News and Comments from the Mountain
2005 Archives
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October 21, 2005. Headaches from E-911. The biggest source of email to us this year has been the inability for people to activate their older, mostly CDMA, phones. Verizon and some other carriers are refusing to accept a phone that is not "E-911 compatible". E-911 is the ability to locate a 911 caller within a few hundred feet, and report that location to the 911 dispatch center. Some carriers have chosen a handset-based solution to the location problem, and that means most phones over two years old do not have this capability, usually supplied by Global Positioning Satellite receivers in the phone. The FCC mandate calls for 95% compliance of these rules by the last day of 2005.

Most carriers have asked the FCC for a waiver because they can't get these newer phones in the hands of their customers in time for the deadline. Nextel reports about 80% of their handsets qualify, Verizon comes closer with 91%. And then there are the rural carriers ranging from Alltel to Triangle who still have a certain number of old, analog "bag" phones in service. And, as long as they work, these people don't want to let go of these high-powered phones.

The FCC has granted only a few waivers, and if the larger carriers press the issue, they should be able to delay the deadline, but the day is coming. And the carriers are sticking by their own rules and won't activate those old phones. We've heard from people who have picked up a StarTac, TimePort or v60c, and are being told they can't use them. That's when we get the email asking if it's true or just BS. It's true. And it also applies to those who sometimes switch their account between a new and old phone, but eventually find the old phone can't be used any longer. It's quite a surprise to some eBay purchasers. Yes, it sucks when you're stuck.

Cingular, T-Mobile and a few other companies have chosen a network-based solution, which means you can still use an old handset. So, go ahead keep using that old Nokia...the TDMA ones will stop working in 2008, anyway. And those of us who still use our recent, non-GPS vintage units, can do so until they break (see My Phone's not Retro..., below), or when our carrier offers a free replacement with anything less than a two-year contract...whichever comes first.

October 7, 2005. My Phone's Not 'Retro', It's Just Old. This web site came about as a result of accumulating so much information in choosing cellular service several years ago. Today, the choices are more complex. Most of us who are looking at different wireless carriers, are doing so in the anticipation of switching from one carrier to another. We switch for lots of reasons. The carriers make the change enticing, with free phones, being able to keep your old number and other promotions like free accessories. But then there's value in staying put.

I could not make any switch without thorough and detailed comparisons. Many others just want a certain type of phone and just happen to switch carriers without another thought. Today, my main phone, a Motorola, appears to be suffering from being dropped more than a few times. I could just opt for a new case and battery. But for that same $50, I could get a new phone. A quick glance among this particular carrier yields disappointing results. Why does that girl in the accounting department have the cutest little phone, and anything I could get looks like a brick in comparison?

The CDMA carriers seem to be increasing the size of their phones, while the GSM carriers seem to be making the logical progression to smaller phones. My two GSM phones are less than appealing, but I got them on the cheap. To get really small, or in some cases, really thin, it looks like you gotta pay real money. This is where a wireless phone goes from being a utilitarian item, to a technological oddity (read: toy).

Obviously, at a microminiature size, the phone is no longer a fashion accessory. The only way we'll know you have an advanced phone is the almost life-like, musical ring tone that you allow to play far longer than necessary. How can the rest of us choose a sensible phone? I still recommend that one should actually go to a wireless store and handle the various choices. But count me among those too busy to stop by any store, let alone a wireless store. I need socks and underwear, my phone still works.

I can go online and order a new battery and case for my current phone and know exactly what I'm getting. A new phone invites a whole new process of excitement, then denial, and finally acceptance. Ah, the satisfaction of an old friend...especially after your old phone is made to operate, or at least look, like new. Yes, a StarTac with the latest software (that enables Text Messaging), is an acceptable tool in today's tech basket. Don't feel sad for those of us with an 'old' phone. Hey, my v60 is barely three years old. We are smug in our confidence in our tried and true equipment...or too darn busy to make a change until the phone breaks. Of course we have spares, don't we?

September 30, 2005. Bits & Pieces: Cingular, Alltel, Midwest Wireless, Centennial Wireless, T-mobile. Today, the CEO of Cingular announced that they have furthered their "integration" of the Cingular and ex-AT&T networks. They crossed a rather notable threshold of whittling down their separate networks to just four different "systems." This is down from almost three dozen individual networks and billing systems. The CEO was quoted as saying they have managed to turn "34 good networks into four great networks." Well, I guess that's progress. But they still can't change my California phone number to a Colorado number. The bigger Cingular news was their new agreement with Dobson Cellular for service in Lower and Upper Michigan. Correspondents in that area have been very vocal with us about their poor service. This, and the conversion of Alltel to digital last year, have made them very happy. With nothing left to complain about, we expect to not hear from them again.

Over at Alltel, they're about to sell their wireline business. It could be worth about $10 Billion. What would they do with all that money? Buy some more wireless companies of course! The Alltel CEO, Scott Ford, said they would be "interested in buying up small companies with assets in regions that don't have coverage from the major wireless carriers." Where would you find such a property at such a price? Why, it just so happens the board over at Midwest Wireless, serving Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, have put their system up for sale, and they value it at ten times yearly earnings, or a paltry $1 Billion!

Alltel paid a bit more than that for Western Wireless and gained licenses in over a dozen western states. The big advantage Midwest Wireless has is that it is a fairly debt-free company. As mentioned by the Wall Street Journal, they could also be a candidate to be purchased by a takeover specialist who would skim off the equity, add some debt to the company, and spin it to whoever, later. It may be too expensive for Alltel, Verizon or any other serious wireless operator. Another tasty plum to pick is Centennial Wireless who is also testing the 'for sale' market. They expect a little sweeter $1.5 Billion.

Verizon paid less than $500 Million for the entire Qwest network, minus the customers. They have succeeded in just being patient and snatching up networks when the other owners saw mounting competition, dropping income, and seeing few options. Midwest Wireless is a much healthier operation, but the writing is on the wall for smaller operators. As we have lamented many times before, it is sad to see a local operator sell out to a larger carrier, losing their identity. Gee, for a time we thought that way about Alltel. Now, they have gone from being the hunted, to the hunter.

I recently upgraded to a new T-mobile phone with T-mobile To Go prepaid service. This has been a pleasant experience. When I discovered the free T-Zones I was most impressed. Of course, for those of us who just use our telephone to make calls, the novelty of getting news, weather, sports...and even your horoscope...for free, is quite the distraction. It didn't take long to get over that stuff and enjoy their quite reasonable dime a minute phone service. But c'mon guys, when will we be able to use these phones in the mountains? Our expectations must still be too high.

Oh, and thanks for the anniversary congrats, folks!

September 23, 2005. Happy Anniversary! Although we have been reviewing cellular service on this web site for almost five years, this is the first anniversary of our News & Comment page. One of the objectives of this site is to give factual information mixed with personal opinion based on experience. We started in the late 90's with the appearance of a bunch of new upstart cellular carriers begging the need for detailed cost comparison. It was quite a change from the "take it or leave it" cellular carriers.

Our main focus was on the Rocky Mountain states where we found very little wireless phone information, but where we spent much time traveling. We were comfortable supplying information on cellular service for these states, but it wasn't long before visitors wrote asking, "why isn't there a site like this for California, or Washington, or my state?" This is when contributors came forward with the kind of informed opinion we had been sharing for our home states, allowing us to report on the rest of the western U.S. There were also several people willing to help in adding Texas to the list.

With the rising dominance of the "national" carriers, much of what we research can be applied to the rest of the country as well. So, you'll notice we have changed the masthead of our home page to no longer limit our interest to just the western U.S. In the coming months, we will be adding cellular reviews of more states, admittedly with varying levels of detail and experience.

While we don't have a real "commercial" web site here, we do maintain a "discount" page where we have listed several companies who offer our readers their best deals on different products and services, and in return they send Mountain Wireless a small commission on any sales directed from our web site. When people email us and tell us how useful our site was and wanted to buy our products or something, we only ask that if they eventually buy something online, they do so through our shopping page. Even if you don't buy right away, most online sellers keep our reference in your cookies should you make a purchase at a later date. Some of these online retailers have been partners of ours for years and we can accurately report we have received no complaints about any of our current affiliates.

So, we sure do appreciate you clicking through our shopping page, but we may recommend you shop at a nearby store, instead. Of course you could find that store through our Dex directory link at the bottom of most pages. Over the years, we have found Dex to be a superior online directory, even though we get no credit from them for searches made outside their 14-state operational area. We certainly aren't making a living with these "commissions", but they help defray the expenses of the web site and the extra phones we purchase to actually use the services we write about.

I hope you'll be patient with our expansion to the east. And I hope you appreciate the uncluttered presentation we maintain with no popups and very few commercial graphics. We recently won an informal award for our accessibility to blind users and it verifies that what we're doing is being done well. However, there's nothing like a good mistake to attract attention, so we won't try too hard to be too perfect.

September 16, 2005. Update on Prepaid Service. Prepaid cellular services are becoming more popular as the post paid contract plans become more expensive. Since we use almost all the wireless carriers, we are big users of prepaid as an affordable way to use the different wireless services. In an earlier report we noted that the end is near for some of the TDMA-based prepaid services like Beyond Wireless and CallPlus. Beyond was especially attractive due to its lack of expiration dates, but we know that when TDMA expires, so will Beyond's current service. Cingular reports their TDMA network will be turned off at the beginning of 2008.

Recently, we were introduced to another non-expiring prepaid service, STI Mobile. STI uses the Sprint PCS network, which has a much brighter future than the ex-AT&T TDMA network. So far, the downsides of STI are that their phones don't roam off the Sprint network, and you must purchase your phone from STI. Mountain Wireless readers can get a 20% discount on these phones from CheapPhoneCards.com. Our discount page offers this deal by entering "paymecell" as your Discount Code. You can pay as little as $10 or $20 for a refill card that will not expire, save for one required call every 60 days, like Beyond.

While this is a good deal for those of us "minimalists", one that may be better is T-Mobile's T-Mobile To Go. They have packaged this very cleverly. A year ago, you could sign up and get a whole year expiration with as little as a $25 refill. This year, they'll give you an additional year before expiration if you buy a $100 refill. Wait, I know it sounds expensive, but follow along here. Not only do you get 1,000 minutes for that fee (yes, only .10 per minute), and a one year expiration, you become enrolled in their "Gold Rewards" program which gives you yet another one-year renewal with the purchase of any denomination refill card. And we got our $100 card for only about $90...read on.

Yes, at the end of a year, you can refill for as little as $10 and get another year of service. And if you're counting days, you get 365 instead of the 360 you'd get if you carefully linked together four $25 refill cards on the last possible day of each 90-day period. So, at the end of two years, you'd have paid $110 dollars. At the end of three years you could be out only $120 which gives you service for only $40 per year...and there is no requirement to make any calls. Your yearly cost actually drops each year. This makes it one of the best "glove-box" phones. Yes, we also offer the best deal through our discount page on T-mobile phones as well, and yes, refills for T-Mobile, STI and several other wireless cards are available for 5% off through CheapPhoneCards.com. The Discount Code for that deal is "refill5." This is on top of another 5% off on some cards. And, this is assuming T-Mobile will survive another three years, or that any successor will honor these rewards programs.

While so many carriers are beginning to increase the cost, or shorten the expiration period of their prepaid, it's nice to see there are still some prepaid deals to be had. And if there weren't any deals to be had, you might find our carrier reviews would become quite limited. But it looks like we'll be talking for at least another year or two.

September 9, 2005. Reader Feedback. We have been receiving some much-appreciated feedback from you. Sometimes I feel we may be a little too honest in our opinion, after all, some people take their chosen wireless carrier very personally. I get that feeling in the back of my mind that when I downgrade a carrier, I'll get a nasty email from someone who disagrees wholeheartedly on my position. Instead, I get a 'right on, brother.'

J.D. Powers and other public opinion surveys report that Americans are unhappier with their wireless services than any other consumer product. I guess they don't have the same experience I had with my cable company. But it almost seems wireless is a product we love to hate. We love to hear from you, either way. And from time to time, a correction might be necessary.

Katrina Wireless Update. I was disappointed, but not surprised, this week to learn that some wireless carriers were disconnecting the phones of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina for non-payment. Of all the issues faced by our U.S. Congress, nothing was addressed faster than a request to the CTIA (the wireless industry's mouthpiece), to allow these users to have a chance to recover their lives before losing what only lifeline they may have to family or help. Who knows how many people may be found dead in an attic with a recently-deactivated cell phone in their hand?

A second directive came from the FCC that all carriers that operate in the Gulf area must submit a report on how they are handling the situation after a certain period of time. Verizon Wireless replied to the FCC within three minutes that they were already complying with the request and was not applying any penalties or terminations in the affected areas.

September 2, 2005. The Other Side of Cingular Coverage. Over the past few weeks we have been noting improvements with Cingular coverage as well as that available from their roaming partners in our area. Previously, we were critical of the poor coverage of AT&T Wireless, and subsequently Cingular, in the non-coastal west. We have experienced these improvements ourselves.

Last week I stopped by the nearest Radio Shack to see if they were planning any special sales on their remaining Verizon phones, after signing an agreement to drop Verizon and begin selling Cingular phones, beginning in 2006. It turns out the Shack guys were pretty bummed about losing Verizon and getting 'stuck' with Cingular. "Good heavens, why?" I asked. "Cingular has made so many improvements!" Well, it turns out this particular Radio Shack receives more business from disgruntled Cingular users than any other.

"That must be old news, Cingular has improved so much, lately," I repeated. "No, they're still coming in this week and getting a nice Verizon phone, or even a snazzy Sprint PCS phone...anything but Cingular!" Well, I admitted that Cingular hasn't added any cell sites in the neighborhood, but what about the rest of the stores? "Same story." I thought this must be an isolated experience. But after making a few random, unscientific calls to a handful of Radio Shack stores around Denver, the verdict is the same. More people come in to dump their Cingular or AT&T phone than any other. It varies among stores, but Cingular is always at the top of the bottom.

It seems this displeasure has been brewing for some time, and these people are coming in the day after their contract expires. That means they were AT&T Wireless customers who have been holding on during the transition, and nothing Cingular has done can keep them as a customer. Keep in mind I'm talking to people who sell Verizon and Sprint, so they should be biased against Cingular to begin with, but now that they will soon be selling Cingular phones, they seem to be even more disenchanted.

Fortunately, Radio Shack stores expect to have an adequate supply of Verizon phones, right up to the last minute. And I'm sure their wireless business will continue as expected with Cingular phones. But it does remind me that Cingular hasn't done anything to improve the coverage here in town...yet.


Free Incoming Minutes? Imagine that! Remember when the PCS carriers introduced themselves to the cellular world with the unheard of offer of the "First Incoming Minute Free?" It was a clever idea to encourage customers to actually leave their phones turned on, because the first minute was free. No more worry about answering a call that wasn't "worth it". Well, it's back. The new Sprint Nextel store employees stayed up all night a few days ago and painted everything yellow, and began to offer these free incoming minutes. It's not a bad holdover from the All Incoming Calls Free, that Nextel offered.

This, plus your choice of Off-Peak start times from 6:00 to 9:00pm, and a few other incentives, are supposed to set the industry abuzz about the new Sprint Nextel offerings. Gee, what's new is old again.


Katrina's Other Victims. We are all watching with horror of the unfortunate situation along the Gulf Coast and find it all absolutely unbelievable. The images boggle the mind. But what of the people we don't see? Nearly a million people evacuated the coast and can't go back. Many of these people have no homes, and no jobs to return to. They don't have helicopters flying over them, but their lot is indeed desperate. They may not be wet and hungry, but with no place to live, and no source of income, their future may be just as dim as those unfortunates trapped in downtown New Orleans.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims, especially those families torn apart with no way of knowing the status of their loved ones. We hope the cellular companies cut these people a good quantity of slack. It's going to take a long time to rebuild so many lives. Let us all do what we can, and never forget to count our own blessings.

August 26, 2005 The TDMA Cutoff Countdown. We have long wondered how long Cingular will maintain their TDMA network as they convert and expand their GSM service. Ritch Blasi, a technical spokesman for Cingular Wireless says the expected cutoff date is "the first quarter, 2008". This time frame also coincides with the FCC's cutoff date for mandatory maintenance of cellular analog networks, which currently is February 17, 2008.

Remember, the date doesn't mean analog is going away, it just means carriers are no longer required to offer analog service beyond that date. This date has changed before, it may change again. But if Cingular has circled that date on their calendar, there probably won't be any additional requests for delay.

Mr. Blasi also shared the near future of their TDMA service. With the combining of the AT&T Wireless and Cingular TDMA networks, there was some duplication of TDMA coverage, and they are currently removing the TDMA service from some sites, in favor of others in the same area. This has been confirmed as some TDMA users have noted degradation of service in some areas. Those of us in markets where there was only one carrier or the other should see no changes until the cutoff date.

About 10 Million Cingular customers still use TDMA, about 20% of their users, but they make only 10% of the calls. I would expect Cingular to make an extra push to convert these holdouts to GSM phones through 2007, and a few will wonder what happened when TDMA goes away. This past year, Qwest Wireless turned off their own network, and we were told there were less than 200 or so Denver customers who hadn't upgraded their phones, 30 days from the shutdown. In most Qwest markets, it was zero long before the due date.

This 2008 cutoff will also affect some of our favored prepaid suppliers like Beyond Wireless, CallPlus, Locus Mobile, as well as Cingular's own Free2Go. These companies resell what was service on the AT&T network, but in areas where the two networks have been combined and then re-allocated, Cingular towers are also available. So, don't buy more than a couple years' worth of refill cards.


And then we get more GSM cell sites.
Cingular also announced this week some new expansion in the west. Because the Rocky Mountain states contained no Cingular service before the AT&T merger, we were a bit concerned about all the announcements of new cell sites in the eastern U.S. Cingular markets. Were they not improving the ex-AT&T network out west?

Except for California, Texas, Washington and northern Idaho, it appeared we in the west weren't going to see any upgrades. As it turns out, it is the announcement of new sites that has been delayed, not the actual construction of the sites. As a matter of fact, according to Anne Marshall of Cingular Wireless, there will be more than 60 new sites added this year in Colorado alone. There are also expected announcements to come for Arizona and New Mexico.

It's also notable that Cingular has, or is planning to add sites inside public buildings. In Colorado that includes the Pepsi Center, Colorado Convention Center, City of Denver's Webb Building, City of Aurora main office building, Lakewood City offices and Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. We would expect that kind of commitment in other western states as well.

Keep in mind, Cingular just doesn't have that much spectrum available in the west, especially in the Rocky Mountain region, so a few upgrades go a long way in improving an area. They depend on Cingular's roaming partners for service in these rural areas, quite a bit of it supplied by Western Wireless, now a division of Alltel. Until the Alltel takeover, Western Wireless was adding GSM for roamers at a fairly brisk pace. Commnet Wireless is also turning up a few sites for Cingular customers as well.

I need to remind myself that Cingular took over the AT&T network less than a year ago, and they are already doing the upgrades that AT&T sorely needed in the west. I posed these same questions to Verizon Wireless years ago, and it was three years after the Airtouch/Commnet Cellular takeover before they began to aggressively upgrade their coverage in the Rockies. If Cingular actually accomplishes their expected improvements within the expected time frame, we will indeed be impressed. But Cingular also depends on their roaming partners for coverage in our area, so let's hope they are equally aggressive.

We love coverage!