Ok, ok, I'll throw in my 2 cents worth.
I used to use the Nextel system where I used to work (Indianapolis area). It seemed like basically every contractor on our jobs had them. They worked great for communicating with anyone who had one. If they worked. 95% of the time they did fine. The other 5% of the time they came out garbled like someone else mentioned.
That's the problem with digital technology. You either get it all, or you get pieces of it. With the old analog technology, it may have been fuzzy, but you could still (for the most part) make out what was said.
We are looking into switching to Nextels at work now. Mainly for one job, if we get the contract. If they work at the site (we plan on demo-ing them soon), they should work fine for what we need. The biggest problem I see in switching is that we won't be able to keep our current phone numbers until next March or May (our market is too small
).
Where I live, I have pretty much zero reception with my Cingular phone. However, there is a Nextel tower less than a mile away that should help my reception if we switch.
As for the 411 not working, I never had a problem with the Nextel 411. And, to the best of my knowledge, using the 411 didn't cost anything. Maybe different markets work differently?
If you want a personal phone, I would not use a Nextel, unless everyone in your family and all your friends had them. Get something else. The biggest advantage is the direct connect, after that, the cell minutes basically suck for the price.
Ok, so maybe it was more like 3 cents worth!
Dan
