Carrier Selection and Elimination
In some ways, selecting a cellular carrier, equipment, and rate plan, is more complicated than buying an automobile. At least with a vehicle, the performance does not vary a lot based on your geographic location. In other ways, it is quite simple to select a carrier if you know the pros and cons of each one.
Prior to even checking rates and coverage you can usually eliminate several carriers from consideration based on their technology and capabilities (see table below, green is good, red is bad, yellow is in the middle).
Technology
(CDMA versus GSM) DOES Matter
There has been much debate over the various wireless technology standards
and which is best. The U.S. will soon have only two digital standards, CDMA and
GSM. I am technology neutral; I'll choose the best provider regardless of the
technology. That said, CDMA provides overwhelming advantages over GSM in the
U.S., hence, the carriers that have adopted CDMA have an overwhelming advantage
over those that have adopted GSM.
CDMA needs fewer sites to cover a given area than GSM, even GSM at 800 Mhz (all New York City GSM is at the less desirable 1900 Mhz).
CDMA is much better at preventing dropped calls during heavy network congestion, at the expense of reduced voice quality as congestion increases. Network congestion is an especially big problem in New York City on the TDMA network.
The major CDMA carriers provide AMPS capability in many of their handsets, greatly extending coverage in rural areas, almost no GSM handset have this capability
The CDMA networks are far more developed than the GSM networks, though over time GSM will catch up
Except for Sprint, most of the CDMA networks in the U.S. operate at the more desirable 800 Mhz, which increases the range of each cell and provides better indoor signal penetration.
The TDMA carriers that have overlayed 1900 Mhz GSM onto their 800 Mhz TDMA sites have left big coverage gaps due to the problems inherent with 1900 Mhz PCS.
Some GSM advocates are fond of pointing out how pervasive GSM is in Europe and Asia, and how well it works. This is all true, but irrelevant. GSM in Europe and Asia is mostly at 900 Mhz which provides the same advantages that 800 Mhz provides in the U.S.. Europe and Asia are densely populated without the vast open spaces of the U.S.. The GSM infrastructure in Europe has been built up for over a decade, while in the U.S. GSM is relatively new.
800 Mhz is Best
When analog cellular service (AMPS) first began, the FCC licensed two
carriers in each geographic area. They divided the spectrum into "A
side" and "B side," with the incumbent wireline provider
getting the B side and another provider getting the A side. In New York City the original carriers were
Metro1 and
New York Bell (Nynex), see drawing below. You can read the complicated history of mergers, acquisitions, and
branding at: http://writing.deblauwe.org/bavag.pdf,
but as of today, the two 800 Mhz carriers for New York's metropolitan areas are Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless (AT&T
Wireless is a separate company from AT&T). These carriers have a tremendous
advantage over the newer, 1900 Mhz, carriers like Cingular (in New York),
T-Mobile, & Sprint, for two reasons. First, they have been around the
longest and have had much more time to build out their infrastructure. Second,
the 800 Mhz spectrum is much better suited for wireless communications; it
requires less cell sites, and it penetrates structures much better than
1900 Mhz.
Evolution of the Two Major 800 Mhz Carriers in New York City |
||||||||||
B
Side (present) |
Nynex [B Side] |
Bell
Atlantic (merges with Nynex) 1997 |
Verizon (Bell Atlantic, GTE + Vodafone AirTouch) 2000 [B Side] |
|||||||
A
Side (present) |
Metro1 [A Side] |
McGaw 1990 [A Side] |
AT&T 1994 [A Side] |
|||||||
CDMA is Best, Especially in
Densely Populated Urban Areas
I created a comparison of capacity issues
versus technology (raw data from the Consumer Reports February 2003 survey). The
results surprised even me!
CDMA | GSM | iDEN | TDMA | |
Total # of Ratings | 12 | 5 | 4 | 9 |
Best | 6 (50%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
Good | 2 (17%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
Average | 4 (33%) | 1 (20%) | 3 (75%) | 3 (33%) |
Below Average | 0 (0%) | 4 (80%) | 0 (0%) | 4 (44%) |
Poor | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (25%) | 2 (22%) |
No CDMA carrier, in any city, was below average. No iDEN, GSM, or TDMA carrier, in any city, was above average. Clearly, at this time, CDMA is providing an advantage in terms of capacity in densely populated urban areas. Remember, this table is NOT about coverage, it's about the dreaded "System Busy" or "All Circuits Full" recording.
All things being Equal, the Best
Carrier in Terms of Coverage is Verizon
(CDMA)
It is not surprising that the highest rated carrier in New York City is Verizon;
it enjoys a compelling and literally
insurmountable advantage over the
other carriers by virtue of their desirable 800 Mhz spectrum and their capacity
(due to the superiority of CDMA over TDMA and GSM). All things being
equal, you
don't want to choose a carrier that operates at the 1900 Mhz PCS frequency
because in-building reception, especially in box buildings such as large
retailers, hospitals, malls, etc., is worse at 1900 Mhz. This eliminates AT&T's GSM
service, Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile, leaving only AT&T's TDMA service,
Nextel's iDEN service, and Verizon's CDMA service. AT&T's TDMA service is
not very good due to overcapacity. 1900Mhz carriers will try to make you believe that the difference is
exaggerated, and if they are looking only at single family homes and
non-box-like big buildings then they are correct. The big difference comes
when you are deep inside a skyscraper, Costco, Home Depot, or similar sort of store and
are not very close to a 1900 Mhz cell. It takes many more cell sites to
provide the same coverage area at 1900 Mhz than at 800 Mhz. In most areas,
AT&T's 800 Mhz TDMA service is about equal to Verizon's CDMA service. In New
York City, because of the population density, the spectral efficiency of CDMA provides
a big advantage to Verizon.
All Things are
Not Equal ≠
While the 1900 Mhz carriers are inferior in terms of coverage, technology and/or capabilities
they each have some attraction. On GSM carriers you can roam internationally
in most of Europe and a lot of Asia (not Japan, Korea, and parts of China).
Sprint PCS offers very attractively priced un-metered data services (if you figure
out how to cable your phone to your PC rather than using a CardBus card).
Even though Nextel is an 800 Mhz carrier, they
don't make any pretensions about trying to compete in terms of coverage with the
other carriers.
AMPS is
Ubiquitous; Don't Choose a Carrier that Doesn't Include AMPS Capability!
No weasel words here, don't go with a carrier that doesn't
provide at least the capability to use the old 800 Mhz AMPS network, and be
certain that the handset you select includes AMPS capability as there are many CDMA phones without AMPS capability
being offered.
This advice is echoed by Consumer Reports who recommends cell phone users purchase a phone with digital and AMPS capability. AMPS Major national carriers that provide AMPS backup are AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Sprit PCS and Verizon Wireless*.
*Note that not every phone from these carriers has AMPS capability, and Cingular does not offer AMPS in all regions. AT&T offers only one handset, the Sony-Ericsson T62u, that has AMPS capability for use on its "Next Generation" GSM network (though most of its TDMA phones have analog capability. Cingular and T-Mobile in New York City offers no handsets with AMPS capability. Verizon and Sprint offer several handset models with AMPS capability, but also offer several models that lack this essential feature. T-Mobile does not offer analog capability at all.
There are vast areas of the U.S. (i.e. much of Alaska) that are covered only by AMPS (and that will continue to be covered only by AMPS into the foreseeable future due to sparse population and the expense of installing digital service which requires many more towers than AMPS)).
AMPS is used for roadside call boxes and for GM's On-Star system. Both of these systems will need to transition to digital systems before AMPS starts to be turned off.
The desirability of AMPS capability eliminates Nextel and all the GSM carriers. Someday AMPS will no longer be needed, but that day is at least a decade away.
The 800 Mhz cellular carriers will be permitted to turn off their AMPS service in 2008 (unless the FCC extends the deadline again--it originally was 2007). This means that in areas with digital coverage the carriers will likely choose to discontinue AMPS service, but in areas without digital coverage they will likely choose to continue AMPS service.
One disturbing trend is the elimination of AMPS capability on some handsets. The following table will help you avoid purchasing a handset that does not have AMPS capability.
Carrier | Phones with AMPS (Acceptable) | Phones without AMPS (Avoid) |
AT&T Wireless (TDMA) | Nokia: 2260 Motorola: V120T, V60i |
Almost every TDMA phone includes AMPS Capability |
AT&T Wireless (GSM) | Sony-Ericsson: T62u | All except Sony-Ericsson T62u |
Cingular Wireless | None (Cingular does not offer their GAIT phones in New York City) | All (Cingular does not offer their GAIT phones in New York City) |
Nextel | None (no iDEN phones have AMPS capability) | All (all iDEN phones lack AMPS capability) |
Sprint PCS * indicates no CDMA 800 and these handsets should be avoided even if they have AMPS |
Nokia: 3585i Samsung: SPH-N400, SPH-A460, SPH-A500, SPH-I500, SPH-I330, SPH-I300* Sanyo: SCP-8100, SCP-5300, SCP-6400*, SCP-4900* |
Audiovox:
Thera* Handspring: Treo 300* Hitachi: G1000, SH-P300* LG: LX1200* Toshiba: 2032* |
T-Mobile | None | All |
Verizon | Audiovox:
CDM 8300 Kyocera: KWC 2325, 7135 LG: VX2000, VX4400 Motorola: V120E, T720 Samsung: A310, SPH-i700 |
Audiovox:
Thera LG: VX3100, VX6000 Samsung: SCH-A530 |
Phones With and Without AMPS Capability
AT&T TDMA | AT&T GSM | Cingular | Nextel | Sprint PCS | T-Mobile | Verizon | |
Spectrum | 800 Mhz | 1900 Mhz | 1900 Mhz | 800 Mhz | 1900 Mhz | 1900 Mhz | 800 Mhz |
Technology | TDMA+AMPS | GSM | GSM | iDEN | CDMA+AMPS2 | GSM | CDMA+AMPS |
AMPS | Yes | Yes (GAIT) | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Data Services | None | 2.5G | 2.5G | 1G | 2.5G | 2G | 2.5G |
1. AMPS & CDMA 800Mhz requires credit card payment for call,
may not work in all covered areas This table
applies to the New York City Area and to other areas where the
carriers operate in the same spectrum. |
Carrier Evaluations (based on technology & spectrum used in the New York City Area)
Not surprisingly, AT&T TDMA and Verizon CDMA are the highest rated services by every independent, non-profit, entity. These two carriers have the most towers and they have the more desirable 800 Mhz spectrum in most markets, including New York City. The February 2003 issue of Consumer Reports stated that in its survey of about 22,000 magazine subscribers that Verizon was top ranked in all six cities they surveyed, including Los Angeles. The same article also reported that AT&T and Verizon were the most expensive carriers. Unfortunately for AT&T, their TDMA network in New York City is very congested and the spectral inefficiency of TDMA means that there is no easy fix. When they convert their TDMA 800 Mhz spectrum to GSM then things will improve.
Long Term Outlook
Long-term, AT&T and Cingular will be re-deploying their 800 Mhz spectrum
from AMPS & TDMA to GSM (this does not apply to Cingular in New York City which has no 800 Mhz spectrum). There are already phones being sold that will
operate at both 800 Mhz GSM and 1900 Mhz GSM. If AT&T
and Cingular deploy true 3G (W-CDMA) they will have to have separate spectrum
for voice and data, so perhaps at that time they will put the data services at
1900 Mhz (since there is more bandwidth at 1900 Mhz and 3G data will require
more bandwidth than voice) and move all the voice down to the more desirable
800 Mhz spectrum. AMPS may no longer be available in urban areas (though one
of the two AMPS carriers is likely to continue service), and TDMA
will disappear completely. AMPS will likely continue to be the only service
offered in rural areas because the infrastructure is already in place, the
demand is low, and AMPS requires far fewer sites for coverage (so there will
be a need for a GSM/AMPS phone). The real losers, long-term, will be the
carriers that do not have any 800 Mhz spectrum, such as Sprint, T-Mobile, and
Cingular (New York City). The future of Nextel is unclear. There are predictions
that they will abandon iDEN and move to CDMA, but this is only speculation.
Nextel is a special case. Nextel's niche is their 2-way radio, Push to TalkTM service; it is rather unfair to compare Nextel to other carriers since Nextel is not trying to provide the same sort of ubiquitous nationwide coverage as the other national carriers. However over the past year I've received several e-mails inquiring as to why Nextel was not included, so I gave in and added them.
The question of which phone is best
for adventurers was a topic on the AT&T and Verizon Usenet newsgroups in
August 2003. A poster complained about his Cingular GSM coverage and stated that
a friend with Verizon had no trouble making calls "in the outback."
Verizon was determined to be the better choice for the following reasons: 1. Manual AMPS mode. CDMA/AMPS handsets can be forced to AMPS so a weak and unusable digital signal will not affect the ability to switch to the AMPS network. TDMA/AMPS, and GAIT phones, will only switch to AMPS when there is absolutely no trace of a digital signal. Just be certain that the Verizon handset you choose actually has AMPS, and that it is manually selectable. 2. Sony-Ericsson handsets don't perform well, and the only GAIT phone from AT&T is the Sony-Ericsson T62u 3. Verizon has better native AMPS coverage, and better AMPS roaming than AT&T, eliminating the need for a credit card to use AMPS |
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