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jervin123
join:2005-04-14
Philadelphia, PA | Prexar Now Prexar will just go bankrupt..... | |
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punker
deleted by moderator
Premium
join:2004-06-21
Palmdale, CA
clubs: | Re: Prexar yep | |
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Jon
Premium
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL |  Ah hipsters..
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dmeyer
join:2002-08-14
Avon, IN | MVNOs Now if they would just take Boost, Disney Mobile, Helio, and Virgin Mobile with them... | |
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| acs12798
join:2006-03-13 | Re: MVNOs Boost isn't really an MVNO as Sprint Nextel owns them. Anyway, whats your problem with MVNOs | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs said by acs12798  :Boost isn't really an MVNO as Sprint Nextel owns them. Anyway, whats your problem with MVNOs My problem with them is that it lets any company with enough dollars and stupid marketing ideas create a virtual cellular/PCS company. Building and running a brick-and-mortar network requires staying power and some engineering know-how. These MVNOs are just paper mache marketing companies; the people buying the phones don't have a clue who actually runs the network they're on. | |
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S_engineer
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL | Re: MVNOs Very well said! | |
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dadkins
Living on a Blu Planet
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
 ·Comcast
| said by rf_engineer :said by acs12798 :Boost isn't really an MVNO as Sprint Nextel owns them. Anyway, whats your problem with MVNOs My problem with them is that it lets any company with enough dollars and stupid marketing ideas create a virtual cellular/PCS company. Building and running a brick-and-mortar network requires staying power and some engineering know-how. These MVNOs are just paper mache marketing companies; the people buying the phones don't have a clue who actually runs the network they're on. I know...
Virgin Mobile - Sprint.
"Virgin Mobile USA network services are provided on the Nationwide Sprint PCS® Network."
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs said by dadkins :said by rf_engineer :said by acs12798 :Boost isn't really an MVNO as Sprint Nextel owns them. Anyway, whats your problem with MVNOs My problem with them is that it lets any company with enough dollars and stupid marketing ideas create a virtual cellular/PCS company. Building and running a brick-and-mortar network requires staying power and some engineering know-how. These MVNOs are just paper mache marketing companies; the people buying the phones don't have a clue who actually runs the network they're on. I know... Virgin Mobile - Sprint. "Virgin Mobile USA network services are provided on the Nationwide Sprint PCS® Network." I stand corrected 
( This is one of the times were capitalism takes over.... Virgin is probably getting marketing $$$$ for that little blurb... ) | |
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dadkins
Living on a Blu Planet
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Re: MVNOs LOL!
Not good to make blanket assumptions...
I have Virgin Mobile because of No Contract, No monthly bill, no ETF, and it's the best deal going.
Just a perk that they run on Sprint, huh? 
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs said by dadkins :LOL! Not good to make blanket assumptions... No it's not, but ask Amp'd, Helio, Disney Mobile (or any of the hundred other MVNO) subscribers who their network provider is and see how many say Disney or MTV or give you a strange look and ask what a network provider is
Just a perk that they run on Sprint, huh? If you actually consider Sprint a perk | |
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dadkins
Living on a Blu Planet
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Re: MVNOs Who cares really?
If you go to Verizon... I would imagine even an idiot would be able to say Verizon.
Or AT&T...
Or Sprint...
Or ???
So, some of us decide to get a MVNO... there's a problem with saving money?
I don't have a contract. No ETF. No monthly bill.
Sprint may suck there, but just because it might there doesn't mean it sucks everywhere.
4 bars, always.
Sprint can't match the price I'm paying and yet I still get to use their network?
Sounds like a perk to me!
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs said by dadkins :Sprint may suck there, but just because it might there doesn't mean it sucks everywhere. 4 bars, always. I don't look at bars, I look at customer churn. Sprint has consistently had higher churn than AT&T/Cingular and Verizon. In Q1 2007 they had the highest of the big four.
As always your mileage may vary, but churn is a pretty good overall barometer. | |
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cwy1980
Premium
join:2004-08-10
New London, CT
clubs:
| Re: MVNOs I'm not so sure that churn numbers provide the best rating of a service. I had Sprint for work...LOVED it.lays had signal except the subway (NYC)...then my company switched us to Verizon...no signal at my house at all and I have a heck of a lot more calls that drop when it switches service to another tower as I go down the NJ Turnpike between exits 15W and 16W.
I just want Sprint back with my broadband data card!
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Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs Yes, churn by actual Sprint customers, and arguably some percentage of that churn could be due to customer service and not coverage issues. But when you get into these Ford versus Chevy discussions, bars don't tell the story nor does anecdotal evidence.
That's great that Virgin is working out for you and apparently it's working out for several million other customers as well. YMMV in effect. I just see MVNOs as a troubling fad where marketing is a priority over quality and the goal is to suck more money out of market segments that shouldn't have phones with unnecessary features to begin with. The MVNO is at the mercy of their provider and is unable to make any commitments or improvements to the underlying network. And as we've seen with Amp'd due to their targeting of customers that the big four don't really want, their business model is riskier and less stable. Customer stickiness with a model that relies heavily on prepaid with no contracts is about nil. Arguably the stickiness lies in customer support, coverage, features, and content, though the MVNO really has direct control of only two of these. But I digress.
Of course, I'm old school (I used to work in cellular) and I've found the trend of all of wireless over the past seven or eight years troubling and annoying. | |
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dadkins
Living on a Blu Planet
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Re: MVNOs Coverage, yes! *HERE* I have excellent coverage!
*HERE* I have Virgin Mobile - MVNO with Sprint as the actual network.
You saying that all MVNOs should go away makes no sense.
I'm getting a killer deal and Sprint's network *HERE* works great!
Maybe you should re-evaluate your cell package and look at other services.
I don't have to pay $30-$100 per month for cell service... do you?
Mine works out to under $7.00 per month with current usage trends.
Yeah! This MVNO is sweet! 
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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upstate NY
@rr.com | actually there is cheaper than Virgin Mobile...they are called PagePlus...and they piggy back off the Verizon network | |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| Re: MVNOs said by rec9140 : quote:
said by rf_engineer :
I don't look at bars, I look at customer churn. Sprint has consistently had higher churn than AT&T/Cingular and Verizon. In Q1 2007 they had the highest of the big four.
As always your mileage may vary, but churn is a pretty good overall barometer.
Of course, I'm old school (I used to work in cellular) and I've found the trend of all of wireless over the past seven or eight years troubling and annoying.
From an RF person this is absurd, coverage and network are all that matters. If I can't make a call when I need to then the provider is useless. Sprint is a joke of a carrier their native coverage looks like a roadmap for interstate highways. Their poor coverage is what leads to churn. Your last point though I will agree with, cellular has went down hill since the StarTAC and the whole stupid flip and thin craze. Along with the feature creep..... Its a phone people, its to make calls! You're misinterpreting my "bars" comment. Bars are what people read on phones and talk about X carrier being better than Y. We'd often joke in cellular when a customer called about how many bars they were getting that we would drive out to the cell site and turn it up a bar or two
Coverage is important. But one person saying X carrier is great because they get six bars in Hometown, Nebraska isn't indicative of great coverage. As you mention, maps are what you need to look at. You use test vans equipped with real gear to measure that, not a $50 shiny phone that takes pictures and has a signal meter that varies 15 dB.
For overall health, though, I'm not going to look at just coverage, I'm going to look at churn. If overall coverage is poor, it's probably going to be reflected in churn.
I'm with you on things going downhill. I just want a phone that I can make calls with and send some emails. I don't need music, video, pr0n, IM, and sport scores. Unfortunately subscriber growth is flat as they've gotten every customer they can get. Now it's a battle to entice customers over from other carriers with stupid features. | |
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sprintuserrrrr
@spcsdns.net
| said by rec9140 :Sprint is a joke of a carrier their native coverage looks like a roadmap for interstate highways. Their poor coverage is what leads to churn. Sprint's coverage is about the same as Verizon. Both cover about 260m pops natively. Verizon shows roaming on their maps. Sprint is adding CDMA coverage faster than Verizon on existing Nextel sites. Sprint also has the best roaming agreements of any carrier.
Sprint's high churn is the Nextel side, not the CDMA side. | |
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rec9140
Provoice just DO it
join:2003-07-29
Mulberry, FL
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Internet Junction ..
| Re: MVNOs
The Sprint Road Map | 
VZW Coverage | 
The Nexhell Road Map |
said by sprintuserrrrr :
Sprint's coverage is about the same as Verizon. Both cover about 260m pops natively. Verizon shows roaming on their maps.
All the carriers are hiding coverage and who provides it unless you dig. VZW, sprint, all of them ... BUT...
Sprints, NATIVE COVERAGE, what THEY OWN AND BUILT, NOT roaming agreements/partners, is a road map for interstates and major highways.
It doesn't compare to VZW own NATIVE coverage either. VZW builds out their coverage past the narrow corridors of interstates and highways that Sprint doesn't.
I'll take that 2nd map versus the road map above, any day.
said by sprintuserrrrr :
Sprint is adding CDMA coverage faster than Verizon on existing Nextel sites.
I don't have access to that kind of sensitve company data to verify that, but nexhells coverage is another joke in and of its self too. Another carrier who looks like a road map.
said by sprintuserrrrr :
Sprint also has the best roaming agreements of any carrier.
Well, thanks for the laugh.... no way I am buying that statement. I'll take my VZW phone anywhere and be able to make a call, especially rural areas off the Sprint Road Map and make a call. Yes VZW has major areas covered by partners too, but their native coverage far exceeds sprints in a heartbeat, especially off the major highways.
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Lorem ipsum ei pro stet equidem labores, at enim animal expetenda nec. Ea vix argumentum dissentiunt, usu esse ridens ex. | |
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C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium
join:2001-10-03
Davenport, FL
·Verizon Online DSL
| At the very least, Helio...
"BUT IT'S GOT MYSPACE MOBILE!"
I'd just want to stab a needle with AIDS-infected blood into someone every time I hear that stupid ad. And for that matter, an AIDS-infected needle into every dumbass that signs up for 't3h mysp4c3 m0b1l3!!!11!!'
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Front Line Force Fortress Forever | |
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moe300
join:2001-06-30
Iowa City, IA
edit:
July 31st, @09:36AM
| Account spending limit losers... They get all the account spending limit poor credit losers who have bad credit for not paying their bills in the first place. Just a matter of time before this happened. How amusing.. | |
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STrRedWolf
join:2006-06-18
Severn, MD | Slashdotted again... And the auction list maxes out on the downloads. | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Amp'd losers, who would want 'em?? OK, so Amp'd goes under for providing service to a bunch of losers who don't pay their bills, so now this wrecking crew steps up and wants to buy them.
I can see the auction listing for when Prexar goes under.
10 (ten) un used crack pipes
200 (two hundred) heavily used crack pipes.
1 (one) Scooby Doo bong, with multiple hoses...
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Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! | |
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Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| Re: Amp'd losers, who would want 'em?? said by N3OGH :OK, so Amp'd goes under for providing service to a bunch of losers who don't pay their bills, so now this wrecking crew steps up and wants to buy them. I can see the auction listing for when Prexar goes under. 10 (ten) un used crack pipes 200 (two hundred) heavily used crack pipes. 1 (one) Scooby Doo bong, with multiple hoses... lmfao
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"I'm a Geek, Are You?" | |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
edit:
August 1st, @01:33PM
| said by N3OGH :OK, so Amp'd goes under for providing service to a bunch of losers who don't pay their bills, so now this wrecking crew steps up and wants to buy them. I can see the auction listing for when Prexar goes under. 10 (ten) un used crack pipes 200 (two hundred) heavily used crack pipes. 1 (one) Scooby Doo bong, with multiple hoses... Correct me if I am wrong, was this not pre-paid? They have to pay for those minutes, they don't buy them they have no service, plain and simple. I have a gut feeling more is going on here than what is being told because I wouldn't consider a pre-paid phone as having a "bill" since you pay for the minutes you need, not a set monthly limit from a normal provider. | |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| Really comes as no surprise ...you market a service particularly aimed at a customer base that has little or no experience in meeting continuing monthly payments, then you will reap the consequences...
This is much akin to the real-estate bust that is at least in part due to the rash of sub-prime lenders, and their predictable demise...
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...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones? | |
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| patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: Really comes as no surprise said by PeteC2 :...you market a service particularly aimed at a customer base that has little or no experience in meeting continuing monthly payments, then you will reap the consequences... Thats why there is prepaid. Its like electroshock therapy, if you answer wrong (dont pay), you rehabilitated (homies cant call you/phone is dead). | |
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| vilerage
join:2004-11-03
Delaware, OH
 ·Packet8
| said by PeteC2 :...you market a service particularly aimed at a customer base that has little or no experience in meeting continuing monthly payments, then you will reap the consequences... This is much akin to the real-estate bust that is at least in part due to the rash of sub-prime lenders, and their predictable demise... You get a bill with pre-paid service? That's harsh! No wonder they weren't paying! (I'm pretty sure Amd'd was prepaid... if it wasn't, just ignore me...)
Seriously, when it's all paid up front, I'm not sure I understand how they're blaming the customer...
I got my oldest a pre-paid via T-Mobile to help her learn about responsibility... Once you use up all the value in the account, if you don't BUY more, you don't get service... I.E. no continuing monthly payments .... | |
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Lowtarget
15Mbps Roadrash
Premium
join:2003-12-22
Alger, OH
clubs: | Re: Pay - As - You - Go I own a prepay cell phone also. $20 dollars every 3 months works fine for me. Since I dont make many phone calls. | |
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dadkins
Living on a Blu Planet
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Re: Pay - As - You - Go said by Lowtarget :I own a prepay cell phone also. $20 dollars every 3 months works fine for me. Since I dont make many phone calls. EXACTLY!
I'm burning through the initial $20 playing with it and getting ringtones(REAL Music ringtones) and whathaveyou...
...but $20 every three months, can't beat it!
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Think outside the Fox... Opera | |
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| | | | Freegoo
join:2002-12-11
Larrabee, IA | Re: Pay - As - You - Go If you go with PagePlus Cellular you can go for as little as $10 every 120 days. They run off of Verizon's towers too, so good network. Oh and they've been around for ten years, so not like they are going to pull an Ampd any time soon. | |
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| ncbill
Premium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: C'est la vie, Amp'd Mobile! We'll just have to wait and see about the e816.
It is the PTT application that apparently is the problem (pings the network way too often)
That can easily be deleted on earlier e816 models.
Newer models have to be flashed to Verizon/Alltel firmware to get rid of PTT.
Supposedly there are tens of thousands of these still active.
Something tells me Verizon will either find a way to make it work (help people get rid of PTT) or offer another phone
Both approaches are cheaper than defending a class action. | |
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N3OGH
They both suck, we're so screwed
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: C'est la vie, Amp'd Mobile! said by ncbill :...Both approaches are cheaper than defending a class action.... Class action against who? Amp'd is gone, nothing left to sue.
Verizon is under no obligation to offer service to former Amp'd customers. Amp'd sold them the phone, not Verizon.
I would think Verizon would want to get some of that business back, but I'm sure they don't want to take on the derelicts that didn't pay their bills sinking Amp'd in the first place...
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Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! | |
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Verizon is worst
@comcast.net
| Re: C'est la vie, Amp'd Mobile! I paid my AMpd bills (pay as you go). It was cheap $10 a month & the phone Razr worked well.
I left Verizon because my 2 analog phones wouldn't work any longer nothing physically wrong with them. Verizon told me my phones are too old to fix. But they could sell me a new phone and outrageous new monthly charges. The clarity was better than the digital phones. I know analog will end some day but they would not honor my old contracts the fixed lifetime monthly fee rates. So I do see why many of you like Verizon. After having verizon account for many years I fould in the end that they were greedy and crooked as any of the other phone service providers that have gone bankrupt. | |
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fuffer
RF is Good For You
Premium
join:2001-06-21
Mukwonago, WI
clubs:
·CenturyTel Inc.
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by ncbill :We'll just have to wait and see about the e816. It is the PTT application that apparently is the problem (pings the network way too often) That can easily be deleted on earlier e816 models. Newer models have to be flashed to Verizon/Alltel firmware to get rid of PTT. Supposedly there are tens of thousands of these still active. Something tells me Verizon will either find a way to make it work (help people get rid of PTT) or offer another phone Both approaches are cheaper than defending a class action. Except that there are no grounds for a class action. Verizon did not sell you the phone, nor are they under any obligation to activate or support it. Amp'd sold and supported the phone for their service - they were the ones obligated to support it. Their service has ended, and so is the support for that phone.
So it's cheaper for them to do nothing at all.
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The goal of the broadcast engineer is to get all the meters on the transmitter to go as far to the right as possible!! | |
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ncbill
Premium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC
·AT&T Southeast
| Already active on other providers Plenty of e816 phones have already been activated on other Verizon MVNOs.
Those certainly aren't affected by tonight's amp'd cutoff.
I expect Verizon will offer the cheapest surplus phone they can as replacement if the ping issue can't be resolved. | |
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mc15000
join:2007-07-31
Fenton, MO
edit:
July 31st, @12:33PM
| Prexar/USA Telephone The nameservers for the prexar mobile site refer to prexar.com, which is owned and operated by our good friend Bill Fogg as a subsidiary of USA Telephone.
Looks like the vultures have some more meaty carcasses to pick clean. | |
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vanDSLuser
Mahalo for reading
Premium
join:2004-07-28
West Vancouver, BC | Who wants to bet it's the same company as TeleBlend »https://www.prexarmobile.com/about/ leads me to believe they're connected somehow. | |
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Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02 | Re: Who wants to bet it's the same company as TeleBlend Yep.... | |
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Amp'd Dies At Midnight
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C'est la vie, Amp'd Mobile!