ATT Sues VZW (update suits dropped)

As I understand it, this is a limitation of CDMA (??). I have an HTC WinMo phone on Verizon and if I'm on a call, I can't access the internet. I can't imagine a Blackberry being any different.

That said, and since ATT is touting this "feature" or ability in rebuttal to VZW's ads, how many people on ATT know you can do this ? I'm not talking about the technical geeks either, the average "joe" and "jane". Tell someone who's trying to decide on ATT or VZW that you can do this and see what their response is.


Any Verizon phone with WIFI can do what ATT claims and at a much faster speed. I did this with my XV6800. I now have a BB Tour with no Wifi. Generally I am driving do I don't have the need to surf.
 
As I understand it, this is a limitation of CDMA (??). I have an HTC WinMo phone on Verizon and if I'm on a call, I can't access the internet. I can't imagine a Blackberry being any different.

That said, and since ATT is touting this "feature" or ability in rebuttal to VZW's ads, how many people on ATT know you can do this ? I'm not talking about the technical geeks either, the average "joe" and "jane". Tell someone who's trying to decide on ATT or VZW that you can do this and see what their response is.

I've done this twice today. I was surfing the Internet and the phone rang and I answered it. No foreknowledge required. Hung up, was back on Internet page that continued loading for me while I spoke.
 
This is my observation-
On Verizon wireless, your phone dials #777 to establish your 3G connection. If you're on a phone call, or surfing the web and a call comes in the "data connection" on #777 is interrupted. When you end the voice call, your phone can redial #777 to re-establish your data connection for 3G.

On my old XV-6800 I could access the registry file and there was a setting that you could enable to do simultaneous wifi and phone calls. I have not researched this at all yet with my htc TP2. Note- Sprint Mogul may have been different as the phones are the same as the XV6800 but many Verizon registry settings were crippled on it compared to the Sprint version.
 
I've done this twice today....
And you frequent a satellite hobby website (that you've posted 11,000 times at) not to mention the fact that you a) know phones can do this and b) know how to do it, I think puts you in the "technical geeks" category and certainly not in the "average joe" category. :D
 
Thinking about it more, using internet while on a call has to happen so rarely, it kinda looks like they're reaching pretty hard to find something to boast about (in my opinion).

Just tried it on my Storm by calling my voicemail and then going back to the home screen and opening my browser, says that the network is in use, offers to go to a previous version of the Google News bookmark I clicked on. I think the only thing I've done while on the phone is access my phone book to read off a number to someone I was on the phone with though.

Over the holidays, I noticed a couple people chuckle at those commercials. The typical person doesn't care if you can talk and browse at the same time. Even the more technical person like myself doesn't care. I usually don't even browse on a home PC and talk at the same time. I talk on the phone and focus on the conversation, not browsing. Even if I was a "blue tool", I'd still have the phone in my pocket while I was talking.

That's all we need...browsing the net, talking on the phone, and driving at the same time.

Not exactly the same topic, but I heard a conversation the other day where a chick was saying she loved her blue tooth, since she could text and talk while driving. Insane... I don't even like to talk on the phone while driving, that's my "quiet time" for me to feel the subwoofers on my back and watch the idiots on the road.
 
I have found the feature useful on multiple occasions. Someone will call and ask me a question and I have to look it up in email or check out a website. Not something that happens often, but I have checked email when on long boring conference calls...
 
Any Verizon phone with WIFI can do what ATT claims and at a much faster speed. I did this with my XV6800. I now have a BB Tour with no Wifi. Generally I am driving do I don't have the need to surf.

That only works on 3g for AT&T. It's funny how the ads says it at the bottom in small print.
 
This BB on Verizon difference claim intrigues me. When my wife gets home I will test this claim out. She has a Verizon BB PDA. I have my doubts this claim is true. The only way it could be is if the BB doesn't need to make a phone call on the usual #777 number to connect to the internet like our win mobile phones do to connect to the EVDO server.
 
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They are pretty much useless if you cannot get an injunction up front. Waiting around 2 years for a trial makes the issue long gone.
 
ATT is cranking out ads quick lately, aren't they ? Problem is, they are targeting "normal" users who I suspect they worry got confused by VZW's ad campaign. It's those people who don't distinguish "wireless coverage" vs "3G coverage" that they're trying to placate, it would seem. I think most won't dispute that ATT has very good wireless coverage and for 75% or more of their customers, that's sufficient.
 
Does anyone know what study or reasoning ATT has behind their fastest network claims? Usually find that stuff in the fine print, but all they put on their commercials is something to the effect of '3G not available in all areas'
 
I don't know why America is playing with such old CDMA technology, don't they talk with the rest of the world?
Virtually all of the world apart from America is GSM and CDMA compatable and will be 4G, MC CDMA, LTE advanced. Even Verizon announced last December they would roll out 4G this December - no hope.
As for expecting Apple to manufacture Iphones for old CDMA technology what are they thinking, the US cell phone market is extremely small compared to the world market.

It's not just the US. Canada and South America are big into CDMA as well. That's a good portion of the world.
 
Does anyone know what study or reasoning ATT has behind their fastest network claims? Usually find that stuff in the fine print, but all they put on their commercials is something to the effect of '3G not available in all areas'

They are rolling out faster HSPA AT&T announces 7.2Mbps HSPA rollout plans -- Engadget I believe VZ is at 3.6Mbit/sec still.

So, they have a faster network. But, of course if you are sharing with 2000 other iPhones at the same time you are still waiting...
 
Quite a bit of CDMA out there... and if you compare CDMA to GSM, you'll find CDMA is superior, but it is more costly to use CDMA due to licensing.

List of CDMA2000 networks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


That is true if you only figure the cost of licensing. However, there is also some saving in CDMA since it requires less hardware density compared to GSM for same quality of service. And, that's the rub in the whole cost debate. The GSM carriers in the US simply skimp on hardware density which in turn comes back to bite them in the butt with poor quality service. GSM usually works satisfactory if your area is near a tower, doesn't shift much in population, and you don't travel much, exposing you to regions with with little coverage. This seems to be greater with the two GSM carriers than with the CDMA carriers. Probably why Verizon and Sprint are the preferred business providers as business people need more reliable coverage while traveling and don't mind paying for it.
 
This BB on Verizon difference claim intrigues me. When my wife gets home I will test this claim out. She has a Verizon BB PDA. I have my doubts this claim is true. The only way it could be is if the BB doesn't need to make a phone call on the usual #777 number to connect to the internet like our win mobile phones do to connect to the EVDO server.


Well, I finally got my wife's Blackberry and ran the test. NO! it is not possible to continue to surf the internet while on a phone call. In fact, the Blackberry pops up a bubble that explains you can't use the internet while on a phone call and closes any web browser when you begin to make a phone call. Claims people can do this on CDMA because it is a BB are not true.

As a comparison, I tried the same thing with my htc TP2 and it goes one better than the BB, it will temporarily suspend web surfing and internet downloads but resume automatically, when a call is complete.

Using wifi, on the TP2 and my XV6800 ( with registry modified) I can continue to surf while on a phone call, but I agree with others who said this is not the same thing because you're not using the CDMA network with wifi. There is no wifi capability on the BB we have.
 
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