Wireless News and Comments from the Mountain
Archive, 2005
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The actual location of these park cell sites and their coverage seem to be very random. The fact that there are so few new sites indicates groups like PEER may be having an effect. I also admit someone sitting in a tent at Yellowstone Lake tapping away on a laptop connected to a modem communicating with a nearby cell tower is indeed missing some of the best experiences our parks have to offer. We do have a connected society... connected, but not necessarily communicating.

We have already received some reports from users visiting these parks this year, and we appreciate them. We also have scheduled a tour of national parks ourselves in the next month, so expect more on this subject.

We also have information about a bunch of new, mostly GSM sites, that are proposed in the very near future in these western areas. It's always good to hear the holes are being filled. In the meantime, keep your ringer on "silent", dude. I'll listening for that nearly-extinct Spotted Owl...and if he wakes me up at 4:30am again, he's toast.

June 24, 2005. Western Wireless Responds in Colorado! Last September, I interviewed several members of Cellular One/Western Wireless management. Our meeting was arranged after we asked that embarrassing question, "when will your network be digital in Colorado?" They went into great detail about their plans for upgrades for certain sites, including the criteria for converting to digital, in various forms (CDMA, GSM, etc.) We were made privy to thresholds of usage in different areas that would make a site eligible for an upgrade to digital.

A look at the Western Wireless coverage map showed a smattering of digital coverage, including GSM, that favored the northern parts of their network. We gave Western Wireless credit for better coverage than Verizon in common areas in rural Colorado, but big deductions for a lack of digital coverage. Most of those sites did offer TDMA digital coverage, but that segment of customers was pretty much being ignored. Cellular One's own customers were using mostly CDMA, and they added a few sites for GSM roamers.

After that interview, we were promised press releases for Western Wireless improvements in the west. Well, we finally got one. They are making $1.3 Million worth of upgrades in Colorado. The press release mentions new cell sites and upgrades to others. Seeing that one complete cell site costs anywhere from $250,000 to $1 Million, there must be more of the latter and less of the former. So here it is, just a few months away from the Alltel takeover of Western Wireless, and we finally get our digital upgrade.

We hear from Cingular users who claim Cingular's new GSM coverage is outstanding, urban and rural. Our experience in rural Colorado, where most Cingular service is supported by roaming on Western Wireless, there has been precious little GSM to be found. A look at those Cingular maps of coverage in states farther north shows great GSM coverage. In Colorado, the most populous state of the group, there's nothing but tiny 'islands' of GSM coverage. So this press release provides a little comfort in knowing that better days for CDMA customers have arrived, and may be ahead for GSM customers...just in time for Western Wireless to cease to exist.

Since we are based in Colorado, we take a much closer look at what happens in our backyard. And what's been happening is that Verizon has improved greatly and Western Wireless appeared to be lagging behind. That's understandable for a company about to be gobbled up. So, what inspired them to upgrade in Colorado at this 11th hour? We fear asking now may not be prudent. We consider it not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Sure, we'll take credit for constantly badgering Western Wireless in public forums and our review pages. I'd like to think these upgrades will be their swan song. It gives Alltel a good base to work from, and a whole new list of grievances for us to present to them. Alltel's coverage holes? No worry, Commnet will fill 'em.

June 17, 2005. More Unique Cellular Offers. We still have a few cellular operators to read about and talk to, and we continue to discover more surprises from some of the wireless carriers in the west. Plateau Wireless of NM and TX offers the Firefly, a phone with just four buttons. One that just dials Dad and one just for Mom. Parents can also program up to 20 other numbers that the kids can't change. Why isn't this phone more universally available? At first I'm thinking it's good for very young children. But it's not a bad idea for an irresponsible 19-year old, too.

The next unusual offer we discovered is from Concho Wireless. For an extra $6 you can get Unlimited minutes, but only on Sundays through Wednesdays. What kind of off-peak schedule is that? If this was California, I could understand a whole city of surfers who use their phones only on "weekends" which last from Thursday through Saturday. But this is central Texas. OK, let's try something else. Since Concho is still mostly analog, they're spending the other days charging their batteries? Isn't nice to know we're not above attempting tacky humor?

June 10, 2005. How many minutes do you need? We ask our friends and we ask ourselves, how many minutes do we need? Being very frugal, I wanted just enough minutes, even if it means going over a little. The occasional charge of $5 to $10 for additional minutes was cheaper than paying another $10 every month. As we depend on our wireless phones more and more, going over our allotted minutes becomes a greater concern.

After several upgrades to plans with more minutes, I admit it's a bit more comfortable to not worry about going over. But what about you? I couldn't believe how many of my colleagues go over their included minutes almost every month! These people are clinging to old enough plans that the additional charges are only .20 to .30 per minute, when current plans charge as much as .45 per additional minute.

Are they even greater champions of frugality? Hardly. They're just too busy to worry about how many minutes are included in their cellular plan. The bill arrives, they write a check, and vow to look into a more compatible price plan someday. Some of these friends are also afraid. Afraid of obligating themselves to another year's contract. I don't tell them it may require two years to get what they want. And as with any customer service issue, they fear a call to the carrier will involve a lengthy negotiation.

It's a piece of reality to be reminded that most of America does not pay attention to their cellular service until something goes wrong. Cingular has wisely allowed their old TDMA customers to continue using their old phones. They aren't bothering the carrier about making changes, they're just sending in that check. With millions still on the old "digital" network, they can only wave a carrot in front of them and hope they'll bite. The day may be fast approaching when the offers will become hard to resist, but there will still be those who don't want to, or don't have the time to change.

Qwest Wireless recently forced all of their customers to either update their software or get new phones. No matter how much incentive they offered, hundreds of hard-core customers held on to the status quo for a year after being notified they need to change or be left without service. I was told there were about 100 customers left when they pulled the plug. What did they do?

How will Cingular handle the last batch of hold-outs? And how many will be left when they pull the plug? Will they pull the plug? Cellular One/Western Wireless softly converted their own customers from one technology to another, but just hope that the old TDMA phones will eventually die and be replaced with new CDMA phones. They're not forcing the issue. Their TDMA usage has settled to about 20% and has remained steady. What will happen when Alltel takes over? They have made several TDMA to CDMA conversions...but not on the scale Cingular faces.

So where do you fit? Are you a holdout, or an early-adopter? Are you willing to let go of your minutes, even knowing you'll end up with more? I'll let you know when I get the time.

June 3, 2005. Clever Carrier Promotions. We finally completed our updated Mountain Wireless reviews for all the western carriers, the whole list is posted here. There were a few surprises. The biggest is the 'best coverage' claim by Viaero Wireless. They promise that if you have poor service in your area, you can request a new tower! All you need is 200 signatures and they'll have the site built within 180 days. We're talking rural Colorado and Nebraska. Are there more than a dozen people per square mile there? You'll need to search for signatures over many square miles, or have a big barbecue and gather signatures once the keg is tapped. It is a creative idea, though. They're saying, 'if you have bad service, it's your fault!' It is an idea we hope gets copied.

Another plan we wonder why it hasn't caught on is the "Teen Plan" from Cellular One of Amarillo. It's a plan where Off-Peak begins at 4pm. Well, of course! That's when school's out! This probably doesn't use the carrier's spectrum any more efficiently because the afternoon commute begins at 4pm as well, but the Amarillo commute isn't that busy. More useful is the encouragement to have students not use their phones during school hours. Kids should be sneaking into the bathroom for a smoke, not for a secret call to the hair salon.

Then there is the HUGE selection of plans from West Central Wireless, also in Texas. On my third try I counted at least 16 different plans, and that doesn't count the individual choices of included minutes within each plan. Among larger carriers, when they say they have "simplified" their plans, you know there is a price increase hidden in the shuffle. But at West Central, there are more choices than at the local Burger King, and, as above, if you don't have a plan that fits your calling pattern, 'it's your fault.'

Speaking of "simplifying" plans, Cingular announced new plans on June 1st that claims to do just that. Yes, while some plans seem to have lowered the price per minute, the price points have been increased. After dropping AT&T Wireless' economical $19.99 plan, they have now also abandoned their reasonable $29.99 plan. Also, some of their "Regional" plans have disappeared. Of course this is all in the name of "simplification." Cingular's press release hinted that their latest plans will also help increase the carrier's ARPU (Average Revenue Per User). Sounds simple enough to me.

May 27, 2005. Updating The Reviews. The missing report from last week was the result of working on another project here at Mountain Wireless. We were updating all of our state-by-state reviews, including completely deleting comments about AT&T Wireless. It's sad to reflect on the changes they made in the wireless landscape, not the least of which was the revolutionary OneRate plan.

Also sad was the loss of several carriers who we deleted comments about and changed their links, now directed to their new owners' web sites. In one area a brand new carrier has appeared: Cellular One of East Texas. They were created out of the old AT&T Wireless spectrum in Nocogdoches County that needed to be sold so the feds would allow the Cingular purchase of AT&T. If you live in the area, you might feel as though you're still a Cingular customer. All the plans and services are the same, and we have every reason to believe the whole show is still being run by Cingular, but under the direction of new owners.

With the arrival of Memorial Day weekend, many of us will be traveling with our phones, and potentially gaining some new roaming experiences. Roaming has improved considerably from the days of $1 per day and $1 per minute roaming charges that many business people were happy to pay when they needed it. Now we take free roaming for granted. And with all these takeovers, fewer areas are even considered roaming. In most cases, we can use our phones without even thinking about roaming.

Many of us will be visiting that familiar lake/cabin/hotel/camp for the first time this year and finding cellular service changed at that location. In most cases there should be an improvement. Quite a few new cell sites went on line over the past six months, and a few more have been newly included among some carriers calling plans.

With so many ski areas in our area, we note with amusement each year how many new sites appear right after the ski areas close...better late than never, right? As these new sites do appear, we hear from readers who are thrilled with the new service, and we are equally excited, especially when your experiences indicate a need to change our reviews.

It's great to hear from people who tell us we're woefully out of date about a certain carrier. So make some notes of what's new on your holiday travels. Save the long conversations for those wide open stretches of highway where the distractions are fewer. The holiday weekend is a time for extra diligence on the road. While we DO encourage you to put that phone in debug mode and note those new cell sites (like we'll be doing), please do it safely.

May 13, 2005. More Roaming Surprises. It was just last week we admonished those who feared either roaming charges, or a lack of roaming coverage. Well, it happened to us just this past week. We were surprised and disappointed with what we found. Our usual coverage favorite, Verizon Wireless, fell out of coverage`favor, and our sometime whipping boy, Cingular Wireless, had an occasion to shine.

There we were, traveling along an interstate highway and the Verizon signal slowly faded away. We were at the end of their coverage area and about to enter Alltel's, so it was kind of expected. What wasn't expected was just as the bars disappeared on the Verizon phone, up popped a new Cingular tower into view, right there near the top of the pass. It was OK to lose Verizon coverage because it was 'way up there.' Hmmm, if Cingular could do it, why couldn't Verizon?

As we finally acquired that Alltel roaming signal, we told ourselves, that wasn't so bad. It was only a few miles of no coverage. Funny how it wasn't a problem until we noticed solid Cingular coverage. Suddenly we became very impressed with the efforts made by Cingular and their "corridor project." Before AT&T Wireless was brought into the Cingular fold, the two companies cooperated in a project along several interstate highways, primarily in the west. It was a creative application of licensing and cooperation using 1900 MHz GSM channels.

A look at the project's coverage map initially made a pretty modest showing. But oh how pretty it looks when you're in one of those locations, and it's the best, if not the only coverage available. And, while the 'corridor' was supposed to be only five miles across, in places there is much more. But turning on to a rural two-lane highway, and finally losing all coverage, we accepted the fact that we were now in that black hole of no coverage so many users fear. Yes, this is where we will be most likely to have vehicle problems, right? We accepted our fate until it occurred to me that last time we were through here, there was solid coverage from somebody.

This time, our trusty Verizon phone, newly loaded with their latest "America's Choice II" PRL, was showing the dreaded "No Service", when indeed there is service, albeit analog. This just wouldn't have been a concern if we hadn't known there was a useable signal there. Admittedly, if the phone showed a signal with a solid Roaming indicator warning of a .69 per minute roaming charge, we would have been hard-pressed to use the phone in that area. So, a "No Service" indication really was acceptable behavior.

Then, through many miles of true non coverage, it gave us time to ponder the difference between no coverage and no coverage with our plan. Cheapskates like us would do almost anything to keep from paying roaming charges, and this was as good a way to accomplish that end as any.

Then, a return trip over even more rural roads revealed near total Verizon coverage, from them or their roaming partners. Cingular showed up with a number of "islands" of isolated coverage, provided by Western Wireless. As the 'bars' came and went on each phone, we understood how adamant some users are when they report, "my Cingular phone showed full bars while my buddy's Verizon phone showed nothing." Yep, standing in any particular place, one carrier could be available, and another not. So that brings us to conclude, which single carrier gave us the largest amount of coverage. In this particular area of Colorado and New Mexico, Verizon has a definite edge. But a similar trip from Colorado into Wyoming would yield much more GSM coverage, available to Cingular customers from Western Wireless or Union Cellular, which would be much more comparable.

We expect 24/7 service from all our suppliers, and now that includes our cellular providers. Less than eight years ago, most of us saw no need for a cellular phone. Now, we can't fathom that there are areas in this country with no coverage. How can that be? Funny thing, it probably won't be too long before it is all covered. Then will we complain about not being able to "get away from it all?"

May 4, 2005. Fear No Roaming. We`are getting the occasional email, and we read numerous newsgroup postings about "roaming." It seems there are many people who just cannot grasp the notion of "no roaming charges." With almost every carrier offering some form of national, no-roaming-charges plan, there are still skeptics who just can't believe it.

It was almost seven years ago that AT&T Wireless introduced their OneRate plans. For the serious user, it was a dream come true. No roaming charges! Since then, various carriers have approached, or equalled the OneRate type of plan. But lately, more focus has been given to unlimited minutes and big data offerings. Now that the minutes available are quite generous, carriers are now looking at free roaming to set themselves apart.

But it just can't be that simple, right? We are hearing from dozens of users, new and old, who cannot trust the carriers. "There must be roaming charges, right?" "Oh, they must have reduced roaming capabilities to accomplish that." And the most surprising one I heard, "If I switch to a no-roaming plan, what assurance do I have that the roaming partner I use today will still be available tomorrow?"

In today's technical environment, "tomorrow" could mean a whole new set of values. The greater concern may be, "will the wireless world and roaming as we know it today be outmoded tomorrow?" We can certainly trust the carriers to uphold their offer of "no roaming charges", and that these roaming "partners" will not only be maintained, but increased, especially as the larger carriers buy up the smaller ones. The only restriction holding us to todays' technology is a one-, or two-year cellular contract. So keep it short.

Just as we get accustomed to the idea that all this roaming really is free, we then concern ourselves with that one in a million chance that the plan WE have chosen has a spot with no roaming agreement, right where our car breaks down. We see ourselves stranded because we stand there with a GSM-only phone with no GSM service, or that one spot where a carrier exists, but it isn't in the Preferred Roaming List of our CDMA phone. It's quite possible out here in the west, right? Heaven help us that we'll ever have to walk for help...or a cellular signal.

Let's enjoy the current phase of wireless benefits: lots of minutes, lots of roaming, lots of ringtones. Next year the new paradigm arrives and we'll all be using combo wi-fi/cellular/satellite phones with unlimited minutes, with...um...CB backup, so we're never out of touch. 10-4?

April 29, 2005. Garbage In, Garbage Out. We were called on the carpet recently in an email from a technician from a small western carrier. He claimed we were way off-base in our evaluation of his company. They had all kinds of plans and features we didn't report accurately.

We do want to maintain accuracy right along with our fairly opinionated reports on each carrier, at least as time permits. So I went to the carrier's web site. But the information was at least five years old. We even gave them credit for more expansion than they mention on their web site because we know they have added new sites and bought another carrier from news reports and FCC records. But there's no mention of this on their web site.

OK, fair enough, we don't live in their coverage area. Maybe locals know what they're doing, but certainly not if they use the web to do any research. In ignorance, a local customer can look right past this carrier and sign up with one of the larger carriers, Verizon, Cellular One, Sprint PCS or even T-Mobile. That's a real shame as we are a big advocate of small local carriers who often offer real value and superior service.

I challenged this technician to support his information, and where better to do so than with his company's web site. His reply was along the lines of, "oh yea, I meant to mention that to Dave to see if he could add some information." It brings to mind that much of the information we gather on carriers is from their web sites. If we, or a potential customer, can't get useful information from the web, then what? Do they expect us to look at a web page and say "oh, that can't be right," and jump in the car and run over to their store and check out the real story? Would you?

We have at least three cellular carriers in our reviews that have NO web site. Two others have added theirs in the last 12 months. So, we must admit, our reviews may reflect inaccurate information based on the fact that these companies either have dated, or no information on their web site. From time to time, we'll just call these companies. Some are woefully ignorant, others just gush with information right down to the details of their roaming agreements with other carriers. Then there are the carriers who play "find the missing link," and delete the web page we link to, which we hope you would let us know about.

We hope we're a reasonably accurate source for cellular phone information, but we want those small carriers, or even the large ones, to make sure they know, if WE get the information wrong, the average Joe does, too. Technically oriented businesses need a technically oriented presence in the market, and that means pay attention to your web site! We'll...um..try to as well.