Recently, I had to quantify the coverage of the four major carriers (excluding Nextel because, well, you know they're really not a cellular company, right? And, besides, a thundering 9.6kbs data don't make it), the better with which to pick a new one, or know we're not all that bad off with the old one (we were). And, in a rural Western state, things get verrrrry-interresting when you ask the simple question, "What's the percentage of territorial (not population) coverage for digital, no-roaming-charges under your plan, in insert name of your state? Look at the pic on the right for the typical response from the sales droids.
So, I went out and found coverage maps. I scaled each pic up and down (using good ol' M$ Paint's Image | Stretch/Skew) to get the pics all the same size, so I could line them all up atop one another.
I printed them in differing colors to transparency foils (them things you used with overhead projectors back in the TwenCen, and then stacked one atop the other. The difference between carrier M and carrier P was, shall we say, significant?
Then to get analytical about it all, I took another set, and with a razor blade, cut the borders off, leaving each foil with just my state, with no border or margin, and weighed each map.
Then, I cut out the actual, good-signal, no-fooling, full-digital coverage of each plan, and put the covered area on a digital postal scale. (Yes, the weight of the ink skews in favor of the carriers: So be it.)
Divide covered area mass by total area mass, and despite there being a whole bunch of jackelope out there not covered by anyone, the diference between carriers is still amazing, even in Our Advanced and Progressive Era.
It was one of the best demonstrations of TANSTAAFL I've had in a long while.
Oh, and BTW, SprintPCS willalso show you this map which looks dang good. When you realize only the dark green provides full digital services (including Caller ID, e-mail, web browsing, et cetra), it looks a little different, don't it?
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John Bartley K7AAY | http://celdata.cjb.net | http://kiloseven.blogspot.com
For the brief time after a layoff when I returned to 'retail sales' trying to sell cell in Des Moines, my take was any carier was great for those who just stay in the Big City, but for travellers... Those who travelled W/E (to Omaha) would find that Carrier A had no coverage there, while those who travelled N/S (to Kansas City) alot would find that A was great, but Carrier B had no coverage there.
"Best" didn't even come in to play. "Where do you want to use the phone?" did.
Sadly, often the only choice was a carrier that we considered the worst, but they had a better roaming plan that gave the phone a higher chance of being useful in more parts of Rural Iowa.
Originally posted by johnbartley Oh, and BTW, SprintPCS willalso show you this map which looks dang good. When you realize only the dark green provides full digital services (including Caller ID, e-mail, web browsing, et cetra), it looks a little different, don't it?
using sprint with the free roaming option gives the largest VOICE coverage footprint in america. it is as simple as that.
i realize you probably spent a good amount of time and effort to do your research but but there is a fundamental flaw in it. the entire foundation for what you did is the coverage maps offered by the carriers and there is not a carrier in america that has an accurate coverage map.
verizon overstates coverage a great deal, cingular coverage is understated, tmobile shows swatches of service but if you zoom in you find tremendous holes all over those coverage ares on the national maps and sprint is deceptive with their maps by using different shades of the same color to represent coverage.
another aspect that is ignored by coverage maps is the RF capabilities of the phones as well as the band capabilities. for instance my wifes samsung A680 can pick up a signal in places where my samsung I600 can not despite the fact that they are both on sprint. another example would be how my wifes phone has analog roaming capabilities but my phone is digital only so she can utilize all the analog coverage but i can't even though we are both on sprint.
the bottom line is every carrier has a trial period between 14 and 30 days when you sign up for service. people should use that period to try out a carrier and if they do not work for you then return it and go to another carrier.
Re: Re: Re: Re: If You Can't Hear Me Now, Where Am I?
Quote:
Originally posted by jaderaven I would say that would be.... VERIZON's network.
so you are trying to tell me that just because sprint roams on verizon, that verizon MUST be better? am i correct? or am i missing something? just, trying to get this cleared up ya know. but i am under the impression that:
sprint covers places verizon doesn't, and
verizon covers places sprint doesn't.
so in conclusion
if sprint traded some bandwidth to verizon out in cali, for ten years worth of sprint roaming on verizon towers. then that would make sprint the nations largest coverage right now, right?
or did I just really miss something.
ok: personal OPINION; verizon figures they will own sprint in 10 years anyway...
Last edited by willpower101 : 05-09-2005 at 11:37 AM.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: If You Can't Hear Me Now, Where Am I?
Quote:
Originally posted by willpower101 so you are trying to tell me that just because sprint roams on verizon,
soooooo in conclusion (i know this is hard for you, but just follow me, i reeeally think you can get this one!)
or did I just really miss something.
ok: personal OPINION; verizon figures they will own sprint in 10 years anyway...
My point and I think also Christian's point (correct me Christian if I am wrong) is that Sprint says they have great coverage. However when you look at thier roaming area it predominately uses the verizon network for coverage... where one can extrapolate that sprint's own native network is really much smaller and the only reason they can claim it is so big is that they mostly (not entirely) use verizon's towers for thier coverage claims. That is not to say sprint is better or worse than verizon it is only to say that when they say they have national coverage the small print will show that they are using other carriers to accomplish this... presumeably the cost of roaming on another carriers network is eventially transfered to the sprint customer.
As far as your snide comments about being able to understand... are they really necessary here amongst gentlemen... which I presume you are one? I made no disparaging remark to you or anyone regarding thier intelligence or ability to understand. Why would you make such a remark to me?
i was being an ass, don't mind me it's nothing personal.
so, ok, sprints current coverage map, (the crazy green think that i don't really rely on because it's from them...), DOESN"T factor in verizon yet? or does it?
also, do you know how much it end's up costing a customer in the end?
see, i'm still carrier free right now, and getting ready to jump back in the game. not an easy choice. especially when the i730 comes out with everything i could possibly want on it.
Ok then...
...as far as I can tell all of the light green on sprints map is using roaming. As such they are using other carriers for thier "National" network. The dark Green seems to be limited to major city/population areas. It seems to me that they have maximized there coverage to be best in areas where there are large amounts of people... everywhere else they have roaming. Since Verizon's footprint covers almost all the areas in both the light and dark green of the sprint map I can only assume that they are mostly (but not always) roaming on VERIZON'S network.
Like someone said earlier though... it is very difficult for ANY carrier to paint an entirely accurate picture of thier coverage.
All I know is that when I was with sprint and I was traveling all over the country there were MANY MANY places I was roaming and many places I had no signal at all... and to top it off at the time sprint had no roaming agreements with the other carriers. What that meant was that anytime I was roaming I paid a .60 cent per minute rate to sprint plus a per minute rate to whatever carrer's network I roamed on. This was very expensive. I could be wrong but all that I see now indicates that that situation has not changed much in more recent times... other than to say that sprints' own network has expanded to cover more metro areas.
It is difficult to say how much this ends up costing you in the end. I would say that if you live and travel in sprint network areas then they would most likely be good for you... if you end up finding yourself in analog or non-sprint areas then it will not be so good. I would go with some one that has truly free roaming (which verizon does).
I am not currently with sprint so I can not really comment on if things have changed since I was with them. Perhaps others can clarify sprints' current roaming policy/charges.
sprint can roam on just about any part of verizons network and all the networks that verizon roams on for free in the americas choice plan.
verizon can NOT roam on most of the sprint network because verizon is so egocentric that they do not believe they need a nationwide roaming agreement with the second largest CDMA network in america.
so with sprints free and clear america i get all of sprints coverage AND all of verizons coverage. with verizons americas choice you get all of verizons network and a few select sprint markets.
incidentally you guys should also take into consideration the fact that verizons network is not actually verizons network. it is verizons network plus any other network they have a free roaming agreement with. so you could be standing in an area that verizon claims as their own on the maps but your phone is roaming on a reigonal carrier.
BTW jaderaven,
i said sprints free and clear america. there are no roaming charges with sprints free and clear america. you seem to have overlooked that or perhaps i just misunderstood when you mentioned paying additional roaming charges. see free and clear america includes free roaming the same way americas choice includes free roaming.
about the only difference is sprints free roaming plans include virtually any CDMA or AMPS signal while verizons include virtually any AMPS coverage and any CDMA minus the second largest CDMA network in america.
oh yeah, one last thing. isnt AMPS service kinda important out in very rural areas? so how come AMPS support is quickly disapearing from verizon handsets? after all analog service is important enough to verizon that they have analog service that they claim as home service.
yeah, see that's a problem in tennessee, there's too many wide open holes that only analog phones can get to.
---
ok, just looked at the coverage maps again... does anyone know if sprints 1xRtt will work in the "digital roaming" coverage areas, these seem to be the verizon areas. at least around here.
Last edited by willpower101 : 05-09-2005 at 08:52 PM.
Just to let you know none of the wireless companies own all of the towers on "their" network. Having seen the actual map for sprint I can tell you that less than 60% of that dark green "sprint" coverage is actually owned by sprint. All kinds of mom and pop and little subsidiary companies own those towers.
I do have to agree that the question: "who has the best coverage?" can only be answered by saying, well where do you want to use your phone.
Oh yeah dumwaldo there are roaming charges if you have sprints free and clear america. If you read closely you are only entitled to roam half of your daytime minutes and then you will be charged.
Originally posted by dumwaldo
verizon can NOT roam on most of the sprint network because verizon is so egocentric that they do not believe they need a nationwide roaming agreement with the second largest CDMA network in america.
so with sprints free and clear america i get all of sprints coverage AND all of verizons coverage. with verizons americas choice you get all of verizons network and a few select sprint markets.
incidentally you guys should also take into consideration the fact that verizons network is not actually verizons network. it is verizons network plus any other network they have a free roaming agreement with. so you could be standing in an area that verizon claims as their own on the maps but your phone is roaming on a reigonal carrier.
BTW jaderaven,
i said sprints free and clear america. there are no roaming charges with sprints free and clear america. you seem to have overlooked that or perhaps i just misunderstood when you mentioned paying additional roaming charges. see free and clear america includes free roaming the same way americas choice includes free roaming.
about the only difference is sprints free roaming plans include virtually any CDMA or AMPS signal while verizons include virtually any AMPS coverage and any CDMA minus the second largest CDMA network in america.
oh yeah, one last thing. isnt AMPS service kinda important out in very rural areas? so how come AMPS support is quickly disapearing from verizon handsets? after all analog service is important enough to verizon that they have analog service that they claim as home service.
what I was refering to regarding being charged for roaming on sprint is 2 things: 1. (already mentioned by stangowner) is you are charged for roaming with half of your daytime minutes and 2. when I was with sprint and I went into an analog AMPS area then I was charged for that roaming. When I called customer support I told them I was on the free and clear plan why was I charged roaming fees. I was told that Sprint is america's "ALL DIGITAL" network. Not analog. I was told that sprint has NO analog roaming agreements and if I roam when in analog then I will be charged for it. I was also told that they hope to one day have analog agreements in place. Well short story is I needed to be able to roam anywhere without any extra charges... that turns out to be Verizon as they already have a huge analog network and a big and growing digital network.
Which brings me to the reason why they are phasing out amps/analog support. It is because they are upgrading their huge analog network to digital so there will soon be no need for analog as all those analog towers will support digital.
Verizon does not need to roam on sprint's network because everywhere sprint network is Verizon already has good digital coverage. Also it is a bit of a misnomer to call Sprint the nation's second LARGEST cdma network, because they are only 2 CDMA networks in USA sprint and verizon. When there are only two and you are the smaller of the two it is just as accurate to call yourself the smallest cdma network.
Last edited by jaderaven : 06-14-2005 at 04:28 PM.
I travel all the time and use Sprint, but am not totally satisfied.
On many occasions, while using my phone in a hotel room in an urban area, the phone drops the call when all I did was move my body or location in the hotel room!
Somehow I don't think I went out of range of a tower by moving from the chair to couch.
Remember their marketing campaign that listed their number as 1-800- pin-drop?
I often think of them as 1-800-call-drop.
As one good friend wisely told me when I moved to Chicago, "No matter who you have your cellular service with, you'll be disappointed".
Recently, I had to quantify the coverage of the four major carriers (excluding Nextel because, well, you know they're really not a cellular company, right? And, besides, a thundering 9.6kbs data don't make it), the better with which to pick a new one, or know we're not all that bad off with the old one (we were). And, in a rural Western state, things get verrrrry-interresting when you ask the simple question, "What's the percentage of territorial (not population) coverage for digital, no-roaming-charges under your plan, in insert name of your state? Look at the pic on the right for the typical response from the sales droids.
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