Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 10:35:34 -0400
From: Kit Mason <kit at hers.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: cell phones
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Sprint will say it blankets the country with service -- it does not.

In Pennsylvania, it only works near larger cities, if you're very
lucky.  If you're in the hills or mountains and your car breaks down,
you're out of luck.  Ditto New York, even in cities where it's supposed
to work just fine -- I had a good signal on the third floor in
Rochester, but lost it at street level.  Rochester's not small, about a
million if you count the immediate surrounding 'metropolitan' towns the
way the statisticians count the towns around DC into its population.  In
central Kansas, in the flatter areas (it's not really that flat), it was
so flaky that I lost signal just crossing the driveway or the street.

And in Youngstown, NY, it told me I'd have roaming charges.  Sprint
thinks Youngstown, NY, is Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario.  Not helpful at
all.  I've taken to stocking extra change for coin phones when I travel,
since Sprint is so unreliable.

In DC, of course, it works perfectly.

Kit