John Giddy wrote:
It's 2% of the Population, not 2% of the country, Chris.
John G.
But that's what clever advertising would like you to believe - and it
works .....
I'm a very part time CDMA user who also is being bombarded by the big T
to change to next G now, enjoy all of the "benefits" and avoid the
rush. Most recent letters have almost been threatening in their efforts
to have me comply.
Fact is that in this part of the world most people who made the switch
to Next G earlier are regretting it. Reports of connection dropouts and
similar hassles have been all too common, and I have one anecdotal
rumour of a neighbour who hurled his Next G device into a concrete wall
of the pig shed in frustration - reminiscent of the John McEnroe ad used
some months ago to promote Next G - except that this was a Next G phone
and it did happen in Australia. Perhaps things will improve - they
certainly needed to on the basis of what I have heard up until now.
Incidentally, those Next G phones which are thought to be more suitable
for "country use" have a "tick" endorsement to this effect.
In it's defence however, I can report that the shiny new Next G phone we
installed in our CFS fire truck acquitted itself very well when it was
used in an emergency a few weeks ago - this in an area where GSM and
CDMA are hopeless. So if this is a consideration, Hoyleton would appear
to be a good place to land out. (It also has a functioning pub). I
guess all CDMA people will have to comply eventually, embrace the new
system which promises all, and hope that Sol and Co have got it right.
I'll probably get a pre-paid Next G plan for $30/pa because my preferred
option - imperfect though it is - is still GSM. Time will tell which
is better.
Upon reflection, nothing has been as good as the original analogue
network for general country coverage. In one of my early analogue calls
I later discovered that I had been using a cell which was 150 km away!
When I am on the farm I am only 6 km from the nearest GSM digital
cell, but nearly all calls are eventually terminated (usually sooner
rather than later) by the system which I suspect latches onto a stronger
cell further away and then crashes - presumably because the timing loop
parameters are exceeded. Three beeps and then silence, except for a
heavy sigh and (only sometimes) mild to moderate expletives from the
frustrated user.
Such is progress.
Terry
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