Nextel cellular service - Re: Verizon Push to Talk

Author

Re: Verizon Push to Talk

Jimmy D

2005-06-16, 4:55 pm

Ok, I read all the posts and no one seems to have used the Verizon Push to
Talk. That is the main reason for my post. I am looking for users on the
VERIZON PUSH TO TALK and what they think of it compared to Nextel. Are
there any former Nextel users who made the switch?

"Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
news:yjHre.7356$5s1.237@trndny06...

quote:

>I am currently with Nextel and their Direct Connect is my primary means of
> communication. I am thinking of switching to Verizon and using their PTT.
> I went to a retail store over the weekend, and the rep assured me that the
> second rollout of Verizon's PTT is right there with Nextel. Is there
> anyone
> in this group that has the new service with Verizon, specifically with the
> new LG VX4700. Thanks for any input.
>
>
>

Larry W4CSC

2005-06-17, 6:55 am

"Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in news:sKhse.7608$fa3.1695@trndny01:

quote:

> Ok, I read all the posts and no one seems to have used the Verizon
> Push to Talk. That is the main reason for my post. I am looking for
> users on the VERIZON PUSH TO TALK and what they think of it compared
> to Nextel. Are there any former Nextel users who made the switch?
>
>

Actually, we DID try VZW's PTT in the store. We gave it an honest test by
calling the other store all the way across town! We pushed the
button...waited...waited...BEEP!..connect! Then we said hello and unkeyed
the button. Then, we waited and waited and BEEP! the other side said a
garbled hello. Then, we asked them how long it took for them to hear us.
At that point, it disconnected us for some reason and the sales person
seemed anxious to get rid of us asking silly questions like that.

These experiences are probably why you have such a time finding someone who
used them. Nextel users are easy to find. Just ask the guy at the table
behind you in any restaurant if his works...(c;

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and your outlined in
chalk.

2005-06-20, 4:55 pm

I currently have Verizon PTT phones for myself, my wife and mother. Also,
My Brother-in-Law and Sister-in Law have Verizon PTT. We all recently
switched over from Nextel.

Verizon PTT is VOIP. It first has to register with a central website, then
be directed to another website for traffic control and resource balancing
purposes. This adds delay, latency, wait time; whatever you want to call
it. Some have experimented with going into the service menu on their phones
and changing the URL to a Secondary site to drop some of the wait. I don't
consider that to be a permanent fix, nor a dependable one, as customer base
grows or usage area changes.

Nextel gives a nearly instant result, and passes whatever portion of the
digital signal it can gather up from thier limited coverage. You could have
a perfect conversation on one exchange and a digital waterfall if either
person moves a few feet. It is a toss-up.

Verizon will give you a relatively clear conversation with much fewer
digital artifacts in most cases. It comes down to making a decision between
always having instant connection and not always having understandable
communications (Nextel) or having delayed routing and relatively clear
communications (VZ).

If all of you usage is under a Nextel coverage umbrella, then Nextel is
probably the hands-down choice. However, if you live in the land of
reality, and travel throughout fly-over county or expect to have continuous
contact availability with others, you may want to consider Verizon, or
another carrier that has a similar large footprint in rural areas or away
from Interstate Highways.

I still maintain a Boost prepaid phone to keep up with past Nextel contacts,
and we have "zones" established around our houses that are most likely to
provide understandable communications using the Nextel PTT system. Not
exactly a model of portability, but still relatively quick contact time and
overall good communcation; provided you stay within a few feet of the
optimum RF Footprint - out here in fly over country.

On the subject of the VX 4700, the family is using 5 of those now. They
have been durable so far. Mine has been dropped quite a few times, with no
damage. My brother-in-law works in a Bodyshop, and his sees quite a bit if
abuse. I wouldn't put them up against one of Nextel's mil-spec ruggedized
models, but would feel comfortable on a match up between the 4700 and one
of big M's more recent trendsetter models. I also don't try to play chicken
on my skateboard with an oncoming H2 Hummer. This is a subjective
comparison, and some degree of previous thought will provide a higher degree
of dependable results. Asking about the phone on the net before purchase is
far better than jumping in, and seeing what you got later.

There are a few bugs in the firmware of the 4700, one being a fixed PTT
Alert volume; and it is way too low in comparison with Nextel's.

A good feature of VZ's GIN enabled (Get It Now) phones is the ability to get
"backdoor" high speed internet connectivity by using the phone tethered to a
PC for peak minutes used or free nights and weekends.

You can expect to pay an additional Premium of $10.00 per user if you go
with VZ PTT ofer VZ Cellular only. On the family plan, VZ was offering up
to 4 free VX4700 phones with the purchase of the first one. That would max
out at $50.00 additional per month if you activated 5 on the family plan.
as you can see the cost of PTT with VZ does command a premium.

With the VX4700s, the family (all previous Nextel customers) are far more
likely to dial one another than to gambler on the other being able to hear
6the low volume PTT Alert tone that the phone has.

I personally feel it will get better, as more carriers use either the
Motorola VOIP or FastChat Client software to provide a PTT alternative.
Competition will eventyally shake out a dependable service or eliminate it
from the option list. It is a matter of time and how much you are willing
to spend...

"Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
news:sKhse.7608$fa3.1695@trndny01...

quote:

> Ok, I read all the posts and no one seems to have used the Verizon Push to
> Talk. That is the main reason for my post. I am looking for users on the
> VERIZON PUSH TO TALK and what they think of it compared to Nextel. Are
> there any former Nextel users who made the switch?
>
>
>
> "Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
> news:yjHre.7356$5s1.237@trndny06...
>
>

Newsguy

2005-07-08, 9:55 am

I'm new around here, but man I tell you... don't walk but RUN away from VZW
PTT. I just took back 5 LG VX4700's a week ago.

The voice network is very good... not the greatest thing since sliced bread
as my friends kept telling me. I'm on the road a LOT. I still had
occasional dropped calls, but far less than I've experienced with Nextel and
Sprint. If I needed a voice only phone I would go with VZW. For cheap data
access I would go with Sprint. For PTT go for Nextel.

I have had Nextel for about 4 months before trying out VZW PTT. Nextel has
a lot of dead spots where I am so it seemed VZW's network was bigger.. which
it is. BUT for PTT it was so difficult to make a connection, we had to make
a voice call at least 80% of the time. I'm talking about a good MINUTE to
make and TRY to complete a PTT session of just 3-4 sentences. The first PTT
connection took about 5-8 seconds to arrive typically, with many times as
long as 20 seconds (meaning it took that long for your first message to get
transmitted to another phone). Once the connection was established
subsequent connections were a lot faster with only a second or so delay
which was fine for me. One thing I did was go to the VZW store and take a
phone outside while my partner was inside and we made several connections.
Now, in real world daily use, about 40% of the time you would make a PTT
connection it was say 'connection failed'. So you have to try again.
Another 40% of the time after you get one reply and hit PTT to carry on the
conversation you immediately get a 'buzz' and it says 'connection failed'.
All this with FULL status bars and where a phone connection worked 100% of
the time. So while one of us is sitting somewhere trying to get an order
placed with the store, MOST of the time it was so much faster to dial the
store, say what you needed to say and hang up. The sound clarity of the
phones were something to be desired also after using Nextel but was
acceptible. The 'alert' tone can't be heard if you have the phone in your
pocket or have ANY background noise such as the radio (and I'm not talking
about blasting music) or have it in the seat with papers on top of it.

What was even more annoying was that if you had missed a voice call, there
was a status msg on the ext. display showing you had a miss call. You
CANNOT make a PTT call without first opening the flip. Hitting cancel (or
end), closing the flip and selecting a PTT user. And when a PTT call failed
during the converstaion, you have to open the flip, clear, close the phone,
hit PTT. SO time consuming.

We started using Nextel again and it's like WOW... we were 300% more
productive again.

VZW PTT is great as a toy for kids or MAYBE a low usage family. That's it.
Again for voice only usage, I'd say VZW is great especially with the 'IN'
converage. But if you have daily use for PTT, then welcome to a nightmare.

"Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
news:sKhse.7608$fa3.1695@trndny01...

quote:

> Ok, I read all the posts and no one seems to have used the Verizon Push to
> Talk. That is the main reason for my post. I am looking for users on the
> VERIZON PUSH TO TALK and what they think of it compared to Nextel. Are
> there any former Nextel users who made the switch?
>
>
>
> "Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
> news:yjHre.7356$5s1.237@trndny06...
>
>

Les Wilson

2005-07-16, 10:55 pm

Verizon PTT sucks balls. Go with NexTel - it's da bomb... works nationwide
flawlessly... we're disappointed with the Verizon service after ditching our
NexTel phones for better pricing where I work.

"Newsguy" <none@msn.com> wrote in message
news:7Bsze.1445$yL4.999@fe02.lga...

quote:

> I'm new around here, but man I tell you... don't walk but RUN away from

VZW

quote:

> PTT. I just took back 5 LG VX4700's a week ago.
>
> The voice network is very good... not the greatest thing since sliced

bread

quote:

> as my friends kept telling me. I'm on the road a LOT. I still had
> occasional dropped calls, but far less than I've experienced with Nextel

and

quote:

> Sprint. If I needed a voice only phone I would go with VZW. For cheap

data

quote:

> access I would go with Sprint. For PTT go for Nextel.
>
> I have had Nextel for about 4 months before trying out VZW PTT. Nextel

has

quote:

> a lot of dead spots where I am so it seemed VZW's network was bigger..

which

quote:

> it is. BUT for PTT it was so difficult to make a connection, we had to

make

quote:

> a voice call at least 80% of the time. I'm talking about a good MINUTE to
> make and TRY to complete a PTT session of just 3-4 sentences. The first

PTT

quote:

> connection took about 5-8 seconds to arrive typically, with many times as
> long as 20 seconds (meaning it took that long for your first message to

get

quote:

> transmitted to another phone). Once the connection was established
> subsequent connections were a lot faster with only a second or so delay
> which was fine for me. One thing I did was go to the VZW store and take a
> phone outside while my partner was inside and we made several connections.
> Now, in real world daily use, about 40% of the time you would make a PTT
> connection it was say 'connection failed'. So you have to try again.
> Another 40% of the time after you get one reply and hit PTT to carry on

the

quote:

> conversation you immediately get a 'buzz' and it says 'connection failed'.
> All this with FULL status bars and where a phone connection worked 100% of

quote:

> the time. So while one of us is sitting somewhere trying to get an order
> placed with the store, MOST of the time it was so much faster to dial the
> store, say what you needed to say and hang up. The sound clarity of the
> phones were something to be desired also after using Nextel but was
> acceptible. The 'alert' tone can't be heard if you have the phone in your
> pocket or have ANY background noise such as the radio (and I'm not talking
> about blasting music) or have it in the seat with papers on top of it.
>
> What was even more annoying was that if you had missed a voice call, there
> was a status msg on the ext. display showing you had a miss call. You
> CANNOT make a PTT call without first opening the flip. Hitting cancel (or
> end), closing the flip and selecting a PTT user. And when a PTT call

failed

quote:

> during the converstaion, you have to open the flip, clear, close the

phone,

quote:

> hit PTT. SO time consuming.
>
> We started using Nextel again and it's like WOW... we were 300% more
> productive again.
>
> VZW PTT is great as a toy for kids or MAYBE a low usage family. That's

it.

quote:

> Again for voice only usage, I'd say VZW is great especially with the 'IN'
> converage. But if you have daily use for PTT, then welcome to a

nightmare.

quote:

>
>
>
> "Jimmy D" <jimmyd@anon.com> wrote in message
> news:sKhse.7608$fa3.1695@trndny01...
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>
>

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