Verizon Android Phone (Droid)

[2+2]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Edited

Yeah, I've had Verizon for about 5 years and have yet to drop a call. Never a problem.

I like the edit - wish I had worded it that way.

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

....

on a side note... you people know that you can pick up basically any phone and use it on verizons network... Buddy of mine is a real estate agent and for the longest time used TRIO phones... but got so fed up with them he went out and bought an Iphone...works perfectly fine on the verizon network. Sure it may cost a bit more, but if you are willing to pay for it... you can have it.

I'm not sure how that is possible since the iPhone is only designed to run on AT&T's network design which is an incompatible system that Verizon uses.

[eht13]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

And before the iPhone came out and Cingular was merged into AT&T (around the same time), I never even heard about of AT&T still playing in the market. Heck, I thought they went away years before! All of a sudden they had emerged as the "new at&t" out of no where and bought the much more prominent Cingular.

Here's a not-so-quick history.

At one point (before cell phones and the internet) AT&T was the phone company in the US. To address antitrust concerns, the government broke up the company in the 80's into regional "baby bells" (but AT&T as a company remained, it was just much smaller). Two of those baby bells were Southwestern Bell and Southern Bell. Southwestern Bell later became SBC, and Southern Bell later became Bellsouth. Those two companies created a joint venture wireless company and called it Cingular Wireless. Incidentally, around the same time, Verizon was created as a combination of other baby bells, including former regional wireless companies such as Airtouch.

Around the same time that Cingular and Verizon came along, AT&T spun off a wireless company and called it AT&T Wireless; it was a separate company. Later, Cingular Wireless bought AT&T Wireless. Then more recently, SBC (one of Cingular's two parent companies) bought AT&T, and renamed themselves AT&T (and started the "the new AT&T" campaign, together with an altered company logo), since the brand was still so famous worldwide. So one of the former baby bells actually bought their former parent, in effect.

Then after that, AT&T (the renamed SBC) bought Bellsouth, who was Cingular Wireless' other parent company. So at that point, Cingular was now wholly owned by one company, called AT&T, so the Cingular name also went away in favor of just being called AT&T.

Originally Posted by Kal-El

I'm not sure how that is possible since the iPhone is only designed to run on AT&T's network design which is an incompatible system that Verizon uses.

Exactly... it's not possible unless Apple ever builds an iPhone for Verizon, which as I said I doubt they would do. The iPhone is made to run on GSM networks along with the EDGE and 3G data technology that AT&T operates (the same technology that other iPhone carriers in other countries operate). The Verizon network is a different technology (CDMA, plus a different data technology). The other US carrier that runs GSM is T-Mobile, so I guess it would be possible to use an iPhone on that if it was unlocked from AT&T.

----

BTW... I love my iPhone. : )

[IllusionX]

the 2 other major carriers in Canada (Bell and Telus), whom both uses CDMA, have switched over to GSM recently... giving the iphone (and other GSM phones) 2 more choices of carriers on top of Rogers and its sub-carrier Fido.

speaking of T-mo... I think they use a completely different 3G technology than AT&T, making 3G unavailable for the iphone.

[eht13]

^ Regarding T-mobile, that's probably right. They are GSM, but the data/3G technology part is probably different.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

I'm not sure how that is possible since the iPhone is only designed to run on AT&T's network design which is an incompatible system that Verizon uses.

hmm... maybe i was misled... maybe brian has two cell providers then... Last I knew he was part of a $20,000 a year plan with Verizon, .... he had a lot of beef with them tho, so maybe he did finally justify switching over.

[The Architect]

im basically drooling over getting this phone. if you can get on a family plan with someone its only about 50 bucks a month insured with full internet and messaging.

ahhhhh

[DevilGirl]

Originally Posted by eht13

BTW... I love my iPhone. : )

I'm with you. I love my iPhone as well. I've been with Cingular/AT&T since like 2001. I havn't found anything better that has the features I need, coverage I need, for less money. There has only been one area in which my AT&T phone has not worked. And in the same area Verizon did not work either. I think they only thing that even remotely had a signal was Sprint (Delaware Water Gap is a cell phone blackhole).

I used to have an aircard with Verizon. Sucked majorly. Was extremely hard to get a signal worth using most of the time. It would work one day, but not the next, and it hadn't been moved.

My dad has been with Cingular/AT&T longer than I have. And he travels throughout the country, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. He has not had an issue with his phone coverage either. (Granted he hasn't really been able to use it outside the U.S., but that's because his company doesn't want to pay for the international calling stuff or the roaming).

I've tried playing around with a Crackberry or two. Totally not a fan. Features/settings are hard to find. Not very user friendly (I am very familiar with different technologies and can generally just pick something up and figure out how it works in a matter of minutes).

[eht13]

^ Cool!

[AlexNet0]

Originally Posted by PK198105

yup Cyanogen is tha man. waiting till this evening , he's suppose to release the Eclair 2.0 rom cant wait.