** At 06:06 AM 5/6/2004, David Brodbeck wrote: **

>I have T-Mobile, and like it, but their coverage isn't very good.

exactly.. ! we headed out yesterday on a sightseeing cruise
on the 'apache trail' east of Phoenix metro area.  No service
just outside of Apache Jct.. all the way to Roosevelt Lake.
There was an island of coverage there at the adot maint
yard.. then *none* all the way until we crested the hill
over gonzales pass a ways west of superior and came into
view of the smog cloud of phx.

I've heard that Verizon (from other colleagues) has the
best nation wide coverage, and you can still get
dual mode CDMA and AMPS (analog) phones from them.

AT&T Wireless/Cingular still supports TDMA/AMPS but
begrudgingly.. they are 'encougraging' customers to switch
over to their GSM network.  My old sony/ericsson LX300
phone would work in an amazing number of places.. but what
I found is that they are starting to drop some of their roaming
agreements with the older technology carriers (Analog - AMPS)
in the rural areas.  You dial up and get asked to type in a credit
card number!

The other negative was that the analog network in AZ seemed
to me to be going downhill fast... (very staticy, very difficult to
hear/be heard)

I threw in the towel and swith to T-Mo about two months ago..
works fine in metro areas, but out in the boonies a ham radio
would be a much better way to stay in touch. (if you want to
learn such)

  -tim

90 syncro westy
mesa, az