"Lena" <lenagainster@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1152561231.800103.164110@p79g2000cwp.googlegr oups.com...
> > So you're basing your decision on less than one day with Verizon?
> Didn't you mention that Cingular had NO coverage for half of your 25
> mile commute?
>
> Both Cingular and Verizon coverage maps show solid coverage from the
> Bronx to Danbury. Make sure you are calling someone on a landline (not
> a cellphone and not VOIP) to make sure any problems are your phone and
> not their phone.

No - I'm basing my previous post on less than one day with Verizon. I'll
base my decision on my experience when it's time to send one set of phones
back. Yes, it's true that Cingular had NO coverage for half of my commute.
I'll go that route again this week and see what kind of results I get with
Verizon. Since my last post, I made some calls from my home and Cingular
came out way ahead - but still not a perfect signal. In one low corner of my
yard, I got no Verizon service at all.

The online coverage maps are pretty close to useless. The only map I've been
able to find for Cingular is at
http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/cel...familytalk.gif -
which covers the whole country. Verizon has a similar map, as well as local
maps which show a little bit more detail. T-Mobile has maps that let you
zoom in enough to pick out the location where your house is. Their maps
don't just show coverage/no coverage; they show how many bars you can
expect.

I started this experiment with a strong bias in favor of Verizon. I was
disappointed with all the dead zones I saw with Cingular, I had testimonials
from numerous friends that they never have a problem anywhere with Verizon,
I've even had people tell me that they never got a signal with AT&T at my
home, but they get a good strong signal with Verizon. I have more friends
than I can keep track of who have Verizon service and are perfectly
satisfied with it. I only know a couple people with Cingular, and they give
unenthusiastic endorsements, saying that the rollover minutes are a nice
feature. I even made time in my schedule to stop by UPS on Thursday to
return the Cingular phones. I assumed that would be plenty of time to verify
that Verizon is better. The results still might change with further testing,
but it's been a big disappointment so far. I recognize that there is some
value in getting a poor quality connection rather than no connection, but in
too many places, I'm seeing no connection at all with Verizon.

Even the phones themselves have produced a mixed reaction. The V3M seems
more refined than the V3. Volume is much louder, which is a welcome
improvement. Yet I always seem to know how and where to find what I'm
looking for on the V3 while I have to hunt around on the V3M. But all the
nice features and functions of the V3M require the use of a paid service,
which I don't want to pay for.