"TDMA/ANALOG NTWK CHG - $4.99" OK, but why "NTWK"?

[RANT_MODE_ON]

I just got my Cingular bill with the extra $4.99 "TDMA/ANALOG NTWK"
charge. No surprise here. Still, I don't understand why they are
charging us, TDMA users, extra. As far as I know they are required by
law to operate the TDMA network till 2008, even if there is a single
TDMA customer. There is no way they are going to make ALL their
customers switch. So, no matter what they charge, they will keep the
network running. Why charge me for my decision not to upgrade? It is
not costing them more if people don't upgrade! I may be wrong here...

And I'm not going to upgrade because TDMA still has far better coverage
in rural areas (at least in Northern California) than GSM. Every time
when we go camping or hikink my fellow campers/hikers rely on my old
TDMA/Analog phone when their GSMs go blank.

[RANT_MODE_OFF]

BTW, I cannot help but wonder... The extra charge is labeled
"TDMA/ANALOG NTWK". NTWK stands for "Night & Weekend" minutes, I
presume. Does this mean that I have to pay extra _ONLY_ because I'm
using night & weekend minutes? What if I get rid of the free night &
weekend? There is something fishy here... Is anybody in the newsgroup a
lawyer?

- Alex

avtanski@gmail.com wrote:
> [RANT_MODE_ON]
>
> I just got my Cingular bill with the extra $4.99 "TDMA/ANALOG NTWK"
> charge. No surprise here. Still, I don't understand why they are
> charging us, TDMA users, extra. As far as I know they are required by
> law to operate the TDMA network till 2008, even if there is a single
> TDMA customer.

Wrong. They are required to operate the AMPS network until 2008. They
can turn off TDMA any time they want. However they've stated that
they'll turn both off at the same time.

> And I'm not going to upgrade because TDMA still has far better coverage
> in rural areas (at least in Northern California) than GSM.

It's probably because of the AMPS that the coverage is so much better.
TDMA+AMPS has far more coverage than GSM, but most of that's due to AMPS.

Northern California is an especially bad area for GSM, because there are
so many large areas where no towers of any kind are permitted. In those
areas, coverage is primarily from AMPS towers located on the periphery
of the areas with no towers.

> Every time
> when we go camping or hikink my fellow campers/hikers rely on my old
> TDMA/Analog phone when their GSMs go blank.

It's the analog part that they're relying on, not the TDMA part.

> BTW, I cannot help but wonder... The extra charge is labeled
> "TDMA/ANALOG NTWK". NTWK stands for "Night & Weekend" minutes, I
> presume.

I think it stands for network.

Note that even when Cingular turns off AMPS, there will still be a lot
of rural AMPS networks that continue in operation. Carriers are
_permitted_ to turn off AMPS in 2008, but are not required to do so.

Thanks SMS,

That was a highly informative and very useful answer.

- Alex


SMS wrote:
> avtanski@gmail.com wrote:
> > [RANT_MODE_ON]
> >
> > I just got my Cingular bill with the extra $4.99 "TDMA/ANALOG NTWK"
> > charge. [ ... ]

avtanski@gmail.com writes:

> BTW, I cannot help but wonder... The extra charge is labeled
> "TDMA/ANALOG NTWK". NTWK stands for "Night & Weekend" minutes, I
> presume. Does this mean that I have to pay extra _ONLY_ because I'm
> using night & weekend minutes? What if I get rid of the free night &
> weekend? There is something fishy here... Is anybody in the newsgroup a
> lawyer?

Consider the likelihood that NTWK in this context means "network."

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/