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Date:      Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:35:18 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@peorth.iteration.net>
Cc:        Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Mobile phone coverage (was: VCD (was Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/ata atapi-cd.c))
Message-ID:  <20010122123518.L3066@wantadilla.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <20010121184810.A45428@peorth.iteration.net>; from keichii@iteration.net on Sun, Jan 21, 2001 at 06:48:10PM -0600
References:  <200101211447.f0LElEk04073@mobile.wemm.org> <KAECKEJJOLGHAFGGNIKMAELICAAA.res02jw5@gte.net> <20010121145018.A73989@citusc17.usc.edu> <20010121165422.A44505@peorth.iteration.net> <v04220821b691222656eb@[10.0.1.2]> <20010121181251.B44819@peorth.iteration.net> <v04220825b6912c57be5b@[10.0.1.2]> <20010121184810.A45428@peorth.iteration.net>

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On Sunday, 21 January 2001 at 18:48:10 -0600, Michael C . Wu wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 22, 2001 at 01:29:13AM +0100, Brad Knowles scribbled:
>> At 6:12 PM -0600 2001/1/21, Michael C . Wu wrote:
>>>  Switch a SIM card?
>> 	Do you really want to carry around three SIM cards, three phone
>> numbers, and have to be constantly switching between them to get
>> coverage?  You might as well have three cheap phones, one on each
>> network, and be done with it.
>
> Buy a dual-band phone?

That's not the issue here.  BTW, for the USA you need a three-band
phone.  That is, incidentally, the only kind of phone which will work
just about anywhere (I'm not sure about Israel and Korea).

>> 	But if you want to receive automated SMS messages from a network
>> monitoring system, you have to make sure that the carrier for the
>> gateway machine is on the same carrier your phone is, otherwise it
>> simply won't work.  We have investigated this matter at length, and
>> it looks like the only solution we have available to us is to set up
>> three separate gateways, one for each carrier within the country.
>>
>>>  The US carriers identify via the EIN of the phone.
>>>  But in reality, you really have no roaming between two carriers
>>>  much.  e.g. AT&T phones will not work with Sprint networks.
>>
>> 	But Sprint phones have to work on all the analog networks (which
>> they don't own), because their coverage is so incredibly crappy.  You
>> can't go more than a pencils width away from the major interstates,
>> or outside the largest metropolitan areas, before you're off Sprint's
>> network and one one that belongs to someone else.
>
> It is very hard for the US to build a large-scale cell phone system
> simply because it is too large a country.

The real issue is competition.  One large company would be able to get
better coverage.

>>>  Bottom line, I like GSM for being the lesser evil.
>>
>> 	I'll take CDMA, any day.  Fortunately, I won't have to wait too
>> long before everything over here will be CDMA, and by then, maybe all
>> the stupid little national carriers will have been consolidated into
>
> Love love 3G+W-CDMA.

And where do I get one?

Greg
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