[at-l] Re: Cellphone connection availability (was) RE: [at-l] another take o n cell ...

[seanbdolan@earthlink.net (seandolan)]

As someone who has made the concession to family that I will carry a
cell phone, I've done some research. The new Nationwide plans offered by
Cingular and Verizon get rid of most of the roaming and longdistance. I
think the Cingular plan is more complete since it has a blanket
statement of complete coverage anywhere in US, whereas Verizon has a map
of applicable areas and many of the areas of the AT seem to not be
covered, or its very sporadic. I may get Verizon anyway since I might
get a price break due to a family relation, but in either case these two
plans (which have just come out) seem to alleviate the long distance and
roaming problem, which would otherwise make actually using a cell for
more than emergencies prohibitively expensive. Personally, I'm really
just interested in using the phone in town since I agree that using a
cell phone in camp (around others not in your party) is about as rude as
using one in a restaurant. The cell has the advantage of having its own
voicemail so you don't have to call long distance to check messages of
encouragement, or more importantly, from friends who are going to meet
up with you and hopefully bring goodies. That said, I'm tempted to just
drop the phone in my bounce box but I'll prolly take it since it's super
light (StarTac).

My two cents Sean "Thinking of using the trail name 'Rover'" Dolan



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