On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 16:36:55 EDT, ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM
Digest Editor) wrote:
[lots of snip]
> As I have heard it, the key word at Nextel is 'worldwide'; good in any
> city, any time. Am I mistaken on that? No need for 'roaming', etc.
> That's how they phrase it in the television ads they show here in our
> town.
It's as "worldwide" as anything is. It's only "worldwide" if a signal
is available to you!
> They bought their Nextel phones about a month ago ... which worked
> quite well in Orlando (the push to talk feature, other calls, etc).
[more snip]
> They did push-to-talk all the way from Orlando though Atlanta,
> Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City. He got out of Kansas City
> heading south/southwest toward our town, and the phone went dead.
It's very obvious what happened. There is no Nextel service in
Independence! If there is no service in that town you of course will
not be able to use your phones. It's the same whether it's Sprint,
cingular, T-Mobile or any other carrier. All carriers do not serve
all areas. I know that if I go to Elma, Washington my T-Mobile
service won't do me any good. Cingular won't do you any good either.
Only Verizon will work there. Not every service works in every
location despite what you might infer from a company's advertisements.
> He got here yesterday (Friday) morning, used my house phone to check
> in with his wife in Orlando who was beginning to get frantic. Not
> only did 'push to talk' not work, but she tried dialing direct into
> his number instead, and got nowhere with that except his voice mail.
There is no service so you could not use it.
> I played with his phone, which had a big 'no service' message on the
> LED
That was the answer!!
> called tech support on 800-639-6111. I told them where we were at, and
> that we do, of course, have cell towers all around here.
Just because there are "cell towers" it doesn't mean that they are for
Nextel!
> In particular Dobson cell towers serve Cingular Wireless, US
> Cingular, and (Dobson's own) Cell One. So its not for a lack of
> coverage that we were getting the 'no service' message.
Quite the contrary. It's because there is no coverage that you indeed
are getting that message. Nextel does not service the area or if they
do there's not a tower that's near enough to provide service.
> The tech punched in my zip code, and street address, then came back
> and said 'no towers or service in your area'.
This is your answer!!! I'm not sure why you think there's any more
"solution" to your problem. Nextel does not service the area.
> My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own
> cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ...
Nextel does not roam *at all.* If there's no service they do not roam
on any other tower. Nextel uses the iDen technology. iDen is
incompatible with all other wireless technologies whether CDMA, TDMA,
AMPS or GSM. Technically iDen which Nextel uses is not even cellular
service. It is SMR which is a glorified walkie-talkie system.
> How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying
> Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and
> the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation.
Don't take all advertisements as completely true in every situation.
You really should know this for *any* ads.
> I had thought about trying Nextel at one point, I am sure glad I did
> not fall for that 'nationwide coverage' lie.
No offense, but if you're going to use *any* service you need to check
it out and make sure that it will work for the purpose and place you
wish to use it. It's obvious to me that whoever checked out wireless
options for where they were going to end up did not do their homework.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, it was not _me_ to start with.
I have inquired of Mike Sandman who has Nextel (among other) services;
he told me Nextel was not very good 'anywhere not along a major
interstate', but now these guys are stuck with a couple phones that
are useless, and a contract to boot. When newer technologies are sort
of a mystery even to relatively experienced users, how is it that kids
in their early/mid twenties getting a 'cellular phone' for the first
time in their lives are expected to know anything? PAT]
Joseph (JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com)