[sohotech]

I just recently switched over from Verizon to Nextel. I got the BB 7520, and was VERY happy with it the first couple of weeks. Then I started having problems. I live in Orange County NY, and work mostly in northern NJ. So I checked around and everyone said Nextel has great coverage in those areas.

The first problem I started having was when I placed a call, it would show "connected", but I would never hear anything. The party I was calling would not hear anything either. I would have to "end" the call and redial. It got so bad that every 3 out of 5 calls I had to redial. I'm going to call this "ghosting" for ease of writing. I called Nextel and they replaced the phone with a new one. Got the new phone and I'm still having the same problems.

I decided to log the problems to see if I could figure out what was going on. When a call "ghosted", I double-checked to confirm I had good reception. No problems with reception, always between 3-5 bars. Then looked to see if the "ghosting" was due to my location. Nope, this "ghosting" problem happens all over the place. I can be in the office, on the highway in NJ, or at home in NY.

Second problem is I can be standing in one location and have 5 bars for reception, then all of a sudden it will drop to "no service". And I've NEVER moved. This has happened a couple times in the past week, and drops the call when it does happen. Happened to me again this morning while I was just sitting in my car on the side of the road.

It's driving me CRAZY and I'm almost ready to go back to Verizon. But I really like the DC feature with Nextel.

Anyone else having problems with their 7520 on the Nextel network? I'm going to try calling Nextel support again, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[PCW]

Try before you buy...

The problems you're experiencing are very similar to the ones I had with Nextel here in the Los Angeles area. It drove me to Verizon a year ago with no regrets.

What good are the various features and capabilities of Nextel if the damned network is congested, your calls get dropped for no apparent reason, the Direct Connect is an exercise in frustration during peak usage periods, and hard handoffs between sites while driving results in numerous dropped calls.

Hopefully the merger of Sprint and Nextel will eventually bring good things with it, including CDMA, a better phone selection, etc.

Sorry about your bad experience.

[sohotech]

Problem is, everything worked great for a couple of weeks.

So this is a known problem with Nextel ????

[bostonmarc22]

Can I ask why you choose the nextel blackberry over verizon blackberry? I currently have a verizon phone, but am thinking of getting a blackberry, possibly on verizon

[sohotech]

I primarily switched for the walkie-talkie feature.

[bostonmarc22]

The device cost for me is also a factor.....I still cant figure out how the nextel one can be $100 and the verixon can be $400

[TreoMan]

The only other solution is to try Goodlink. There is a 30 day trial available I think!

[Mark Rejhon]

TreoMan, this is out of context. Goodlink has nothing to do with Nextel issues. True, switching carriers would probably solve the problem, but it could equally be a TREO or a BlackBerry. Nextel is having problems lately, and this is already confirmed unrelated to Goodlink.

TreoMan, please play fair and objectively and stop advertising Goodlink -- this is a warning.

Click to see TreoMan's Last Few Message

[JDWallace]

I have been with NEXTEL for years and I have had my BB7520 since it came out and have had no problems with it. I use to live in Hawaii and had none, then moved to Tulsa Oklahoma and have no signal issues or dropped calls. The ONLY time I have had ANY issue is when I am out in the middle of no where and have a cruddy signal or none at all. But as mentioned above, I hope the NEXTEL SPRINT merger will help with that, even though I am not a sprint fan, (had problems with them in the past).

[mpalis]

I have Nextel and 7510 Blackberry - if their network is busy it can take a bit for the call to start ringing. The Blackberry will show connected even though it hasn't started ringing yet. Never really though much of it..I have used just about every carrier in the US and they all have little quirks like this. The carriers with mulitple backbone technologies seem to be the ones with the most quirks in my experience...they are generally the ones with the largest coverage areas as well.

[PingGuy]

The problem you are experiencing is definately a Nextel thing and not specific to the Blackberry. It used to happen to me once in a while with my old Motorola i90c. It still happens sometimes with my 7520 but it's not too bad.

Nextel is by far the worst provider for reception in the U.S., everybody knows it. It's just that those of us who stick with Nextel don't care as much about the reception. Ironically though when I got my Nextel it actually had reception in a place where Verizon didn't but that's irrelevant now since I no longer live in that city.

Direct Connect is more important for me than having signal everywhere. But then I don't spend a long time on the phone in general and we use DC at work so it's invaluable. I'm hoping their reception will improve with the Sprint merger but I'm sure that will still be a ways down the road.

[rta53]

My company has been using Nextels since the first generation of them, primarily for the DC feature, so it was a natural solution to get 7520s. I have had no problems so far with disconnected calls and the coverage has been fine.

[jdposhkus]

I was seriously considering switching carriers but the D/C feature is invaluable for my business. Since I got the 7520 in December, I love nextel again. I have coverage in places I didn't before. I guess each geographical region has its network quirks. I won't lie, I still keep a VZW cellphone just in case...

[roger92932]

This is not a carrier problem or a nextel problem this is a phone problem you can call nextel tec support but they will only refer you to service and repair just make sure you have got an your first bill for this phone first so they fix it for free -also nextel merger with sprint is complete in march and nextel will be switching from the iden network to sprints and everyone elses so the coverage areas are going to be huge.

[yahtzee]

Originally Posted by roger92932

also nextel merger with sprint is complete in march and nextel will be switching from the iden network to sprints and everyone elses so the coverage areas are going to be huge.

Put the crack pipe down and step away........