In alt.cellular.verizon Elmo P. Shagnasty <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote:
>
> If you want the ability to switch out phones as a fashion statement, and
> have several phones to choose from depending on what mood you're in,
> then realistically in the US your choice is GSM and the SIM
> card--excepting the iPhone, of course.
>

Actually, you can switch out your phones on Verizon all that you want too [but
currently, you are limitted to Verizon supported phones]. That doesn't
affect your ability to get a discount on a new phone in one or two years and
it doesn't affect your contract term.

With Sprint PCS, and perhaps only with Sprint PCS, if you change phones, your
discount on a new phone is reset to two years out. They trigger the discount
on two years from your last ESN switch. That is absolutely ridiculous and is
a sign of just how poor the programmers who set that system up were (or still
are!). In fact, it is this reason alone [and the customer service that
followed the flaw] that led me to leave Sprint PCS after about five years.

> What you give up, frankly, is network availability and call quality.
>

Verizon has a GREAT network and their plans have excellent coverage [including
roaming] for post pay customers. I won't go into the reasons why I think CDMA
is a better technology for voice than GSM (but let's say multipath is
particular beneficial in downtown areas) but I think there are many with
relatively fewer benefits going to GSM. I often hear my coworkers who use
T-Mobile and AT&T complain that the person on the other end can't hear them
.... or the other way around. I don't think that has ever happened to me on a
CDMA phone. Since I hate Sprint PCS now [for good reasons enumerated hear
more than a year ago], Verizon is my only real option here unless I decide to
tolerate AT&T and live with what AT&T offers, which is GSM and higher prices
:-(

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse

America is the country where you buy a lifetime
supply of aspirin for one dollar, and use it up in two weeks.