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To: engineer who wrote (31523)	6/2/1999 2:32:00 PM
From: LJM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

To answer your question>> I went to Sprint first and at the time, I would have had to pay additional roaming charges in the areas not covered by their network on their 600 minute per month plan. Granted, this was in April and the plan may now have changed to better compete with ATT, but at the time, the roaming charges would have really made a big difference for me monthly, so I went the ATT route. I did realize that sprint had the better network, but dollar savings was key. My only point is that I think a lot of people make their choices the same way I did. I didn't intend for you to think I thought ATT was CDMA; I realize this; the point is exactly that...it didn't matter! For the timebeing this was the cheapest way for me to go. I still think the future is in CDMA. I just think the whole world may not move to this standard as quickly as you think. LJM

To: engineer who wrote (31523)	6/2/1999 3:39:00 PM
From: JMD	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 152472

Hi engineer, it's kind of a tough call on Sprint. I think that their customer service is terrific, very helpful folks. Their billing department is likewise johnny-on-the-spot. More substantively from a bucks point of view, it's hard to bitch about 10 cents a minute anywhere on their network. Finally, I've double-dipped and am now up to the 1000 minutes per month plan for around $130 with taxes and what-not and use the damn thing all the time. My son went whole hog and does 1500 minutes and his cell phone is virtually his only phone number--I literally don't even know his wireline number at his office. So what's not to like? Well, coverage, silly, coverage: when it's good, it's very, very good but . . . Spent the last few days zipping around Washington DC--Sprint is so solid in the District, Virginia, and Maryland you wouldn't even believe it (guess they want to keep all the politicians inside the Beltway happy campers). I was looking at 4 bars everywhere [including inside bars, if you get my drift]. Now back to SF Bay Area. We have this thing called the Bay Bridge which is a rather essential element of life in this neck of the woods, as in maybe 4 trillion cars/second 7X24 as we techies say. Sprint works for exactly 1/2 of the bridge! East of Treasure Island you're good to yak away; west you might as well be in Mongolia. Sacramento is the state's capital but just on the outskirts of Sacto where Caxton hangs out, you're toast [sorry, think of Caxton and toast just comes to mind]. My point is that there are like 33 million nut cases running around the Golden State--wouldn't Sprint have just blanketed this joint? 2 weeks ago I spent 4 days in New Mexico: my QCP 2700 thought it was in Belgrade--even the dreaded 'ANALOG ROAM' required you to give a credit card to use which is essentially such a pain in the tush that I used a wireline. Last, and I realize this is not Sprint's fault, I must sadly report that the little bitty 1900 Mhz, clamshell Q800, owned and operated by none other than the Surfette, doesn't cut it: the battery is simply too little to pull a signal unless you're in 4 bar prime time land. Anything less than optimum conditions, and you're incommunicado. So guess who's gonna be the first in the family to get the Thin Phone?[hint: it is NOT your esteemed techno-leader Surfer Mike]. Anyway, I'm very cool with Sprint and the QCP 2700: overall a very good combo and pretty solidly reliable. But we're still not THERE yet as far as I'm concerned. IMHO, FWIW, EOM, BWDIK, ROFLMAO, and Have a Nice Day (we're kind of getting salutation-itis again aren't we gang?) SM