["Followup-To:" header set to alt.cellular.sprintpcs.]
On 2008-05-07, Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote:

>> 800 MHz. Don't you think that the coverage issues of Sprint and T-Mobile,
>> which have been endlessly exposed in user surveys by independent entities,
>> have something to do with them being unable to catch up to Verizon and
>> AT&T?
>
> Perhaps... or it could be Verizon's and AT&T's 15 year head start?

Good point. Let's look at the facts.

Verizon. Formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. Verizon Wireless
included those properties plus the properties of Vodafone AirTouch Cellular
and PrimeCo (A 1900MHz carrier, Phillippe, FYI).

Now, let's look at the history in my hometown.

** GTE was in Cleveland in the 90's with AMPS. My first phone was a GTE
Mobilnet AMPS handset in 1993. CDMA was introduced in 1995.

** Cleveland had a CellularONE network for quite some time. About the same
time everyone went digital, CellularONE Cleveland became AirTouch.

So, both networks went digital in the mid-90's. In 2000-2001, AirTouch became
Verizon Wireless. Due to anti-trust concerns, GTE Wireless's Cleveland
network was spun off to Alltel.

Now, I've never been an AT&T customer but I believe they went digital in
Cleveland about a year or two after GTE/Airtouch did.

All three networks -- GTE, AirTouch and what used to be Ameritech Cellular
and is now AT&T -- had been around in some form for at least ten years.

Cleveland was one of the last markets T-Mobile launched, in 2000-2001, and
even then they had coverage in some rural spots that I was surprised they'd
cover.

Sprint's network, much newer than the incumbents, had coverage at my house
along Lake Erie in a neighborhood no one else covered until a year after I
moved there, and Verizon's coverage in Ashtabula was horrible where
Sprint's was very good. Ashtabula is about an hour east of Cleveland; smallish
town, but not middle-of-nowhere small.

> I don't. I called it "anecdotal" for a reason. However, I'm enjoying the
> irony that MY anecdote "shouldn't be extrapolated," yet yours is "all too
> typical!" ;-)

Heh

> their phones don't work anywhere? Why hasn't the free market done it's job?

Well, that's the thing, the free market IS doing its job.

I believe that was your point.

--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com
Geek-for-hire. Details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesobol