Chuck Hast wrote:
>On 11/20/05, Pete S. <linux@myraandpete.net> wrote:
>
>
>>michael hast wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Robert Snyder wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>On 11/19/05, Pete S. <linux@myraandpete.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>michael hast wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hey, everybody!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've been dreamily looking at the PDA phones for a while now. My
>>>>>>wife and I both have sprint service, and now she is wanting a PDA as
>>>>>>well. We have looked at the Treo's and some of the others, and it
>>>>>>looks like we could actually get a couple of used Hitachi G1000's
>>>>>>cheaper than anything else. It has a faster processor than the Treo
>>>>>>650, and a bigger screen, and looks like a great deal overall. The
>>>>>>only problem is Windoze. The Hitachi runs pocket Windoze. I was
>>>>>>wondering if anyone knows if that PDA could be loaded with a Linux
>>>>>>distrobution and still support the Sprint service? Thanks in advance
>>>>>>for any input.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>--Michael
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>Unfortunately, Sprint still uses CDMA/PCS system, rather than the GSM
>>>>>network that most other providers use (last I checked Sprint's details
>>>>>was 6 months ago). This limits phone availability. This is one of the
>>>>>reasons I left Sprint. I use a Treo 650, that I purchased unlocked.
>>>>>Consider Symbian OS based phones http://www.symbian.com/ , such as the
>>>>>Sony Ericsson K700i. I am uncertain if/when Sprint will consider GSM
>>>>>phones, but any phone you look at should have CDMA compatiability to
>>>>>work with Sprint .
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>CDMA is a superior format to TDMA based solutions such as iDen and
>>>>GSM. Simple fact is that CDMA is one of the most used formats with the
>>>>large populations is both Japan and Asia. GSM while used also in
>>>>Japan is mainly used in Europe south america and the rest of the
>>>>world. CDMA offers softhandoffs (good) while gsm has
>>>>hardhandoffs(bad). Though I find that GSM security is much more secure
>>>>(less chance of someone decrpyting your conversation)
>>>>
>>>>I have to carry 3 phones, CDMA phone from alltel for most of my
>>>>converstations, GSM service from Cingular for a few select clients who
>>>>also have cingular (company phone) (some lg c30 crap) and while I
>>>>only had it out of th box a couple of times I did get a Razor V3
>>>>(orginal non cingular unlock world gsm phone supporting all 4 freq
>>>>that world gsm providing)
>>>>
>>>>But I still find CDMA to be far supieror, EVDO beats Edge and it all
>>>>about the data these days. And until the day come which is not till
>>>>the end of 2007, I will have amazing service in the middle of nowhere
>>>>thanks to CDMA Analog backwards compatibility where gsm gets no
>>>>signal.
>>>>
>>>>Also there are fewer crap CDMA phones as only one company controls the
>>>>CDMA chipset. Qualcomm made CDMA and produces the chips for all cdma
>>>>phones except for Nokia CDMA phones, which Nokia happen to licence the
>>>>CDMA technology from Qualcomm. GSM being a more open standard has had
>>>>it criticism as there has been plenty of bad pitiful gsm chipsets
>>>>leading to poor reception and call quality.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Cnet.com gives some reasonable reviews/data on cell phones, when
>>>>>shopping.
>>>>>http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_Ericsson_K700i/4505-6454_7-31135604.html?tag=sub
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>thanks for answering my question. Very helpful, guys.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Funny thing about "far superior". I used to have Sprint as my service
>>provider. From personal experience, they are the last cell phone
>>service I would recommend. Used to drive me nuts to get voice mails
>>three days after someone left them on my voice mail. Post office
>>frequently worked faster than their service, regarding voice mails.
>>Dropped them since I could not get reception in the middle of Pinellas
>>County (that was after trying their service with several phones). Not
>>just drops, but complete dead zones. Since I have switched to GSM, I
>>have had decent reception with my phone, with the occasional drop, even
>>when I drove from Tampa to Manchester, MA. Same experience when driving
>>to Naples & Ft. Lauderdale. Guess it is the point of view.
>>Pete
>>
>>
>>
>
>Back in Jan/Feb did a coverage study for the Hillsborough Co. Shireff on
>AT&T (Cingular) Nextel, Sprint and Verizon, the rest of them either did not
>offer to enter or waited until the study was done then hollered "me too"
>
>Nextel and Sprint were the worst of the two, with Nextel having coverage
>issues all over the count. Sprint had coverage but there was no "depth"
>as we got call drops all across the county.
>
>Verizon and AT&T were the winners with coverage even out in the S. E.
>part of the county in the middle of the phosphate mines where no one else
>covered it.
>
>The two were neck to neck, but AT&T won because GSM/GPRS/EDGE is
>treated as a NIC card and when the card registers on the network that is
>how it appears to the computer using it.
>
>CDMA still retains a "dialer piece" and that piece at times will drop the
>connection, when your application has data to send it goes out and
>re-establishes the connection in the background so you just see a small
>delay, but every once in a while there are no resrouces and the connection
>is not re-established, that is one of the test we do on CDMA networks is
>to see how long it takes to recover from these "drops". The GSM network
>never showed a dropped connection because it operates in packet mode
>and the only thing you will see if the resource is busy is a retry about 10
>ms later.
>
>That last piece was the deciding factor between the two. But if it were me
>I would on a day to day basis here in Hillsborough Co. go with Verizon
>because the drops are so few as to be almost zero. For law enforcement
>they did find that the drops were too much for their operations.
>
>Sprint out of almost 18,000 samples had 917 access failures that was
>totally unacceptable to the customer. They need more base stations on
>the towers, as they had the coverage in terms of signal level, but there
>was not enough facilities to handle the traffic.
>
>Verizon out of 18K samples only had 19.
>
>
>
>--
>Chuck Hast
>To paraphrase my flight instructor;
>"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
>out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
>and twisted metal."
>
Thanks, Unc. Okay, guys, let ma rephrase my question. I may be
interested in a PDA phone. I don't want pocket windows. I understand
that there are Linux distrobutions that are intended to run on a PDA. I
was wondering if anyone has any experience in this avenue? If I were to
do such a thing, could I make it still work as a phone? If nobody
knows, that's fine. I'm just tired of the debate on the quality of
service. Such an arguement is regionally subjective. Indeed, my
neighbor may get superior service from his house with the same
providor. I don't think that the service comparisons from FLORIDA are
going to help me much here. Thanks again.
./Michael
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:18:27 EDT