After owning a Trac phone for about a year, I thought of returning to a 'plan' and a new phone. Checked Alltel and Cingular: what a joy. I can't buy the phone I want. Existing models are 'old' or they have silly things I don't want/need. What I and many others have wanted for years, we can't get. It is like owning a car and after crossing the state line, the only fuel that is sold is diesel. That my car only runs on gasoline is no consequence. One can buy C in Madison and use it in N.Wisc., but you can't buy C in N. Wisconsin. Alltel's system won't allow a P900/Sony or other great phones that are GSM. I can't find a phone that will do both systems by simply flipping an external switch. No port for an external antenna. Oh, but I can get games and ring tones and a camera and all the other grade-school attributes. Signal strength at my home is only barely working @ 10 seconds @ minute. Of course, they have said for years they are building out their system (? yeah, like 2025). So, to the veterans, two questions: Where can one buy just a phone or Treo without a plan? Second, what is the work-around to get a C contract in an Alltel area only like Northern Wisconsin -- as C won't sell me a plan because of my Zip Code? TIA
Aside from the Handspring (palmOne) website, I don't know of any other soruces for a Treo w/o a plan, but there must be some on the Internet. Getting a plan in an area not served by Cingular will be hard, since I think the billing address has to be in a service area.
Folks, it seems my supposition is correct. Cellular service discriminates against those who live in rural areas. Normally, as a captalist, I would hope the private sector would produce a solution. However, after years of no service, poor reception, higher prices, lies and outright discrimination, I can only conclude it is time for the government to nationalize cellular service. It should be run like the post office. Universal service for everyone. Second, I don't understand why companies like Ericcson-Sony, Palm-Treo, and others don't support this change. How many thousands/millions of people will never become customers, simply because they can't use cell service? There is no more dysfunctional structure in the world than the US cellular industry. The FCC and Congress are responsible for this quagmire. For those of us who can't buy reasonable service, this problem is greater than spam and the do-not-call list. Is this a great country or what? Does democracy work? I bet the cell service in Iraq is better than what we have in rural Wisconsin. And, I also wager that in Iraq, you can buy any brand of cellular phone you want.
Indeed, rural customers get screwed, especially if you're looking at a GSM carrier because the coverage footprint is not all that built out and GSM phones don't have analog (at least most of them I have seen.) Sorry about that but financially it's hard for carriers to justify towers in areas where cows outnumber humans... I live in Kansas so I feel your pain. There are areas that I lose signal because there aren't enough towers in some rural areas but I don't spend a whole lot of time there and my zip code is within the coverage area of several carriers. There isn't really much you can do except have your initial bill, phone, etc. sent to an address that is in Cingular's zip code coverage area... maybe that would work. :browani:
Ok... calm down.... well from what i hear you say cellular services are desciminating against rural customers... Well this is not true they just service metro areas then come to rural areas. I visit rural Florida very often with my ATT TDMA phone (from rural VA) and have better digital coverage every time I come down into the rural areas. AT&T i think works harder than anyother wireless company to get service out to rural customers. If you can not get AT&T TDMA then I would opt for Alltel (with Analog) or Doboson Cellular (Cellular One). Those are good rural carriers
The reason things are the way they are for rural america is because this is a free-market country. The Wireless phone industry is not regulated like landlines. There is no requirement to serve rural areas. Carriers decide where they are going to cover based on $$$, pure and simple. If it's not profitable, then they don't do it. And it would be wonderful to have a phone that would jump from GSM to CDMA to Analog to whatever is going to be around in 5 years, but once again, this is all about living in a free-market. The carriers weren't told they could only use one standard, so we have a hodge-podge of technology. They don't offer inter-operability because they want to keep the cost of their phones and their roaming cost to a minimum. SE and Palm-Treo aren't going to mandate anything to the carriers. They know if they don't build what the carrier wants, the carrier goes elsewhere to buy phones. Once again, Free-market. I totally sympathize with the situation. I live in freaking Idaho. You don't get much more rural. GSM coverage is atrociously small. I wish I had an option to get a cool phone, but in a lot of places, I can only use CDMA, and more specifically US Cellular. But short of full on regulation, nothing is going to change what we have.
Actually, 850 MHz carriers have geographic coverage requirements that they must meet...meaning they tend to have a lot more coverage than 1900 MHz carriers (which must meet population requirements) in rural areas. Of course, even many 850 carriers do a poor job of covering rural areas. IMO, bigger problems in the US that keep us "behind" are the hodgepodge of technologies (GSM, CDMA, IS-136, iDEN, AMPS) and the rather fractured nature of carrier licensing (in most other parts of the world, carriers have national or at least large multi-regional licenses, while here in the US, carriers often change literally from one county to the next), not to mention that average Americans (not those of us on WA ) aren't nearly as "gadget-driven" as people in Europe, Japan, etc. -SC
The problem with Rural areas is all about dollars and cents, I also wish there would be better coverage, I have been lucky in most of my travels in rural type of areas I have had good coverage with Verizon.
Yes...that's correct. Actually, if we want to be technically correct, TDMA is just the name of a technique to share the same frequency among several users. IS-136 is just one technology that employs the TDMA technique. GSM and IDEN are other technologies that employ the TDMA technique. But, yes, we all call AT&T/Cingular's old network TDMA even though the real name is IS-136.
Fathead: Re: markets and money. Yes, but that is why I hate most businesses in this country. They are all like Apple. Different standards, proprietary systems, etc. They do what is good for them, not what is good for the consumer. This is the premise of capitalism, according to Smith. Greed is supposed to produce what the consumer wants/needs. That is the theoretical virtue of capitalism. They aren't serving our needs, even if it costs more. They won't even GIVE us the option of paying more! Example: the companies refuse to allow anyone in Wisconsin to buy Analog service. They aren't asking more $, they just won't let us do it. Further, they won't let us buy in a different zip code and use our phones here. But they will allow others to do it. I don't like the discrimination any more than women or racial minorities do. Geographic discrimination is just as painful. Yet, all of corporate america is ga/ga over multiculturalism, affirmative action, etc. BS. Since they aren't serving us....and thus, denying our region the chance to compete economically (what business would locate in a region w/out cell coverage?), then the time has come for nationalization! Further, the local cable companies operate in small burgs. DSL is available. Certainly, there are more that would buy/use cell service. I conclude: cell phone companies deserve to be nationalized. Until then, as far as I am concerned, ship all the jobs to Japan and let other nations crush us. So some sap in Milwaukee loses his/her job. So what? I want to buy the foreign goods at a cheaper price and help unemploy them. Afterall, are they fighting for me and my right to have equal service? Of course not. Thus, could care less about 'them' and their problems. If not nationalization, then maybe Wal-Mart to the rescue?
See here... if you want then go with a TDMA plan (get a multi-band phone, which is TDMA and Analog) or CDMA (which is also mulit-band phone and can go to Analog) To get service just travel to a city that has the desired service you want... sign up with there TDMA or CDMA plan and wahlah you got yourself cellular service I think US Cellular still has TDMA avalible for their plans but mostly CDMA (w/ Analog) I would also reccomend Alltel due to them having CDMA (which is newer than TDMA) and it will allow you to go to Analog (just like TDMA) US Cellular does the same as Alltel, except Alltel usually has better roaming area, at a cheaper price Alltel also has better prices for the plans more mins for you money and more home coverage. Also they have great naitonwide plans too
Unfortunately, the fact is, that rural towns are not money makers. And a company with a national focus is going to work on the big markets for quite a while. 12 minutes from my house there is flat out no reception with any carrier. I know what it's like. As for analog, they don't sell analog anymore because it's not efficient, not very secure, and because it doesn't have the features they can make additional revenue on. And no carrier is going to show a blind eye to someone using a false address to gain service if they know it.
