Bye bye, Nextel

I finally got rid of my company-issued Nextel phone today. I had the same number since I started on 10/9/00. Since I transferred to my new job, I've used it exactly twice, so my boss was ok with me turning it in. I have a personal Verizon cell phone that I can use during one of my infrequent excursions from the office. I was tired of carrying around two cell phones.

I'll have had the Verizon phone for two years this December, so I've had a good chance to try them and Nextel side-by-side. IMHO, Verizon wins hands-down. They have much better network coverage, at least in my area. I always thought that Nextel's Direct Connect was a stupid gimmick, anyway. The clarity of the walkie-talkie feature was never as good as a regular telephone connection. The walkie-talkie feature's only advantage was that since the calls never left Nextel's own network they gave you unlimited minutes. If Nextel wanted to, it would be easy enough to just give you unlimited in-network phone calls. AAMOF, Verizon started doing just that within the last year or two.