor fades they are a distant
> second-choice option.

I use a Treo for personal stuff.  I've never wanted my work email to
bother me when I'm not in front of the computer.  But I'm strange that
way.  But over the years, my family has come to expect to be able to get
in touch with me via whatever means they have at the time, and this is
the best way I know how given current reasonable technologies.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org