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Conference 7.286::cellular

Title:	Cellular Telephones

Moderator:	COVERT::COVERT

Created:	Wed Dec 21 1988
Last Modified:	Thu May 22 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	514
Total number of notes:	4434

505.0. "NEXTEL ??" by LOW8::AHO (How about some SMOKED SKEET?) Fri Feb 14 1997 08:03


	I'm surprised that nobody has put anything in here about NEXTEL.

	Does anyone have any info on it (ie. cost per month, etc.)


	Maybe Digital should look into a corporate agreement with them ?

	No roaming charges...


					Mike

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
505.1		COVERT::COVERT	John R. Covert	`Fri Feb 14 1997 09:58`	12
	The reason there are no roaming charges is that they have no roaming agreements! You get no service unless you're in a city with Nextel coverage. And where do they provide service? Poking around www.nextel.com it seems that you're going to have no service at all in most of the country. See http://www.nextel.com/digmap.htm /john
505.2		JAMIN::WASSER	John A. Wasser	`Fri Feb 14 1997 15:05`	18
	Their digital coverage map (see previous note) says: "Nextel's integrated digital wireless services are now available in areas where more than half of the U.S. population lives and works." The map shows 39 major metropolitan areas as having digital coverage. In addition they have analog coverage: "Nextel also offers traditional analog dispatch service to more than 800,000 SMR units throughout the United States." The map shows their analog coverage as about 50% of the land area of the United States. Coverage is worst in Montana, Nevada and southern Utah. Coverage includes all of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. One big problem: Their portable model (Lingo LP3000) only has 8 hours of standby time on a charge.
505.3		COVERT::COVERT	John R. Covert	`Fri Feb 14 1997 16:29`	4
	Ignore the analog coverage, that is a completely separate system not providing cellular telephone service. /john
505.4		JAMIN::WASSER	John A. Wasser	`Mon Feb 17 1997 18:18`	8
	> Ignore the analog coverage, that is a completely separate system not > providing cellular telephone service. What service do they provide on their analog network? Are the phones really incapable of analog cellular? That would mean that they were useless outside the 34 major metropolitan areas!
505.5		COVERT::COVERT	John R. Covert	`Tue Apr 08 1997 11:30`	21
	Yes, the phones are indeed incapable of analog cellular. I just got off the phone with their sales rep; I wanted to find out what the deal is. Their rates are not bad: $35/month including 75 minutes, and a huge multistate local calling area. .15 /minute additional calling anywhere outside the local area (e.g. down to New York). .29/minute for minutes beyond the first 75. They've bought up Motorola's 800 MHz two-way-radio frequencies, and are operating an IDEN/TDMA Digital system. You will need a special phone not usable on any other carrier, except their Canadian partner, Clearnet. Xmit is on 851-866 Mhz, Rcv is on 806-821. "Our customers mostly fly where they're going, and are perfectly happy with coverage only in the major metropolitan areas." But they do plan corridor coverage on most of the major interstate highways. Don't expect service out in places like Greenville any time soon, though. /john