Date:         Mon, 8 Aug 2005 12:30:12 -0700
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Subject:      Subject: a little OT: what is the favorite cell phone plan for
              travellers in          north california
In-Reply-To:  <20050805202205.C15D1181C17@vickersdesign.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

I switched from Verizon to Cingular and the coverage IMHO, is much
better. My Verizon phone wouldn't even work at my house on the
Fairfax-San Anselmo border, but my Cingular phone does. I took my new
phone on a bike ride all over West Marin (few cell towers) and tried
the phone in about 6 different places and it work in all but one. My
Verizon phone never worked at all west of Mt. Tam. I have no idea if
it works up in Tahoe but I took it Europe recently and it worked like
a champ there. Its a quad band Razor. The price is down to $99 at
Best Buy (w/new account). I'm impressed with both the sound quality
and reception of this phone. Its really flat and light and just works
really well. I'm OK with paying the extra price for a phone that
actually works in all the ways I'd like it to. It has a camera which
I never use but doesn't get in the way and its Bluetooth so you can
add wireless ear mikes for driving. The screen is really big and the
interface pretty simple. I plan to hack the Cingular start up tone
off it at some point...

Hope that helps.

Jeff / 87 Syncro Westy


On Aug 5, 2005, at 1:19 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date:    Fri, 5 Aug 2005 12:51:05 -0700
> From:    Ben S <phlogiston420@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: a little OT: what is the favorite cell phone plan for
> travellers in
>          north california
>
> well this isn't really "vanagon" material, but i think the advice of
> this particular community will be very pertinant regarding this topic.
>  my cell phone was stolen recently (am i beginning to sound like a
> skipping record yet??) and since my contract just expired with the
> now-defunct at&t wireless, i think it may be time for a change.
>
> i have been a pretty big fan of the at&t TDMA network up until now,
> even as they were pushing everyone towards GSM, i found that the older
> network seemed to have more infrastructure, and thus better coverage
> in less urbanized areas; last time i got a new phone i was living in
> south lake tahoe as a snowboard bum and found their coverage to be the
> best in the mountains.  but now i think it may not be the best idea to
> renew a 1 year contract for a system that i'm sure is now only going
> to become more dilapidated and obsolete as time goes on.... i doubt
> anyone will ever repair, let alone install a new TDMA antenna
> anywhere.
>
> so i ask of the other travellers in the vanagon community: what
> wireless plans work the best?  i split my time between urban areas
> (oakland and san francisco, where I and my girlfriend live,
> respectively), suburban and industrial areas (hayward and the shipping
> terminals of long beach and oakland, where i work), and
> rural/mountainous areas where i spend most of my free time.  so i am
> not just looking for good metro coverage, but good all around
> coverage.  i have been told by several people that verizon is the best
> for my needs so i am leaning that way.  my gf has sprint PCS which we
> have dubbed sprint POS for it's horrible performance, so i am not
> interested in going that way...  but what about cingular's GSM
> network?  or tmobile... they are CDMA, right?
>
> also throw in your favorite phone if you reply.  i loved my old nokia
> 3560.  i have no use for cameras or video mail or any of the other
> silly useless features that pollute all the new phones and contribute
> to their short lifespan and high cost.... i'm looking for a cheap,
> reliable, no frills phone that i can drop a few times.
>
> thanks in advance for any advice...
>
> Ben.