Nextel service/phones

[sukamin]

I'm looking at Nextel as a possible service/phone provider. Their coverage maps include the areas I frequent, and the national coverage looks good. The phones advertise the qualities I require. The question remains, how does reality relate to the information, most of which I've gotten from their website (which is impressive, especially the phone demos!). Does anyone have info/feedback on communications quality, coverage quality, phone quality, service support?

[jimbo]

Coverage is pretty good in major cities...but if you stray from the metro areas or major highways you will have an expensive paperweight. Customer service is okay, not particularly good but not bad either. In the end, it just depends on whether or not the phone is going to work where you need it. In my area, we had three outages last month, of about 24 hours each time. That, combined with the poor voice quality (when using the phone, my voice echos annoyingly about half of the time. i've called CS, and they acknowledge the problem, but told me it is just a fact of life), is why I am leaving Nextel when my contract is up.

[jimbo]

oops, I almost forgot...for very detailed coverage info, check out mapinfo.nextel.com

[FrazzledUSer]

I've had Nextel for two or three months now. I like them ok. They are better for me than Sprint PCS as I live out in the country but I can use my Nextel phone like a second phone, I could not with Sprint PCS. Their voice quality is decent, although sometimes you do get echos, depending upon where you are. I've had different customer service experiences, once I found the right # to call (I am in a "partner" area) my issues were resolved.

I say that if they are going to work in the areas where you will be, go for it. They're not perfect, but they're pretty good.