At 25 Apr 2009 14:01:49 -0400 George wrote:

> > I question that. I have a unique viewpoint on this, also. See, for
a long
> > time I worked jobs that required me to carry company provided cell
phones
> > from various providers. For a while, I was carrying two cell phones,
one on
> > Cingular (ATT) and one on Verizon. While I was doing this, I was
travelling
> > all over the U.S. to some very obscure areas. I find the (current
ATT)
> > network to be at least as good as Verizon in terms of quality and
> > *availability*. There were many areas I went into that had a strong
signal
> > on one handset and no signal on the other. More often than not though,
when
> > I had no signal, it was on the Verizon handset. I don't believe
Verizon has
> > the best network. I know that both Verizon and ATT like to CLAIM
that they
> > have the best network. Based on my extensive travels though, I'd say
this:
> > Verizon's network is well above average, but not quite as good as ATT.
>
> Might be something unique about where you travel because I can't
> say the same.


Ageed- I use T-Mobile, so I'm painfully aware of places where some phones
have no signal- usually mine! ;-) I tend to look around and see who's
phones work in situations where mine or others don't. Based on my purely
anecdotal observations, I've been places where nobody has had service,
including Verizon, but rarely have I seen anywhere where a Verizon phone
had no service, but others did. (Besides just playing the look at the
phone to determine the carrier" game, I can also search for AT&T signal
on my T-Mo handset as well as confirm Verizon service on my PagePlus
prepaid phone I carry when I know in advance I'll be in weak reception
areas.)

> Another interesting point is that VZW is anal about redundancy
> and reliability. ATT sites are toy things with a tiny battery and
> no generator. VZW has both substantial battery and generators
> on most everything. So why does that matter? Early last winter
> there was a heavy ice storm in a wide region near me that took
> down commercial power for four days. Multiple people I know who
> live in that area said that ATT, Sprint/nextel went dark in less
> than two hours and were off for the entire four days. VZW kept going.


That's true- the industry trade paper RCR Wireless News (who sadly closed
their doors recently) did an article on the backup capacity of carriers
after Katrina tested all of them, and only Verizon had backup generators
at every site it was allowed to (some are prohibited due to safety
concerns about on-site fuel storage- Verizon uses high-capacity batteries
good for 8-12 hours minimum on those sites instead. The other carriers
used batteries with 4-hour capacity and COWs (portable Cellsites On
Wheels) that they deploy to disaster areas on an as needed basis. (COWS
are typically moved to hurricane regions prior to the storm's landfall
for rapid deployment if needed, but if a carrier is caught by a suprise
disaster, they might take several hours to deploy.)

Other carriers use generators on a "skeleton" subset of their coverage
area, but not nearly as thorougly as Verizon. Say whatever bad you want
about Verizon, but they take network reliability G-D seriously.


> > Yes, Verizon is good. Not the best though, and Verizon is over-priced
> > compared to their competition. But if you can get someone else to
pay for
> > your VZW service, great! -Dave
> >
> >
>
> A lot of people keep saying that. Current sample prices follow:
>
> ATT
>
> 1350 $79.99
> Unlimited $99.99
>
> VZW
> 1350 $79.99
> Unlimited $99.99


Simple minutes for dollars comparisons fail to take into account other
carriers' perks which Verizon lacks. AT&T plans include rollover, which
often allow customers to use a lower tier plan, Sprint has 6pm nights,
reducing the needed number of "daytime" minutes, etc...

Verizon was also much higher for Blackberry/smartphone data ($45 vs. $30)
until recently, when they realigned data pricing to match AT&T.