MJK2660@ritvm.bitnet (10/25/89)
In the Rochester NY area there have been several vendors selling cellular car phones in the $90 price range. Part of the agreement is that you subscribe to a particular cellular service for 12 months. The rates have just been reduced to $10/month and 17.5 to 25 cents a minute for local (several county area) airtime. I contacted one of the vendors and they do receive a "kickback" from the cellular company but I don't know how much it is. With some of the tales I hear about other areas (75 cents a minute!!) I think we are very fortunate here.
tel@hound.att.com (Thomas E Lowe) (10/27/89)
I have seen ads here in NJ for Novatel Car phones for 88 dollars. Has anyone out there had any experience with Novetel phones? I'm sure there are very few fancy features in this model, but how about the quality? Is the range as good as more expensive models? How about sound quality and reliability? The company offering this deal is Jersey Cellular. Has anyone in NJ had experience with this outfit? Thanks! Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!)
dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Levenson) (10/29/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0477m04@vector.dallas.tx.us>, tel@hound.att.com (Thomas E Lowe) writes: > I have seen ads here in NJ for Novatel Car phones for 88 dollars. > Has anyone out there had any experience with Novetel phones? > I'm sure there are very few fancy features in this model, but how > about the quality? Is the range as good as more expensive models? > How about sound quality and reliability? > The company offering this deal is Jersey Cellular. Has anyone in NJ > had experience with this outfit? I have been driving around NJ with a Novatel cellular phone since 1986. It has never required maintenance, and works pretty well all over the state. Yes, there are a few "dead spots" -- mostly in the less-travelled areas and in the "hill country" of western Morris and northern Somerset counties. Novatel makes a large product line. The model 1260 (which I have) is a 3-watt unit (the max allowed) and is no-longer manufactured. Remember that the company who sells and installs your mobile phone gets to activate your service with Cellular One, or Metro One, or Bell Atlantic or Nynex (depending upon where you live). They get a piece of the action for every minute of air time you use. Their loss-leader price usually requires that _they_ activate your service, and that you keep it for some minimum period. They make back on your air time what they probably lose selling it at that price. They also have to make a monthly quota of new service activations, to keep their service reseller status. The deal is probably not bad, all things considered. Back in '86 they sold for about $1,500 plus installation! Dave Levenson Voice: (201) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (10/29/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0477m04@vector.dallas.tx.us>, tel@hound.att.com (Thomas E Lowe) writes: > I have seen ads here in NJ for Novatel Car phones for 88 dollars. > Has anyone out there had any experience with Novetel phones? A friend was trying out one of their handhelds. He brought it by and we did an informal comparison with my GE Mini (made by Mitsubishi), also a handheld. The audio quality was terrible; the voice was almost unintelligible because of a weird peak in the audio spectrum. In places where my GE was solid, the Novatel was experiencing severe fade on the same system. It's possible that it was, for some reason, working a different cell, but overall the performance was unimpressive and it certainly didn't hold a candle to the GE. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
tel@cdsdb1.att.com (Thomas E Lowe) (11/09/89)
I recently posted requests for people having experience with "Cheap Cellular Phones" from Jersey Cellular. I received one reply which is below. From jgy@hrmso.att.com Wed Nov 1 09:34 EST 1989 To: hound!tel Subject: re: jersey cellular (cheep phones) Tom, I bought the $288, NEC 3700 at jersey cellar yesterday and thought I'd give you a few comments; The total bill was $437; Price does not include installation (75-100) or an antenna (50-100). Rates went up at 4:30pm yesterday (right after I got mine), the selection of plans were: "Advantage": $29 per month AND 55 cents per minute PEAK, 35 NON-PEAK "Alternate Heavy usage": $49 per month AND 40 cents per minute PEAK & NON-PEAK "Alternate Off Peak": $15 per month AND 75 cents per minute PEAK, 25 NON-PEAK PEAK hours are 0700 - 2100 (yuck!) They talked me into the advantage plan, on reflection the $14 difference would pay for 70 minutes of peak calling ( 1400 / ( 75 - 55 ) ). You can change plans for $10.00 Finally, if you decide to get a phone from them consider the following offer: If I give them your name as a referral when you sign up they will give me a $50.00 credit to my account, If you want to do this I'll give you $25.00, fair ? Once signed up you'll have the same opportunity of course. John Young p.s. They said installation would take 45 minutes, it took an little over 1 hour. Tom Lowe tel@hound.ATT.COM or att!hound!tel 201-949-0428 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2E-637A Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733 (R) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T (keep them lawyers happy!!)
drmath@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> (05/17/91)
Perhaps this has been discussed in another thread (I don't recall): Let's say the local stereo store has a "deal" where you get a cellular phone for $49.95 if you agree to a one-year service commitment with some specified carrier. Obviously, to re-program the phone yourself would be breaking the contract. Do they have recourse in this case? Since the phone has been bought and paid for, it is not being rented or leased, so it seems unlikely that they could come and take it from you ... but they could theoretically "blacklist" your ESN. Another example: you buy the phone, they activate it with their carrier, you sign the contract stating that you will keep that carrier for one year. What if they give you an "A" carrier and you independently sign up for a "B" carrier (or vice-versa), and simply don't use the carrier that they gave you? The phone is still activated according to the contract, right? You're still using the carrier of their choice, right? The last time Radio Shack ran this sort of "deal", the fine print in their ad stated that this deal was not available in California and one or two other states where such deals requiring activation have been made illegal. Cute. Also, is a repository of programming instructions being accumulated somewhere in the Archives? If I can get away with one of the above scenarios, I might just get myself a cell phone!
"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (05/18/91)
...It seems William Shakespeare knew more about computers than historians have yet discovered: "Life is a tale, Told by an idiot..." (a medieval term for a computer) "Full of sound..." (monotone beeps) "And fury." (the frustration you feel when a computer does what you tell it to, not what you WANT it to do!) ...this gives pause when you think that Julius Ceasar had the raw materials for a cellular phone, but lacked only the manufacturing processes for sand (silicon). What would the Roman Empire have been like if Caesar had a cellular phone on his chariot?