OT: Nextel Direct Connect Finally!!!!
 

After two or three years of broken promises they have finally announced nationwide two way service!!! It's about time:cool:

when will it happen?

Yea, when??? give some details :)

how about service on both ends of town, now there you would have something.

Yea, excuse my ignorance, but what does that mean? Would it mean from state to state?

I tried to post a link for you guys but had a strange expire error.

It simply means that I can direct connect (TWO-WAY) with another user in any State the service will start up in FEB with different areas being turned on all through the year! Go to there website and find the article then type in your zip code and it will tell you when they will start the service in your area. This will be a huge convenience for a lot of people including myself!

Here is a example:rolleyes:
You live in Ohio and you are at the Miami boat show, your wife is looking at crap while your dreweling over your next big purchase!
You then realize that you need to re-hydrate so you grab your phone push the two way button and give her your location so she can bring you a cold one fast:cool:

Right now the Nextel Direct connect feature can only be used in your local foot print. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and I can 2 way from anywhere in Michigan (lower) and into Ohio about 20 miles beyond Toledo. That is my local service area. Nextel has never had roaming wide because they are a national company.

The government "helped" us when cell phones were first gaining popularity by regulating each market area to 2 randomly chosen wireless carriers. This resulted a total mismatched quilting of coverage so that driving any distance would take you through multiple market areas, each covered by a different company. They carriers all realized this wouldn't work unless they all worked together to provide continuous coverage. So they agreed to allow shared resources, which is where roaming charges came from. "I will let your coverage continue into my service market, but you are going to pay me $X.X to access it, and $x/minute to use it."

Nextel was able to be the first nation wide carrier because of a technological loop whole. Their phones were submitted as 2-way radios (not regulated the same way), that also happened to have phone capabilities. A great thing. One big carrier so you can be in San Diego and call home to Grand Rapids for exactly the same price as calling Grand Rapids from Grand Rapids.

Now with nation wide two, Wow!

How about when they get it to work so well, that four people in the same SUV, can have signal, at the same time; on separate phones.

NOTEL is what we call 'em. No Telling if it is going to work or not.

I don't profess to be Mr. Cell Phone. I does seem wierd that you can have the situation the Sydwayz describes. I've been there too.

I have had cell phones since 1987, when they were the size of a toaster, weighed almost as much as a cinder block, cost over $1,000 to purchase the phone, had monthly charges of about $250/month for 15 minutes of air time, and you couldn't drive across the street without losing the signal.

Things are better now, but not as much you would expect them to be.

Does this mean that if I have a nextel registered in Ga that I can talk to someone registered in .....say Fla?