You think you know your Cell phone technology? Plan rate? (specially, you paying more than $100 a month)

[TimeKeeper]

I have been w/ Sprint ever since Spectrum era (7 years ago). Recently, I keep getting drop calls and service line has been always busy at Washington D.C. metro area. I do some research on plan-and-service on varies Wireless carrier and found Sprint no longer has "competative" edge.

Then I read more and found GSM GPRS might be the only way to go for the future, especially you like to travel around the world and you got PDA to update. (even ATT is doing the mMode- GSM and going to have "soft launch" on June 5. 2002 at CA)..........want to learn more about about these cell phone thingy try this BBS site.

Also, ever wonder why some people able to use those cool, Motorola V70 ? Ericsson T68 ? Nokia 7650 ? And my wife's Motorola V66 ? It was so much easier, just swap your SIM card around.

This is just my opinion, after all, I finally gave up my 5-year-old sprintpcs number to move on to GSM.







p.s. Due to my job, I am paying $149 w/ Sprint's 2000 min. (99.99% local calls) and I still OVER use my plan.
I acutally pay around $220 a month.
Anyhow, I recently sign up w/ Voicestream's local plan 3000 anytime minute for only $59!!!!!!
You might said...."yeah...but no long distance, big deal!"

Hold on...here is the beauty part of GSM phone:
then I sign up another contract w/ their National plan for $29. (200/unlimited) And I put both SIM card in the same phone!!!!

Now, I have 3200 anytime minute and unlimited weekend call + Web-download (up to 1MB for my PDA) for only $99 a month!!!!!!!!!! Oh did I mention, I will have no problem using my phone anywhere around the world?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

GPRS is 2.5G, a transition stage from current 2G to 3G, won't last long.
the future is 3G (cdma2000 or cdmaone).

I used Pacbell GSM 1900Mhz (now is Cingular) for 3 years, now switched to older technology TDMA - AT&T. Cingular got too many users, and because of free night and weekend, the network is overloaded, cannot make call or receive call during night prime hour, kind of useless.

US's GSM 1900Mhz is not good enough, Europe and Asia use GSM 900MHz and 1800Mhz dual band -more coverage, cheaper plan rate if you choose GSM 1800Mhz only.

west coast AT&T is TDMA and Cingular is GSM while east coast AT&T is GSM and Cingular is TDMA.

 

[jaggrey]

Sprint all the way!!! I used to experience what you did in Washington DC, as I am from that area. That was with my Nokia 6185. I switched to the Samsung 8500 and haven't had a problem since. It holds a signal much better than that Nokia. Now I have the A400, an update to the 8500, but haven't been home since I got the phone a couple of months ago.

I know a few Sprint reps (I work at Office Depot part-time when I'm in DC for the summer) and they always show how they're putting up new towers around the city & stuff. They've been good to me downtown.

I would try a different phone.