Nextel

[treeman82]

Thats another beef I had with them Greg. I switched from Bell Atlantic straight to Nextel. The bills I got from Bell Atlantic weren't hard to understand, and there weren't all kinds of crazy additional charges. Start getting my Nextel bills and there are all kinds of additional charges on there which I had never heard of before. I think the rate I agreed to at first was like $49.99 / month. After the additional fees and not going over it came out to be $70.00 / month. I remember a year or so ago I got this bill for a massive amount of additional time. I looked at my minutes and was like "WTF?" They took away like 300 minutes from me without letting me know first. Seeing as how I only had 600 min / month it made quite a difference. $0.25 / min. They wound up getting me up to $69.99 / month BEFORE the additional charges so that I could get the 600 minutes a month again, and free nights and weekends. I was not happy with them at all. Nick can tell you.

Last winter when we met up, I told him not to use his phone, and to just use mine as much as he wanted for the whole weekend.. F Nextel. He was on the phone for SEVERAL hours that weekend with some girl from back home. Made me really happy, seeing as how I have free long distance, and it was during the weekend.

 

[NickfromWI]

Yeah, I had a 180.00 worth of extra charges on my last Nextel bill. I was quite ... upset. I called them up and after about an hour on the phone they took it off. I think it's a ploy for them to make money....Just put extra charges, and if no one notices, they get free money!

I have a decent plan with nextel, 600 anytime nationwide long distance minutes for 50.00/month, unlimited nights/weekends and free unlimited direct connect. But the coverage is just not great. Its alright. I had ATT, the plan that had no roaming charges...I practically ALWAYS had coverage. and they have stupendous cust. service. I still have the ATT, but am going to stick with the nextel for the year to see if they are worth it.

So far, I'm not impressed.

love
nick

 

[treeman82]

When you get into the roaming issue... I liked Nextel. There is no roaming with Nextel. When I was in New Hampshire with Nick, if I wanted to call my neighbor at home... all I had to do was punch in her 7 digits... because no matter where I went it always put 914 before the other numbers. That was a nice thing. Made programming the phone just a little bit easier. Another nice thing was the Motorola phones. I have 3 i700's and those things will not die. I dropped mine repeatedly, threw it up against the wall a couple times when I got mad, threw it up against the wall just to prove it would not die... thing was TOUGH.

I thought somebody mentioned this earlier in the thread... but I thought that a law was just passed where if you go from one service provider to another... you can keep the same number. I know that any calls I made, or recieved with that phone going to (914) 490-xxxx or (914) 760?-xxxx were going to nextel customers.

 

[NickfromWI]

This raises an interesting point about nextel and roaming. For some, it's a good thing. It means you won't have to pay extra for those calls. For others, it's a bad thing.

You roam when you make a phone call while your ATT (for example) phone is tranmitting to a Cingular tower (I know you all knew that). Nextel does not allow their phones to do this. You can only make a call with a nextel call if you are using a nextel phone AND a nextel tower. So it saves you roaming charges. But if you are driving through Nebraska on I-80 and the car brakes down and you're standing next to an ATT tower, but you have nextel, you can't call AAA roadside assistance to help you out. There is NO way to make the call.

With the ATT, you can call cust. service and have them disable roaming capabilities on your phone so you don't accidently get charged a call. Then, when your engine overheats to the point that you can't even start the car, much less drive, you call ATT, enable roaming, call AAA, call back ATT and disable roaming.

That's why I don't like nextel. You're options are limited. Their coverage is no better than anyone elses. On my ATT phone, I have their nationwide long distance plan which costs a little more, but let's me call to anywhere from anywhere in the country with never a roaming charge. That means I can use signals from ATT towers, as well as Cingular, US Cellular, CellCom, Verizon, Sprint, and everyone else, except nextel, of course.

I've had the ATT for about 2 years, and the nextel for about 4 or 5 months. So far I think I'm sticking with ATT.

love
nick

 

[NickfromWI]

Originally posted by treeman82
...but I thought that a law was just passed where if you go from one service provider to another... you can keep the same number. ...

Yep. On Nov 24th manufacturers agreed upon and congress approved the Number Portability Act (or something like that). Right now, most companies will allow you to take your number with you when you switch companies, but NOT when you switch calling areas. That would be the best if you could keep one cell phone number your whole life no matter where you moved!

love
nick

 

[Dan F]

That means I can use signals from ATT towers, as well as Cingular, US Cellular, CellCom, Verizon, Sprint, and everyone else, except nextel, of course.

The reason for this is the way that Nextel works when in direct connect mode. I'm really fuzzy on how they work, but it is MUCH different than a regular cell phone. Nextel's (and I assume anything like it) take up a LOT more "space" in the cells in the towers, I do know that. I suspect the PTT that Verizon has out is similiar in tower setup to the Nextels...

On Nov 24th manufacturers agreed upon and congress approved the Number Portability Act

You can now switch carrier companies and still keep your old cell number, IF you are in the 100 biggest markets. Where I live, we aren't, even though we are ~45 minutes from Indianapolis. We have to wait until March or May (can't remember which). You can also switch your home phone number to a cell phone. There are limitations though, so check before you switch....

I have 3 i700's and those things will not die. I dropped mine repeatedly, threw it up against the wall a couple times when I got mad, threw it up against the wall just to prove it would not die... thing was TOUGH.

I can second that... I had an i500 that would NOT die. I started calling it my Frankenphone because it would "die" only to come back the next day. Did that to me several times while I was at my old company. The thing had been completely imersed in water at least once, maybe twice. I don't know how many times I dropped it... D*mn thing kept on going, even though I wanted a new one.


Dan

 

[Dan F]

I forgot to add:

When you get into the roaming issue... I liked Nextel. There is no roaming with Nextel. When I was in New Hampshire with Nick, if I wanted to call my neighbor at home... all I had to do was punch in her 7 digits... because no matter where I went it always put 914 before the other numbers.

This was not my experience. Of course, I was using them before they came out with the nationwide direct connect, which could have an effect on how they operate now.

Twice I travelled from Indianapolis to various places in Ohio to obtain trees that we needed at work. As soon as I was even remotely close to the Ohio border, I would lose all ability to direct connect. Said it was "restricted". I still had the ability to call out though, but I had to put the prefix in the number I was trying to dial. Of course, it could very well have been the phone too and not the system.

When I was using them, Nextel had "regions" set up. These regions were made up of states. If you were in any state in your region, you could talk to anyone else in your region, and no one outside of your region. I could not talk to either my uncle in Georgia, or my buddy in Colorado via the direct connect. I don't know if the nationwide service is standard now or not, but if its not, then I imagine that Nextel is still set up in the "regions" just like they were when I was using them.


Dan

 

[Tree Machine]

Nationwide long distance w/ Verizon

Last Summer Elizabeth and I took a trip out to Utah. We were to meet up with some friends already out there in some remote campground in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive through Zion National Park, and as we were checking out these thousand foot cliffs, my phone rang. I assumed it was our friends, but it was one of my tree clients in Indiana!

I would not have thought such a thing possible had it not actually happened. -TM-