Best signals in NYC Metropolitan Area

Well, I won't argue your point but I do know for a fact that in NYC Sprint customers can automatically switch to analog roaming through Verizon. This happens when in a particular spot the digital signal fades out and the phone finds the analog signal stronger. I've used Sprint phones and I've seen how they can switch to analog just about anywhere, even in your own backyard. The same happens to Verizon phones. This is because that's one of the problems of CDMA. It easy for a CDMA phone to fall back to analog but it is hard for it to go back to digital. CDMA works so much differently than analog that the digital CDMA signal may appear to be weaker than analog depending on the situation, therefore making the phone switch to analog.

I know that the phone will show that it's in analog but I've seen people that don't even know they have missed calls or voicemail even if the indicator is on. A lot of people simply won't know they are in analog even though the phone shows it right on their nose. Those who don't realize they've been switching to analog will barely ever have a coverage problem because they are getting backed up by Verizon. What some people do is turn off analog roaming on their Sprint phone to avoid that. But not everyone knows that is possible.

I think it would more sense for Verizon to let Sprint customers to roam in digital Verizon towers rather than analog since its less expensive for Verizon because Sprint customers would be using less Verizon bandwitdth. Since both use CDMA and tri-mode phones are all over the place, that should be easy to implement.

aiwapro, if it weren't for the roaming agreements, national coverage would not be possible today. No company can cover all states without someone else's help.

 

Yeah I know, but it just sucks to watch a company advertise that they have coverage everywhere, and that coverage isn't even theirs. Voicestream's network is almost all theirs. They don't have many roaming agreements, but they have bought some of their coverage, but they haven't bought their whole network like Verizon and Cingular have. Voicestream is kinda on the same stantz as Sprint PCS. They both started really from scratch.
Did you know that Sprint PCS sold their GSM spectrum in D.C. to Voicestream. If Sprint PCS had of stayed GSM, then I would probably be with them right now. I just don't think that the call clarity of CDMA & TDMA compares to GSM. Whenever I talk to someone on any carrier's CDMA phones, the person always has to repeat themselves two or three times for me to understand what they are saying. When me and my friends talk to each other on our Voicestream (GSM) phones, it's like a landline. We forget we're on our phones sometimes, because we use the earpiece, and it often times makes us run out of our anytime minutes way before our billing cycle is up.

 

you must like voicestream and gsm so much and in your head are convinced that it sounds better than cdma.

i have had conversations with cdma users that are crystal clear and as well with gsm users in full signal area. you making these huge generalizations that EVERY time you talk to a cdma or tdma user it sounds terrible makes me wonder a lot about you. even when myself and all my friends had at&t tdma up here in ny there would be many times where the conversation was clear.

you just push voicestream so much and gsm that you create these concoctions that cdma and tdma are never clear....please...



and for all sprint users in the nyc area they should keep their phone on SPCS only and u dont haev to worry about going to analog....and when u say sprint users roam onto analog and have no idea...i highly doubt that........when sprint phones are in analog roam they RING DIFFERENTLY,, the DISPLAY FLASHES ANALOG ROAM!........and in order to MAKE or RECEIVE a call you are prompted with "THIS CALL IS A ROAMING CALL ADDITIONAL CHARGES APPLY" and then have to press a button to continue.

 

What that tells you IdioteOlogy, is that CDMA & TDMA is terrible in my area. Voicestream's GSM network is great in my area. That is all I was saying.

 

you didnt say your area. you said, and i quote:

". I just don't think that the call clarity of CDMA & TDMA compares to GSM. Whenever I talk to someone on any carrier's CDMA phones, the person always has to repeat themselves two or three times for me to understand what they are saying"


that sure sounds to me like you are saying that CDMA & TDMA as technologies, wherever you happen to be just NEVER sound clear..........and GSM is a perfect system..which i quote you say:

"When me and my friends talk to each other on our Voicestream (GSM) phones, it's like a landline"

 

<< it just sucks to watch a company advertise that they have coverage everywhere, and that coverage isn't even theirs >>



I think I agree with Aiwapro on this. I'd much rather see a company have to actually work for their coverage than to take the easy way out and use other companies coverage and call it their own. It gives an unfair advantage to the big players who can afford to give out these type of plans that include roaming. The smaller PCS carriers can't afford to do that because they don't own any analog networks.

 

This thread has really gone outside its main topic but I just wanted to explain something to all. I understand your point of view aiwapro and larry, but we shouldn't see as unfair what's in the end more convenient for all.

Unlike us (end users), companies don't see agreements as a way to trick people into thinking that they own the whole network. They see it as a fast and cost effective way to expand their services. This not only helps keep costs down, it also preserves bandwidth resources and helps companies gain customers where they wouldn't otherwise be able to. In the end, this is a convenience for all of us since this is the reason I can go to California right now and have a working phone.

In the case of Cingular and Voicestream, Cingular would not be able to offer GSM service in NYC if it weren't for the agreement with Voicestream. Neither would Voicestream be able to expand its services to the west coast where Cingular owns the GSM system. If not, these users would have to wait a long time before Voicestream gets the licensing, gets the spectrum approved, studies the southern california area for tower placement, engineers design the network, sign the agreement with the wireline phone company to connect their towers, and invest millions in putting up towers all over, not to mention the switches and computers that control the towers. It's a lot faster and more economical for them to hire another company and cover the area for them.

In the case of Sprint PCS, they give analog backup to their customers though Verizon. Without this backup, customers would have a plastic paperweight in many areas of the country and customers would not be as happy.

There is also the licensing issue: The FCC, for the sake of competition will give licenses for certain areas to a few carriers. When a wireless company wants to sell service in a particular market, another company might have already bought the license for that area and the band they wanted to use. If it weren't for agreements there could only be only one carrier per band. To buy licenses to cover the whole country would be very costly for any carrier, instead they cover those unlicensed areas by agreement with other carriers.

Another issue is the available bandwidth. If companies didn't share towers, each would be using different part of the limited spectrum, which means that FCC would have to chop the spectrum into smaller sections to fit all the carriers. That translates into less capacity for each carrier, therefore giving us more busy signals at peak times.

Agreements not only allow companies to make more money, they also allow for quicker development of competition in a market which means lower prices for consumers. If we sit and wait until each company builds its own network across the country, all existing technologies would be obsolete by the time the network is finished and it would be financially desastrous for any carrier.

In almost all technology industries companies live by agreements. When you make a long distance phone call through your regular home phone, the call goes through several companies before reaching its destination. But we all swear that Verizon or whoever we pay our bill to is responsible from end to end of the call. When you get Earthlink for internet service through DSL or cable, you know that Earthlink didnt come to your house and placed the wire. They have an agreement with other companies to provide High speed internet in your area such as Covad, Rhythms, and Verizon. If it wasnt for those agreements we would not be able to pick and choose who we want for our service. If competition is not possible, a monopoly will take place in your area and prices go up. So which way would you rather have it?

It's amazing how end users see only one name to give credit to (or complain about), but when we look at what's behind the scenes, we notice companies always hire each other for the sake of bringing goods and services to people as soon as possible. This is the way businesses have to move simply because we all want it cheaper faster and more reliable.

 

About TDMA, CDMA and GSM, they all have a very similar sound quality. If we all used the same phone model but different carriers using different technologies, we would not be able to distinguish which company is using what technology. While I have to agree that GSM has a higher sound quality, one cannot easily tell the difference unless you have bat ears. The difference we normally appreciate has much more to do with the phone itself rather than the technology used. All phones have different earpieces and different types of microphones and sound processing circuitry. Therefore, most of the sound quality variance lays there. It gets even more complicated when we combine the sound quality loss of one cellphone in one end of a conversation and another different cellphone in the other end.

We have to understand that all these standards (TDMA, CDMA and GSM) have been competing for years and now they have come to a point where sound quality difference is almost negligible.
I can honestly tell you that sometimes I hear the robotic side effect of a voice when I hear it though a TDMA phone, but there are times when I can compare the quality with a land based phone.

 

<< A lot of times customers don't know that Sprint's signal faded out and they automatically switched to a verizon tower. >>



This is not completely accurate. Sprint customers will in fact know if they switch to a Verizon tower or any other non SPCS tower. A Sprint call cannot be handed off to any other carrier's network while in progress even if the signal fades. The call will just drop if the signal fades. The only way you can make a roaming call is for the phone to go into "analog or digital roam" first. You will see that on the display and you WILL know if you are roaming. Sprint phones can also be set to "Sprint PCS only" to avoid that happening.

 

A Sprint phone displaying an analog indicator is one thing and the user realizing it is another. I was merely referring to that. Some users don't even know they have voicemail even though there is a very clear indicator for that right on the screen.

 

What is this thread about?

 

Somehow it turned away from the original topic. I hope either Kevin or Malial will lock this thread and retire it now.

 

Yep time to shut her down but it was interesting

Jack

 

Well, I live in NYC, and the Reception by SPCS IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!! As for AT&T, My friend had an ATT phone and sometimes when I talked to her, the static would be crazy. Like trying to get channel 2 without cable!....lol So my vote is SPCS in NYC for cell service!

 

We welcome a new Sprint PCS fan to the forum.

 

Verizon and Sprint are the tops in NYC area......Nextel then voicestream

 

Yep NYC is dominated by CDMA!

 

SPCS IS THE BEST IN NYC!!!!! AMEN TO THE NEW BROTHER IN THE FORUM WELCOME..

 

hey man this isn't supposed to be a cult lol

 

having used both sprint and verizon in NYC, i would say that both are equally good...

 

ALLTEL? What VoiceStream has nothing to do with ALLTEL, there networks aren't even remotely compatible.