TELECOM Digest Editor originally questioned, which is more of a
threat, SBC or Verizon:
As far as your first question, define threat. Is Verizon or SBC a
threat to what?
As far as Nextel, I am not the expert on Nextel and their technology,
but the analogy I use when discussing the differences between Nextel
and Cellular service and the attempts to recreate the "Direct Connect"
feature by carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T was that Nextel
was a walkie-talkie with a phone feature, the others are a cell phone
with a walkie-talkie feature.
Nextel was built on the LMRS, or Land Mobile Radio Service frequencies
and services. This was the taxicab and business dispatch frequency
band. Nextel also incorporated a lot of the "Mom and Pop" paging
companies and their frequencies in order to obtain bandwidth. As far
as "Direct Connect" being a "fancy sort of speed dial", you could
probably argue that it is true just as my analogy is true. The Nextel
(actually Motorola) implementation is known for its connect speed,
normally in the range of just a couple of seconds vice the up to 10 or
more for the traditional cellular carriers. The conversation is
carried on in the same way as the walkie-talkies, most people scream
into their device and blast everyone in the area with the maximum
volume on the speaker.
Some have stated if the units are close enough they will transmit
between themselves directly without using a tower, otherwise they will
use a site and be carried just as if it were a cell-to-cell
conversation. We recently installed a Nextel base station in one of
our buildings and it is configured to carry a total of 19 concurrent
conversations on three frequencies. These include the "dispatch" or
two-way and regular cellular type calls. It is possible for a person
on the 6th floor to carry on a conversation to a unit in the basement
with their two-way. While it may not sound like much, the building is
almost 100 years old and has load-bearing walls on the top floor that
are almost two meters thick made out of red brick. There is a 28 dB
loss between the office on the outside of the wall and the inner part
of the building. In terms most can relate to, that's going from four
bars of signal to one.
But yes Pat, if you and your friend in Chicago wanted to hold a
walkie-talkie conversation it would be carried on both airwaves and
landlines.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That sounds rather amazing to me, in
view of the fact that we are about 700 miles from Chicago, and I have
never yet seen any 'radio equipment' (with ease to carry around, and
battery operated and low radiation power) which could cover such a
distance. I could see a few miles in a city, or two such units in
a town like this where I am, but Citizen Band, 2-meter units, and
even the older style pocket pagers cannot 'make a trip' like that,
(700 miles from Chicago) but Nextel can?
Regards 'threat', I was referring to the 'threat' to consumers, in
making informed choices in telecom services. Which of them -- Verizon or
SBC -- is more likely to clamp the lid down on us sometime soon if
they are able to do so? PAT]
Justin Time (a_user2000@yahoo.com)