Iwas watching TV this morning and it was reported that Sprint and Nextel are merging.
I am going through the AT&T Cingular merger and I dont know if I am going to like Cingular or not. Cingular wants e veryone to move to GSM phones one problem GSM does not work very well in WV right now. Some friends that are technocrats and must have the latest and have GSM phones want their old phones back.

Well over here in jersey, Sprint suc*s and Nextel is very hit or miss more on the miss side so neither of them are looking to great

As far as the cingular merger with att it is great over here i have been with cingular for about 5-6 years and must say since the merger thigns have greatly improved in our area. GSM is the only way to go around here

Im sure it will pick up in your area soon enough. And 2 way is prob not to far off for all carriers. As there already is one small company offering it around here.

Sprint (Zero service)
Nextel (Digital distortion so bad its like talking to R2-D2 most of the time)

That said, Verizon seems to be on the bottom of the complaint list, but you pay for it.

I work for a wireless phone company and can at least explain some of the differences, and then you can decide for yourself.

GSM and CDMA are two different technologies. GSM is really TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and CDMA is code division multiple access. I will not go into specifics here but will mention the important differences in a moment.

GSM in the US operates around 1900 Mhz, and CDMA operates in the 800 Mhz band. The higher frequency GSM has considerably less range than CDMA. So for a given area using GSM, you must have more cell sites to cover the area.

GSM has approximately 8 times more customers than CDMA, and the phones can be used in Europe, Asia, and Africa. GSM is a standard whereas CDMA is a technology that has to be paid a royalty to Quallcom its inventor.

GSM voice quality is generally better than CDMA. This is due to the technology differences. CDMA is equal in voice quality during low traffic periods, but degrades as traffic increases, the Darth Vader effect.

GSM battery life is longer because the transmitter is only on while you speak. However CDMA is a full duplex technology which allows you to speak and hear at the same time.

So which is better, depends on where you are at. If you are in a populated area and the carrier has the area saturated with cell sites, GSM is a better technology. If you are in a less populated area where the sites have further distances involved then CDMA is a better choice IMO.

Iv'e used Sprint and Cingular and they both were annoying at best. Currently I have Verizon for personal use, and a Nextel from work. While the Nextel dirrect connect is nice, the phone service stinks. Verizon gets my vote for best quality in my area.

I'm in the Milwaukee, Wi area and everytime I look at a new phone system I find I stay with my Nextel. It works great here, the DC is superb with fellow contractors and when we travel there is no roaming. When we do travel we check the area we are going to to see how the coverage is. So far no problem.
Norstarr

I agree with norstarr, no probs with nextel. works great!! when you have to pull wire too....