[dex]

I've been a Telus client for years and just recently moved to the USA so now I need to find a new carrier to go with. I'm looking for a CDMA provider with Blackberry services that are not crippled in any way. Any suggestions? Do these even exist? I only know of Verizon and they're crippled to hell and I think Sprint and Cingular are GSM. What do you think?

[JSanders]

AT&T and TMo aren't CDMA.

You have limited yourself to Sprint, only.

If you were not against GSM, in the Atlanta area, I would highly recommend AT&T. The old Cingular had a great network there.

And, by the way, you not only moved to the USA, but to the South, so welcome (double extra good for you)!

[jsconyers]

Sprint is CDMA and they do not cripple their devices like verizon. However, I see that you prefer CDMA, AT&T and TMobile are GSM. I would consider coverage more so than crippled devices. What good is having GPS available on a sprint device without coverage? I would take a look at all of the carriers coverage areas first, and then start looking at the features that suit you best.

[dex]

I'm getting confused, people are saying a carrier is CDMA and then someone is saying it's GSM. For clarity, what are my CDMA options? And I won't be here for long, I'm a consultant so I'll be in a new state every 6-12 months on different projects.

[djm2]

Sprint and Verizon are CDMA.

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by dex

I'm getting confused, people are saying a carrier is CDMA and then someone is saying it's GSM. For clarity, what are my CDMA options? And I won't be here for long, I'm a consultant so I'll be in a new state every 6-12 months on different projects.

Nationwide CDMA carriers in the United States are Verizon, Sprint and Alltel.

The earlier poster who claimed that AT&T and TMo are CDMA either mistyped or is mistaken. AT&T and TMo are GSM carriers.

[JSanders]

Mistyped, and then I got on a long phone call.

TMo and AT&T are GSM.

Verizon and Sprint are CDMA.

I are sorry.

[dex]

Cool, and from what I've been reading for the last 2 hours on here is that Verizon and Alltel have seriously crippled their firmeware to reduce the ability of both bluetooth and GSM technology. So I'm left only with Sprint? I'll take less network coverage to shove my thumb up the asses of the companies crippling their software.

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by dex

Cool, and from what I've been reading for the last 2 hours on here is that Verizon and Alltel have seriously crippled their firmeware to reduce the ability of both bluetooth and GSM technology. So I'm left only with Sprint? I'll take less network coverage to shove my thumb up the asses of the companies crippling their software.

I've never gotten the attraction of CDMA but with that said, you ought to do some research about Sprint before you leap in. Sprint has a lot of coverage problems and a management that is in crisis.

Original article here ---> Sprint looking for new CEO | The Boy Genius Report

Sprint looking for new CEO

Posted by Joshua Karp on Oct 5, 2007 1:04 pm 28 comments Filed in CDMA, Sprint-Nextel


Anyone out there interested in taking over a beleaguered cell phone company? We didn’t think so, but it never hurts to ask. Sprint-Nextel is apparently looking to bring on a new CEO in an effort to turn the company’s sinking profit margins around. The new executive would replace Gary D. Forsee as CEO. Forsee has held that position since 2005, and was instrumental in negotiating the company’s merger with Nextel. Despite the success of the merger, Sprint has seen plummeting profits, announcing yet another loss for the second quarter of this year. The company’s board of directors is looking to replace Forsee by December of this year, which seems like a rather expedited search process for the chief of a massive company. Then again, we’re of the opinion that this change couldn’t come too soon.

[jsconyers]

It is also said that CDMA devices have less battery life than GSM. CDMA devices constantly search for signal, even when idle. GSM, when idle do not search for signal from what I understand.

[1badss]

the biggest advantage of CDMA is speed.

[dex]

Originally Posted by jsconyers

It is also said that CDMA devices have less battery life than GSM. CDMA devices constantly search for signal, even when idle. GSM, when idle do not search for signal from what I understand.

GSM is based off of the TDMA network which means the multiple access per channel is based on time division instead of code division making it less secure. For this reason I would not trust giving out my credit card number over a GSM based cell phone but I would have no problems doing it on CDMA. A CDMA tower can also hold many more clients, not only per tower but also per channel than a GSM tower of the same comparison. This translates to less dropped calls and less audible reports of the network being busy in congested areas like a freeway in rush hour. CDMA is the superior cellular technology, it's common sense. However with the new release of the new network types, both CDMA and GSM will fade away.

[dex]

Originally Posted by 1badss

the biggest advantage of CDMA is speed.

Actually it's security and capacity.

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by dex

CDMA is the superior cellular technology, it's common sense.

Which of course explains why people have had severe problems for years getting their CDMA phones to reliabily ring and post voicemail messages which Verizon and Sprint both know is a serious problem with their networks which they have not been able to fix in over 20 years.

It also explains why GSM has been adopted GLOBALLY, is used across the planet and is the most popularly adopted network standard while CDMA is a standard used in the United States, and ....... hmmmmm, I'm thinking ..... errrr, hmmmm, oh yeah, NORTH KOREA and ....... errrrr, hmmmm, ahhhh .... or yeah, South Africa and ..... errrrrr, hmmmmm, ahhhh, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Hmmm, USA, North Korea and South Africa. Did I miss any other location?

[whdigital]

Originally Posted by wirelessforever

Which of course explains why people have had severe problems for years getting their CDMA phones to reliabily ring and post voicemail messages which Verizon and Sprint both know is a serious problem with their networks which they have not been able to fix in over 20 years.

It also explains why GSM has been adopted GLOBALLY, is used across the planet and is the most popularly adopted network standard while CDMA is a standard used in the United States, and ....... hmmmmm, I'm thinking ..... errrr, hmmmm, oh yeah, NORTH KOREA and ....... errrrr, hmmmm, ahhhh .... or yeah, South Africa and ..... errrrrr, hmmmmm, ahhhh, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Hmmm, USA, North Korea and South Africa. Did I miss any other location?

Haha! I'm not quite clear on how you feel about this... ;)

[Dubdub]

If you travel all over the US, I would recommend Verizon over Sprint as Verizon has better coverage int he US. They are both EVDO Rev A on the data side.

If you decide to go GSM, I would pick ATT over T-Mo, again because ATT has a much better coverage area than T-Mo.

You really need to look at where you will travel and make a decision based on that, as a previous poster suggested.

[TroyDBrown]

My suggestion is try them out! You have 14 days to give a network a try (30 in California YAY! Everyone has there own ideas, and what is important to them. I see this question as kind of asking us to choose you a favorite color.

[y.bb]

As someone who has tried out 3 different carriers over the course of many years, I can tell you the advantages/disadvantages of them all.

First, I had Verizon (CDMA). They were a nightmare in all respects except mobile broadband. There were many dead spots with them and don't dare go into a rural area (in Ohio, at least). When I would call Verizon on a landline to report that the location I was in was a dead spot (this was in the densely populated Cleveland suburbs, mind you), they would respond with "oh no, we're looking at the coverage map and you do have service! There are no problems." They simply refused to accept the fact that I was looking at my phone with NO SERVICE. And be prepared to get locked into an ongoing contract with every plan change you make. Their billing team is outright rude, as I had spent literally 15+ hours convincing them over the phone that I had put security deposits on my lines and they owed me $375. I will NEVER go back to anything CDMA.

On a side note about CDMA... anyone I know who has a CDMA carrier tends to have a static issue every 1 in 20 calls or so. What I mean is, I will call them or they call me and we will have to end the call and try again to eliminate static. This is ESPECIALLY noticable on Sprint, where some people I talk to have this problem maybe 1 in every 7 calls or so. Oh, and someone above me mentioned calls/voicemails not getting through. This problem is seemingly unsolvable, as Verizon never had answers for me on that one.

Next, I had T-Mobile (GSM). They have the friendliest support team. Every time I called them, they were always in a good mood and glad to help out. Their major downfall? Coverage problems. And it doesn't help that they are only a 1900MHz carrier anywhere you go in the nation, so their signal is least likely to penetrate typical structures. This was a problem inside many buildings in downtown Cleveland.

And finally, I now have AT&T (GSM). While their "fewest dropped calls" slogan is a bunch of bull, they definitely provide the best service quality in nearly all areas. They also have good roaming agreements with carriers in rural areas (and continue to buy out these carriers, hence adding more reliability to their own network).

If you are looking for reliability in all areas, I'd go with AT&T. Since you are using a BlackBerry, you really don't need a carrier with vast broadband capabilities, as BlackBerry devices are masters of data compression (although AT&T's 3G network is noticeably expanding).

I will never use a CDMA carrier again, for the reasons I listed above. That leaves GSM, and AT&T is definitely the most capable GSM carrier in the nation. (Unless you live in a rural area that just so happens to be unserved by them)

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

If you decide to go GSM, I would pick ATT over T-Mo, again because ATT has a much better coverage area than T-Mo.

This is one of the most ridiculous statements I've read on this forum. It is also quite in error.

While it may be true that AT&T has a larger footprint of coverage (in other words coverage in areas that are not highly populated), T-Mobile's service in large cities is as good as or in many, many, many cases better than AT&T's. Here in Los Angeles (the nation's 2nd largest city) T-Mobile is rated as a carrier with significantly better coverage than AT&T. Indeed, Wilshire Boulevard is the largest street in the nation's 2nd largest city and TMo will give you a clear strong signal from the ocean to downtown as compared to AT&T where you'll get dropped calls every few minutes.

In point of fact, AT&T recently had to drop their national add where they claimed to have the "least dropped calls" because it is simply a lie. AT&T is currently being sued in a class action for their fraud.

It is also worth noting that T-Mobile has been given top carrier status by most if not all of the consumer rating groups where AT&T by comparison is never awarded any similar honors.

It may be true that occasionally AT&T has coverage in West No-Where Wyoming, but to claim that AT&T's coverage is better than TMo's is simply a total whopper (untruth).

[wirelessforever]

Originally Posted by y.bb

As someone who has tried out 3 different carriers over the course of many years, I can tell you the advantages/disadvantages of them all.

Living in Cleveland and making broad-based carrier evaluations is silly.

You may have excellent research criteria for Cleveland (one city in the midwest) but that hardly qualifies to make broad-based statements about the worth and capabilities of carriers in general.

I'm glad you have given us a good reference review for Cleveland but that hardly is worth much to people who never live, travel or visit Cleveland.