[takeshi]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

One thing Verizon has over T-Mo and Sprint is much better coverage. Verizon and Cingular are probably the best in providing the best service area.

It really depends on where you live, work and travel. As an example, TMO's pretty good but definitely spotty here. In southern Florida they have excellent coverage that even extends out over the water that the casino boats float on. Every carrier has weak spots and strong spots. No one has 100% coverage.

Originally Posted by pronerd

Who says they do? Verizon is consistently ranked number one in service and support in industry surveys.

Guess it depends on where you look. If you only read PDA/smartphone forum sites they're definitely on the low end for reasons already mentioned but tech geeks make up a tiny tiny percentage of the overall wireless market.

Originally Posted by pronerd

That is not to say there is not bad press, but all the carriers seem to have lots of bad press. It seems to me more a problem with the entire industry, not just Verizon.

True -- they all do but there are definitely trends for different carriers. Verizon's not favored by geeks for slow releases, crippled devices, and the inability to switch devices at whim. At&t's customer service really really stinks -- and yes, they are my carrier of choice due to coverage. TMO's coverage tends to be an issue for some but as has been said, coverage varies by location, etc etc... That's not to say that these are law or anything. They're just trends. There are certainly releases that go to Verizon first, people who have good experiences with at&t CSR's, and people who have excellent coverage with TMO. It's very YMMV.

Originally Posted by dpeters11

Well, Verizon isn't really the worst in getting devices. Maybe nationwide yes, but in my area one of our big GPRS providers is Cincinnati Bell and they still don't have an 8800. So Verizon isn't always the worst.

Most discussions are in the context of nationwide carriers as a limited number of people on any given forum have experience with a regional carrier since forum sites themselves aren't regional.

[zero7404]

Originally Posted by Dawg

Lets see I has GSM (cingular)and had zero service in 60% of the areas I was in so what good is GSM if it doesnt work?

I never said GSM was bad in any way it just doesnt work for me. So with that said how is it the dark side when verizon actually owns the most shares in the US which ny the way is the only place I ever go so I could care less what the world does.

it's a war of the towers that Verizon is winning because they have so much capital....the only reason y service is more choppy with GSM.
if politics and cash did not play into things in this country as much as they do now, GSM would be alot better off....

[OrganicBerry]

Originally Posted by pronerd

Who says they do? Verizon is consistently ranked number one in service and support in industry surveys. That is not to say there is not bad press, but all the carriers seem to have lots of bad press. It seems to me more a problem with the entire industry, not just Verizon.

Well I was really referring to here.....and as you can see....they're not that popular.

Personally, I can see why a lot fo you don't like them....true....the GPS and MMS lockout sucks, and I would REALLY like to upgradeto 4.2....

BUT....

I've never had better coverage for everywhere I go....which is why I guess they don't bug me that much.

[aviationwiz]

I first got a T-Mobile BlackBerry 7230 because of the price a few years back... I loved the BlackBerry, but I had pretty bad coverage pretty much everywhere in Minneapolis. My school, my house, my friends houses, the Mall of America...

I was at the Mall of America one day, and I couldn't browse the web at all on my TMO BlackBerry... pretty much anywhere in the mall. So I was at the Verizon Store, and tried out the 7250 there, which worked great.

I decided that the Verizon model was too expensive, and just decided to send back the TMO one, as I still had time left to do so, as it was worthless with the crappy coverage.

Well, one day I was in the Verizon Store, saw it, and just decided to take the plunge anyways, despite the cost, and never looked back. It works everywhere I go, and the network speed and customer service is fantastic.

Sure, TMO gets new devices sooner, and their cheaper... but what good is a shiny new BlackBerry Pearl when it's just a fancy paperweight?

[infernox]

Originally Posted by Donna

The best vendor for you still depends on coverage in the areas you travel in the most. Good customer service and the latest OS won't help much if you can't get a signal.

Word!

[daphne]

I was waiting for my Verizon 2 year cell phone contract to run out so I could get a BlackBerry with T-Mobile. Verizon offered to let me upgrade to the BB early, get the $100 rebate, and get a Verizon data card free in the deal. I looked at the Verizon coverage maps in my area, then looked at the T-Mobile coverage maps, which looked quite spotty. I've been a happy Verizon cell phone customer for almost 4 years, so I went for the deal on the BB and free data card. I just discovered that Verizon disables GPS and I was disappointed with that, but otherwise, I've had great service and I love the BB.

[flat7]

If you travel out of the country at all why waste your time with a CDMA service?

[phinger23]

i find their customer service reps to be generally useless
i find their FRU/Replacement devices to be a waste of time
i find that their crippled equipment has to be the reason why devices on vzw tend to be crap and defective all the time.
their network is good tho

[takeshi]

Originally Posted by flat7

If you travel out of the country at all why waste your time with a CDMA service?

Because those on CDMA can just get the 8830 if they're happy with their carrier.

[Chel_in_IL]

Verizon as a cell carrier works very well in the area I live (Northern IL), but they don't have the broadband access here. We're about 75 miles from Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee, which all have broadband. So, as a Blackberry user who wants the broadband, Verizon wasn't a choice. In fact, the only carrier that had broadband here is Sprint, which is who I have had for the past 5 years. I stayed with them when getting my Blackberry.

I wish Cingular or other GSM carriers had broadband here - I would have gone with someone else. I work as a computer/network tech onsite at client's businesses, so I needed something that worked where I work.

Sprint's customer service is terrible - I'll agree with that. I had to call back multiple times because they kept transferring my calls to their Nextel support, despite my repeatedly telling them "it's a SPRINT Blackberry". I finally gave up and went directly to the Sprint store and had them address my problem.

And altho I do have a CDMA phone, I do have GPS abilities. I thank Sprint for that!

Michelle in Illinois

[jeffabcc]

I've been a Verizon customer since it was Bell Atlantic Mobile. The coverage in my area is second to none, and I get excellent 3G coverage (mostly EVDO Rev. A.) I just got an 8830, my first BB, and I'm generally very happy except I'm hugely P.O.'d that ZVW cripples the GPS. I'll subscribe to VZ Navigator if it ever becomes available, but considering that they're already getting $100+ a month from me, I don't appreciate their greediness in disabling a standard feature of the device so they can squeeze out more revenue from their loyal customers.

[nuopus]

Originally Posted by jeffabcc

I've been a Verizon customer since it was Bell Atlantic Mobile. The coverage in my area is second to none, and I get excellent 3G coverage (mostly EVDO Rev. A.) I just got an 8830, my first BB, and I'm generally very happy except I'm hugely P.O.'d that ZVW cripples the GPS. I'll subscribe to VZ Navigator if it ever becomes available, but considering that they're already getting $100+ a month from me, I don't appreciate their greediness in disabling a standard feature of the device so they can squeeze out more revenue from their loyal customers.

I have to agree about the converage. But, I am willing to live with SLIGHTLY less coverage, than be with a company intent on screwing over its customers to squeeze every last dime from them, at their cost. They make it no secret they care less about their customers, than making them pay max premiums. They show this by crippling all of their devices, forcing everyone to may more to them, they show this in nickle and dimeing customers with service fee, they show this by having rates that are above everyone else. To me, slightly increased coverage is nothing compared to the higher expense I will have to pay to them compared to t-mobile and cingluar, and the cost to me of having hobbled devices.

[Maverickster]

Thoughts from a former long-time loyal VZW (and now Cingular/AT&T) customer:

Pros:

Voice network quality and coverage (domestic only, of course).

Broadband data network speed and coverage.

No other carrier I've been on (NexTel, Sprint, Cingular/AT&T) can even compete in these two areas.

Cons:

Battery life (it didn't matter what device it was, the battery life was crappy and if you found yourself in "extended network" or, god forbid, "roaming", it drained the battery at a pace where you could almost watch it die as it constantly tried to get a digital signal).

Universal GUI (there's nothing worse than looking at your buddy's device with the GUI set up the way God/Manufacturer intended it and seeing how logically it works, and then looking at your "identical" VZW device and having to drudge through that incredibly poorly-laid out system).

GIN (this is the root of all the complaints -- VZW's single-minded determination to charge the consumer for every single "click" has made it loose track of the notion that people don't mind paying more if you just bury it in your monthly fee, but people really don't like getting nickel and dimed at every turn -- charge me to get a picture off my picture phone, give me a friggin' break).

Crippling of "convergence" features (GPS and cell phones go together like bacon and eggs, like peanut butter and jelly, but because VZW can't "allow" for users to use GPS unless it's VZNav, you have to wait for them to play catchup so you can get a semi-functional app at an inappropriately high price for what you get. These are two tasks that were "made" for each other; much more logical combination than, say, phone and camera or even email and calendar -- think about that for a second, we assume these two things go "together" because that's how our PIM system works nowadays, but it really doesn't make any sense, but I digress.) motivated entirely by a desire to nickel and dime the consumer.

Lack of ability to "integrate" with PC's (again, another issue that is motivated by GIN greed out of fear that permitting clean PC integration will ease the "hacker's burden").

General slow responsiveness in "bleeding edge" device releases and updates (for pete's sake, they won't even release a firmware update to fix major bugs in the current firmware; but, you'll note that they were right on top of the first firmware update for the RAZR V3c -- because it "fixed" a "bug" in the original firmware which permitted easy bypassing of GIN features by permitting direct connection to PC's with Moto's Phone Tools and installation of wallpapers, ringtones, transfer of contacts, DUN, etc. all without having to use GIN -- VZW couldn't let that happen so the first firmware update was out in a matter of 6 weeks "fixing" this "bug").

As has been said above, these cons are, by and large, things that BBForum members and HoFo members care about, but that your average consumer could care less about. Your average consumer wants to know, (a) do I get good sounding voice calls in lots of locations, and (b) can I take a picture with this thing? Since VZW does (a) better than anyone else and does (b) just as well as anyone else, they're popular. It's really that simple.

--Mav