Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 78

Opinions on Voicestream Service with VisorPhone

I have had my VisorPhone for exactly one month now and I can honestly say that it is a tradeoff between size and convenience of PDA and Phone merged. This thing is bulky, and you can really notice it wedged into the front pocket of a pair of GAP jeans. But it has performed mostly as advertised the last month.

Voicestream has also delivered weak blooper into centerfield at the plate. I would consider Voicestream a mid-range company around New England. Verizon Wireless and SprintPCS (CDMA) definatley hold great advantage over Voicestream (GSM), in terms of coverage (as a whole). Last weekend I went to a BBQ located about 35 miles south of Providence in a rural area. I was hoping to keep abreast of the Red Sox game score and stats with my VisorPhone and Blazer. Guess what? NO SERVICE when I got to the BBQ. I did get service once back on RT 95 (about 2 miles away). So my Visorphone became a high tech paper weight at the BBQ, essentially. What pissed me off was that two of my friends had cell phones (Cingular & SprintPCS) and they had moderate service. While I realize that coverage for all companies is spotty in certain areas, it really is disappointing when the VisorPhone can't deliver because of coverage issues. So if you get VoiceStream, don't plan on getting any signal out of urban areas. I went to Virginia Beach two weeks ago and got NO SERVICE the entire time there, while a friend of mine who had Nextel had excellent service. Call quality with Voicestream is also not as good as CDMA systems. I do thinks its great that you can dial your ISP and connect to the 'Net with Blazer on your regular minutes. I can assure yoou that this will be an extra-cost feature with SprintPCS and the CDMA VisorPhone, as Sprint will probably be the ISP, and they currently charge $10 for Wireless Web access on their phones. Also, SMS messages on Voicestream can only be 145 characters long, whereas other companies give you 500 characters! What gives here? So there are my two cents on Voicestream. I give it a B- rating. Anyone else want to chip in?

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 158

One of the nice features of SMS is that I can send and receive to regular email. I currently forward my email to my [email protected] when I'm away from work or home. I essentially just get the headers, but this way I don't have to dial into my ISP just to see if there's email.

Is there this capability with CDMA? There probably is; I haven't looked.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cincinnati, OH USA
Posts: 107

quote:

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Originally posted by dennisl
One of the nice features of SMS is that I can send and receive to regular email. I currently forward my email to my [email protected] when I'm away from work or home. I essentially just get the headers, but this way I don't have to dial into my ISP just to see if there's email.

Is there this capability with CDMA? There probably is; I haven't looked.

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Michael W. Cristiani
[email protected]

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Houston
Posts: 72

For billing/customer service issues with Voicestream, see this thread.
As far as coverage, I agree completely. GSM has a long way to go to equal CDMA or TDMA coverage. Voicestream has Deutsche Telekom behind them, and that should help, since DT has a large interest in seeing GSM achieve success in the US. Keep in mind, though - most CDMA or TDMA phones are dual-mode, and when in the boonies they are often operating in analog mode, something the VPhone cannot do.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 158

quote:

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Originally posted by mcristia

Don't know about CDMA, but I do the same thing with TDMA service from Cincinnati Bell Wireless (AT&T Network). Just forward e-mail from the boss and others with whom I need to stay in touch away from my home office. Also forward weather warnings, etc.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 78

I didn't know that Deutsche Telekom was backing Voicestream. Voicestream is an interesting company in that they are not the cheapest, they don't have the best plans for the money, and they don't use the most high-tech phones or network (except for the VisorPhone, of course). Yet they manage to capture a good amount of marketshare. Some of you may find it interesting that Voicestream's network (GSM) operates at 1900Mhz, as does Verizon Wireless and SprintPCS (both CDMA). But GSM is essentially an worldwide and more advanced TDMA (Cingular, AT&T Wireless, Nextel)which operates at, uhhhhh, 900Mhz and is antiquated.

The CDMA Visorphone from SprintPCS is what I was waiting for on my Visor. However, the price would be too expensive at $250 anyway, just like the GSM phone was too expensive at that pricepoint. I like the spin SprintPCS is putting on it concerning a 3G upgrade by Summer 2002. But really, unless you have a Prism, what real good is a 128kbps connection going to do you on a greyscale handspring model? You'll load pages faster, yes, but you won't experience much of the multimedia aspect of it. Sony Clio color anyone? By next summer, Handspring will have a new color model with 3G wireless/phone capability BUILT IN at a relativley cheap price. Who would want a bulky Visorphone module then!!??? Can you imagine, i.e., watching movie trailers and video clips on your Hanspring PDA, WIRLESSLY! Sweet! Pocket PC, eat your Microsoft heart out! Ooops, Handsping may be using the Windows CE platform by then so disregard that last comment...

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 242

GSM coverage isn't as great now--but it's growing. It's also worldwide, which is an important feature for me. I frankly expect GSM to topple the others since the push to have a single compatible worldwide system will make a lot of sense.

I find the call quality superb on Voicestream. I have 600 weekeday minutes and 2000 weekend minutes for $40. That seems pretty fair.

I hadn't heard that Handspring was going to come out with an integrated model--sounds great. But with all the extra phone apps, I just sent off my V Prism for a 16 meg memory upgrade. So, I don't think I'll be upgrading again soon! Darn.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cincinnati, OH USA
Posts: 107

quote:

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Originally posted by dennisl


How much of the message do you get? As mentioned above, SMS truncates at 140 characters, including abbreviated headers.

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__________________
MANY BLESSINGS!
Peace and Every Good!


Michael W. Cristiani
[email protected]