Date:         Tue, 22 Aug 2000 16:19:45 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <ron@netcarrier.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <ron@netcarrier.com>
Subject:      Re: wireless communicationNONVANAGON???
In-Reply-To:  <a.150f984.26d31957@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> Sprint PCS coverage is fine in the metropolitan areas but
> not in the outskirts.

>  I've been Told the cell phone network is targeted to cover all
> the highways in the U.S.... and that AT&T's coverage is the best...


Since we're in a somewhat rural part of Pa (just about midpoint between
Philadelphia, Allentown, and Reading Pa, about an hour from each and too far
to be considered a suburb of any of them), I had to do a lot of looking to
find a cell phone carrier that had good coverage in rural areas (at least
around here).

Sprint has pretty good nationwide coverage in larger metro areas, as does
ATT, but neither would work here (Sprint just barely, ATT not at all).  Both
supposedly have roaming agreements with local carriers, allowing you to use
local analog networks (sometimes at an additional charge, depending on your
plan), but they do not have such agreements with every local carrier.
Apparantly in this area, their arrangement was not with the one local
carrier who does service this area well (Verizon, formerly Bell Atlantic),
so these roaming agreements did me absolutely no good with ATT and Sprint.

Also if you don't buy a phone that has analog capability, even if your
carrier does have a roaming agreement with a local analog system it won't do
you any good, since you phone won't work in analog. So a dual or tri mode
phone is a must.  Omnipoint (recently changed names, I forget the new one)
doesn't have any analog capacity at all, roaming or not, so availability of
service outside of their own coverage area is even more limited.  It's also
worth noting that ATT, Sprint, and Omnipoint systems all work on different
frequencies/systems, so one phone can not be used to access the others'
systems.   It's much easier in Europe where most phones work on the same
system.

I ended up with Verizon/Bell Atlantic.  Since they are an older, well
established cellular carrier (since long before the digital days), they have
strong analog coverage up and down the east coast, so when I'm out of
digital range my phone just switches to analog and I can still use it.
Their coverage is slightly, but not much, more expensive than some of the
others' , but I found the coverage to be far superior when "off the beaten
path."  A few bucks saved is not worth it if you're stuck somewhere and your
phone won't work.   I have not yet run accross a situation where I could not
use my phone over an extended range of miles, and I travel a lot.  I would
suspect that other regional carriers would probably have better rural
coverage in their particular home regions than the nationals, who are just
now starting to add cell sites to compete with the regionals who have
already been strong in their regions.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215) 234-VWVW