AT&T fires a PTT shot across Sprint's bow

[S4GRU]

Wait, I thought my avatar was changed?

 

I said "previous Avatar."

 

Robert

[pyroscott]

I was thinking more along the lines of how much actual usage.

 

Oh, yeah, I haven't heard a phone chirp in years. I think their current handset offerings are sufficient for SDC. They offer a super cheap flip phone, a little nicer flip and a smartphone running android. It might be nice to have a flagship phone with a SDC button for the office guys who still use SDC to talk to guys in the field or people who want a SDC phone but don't want the stripped down ruggedized versions that PTT phones always are. They could always use an app for it, but that seems like it would almost discourage usage unless they had a really useful widget for it.

[Odell]

I can tell you one thing I haven't missed about the PTT decline and that's hearing the other half of conversations through the phone speaker that's been cranked up to 10. I really don't care to hear that Joey is having trouble getting 3/4 inch poly concomitant coax cable down from the 12th floor or that dispatch needs you to go to Capital Hill before you head over to K street.

 

PTT users seem to feel like the need to talk as loud as possible so the other party can hear them over the ancient walkie talkie network.

[Deval]

I can tell you one thing I haven't missed about the PTT decline and that's hearing the other half of conversations through the phone speaker that's been cranked up to 10. I really don't care to hear that Joey is having trouble getting 3/4 inch poly concomitant coax cable down from the 12th floor or that dispatch needs you to go to Capital Hill before you head over to K street.

 

PTT users seem to feel like the need to talk as loud as possible so the other party can hear them over the ancient walkie talkie network.

 

Same here in the streets of Manhattan, except ours involves some form of hood rat.

[Deval]

I'd rather see AT&T fill in remaining EDGE with HSPA+, modernize the rest of their core, accelerate on LTE, and acquire enough spectrum to deploy LTE over their footprint by 2014, but what do I know?

 

I thought AT&T was shutting down their EDGE network and rebanding?

[pyroscott]

I can tell you one thing I haven't missed about the PTT decline and that's hearing the other half of conversations through the phone speaker that's been cranked up to 10. I really don't care to hear that Joey is having trouble getting 3/4 inch poly concomitant coax cable down from the 12th floor or that dispatch needs you to go to Capital Hill before you head over to K street.

 

PTT users seem to feel like the need to talk as loud as possible so the other party can hear them over the ancient walkie talkie network.

 

That is very annoying! My coworker holds his phone with the microphone at his neck and talks at an 11. It is very annoying. Especially since he seems to love nothing more than talking on the phone. I bet he is on the phone at least 30% of the day. How he doesn't lose his voice is beyond me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOXsA8sp_E

[MacinJosh]

I thought AT&T was shutting down their EDGE network and rebanding?

 

Actually, so far at&t has announced that they were only shutting down EDGE in the NYC area. They have not announced the rest of the country yet. But I expect it to be soon.

[WiWavelength]

I thought AT&T was shutting down their EDGE network and rebanding?

Actually, so far at&t has announced that they were only shutting down EDGE in the NYC area. They have not announced the rest of the country yet. But I expect it to be soon.

 

Negatory. AT&T is reducing bandwidth allotted to its GSM/GPRS/EDGE network and reclaiming that spectrum for 3G/4G uses. But AT&T is not yet shutting down its 2G network technologies -- not even in NYC.

 

AJ

[Deval]

Interesting, that's good to know

[MacinJosh]

Negatory. AT&T is reducing bandwidth allotted to its GSM/GPRS/EDGE network and reclaiming that spectrum for 3G/4G uses. But AT&T is not yet shutting down its 2G network technologies -- not even in NYC.

 

AJ

 

I was misinformed. Thank you for clarification.

[dnwk]

Any posibility to see SDC on those MVNO?

[S4GRU]

Negatory. AT&T is reducing bandwidth allotted to its GSM/GPRS/EDGE network and reclaiming that spectrum for 3G/4G uses. But AT&T is not yet shutting down its 2G network technologies -- not even in NYC.

 

AJ

I've been meaning to tell you this interesting factoid...

 

I borrowed an AT&T SIM card from a coworker to take with me to Chama this week and I put it into my Nexus 4. In the old Alltel areas that AT&T acquired, they only installed WCDMA. No EDGE/GPRS at all. Very surprising.

 

So in Abiquiu, Cebolla, Tierra Amarilla, Dulce and Chama, AT&T native appears to be WCDMA only on these new sites. As I had told you recently, AT&T just recently shut down the old Alltel CDMA network in these locations. You can roam on GPRS off AT&T...on what I believed to be Commnet.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[WiWavelength]

I've been meaning to tell you this interesting factoid...

 

I have an interesting factoid as a follow up...

 

When AT&T took over the divested Alltel (former WWC) properties, it started by overlaying W-CDMA 850.  So, big swaths of acquired coverage in the Rocky Mountains and the Dakotas were depicted with those diagonal blue lines, indicating "3G Handset Required."

 

But here is the cuckoo part.  Since then, AT&T has been going back and underlaying GSM 850.  I have watched the progress on AT&T's coverage viewer over the past year or two.  The Dakotas used to be W-CDMA only -- except for those old AT&TWS GSM 1900 protection sites we wrote about in my Bob Quinn rebuttal last year -- but are nearing completion of GSM underlay, while the Rocky Mountain states are still almost entirely W-CDMA only, just as you experienced in rural northwestern New Mexico.

 

Check out the AT&T coverage viewer.  AT&T itself may act like a tool, but its coverage viewer is a decent tool...

 

http://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html

 

AJ

[mozamcrew]

I have an interesting factoid as a follow up...

 

When AT&T took over the divested Alltel (former WWC) properties, it started by overlaying W-CDMA 850.  So, big swaths of acquired coverage in the Rocky Mountains and the Dakotas were depicted with those diagonal blue lines, indicating "3G Handset Required."

 

But here is the cuckoo part.  Since then, AT&T has been going back and underlaying GSM 850.  I have watched the progress on AT&T's coverage viewer over the past year or two.  The Dakotas used to be W-CDMA only -- except for those old AT&TWS GSM 1900 protection sites we wrote about in my Bob Quinn rebuttal last year -- but are nearing completion of GSM underlay, while the Rocky Mountain states are still almost entirely W-CDMA only, just as you experienced in rural northwestern New Mexico.

 

Check out the AT&T coverage viewer.  AT&T itself may act like a tool, but its coverage viewer is a decent tool...

 

http://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html

 

AJ

So here's the question. Why not convert all of their voice traffic to W-CDMA and drop GSM? It would certainly free up more spectrum for LTE. It was my understanding that all the GSM carriers were moving to W-CDMA anyhow. Why would you go back and install GSM now on sites that already have W-CDMA coverage?

[S4GRU]

So here's the question. Why not convert all of their voice traffic to W-CDMA and drop GSM? It would certainly free up more spectrum for LTE. It was my understanding that all the GSM carriers were moving to W-CDMA anyhow. Why would you go back and install GSM now on sites that already have W-CDMA coverage?

 

Backwards compatibility is the only reason I can think of.  And maybe for M2M.

 

Robert

[Geesmill]

I've been meaning to tell you this interesting factoid...

 

I borrowed an AT&T SIM card from a coworker to take with me to Chama this week and I put it into my Nexus 4. In the old Alltel areas that AT&T acquired, they only installed WCDMA. No EDGE/GPRS at all. Very surprising.

 

So in Abiquiu, Cebolla, Tierra Amarilla, Dulce and Chama, AT&T native appears to be WCDMA only on these new sites. As I had told you recently, AT&T just recently shut down the old Alltel CDMA network in these locations. You can roam on GPRS off AT&T...on what I believed to be Commnet.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

That is really going decrease Sprint roaming coverage when AT&T turns down all the Alltel CDMA. The date escapes me currently, when does the Alltel roaming contract end? I guess if AT&T is turning down CDMA then it must already be expired.

[S4GRU]

That is really going decrease Sprint roaming coverage when AT&T turns down all the Alltel CDMA. The date escapes me currently, when does the Alltel roaming contract end? I guess if AT&T is turning down CDMA then it must already be expired.

Its not just Sprint, but Verizon too. There is a big hole of CDMA coverage now in rural Northern New Mexico with the departure of the AT&T/Alltel CDMA network. Just Commnet left on CDMA here. And their network is very poor PCS 1900, whereas Alltel had more sites and on 850.

 

Commnet 1x data is dead or less than 10kbps in most locations. And none of their sites hand off. All are islands. So you pull over to use Commnet voice.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[Danielj1981]

Man our company just switched to Verizon PTT from Nextel.....and they are GARBAGE!!! Probably 75% of the guys who have them (company issued) viscerally hate them!!! They just plain suck! Can't you see our frustration! It is so bad that most of us just installed the Voxer App and using our regular iPhones and droids! In my opinion if Verizon can't make it work on their "super network" then there's no way AT&T will get it right!

 

My company should just dump these crap PTT services and subsidize us some towards our personal phones and call it a day.

 

I know we don't host rants here, and I apologize in advance, but now that IDEN is dead, it's time for the world to move on from the PTT game! Sprint Nextel is the only one who had a sure fire PTT service.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[Geesmill]

Its not just Sprint, but Verizon too. There is a big hole of CDMA coverage now in rural Northern New Mexico with the departure of the AT&T/Alltel CDMA network. Just Commnet left on CDMA here. And their network is very poor PCS 1900, whereas Alltel had more sites and on 850.

 

Commnet 1x data is dead or less than 10kbps in most locations. And none of their sites hand off. All are islands. So you pull over to use Commnet voice.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Tell me about it, when I left Sprint and started out at VZW I had to keep a Sprint phone, so I could call the switch if I had a remote site down. VZW's PRLs wouldn't allow jumping over to any other carrier if their was least amount of signal, even if it was unusable.

 

The guys I worked with thought I was ridiculous.

[Fraydog]

It will be interesting to see what AT&T does with the old ATNI areas when it takes them over. There's still a skeleton of a GSM network running here from the First Cellular days primarily used as a roamer for AT&T. 

[Deval]

Man our company just switched to Verizon PTT from Nextel.....and they are GARBAGE!!! Probably 75% of the guys who have them (company issued) viscerally hate them!!! They just plain suck! Can't you see our frustration! It is so bad that most of us just installed the Voxer App and using our regular iPhones and droids! In my opinion if Verizon can't make it work on their "super network" then there's no way AT&T will get it right!

 

My company should just dump these crap PTT services and subsidize us some towards our personal phones and call it a day.

 

I know we don't host rants here, and I apologize in advance, but now that IDEN is dead, it's time for the world to move on from the PTT game! Sprint Nextel is the only one who had a sure fire PTT service.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

They didn't like Sprint Direct Connect devices and service? It even had iDen integration. 

[Danielj1981]

They didn't like Sprint Direct Connect devices and service? It even had iDen integration.

I have no clue! I asked warren our I.T. Coordinator what the deal with that was and I got the "don't ask" look. I think they got a sweet deal from Verizon on the Smartphones for the upper level management guys so we kinda got dropped in the lower level VZW PTT bucket. From what I understand the smartphones for them and the PTT phones for us are all on one big contract.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[Deval]

I have no clue! I asked warren our I.T. Coordinator what the deal with that was and I got the "don't ask" look. I think they got a sweet deal from Verizon on the Smartphones for the upper level management guys so we kinda got dropped in the lower level VZW PTT bucket. From what I understand the smartphones for them and the PTT phones for us are all on one big contract.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

 

What's that old saying about hills and rolling?

[Danielj1981]

Well it rolled down hill on us! Lol ;-)

 

I think and hope the PTT chapter has closed. I know how critical the 800 was and is to Sprints future plans. I respect that, and bud ado to my Nextel. AT&T and Verizon should just let it go as well lol.

 

"If it doesn't have a Nextel logo on the back it isn't true PTT"

 

Nextel....done|

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[Deval]

Well it rolled down hill on us! Lol ;-)

 

I think and hope the PTT chapter has closed. I know how critical the 800 was and is to Sprints future plans. I respect that, and bud ado to my Nextel. AT&T and Verizon should just let it go as well lol.

 

"If it doesn't have a Nextel logo on the back it isn't true PTT"

 

Nextel....done|

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

 

Lol, not sure man, the SDC device work pretty well and are almost as quick as iDEN in terms of instant connect.