Best cell phone / plan for pilots?

[Ben Jackson]

I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog)
and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why
I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years. The only airport I've ever
flown to where I didn't have coverage was Trinity Center, CA (O86) which
is in a bowl of hills in the middle of nowhere. Even there I allllmost
had a signal.

I'd like to get a new phone, but I really don't want to give up the
coverage. My friends with tiny, week-long-battery-life GSM phones love
them when they're in town, but often have no coverage when they stray
more than a few miles from a city or a major highway.

Can any of you suggest plans that have good coverage at out of the way
airports? Basically I want to land anywhere that's paved and be able
to call home or flight service.

--
Ben Jackson
>
http://www.ben.com/

[Cub Driver]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 05:11:56 GMT, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

>I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog)
>and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why
>I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years.

I understand that, now that Cingular has acquired ATT Wireless, you
may be better off not upgrading. Any new accounts will get a phone on
the Cingular system and technology; if they are not strong in your
area, you will be out of luck.

Just a thought. I appreciate that you are thinking of changing.

The story was in the Wall Street Journal within a week.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
the blog www.danford.net

[Jack Allison]

Ben,

I have a friend who works for AT&T wireless. In his area (Phoenix),
he's aware of them making a gradual transition of the wireless network
from TDMA to GSM. Looking at the coverage maps when I switched from
TDMA to GSM, I was concerned by the lesser coverage of GSM. I have yet
to stray far from my area so have no real comparison of coverage. IMHO,
GSM coverage will get better over time. I'd think that TDMA will be
around for quite some time but for how long? Good question.

I'd be interested to see follow up posts re: GSM coverage or lack thereof.

Ben Jackson wrote:


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, IA Student/flying club member/co-owner wanna-be,

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

[Robert M. Gary]

Cub Driver > wrote in message >...
> On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 05:11:56 GMT, (Ben Jackson) wrote:
>
> >I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog)
> >and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why
> >I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years.
>
> I understand that, now that Cingular has acquired ATT Wireless, you
> may be better off not upgrading. Any new accounts will get a phone on
> the Cingular system and technology; if they are not strong in your
> area, you will be out of luck.


Cingular's original digital service uses a technology called CDMA.
ATTWS's uses a very, very similar technology called TDMA. Both
networks are generally very well establish in Northern California.
However, the technologies are similar enough that they almost always
carry each other's traffic. Most all of the ATT TDMA towers will talk
CDMA. However, you need to go out of your way to get phones with these
older technologies. Right now the GSM network is what they are
pushing. There are several reasons why GSM is better. One, it has
always been the international digital standard. Europe and Asia have
used it for a while so the equipment is a bit more accessable. Second,
you can run GPRS packets across them. GPRS allows for full featured
digital service (internet browsing, sending pictures, etc). ATT
current does not even allow you to download polyphonic ring tones over
TDMA because it over runs the network. GSM is the way to go with that.
However, for my personal cell phone, I'm still TDMA. GSM is well
covered in metro areas but is playing catch up in out of the way
places. Many of the small towns we land in will not have GSM service.
Again, you really need to go out of your way to go to the back of the
cell phone store to find the old TDMA/CDMA phones. However, GSM is
growing very, very fast. I'm not sure at what point GSM will or has
overtaken (T/C)DMA in availability. Its getting pretty close. Also,
the TDMA phones generally still are dual mode (meaning they talk the
old analog technology too). That is a bad thing. You will probably
never find an analog only tower but the amps in the phone required to
talk analog is what limits the size of the phone. The GSM phones can
be much smaller. (As I understand, I'm the software guy not the
hardware guy:) ).

-Robert (I wrote some of the fault and provisioning software used in
CDMA and GSM activation and service assurance).

[lance smith]

I recently got a new phone and I sacrificed US coverage for global
coverage. Occasionally I find my self walking out of a forest in some
1st-2nd-3rd world nation and need to find transportation and/or food.
I got the AT&T GSM plan with a quad-band NEC phone and it works great.
I was initially concerned about US coverage but then it occured to me
that my US travels are either all metro where any mobile phone works,
or BFE where no mobile works. So in my case a smaller US GSM coverage
doesn't hurt very much.

-lance smith

[Kyler Laird]

(Ben Jackson) writes:

>Can any of you suggest plans that have good coverage at out of the way
>airports?

I've heard good things about GAIT plans. If you want GSM plus
coverage, that seems to be the answer.

I use SprintPCS with a phone that can fall back to analog. It's rare
that I need to do that but it's usually at the places where I *really*
need to make a call. I have only been out of coverage a couple times.

>Basically I want to land anywhere that's paved and be able
>to call home or flight service.

I've been considering (for a looong time) getting a satellite phone
for use when I'm in the boonies. It would be easy enough to just
leave it in the plane. It would also work in the *real* wilderness
and enroute.

The plans for pre-paid service are getting quite reasonable.
http://skyhelp.net/iridium_calling_card.htm
It sure seems worthwhile even just for emergency use.

--kyler

[C Kingsbury]

I used to travel all the time on business and not always to large metro
areas. People I was with had every plan under the sun. Three years ago it
was no contest- Verizon smoked everyone else. Now the others have caught up
a lot and in the cities it's largely a wash, though I've heard nothing but
complaints about Sprint.

I always wanted to switch to GSM because I went to Europe 3-4x year on brief
trips but in 2002 GSM was useless once you got away from the places that
vote Democrat, which was at least 50% of my travel.

Verizon has never let me down- they are expensive though.

-cwk.

"Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
news:wc%fd.15146$HA.8665@attbi_s01...
> I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog)
> and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why
> I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years. The only airport I've ever
> flown to where I didn't have coverage was Trinity Center, CA (O86) which
> is in a bowl of hills in the middle of nowhere. Even there I allllmost
> had a signal.
>
> I'd like to get a new phone, but I really don't want to give up the
> coverage. My friends with tiny, week-long-battery-life GSM phones love
> them when they're in town, but often have no coverage when they stray
> more than a few miles from a city or a major highway.
>
> Can any of you suggest plans that have good coverage at out of the way
> airports? Basically I want to land anywhere that's paved and be able
> to call home or flight service.
>
> --
> Ben Jackson
> >
> http://www.ben.com/

[aluckyguess]

http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2004/10/12/audiovox_5600_l.php
I was the same way. I would keep 2 phones 1 on the old system and 1 on the
new. This phone is pretty need. You can get weather reports on it.
"Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
news:wc%fd.15146$HA.8665@attbi_s01...
>I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog)
> and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why
> I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years. The only airport I've ever
> flown to where I didn't have coverage was Trinity Center, CA (O86) which
> is in a bowl of hills in the middle of nowhere. Even there I allllmost
> had a signal.
>
> I'd like to get a new phone, but I really don't want to give up the
> coverage. My friends with tiny, week-long-battery-life GSM phones love
> them when they're in town, but often have no coverage when they stray
> more than a few miles from a city or a major highway.
>
> Can any of you suggest plans that have good coverage at out of the way
> airports? Basically I want to land anywhere that's paved and be able
> to call home or flight service.
>
> --
> Ben Jackson
> >
> http://www.ben.com/

[One's Too Many]

(Ben Jackson) wrote in message news:<wc%fd.15146$HA.8665@attbi_s01>...
>
> I'd like to get a new phone, but I really don't want to give up the
> coverage. My friends with tiny, week-long-battery-life GSM phones love
> them when they're in town, but often have no coverage when they stray
> more than a few miles from a city or a major highway.

You might take a look simply keeping your existing plan and just
switch to the Nokia 3560 phone.

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/3560

It is a TDMA/Analog combo phone that has battery life nearly as long
as the new GSM phones (~ 6hrs digital talk time about twice as long
as your 8260, ~ 9 days standby time). I've had one for a year and
never been able to run the battery down yet!. Also there is the Nokia
2260 with standby time of 15 days and talk time of 5 hours, but it's a
heavy little sucker.

ATTWS is still selling both models right now too. If you renew your
plan, you might be able to talk them into giving you the 3560 for
free. I was able to do that at a time when they were not normally
doing that for existing customers.

I really like my 3560, at 3.8 oz, it's very lightweight, but is a bit
larger than the tiny new GSM technology.

[Robert M. Gary]

Kyler Laird > wrote in message >...
> I've been considering (for a looong time) getting a satellite phone
> for use when I'm in the boonies. It would be easy enough to just
> leave it in the plane. It would also work in the *real* wilderness
> and enroute.
>
> The plans for pre-paid service are getting quite reasonable.
> http://skyhelp.net/iridium_calling_card.htm
> It sure seems worthwhile even just for emergency use.

The service is reasonable, but the hardware cost is outrageous for sat
phones. The Baja flying clubs I belong to is a retailer. I hear the
phones work well in Mexico and they sell a kit that hooks it to your
aircraft audio. There is no FCC rule against sat phones in the
cockpit.

-Robert