| John Navas 2006-05-23, 5:48 pm |
| [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
In < 446ccf92$0$96939$742
ec2ed@news.sonic.net> on Thu, 18 May 2006 12:48:33
-0700, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>... The Consumer Reports poll was
>especially well done, with large numbers of responses for each carrier
>in each region.
Not true. CU/CR suffers from non-random, self-selected sampling, plus low
sample sizes when broken down. It also suffers from lumping different
technologies together (D-AMPS and GSM in the case of Cingular, CDMA and iDEN
in the case of Sprint-Nextel), which isn't a meaningful measure of either,
since it's roughly comparable to saying the average person has one testicle.
>Most people discount surveys that are done by, or paid for by the entity
>that does the best in the survey, ...
Like Verizon.
>
>In an urban setting it's not an issue, though out in the 'burbs it's
>definitely a problem both for T-Mobile and Sprint PCS. I'm always amused
>when these carriers show up at a planning commission meeting in my city,
>and have to explain why they need towers in areas that the other
>carriers don't need them. They have to be careful not to say too much,
>because they don't want to let on that the 800 Mhz carriers have much
>better coverage, but at the same time they have to state the real
>reasons. ...
More nonsense(tm). 800/850 and 1900 have essentially the same coverage in
metro areas (where spacing is less than maximum in order to increase network
capacity), and the difference (due to lower permitted power for 1900) is
relatively small even in non-metro areas.
>It's inherent in GSM technology to drop calls if the cell you're moving >into has no more capacity.
True, but rare.
>With CDMA, the quality will decrease as the
>compression increases.
It's inherent in GSM technology to drop calls if the cell load increases and
you're near the limit of cell coverage. Again true, but rare.
>However, at least where I am, the GSM capacity
>issues have been solved for at least the last two years. There are still
>a lot of coverage issues with GSM in the San Francisco Bay Area, which
>is one reason why Cingular has always done so poorly in all the surveys.
Also not true. As a result of the ATTWS merger, Cingular now has arguably the
best network in the San Francisco Bay Area.
>I have a Cingular phone on an MVNO, and it's useless in many parts of
>the Bay Area that are on the outskirts of cities.
Then, assuming you're not making that up too, your phone is either ancient or
defective.
>The bandwidth issue with GSM isn't as bad as it once was, due to CoDecs
>that do more compression (at the expense of voice quality).
More nonsense(tm). GSM sound quality is as good or better than CDMA.
>Besides the surveys, look at what has happened to stores that stopped
>selling Verizon. Radio Shack's recent problems were directly caused by
>the switch from Cingular to Verizon, and the tremendous drop in wireless
>sales that resulted. ...
More nonsense(tm). Radio Shack's problems, which actually began last year
with Verizon, are due to its own poor management, as evidenced by its CEO
scandal. Cingular is actually part of its solution, not the cause of its
problems. That Radio Shack is continuing to struggle is no great surprise.
--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/>
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." --Gene Spafford
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