Nextel is not a cellular provider. They are something different. They do not use cellular frequencies or protocols, but use their own proprietary protocols on bits and pieces of the UHF business band. This gets to be interesting since the allocations they have are different in different areas.
Anyway, they do have nationwide coverage. They aren't usable on every square foot of the country. No service is. Anybody who tells you that their service is, is lying. If you have an application that is so critical that you need connectivity at all times and all locations, you shouldn't be using cellular phones or Nextel at all.
You'll find there are plenty of places where that AT&T phone you got does not work, too. It's like that. You want reliability, get a wire line.
scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but at least AT&T Wireless, when it existed, had the 'courtesy' to hold onto your call as long as it was possible to do so, and only when the signal got to be _so crappy_ it was no longer possible to hold you then they swapped you off to the closest Cellular One tower as an 'extended area' user if possible or a 'roamer' as needed. I know they (AT&T) did not like having to lose the traffic from a cell phone which is why instead of swapping you out to Cell One at a reasonable distance, they insisted on holding you until the signal was mostly (but not totally) unusable. That was my main complaint with AT&T; I am just a wee bit outside the range of Tulsa and a wee bit outside the range of Wichita, consequently AT&T would try to deal with me (and sometimes do so in a very crappy way), rather than hand me off to Dobson Cell One. When I went here in town to a very high point on a hill, and dialed zero (the 'O' operator) and asked her 'who are you?' she would say Tulsa. But Nextel does not even afford that limited opportunity for communication. But now I understand they have (or are going to) merge with Sprint. I wonder what will be the technical effects of that merger? Anyone have any ideas? PAT]