Getting Nextel....
 

Hi all, I am thinking about getting nextel for my phone service here in the next few days.... Anyone have it? Any experiences?

I also want to get the Blackberry 7100i.... Any experiences with that?

I need some input. Thanks!

At first I thought those phones were pretty neat. After about a month, I began to loathe them - especially that irritating signal noise...especially when I'm in the middle of something. (I also began to loathe hearing that noise when it was someone else's phone)
Other than that, I had its moments where it was convenient. (but not a must have/can't live without)

I've had Nextel for many years, they were good for a while..... Now sprint owns them and the prices and plans have gone up. I'm dumping my service shortly.

Oh, as for the 2-way thing... it's very useful as long as the people on the other end have half a brain. I avoid giving my 2-way ID to anyone who enjoys farting into the speaker :D or doesn't know how to use the alert button. There's some ettiquicy involved.

Nextel
 

Depending on the service area coverage it can be a blessing or drive you postal. Audio Quality ranges from very good to helium induced skitzophrenia.

Seriously-here in NYC we have dead zones that are almost as big as Rhode Island- Terrain drives the reception and NEXTEL was always cheap in edge areas, from what I see for contruction permits issued for new platforms and towers Sprint isn;t any better.

BUT the new 2 gig band will offer a definate improvement over 800 mhz band (and no more AM radio bleeps) so its a trade off.

I agree an ******* employee who thinks CW McCall should be the next Saint or manager whois a shmuck by holding the key down to block your reply or insist on putting the VOX switch on assuming since they can hear the garbled speaker phone on their desk so can you.

Yes they save your butt, no the double bleep does not kill honeybees, bust the minutes/texts add up and they do round to the higher time block!

Our company gave us all nextel phone, Blackberries in fact (I sport a 7520, old large one...)

I'mnot impressed - coverage always seems to suck wherever in the country that the job takes us, and the 2-way feature only works if both of you have coverage.

I would not get Nextel for my personal use - just for coverage alone.

-John

I hear the walkie talkie feature on the nextels is nice and effecient, however the cell service depends on a variety of different issues.

As a electronics broker I supply material to firms like Motorola, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, etc...Over the years I have realized one thing.... All phone are basically the SAME..

I hear people saying things like, " I need a new phone, this one stinks"...what they do not realize is there is a frequency crystal inside every phone, for the most part they are the same so service in the US really depends on infrastructure saturation. IE, if you phone is a 200 dollar phone but the service area is mountanous and towers a sparse then you are in the weeds... You can have a 10 dollar phone but you are in a saturated zone and it will perform better than an expensive Blackberry.

A Blackberry, Moto Q, or any other PDA/Cell is loaded with features and applications, therefore they are more money but the service, depending where you are is really hostage to coverage.

I suggest you check that first, don't go to the cell store and ask them for help either, there in the business of selling plans. Ask friends, people in the area that you know have phones, that is the best measure.

I have two plans, one with Verizon, which through aquisitions have a VERY strong infrastructure and one plan with Cingular . The cingular plan has better features due to rollover minutes as opposed to Verizon that keeps unused minutes. Both services are ideal for me in florida, but when I travel to the midwest the verizon keeps working even if I am in Juarez, Mexico and the Cingular doesn't..it's hit an miss...

We used Nextel. I have a BB 7520 with which we synchronise our work e-mail. It can be useful in that respect. But their coverage sucks and I dislike the phone itself. Audio quality is crap. I use the ear piece that attaches to the unit via a cable. Looks silly but the audio quality is vastly superior. The two way feature is useful on the job sometimes but of course is meaningless if there is no coverage. I'm leaning toward the opinion that all I want is a phone with global coverage and I dont care a damm about e-mail and all the other crap that these things have now.

- Peter.

Move to Europe, or Asia ...we in the US are the ones not on a digital gsm/cdma system where you can go to any service provider with the same phone and number and get great service

I liked the 2way walkie talkie at first, but my wife can be longwinded at times (knowwhatImean, Larry Delor?). It can be very annoying when you don't have the ability to just cut someone off when they are dragging a conversation and they don't get to the point of their statement.

Many times I just wished I could blurt out to her "Yeah, and what's your point?"

Anyways, they have their pros and cons.

O M G ! Do you have any idea how many times I would be on the copper phone with a customer, and she would just blurt out "Hello!" without first just beeping to see if I was available? And I couldn't tell her to hang on (while covering the reg. phone with my hand) - because I could either not get a word in edgewise, or because she thought that meant she needed to finish her sentence :singer: and explained while she called in the first place. How was I supposed to listen to a customer/not have the customer hear that?

I'm gettin' p.o.'d again just thinking about it!

The thing is, is that she is not the only one who does stuff like that....You think they seem to give a Drivers License to any ole idiot :wacky: that walks in? Hah! They'll give a phone to anybody!:freak:

Should I pull the trigger and get Nextel or not? I have heard some more horror stories, and want to make sure to cover all the bases before jumping on board...

When somebody is blabbing on PTT, press the stop/off/red key. It will kill their conversation immediately. A bit of advice, though - few folks seem to know this works, so keep it to yourself. They'll just think their phone dropped the chat.

As for the PTT - it's invaluable in certain situations, but the abusers deserve a rapid and furious flurry of punches to the face. The 99% of cell phone users who are inconsiderate slobs are annoying enough, but listening to some damn walkie-talkie conversation while I'm eating my lunch, brings fantasies of violence I dare not discuss.

Justin...aren't you in the Bay Area? If so, from a technical perspective, the Nextel's work very well around here. We've got field people all over the East Bay - both sides of the hills - and the blind spots are pretty far and few between.

My road trips are almost all on the West coast, and I've had mixed results - rural area coverage varies quite a bit. There are huge gaps of coverage in northern CA and OR, and many areas of WA aren't much better.