'One in five' considers leaving Blackberry

[In Other News]

Source: The Independent

One in five BlackBerry phone users is considering switching to another supplier because of the service problems which hit millions of people this week, according to a study today.

A survey of more than 1,000 BlackBerry customers by shopping comparison website Kelkoo found that 19% are thinking about moving to another manufacturer, 42% will consider changing later and 8% said they have bought a new mobile phone already.

Kelkoo said that with today's launch of the iPhone 4S already boasting pre-orders of over one million, this week's service issues could not have come at a worse time for BlackBerry, giving users a "tempting ship to jump to".

Research among another 3,000 people found that seven out of 10 who were planning to get a BlackBerry in the future admitted they would need some reassurance from the manufacturer as they would be put off by the recent problems.



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/one-in-five-considers-leaving-blackberry-2370633.html

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I have a cell phone. I use it to make phone calls. I do not text. I do not go online. I do not launch nuclear weapons. I make phone calls. And I keep 'em brief.

[tk2kewl]

1. Coverage really sucks in the in the outer reaches of the solar system

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2113570

[harvey007]

2. There are problems with every mobile phone and carrier

Just ask users of the IPhone.

[Historic NY]

6. The only way to fix it is a brazillion cell phone towers littering the landscape...

one of my pet peeves that providers can't share a tower they all need one of their own. Then again the companies wrote Telecommunications Act of 1996.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4140950

[Psephos]

14. Not true.

The article you posted is old.

Older cell technologies (called GSM) need separate towers, and quickly consume all available spectrum. Newer tech, involving time-shifting instead of frequency-shifting, does not. If you want more users with time-shifted tech (called CDMA), you just add more data processing (computer) power to the existing towers.

GSM companies such as AT&T revamped GSM a while ago so that while it remains compatible with old GSM, data is now carried by CDMA. Companies that use CDMA such as Verizon and Sprint are already there.

The old paradigms and limitations are obsolete.

***************************************
Warning
What follows is technologically dense. Skip as necessary. :)
***************************************

GSM has a limit on how many users it can handle because of the limitation of available channels (FDMA) and how many users it can multiplex via TDMA per channel.

CDMA has no realistic limit(something near a trillion) on how many users it can handle other than signal clarity and processing power. CDMA is EXTREMELY resilient to noise. CDMA also has a cool thing called a soft hand-off. A phone can talk to multiple towers at the same time, so even if the primary tower loses signal, the call doesn't get interrupted.

GSM can't do this because each tower has a difference frequency/channel, which means it has to completely drop contact with its primary tower before switching. With CDMA, all users and all towers are on the same channel, no drop is required until the phone decides. CDMA specs for a phone to be able to communicate with up to 7 towers at once, but typically 3 is the implemented limit for a phone.

Another cool thing is CDMA actually runs *at* background level. The signal strength at the receiver is approximately the same as background noise. I reiterate, CDMA is built around the idea that noise doesn't really matter. This is frankly amazing.

Upgrading is also easier. GSM, you need to allocate more channels and make sure there isn't much noise on those channels. Eventually, you run out of channels and no more users can be supported in a given area for all carriers.

CDMA, you just put up more towers or add more processing power to an existing tower. Since everyone uses the same channel, there are no frequency considerations. In other words, you never run out of spectrum. New carrier comes in town, just slap up another transmitter on an existing tower.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Yeah, if they think iPhone(AT&T) is going to be better, they are in for a rude awakening.

AT&T sucks everyday, not once in a while.

[MedicalAdmin]

7. That hasn't been my experience.

I'm going to guess that the local situation and offices are more important than any other consideration. But then again, maybe not.

But my experience with ATT and my iphones has been good, consistent, and easy.

[Arctic Dave]

11. It may be local. If you are in Anchorage the coverage is fair.

Once you leave the city limits then all you have is a very shiny paper weight. I downloaded the "spot" app but most of the time it can't send the information because it can't connect to the server. LOL

[Chan790]

24. It's the same in the town I grew up in CT.

iPhones and Android phones don't work regardless of carrier. Other AT&T phones work. T-Mobile and Sprint work. No Verizon, MetroPCS, Cricket.

My Blackberry works but data service is spotty if I get more than 500 ft. from the cell tower near the fire station.

The joys of living on one of the highest points east of the Mississippi.

[RobinA]

20. Mine Too

I have no complaints with AT&T iPhone, but I live on the east coast. I seem to have coverage where many Verizon users do not, i.e. my house. I don't expect miracles and have, except for a glitch now and then, have not had a problem.

[Mz Pip]

8. I have a 6 year old Motorola Razor

that gets better reception then Mr Pip's iPhone. His phone is continually dropping calls regardless of where we are.

[leveymg]

4. Sounds like another f-cking plug for the I-phone.

News item? My ass.

[BlueIris]

5. Good. nt

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Industrial terrorism.

[Lucinda]

16. I had that thought too

[DesertDiamond]

10. I have Verizon and it drops calls constantly. Especially here in my own home.

[ikri]

12. The only reason to use a Blackberry

Is for the data services, primarily email and to a lesser extent Blackberry Messenger. It's those services that went off for pretty much 3 days everywhere that wasn't in North America.

The problem was that all the mobile data services go through RIM's servers whether it needs to or not (we have a BES server at work for email, we don't rely on RIM for email, at least in theory) so whilst wireless connections worked fine, 3G connections weren't working. Other phone services don't use such a centralised system, if our email server at work had gone offline there are a number of steps I could take to get it back up and running (redundant internet connections, etc.) but with Blackberry we were stuck, there was nothing we could do to get up and running other than wait and hope.

For the people who have come to rely on their Blackberrys for email and web usage whilst out of their offices it often prevented them from working at all, so reliant they are on their Blackberry and RIM are justifiably getting a kicking for such a massive fuck up.

RIM are a zombie company. They're dead but they've somehow not got the message yet. They were the only game in town for a few years and thought they'd never have anyone truly compete with them but then came the iPhone and Android, both of which piss all over Blackberry phones for ease of use (even email, the killer app for Blackberry). If we stopped using Blackberry phones at work tomorrow no one would bat an eyelid, we don't need them, there are plenty of other, superior, options out there.

[brooklynite]

13. I dumped my BB and had all my company email sent to my iPhone...

...oh, right, we're supposed to hate those as well.

[Ter]

15. My favorite pic on the subject:

[In Other News]

25. HA!

Terrific! :rofl:

[onehandle]

17. Blackberry (RIM) is toast. nt

[Abq_Sarah]

22. Not if your goal is a secure phone

RIM still has Droid and IPhone beat when it comes to network security. It's a shame they refuse to keep pace with the others when it comes to phone design.

[Codeine]

18. I left them six months ago because all of their newer handsets eat balls.

It's as though they suddenly forgot how to make phones. A shame too, because I loved my Curve.

[Exultant Democracy]

19. Same here, I'm very happy with the switch.

[Jazzgirl]

21. I left BB personally (still have it for work) back in March.

I bought an iPhone which I never thought I'd want and fell in love with it instantly. I use it a lot. I never was into texting but after 2 months they said I really needed to upgrade to another texting plan because I was really using it a lot. The apps and all the features make it really easy to use. I would much rather use my iPhone than Blackberry.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

23. When the others match the usability of the Blackberry lets talk

I do not launch nuclear weapons either, when I didn't reply to an important email the office phoned me, you know on the phone that never stopped working as a phone.

I had an iPhone and it fell apart, the outside glass fell right off the front and entering any message took 10x longer on the touch screen with asinine auto-corrections. I had a Motorola Android and it was just a cluttered disaster. I won a Windows 7 phone at a conference and it was so slow it is probably still rebooting.

Match the functionality as a messaging device of this and we can talk: