SMS wrote:
> Steven J. Sobol wrote:
>> In article <45a2db6d$0$69006$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, SMS wrote:
>>
>>> Actually, if you look at all the independent studies, there are
>>> better and poorer providers. Verizon tends to be the best provider in
>>> the most parts of the country. You may find an isolated area where
>>> another provider is better, but overall, you need to go by the survey
>>> results.
>>
>> You and Mij are both right. But try to find native VZW coverage in
>> Arkansas or Oklahoma, including the large cities, like Little Rock and
>> Oklahoma City. Nothing.
>
> Are you saying no coverage, or no native coverage? Most users just want
> coverage, and don't care all that much about which carrier is providing
> it, occasional non-native coverage is no biggie. In the past two weeks
> I've roamed, with a Verizon phone, onto Golden State Cellular, both CDMA
> and AMPS, and onto Cingular AMPS. I wasn't thrilled about roaming onto
> Cingular, as I think I will be charged for it, but since there was no
> CDMA or GSM in the area I was, at least I was doing better than 95% or
> so or Cingular's own subscribers that can't use Cingular's AMPS network
> at all.

I know people in Arkansas and a small part of the reason why I haven't
gone to visit them is the fact I'll be stuck on Alltel (locally known as
"Aww hell") the entire time I am there. Their service is almost
acceptable for voice coverage but, at least in Texas, getting a 14.4k
switched data call out of their network requires anywhere from 3 to 20
redial attempts, and of course 1xRTT/EVDO doesn't work. The local
Alltel buildout is 1xRTT capable, but no @vzw3g.com roaming.

I will say Alltel's CDMA service beats the crap out of the jokers
Verizon chooses to roam onto when you travel up US 287 from Wichita
Falls to Amarillo. Absolutely no data services, text messages, or vmail
notification. Qualcomm should de-license these carriers for their own
image's sake.

JS