[bobfitz]

I had a 650 through my old job. It was on Sprint. My personal cell phone has always been on Verizon because the coverage is so good here in Boston. Anyhow I have left that job and they have taken back the Treo and I have been misssing it a lot. After waiting and waiting for Verizon to bring out the 650 (I was ordering a Sprint 650 the morning that the page went up on the Verizon site) I am now not sure if it wouldn't be better to just get the Sprint one. I am thinking that VZW is messing around with the Bluetooth, making the pricing unsavory and jerking the release around. On the other hand I have always been well served by my Verizon phones.

Does it make sense to have two phone on two different carriers?

How badly will the bluetooth be disabled?

What would you do in my position?

Thanks for all the great info. I hope to be posting soon as a 650 owner! Bob

[Coffeeman]

Bob, I was in the same situation. Verizon's coverage in my area is better than Sprint & Cingular, but Verizon's arrogance in crippling Bluetooth on the V710 (Motorola), pushed me to Cingular. When it came time to get a Treo 650, I bought an unlocked GSM version from Palm1, and put my Cingular SIM in it. GSM coverage in my building is not great, so I have my old Moto V60i (on Verizon), which I use when at work. I have unlimited call forwarding on Cingular, so I use call director to forward calls to the V60i at work, which works well for me.

If history is any guide, Verizon will probably cripple Bluetooth on the Treo 650, in order to force users to use their "Pix" & "Get it now" services. So, my guess is that Bluetooth on the Verizon 650 will only be usable for headset connection. The morons at Verizon just don't get it. By crippling Bluetooth on their phones, they force users such as myself to port out to Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc., to get Bluetooth functionality. The $2,500.00 yearly revenue that they lose on accounts such as mine is a lot more than revenue they receive from their pay per use services such as "Pix", which I never used anyway. Somebody needs to clean house @ Verizon.

[bobfitz]

Coffeeman, I am have been thinking about doing exactly what you said. I want to keep both phones and then forward calls to the one that makes sense in the situation I am in. I wonder if I can get unlimited call forwarding from VZW. I will check online. I would rather leave that number alone since it is the one everybody already has and then forward to my Sprint Treo as needed. Thanks for your imput.

[jacobh]

When you had your old 650 on Sprint in Boston, was the coverage bad enough to warrant 2 phones? Or is there something else entering into the equasion?

I would make use of Sprints trial period on their service, and if things don't work well, then return it. If it does work well, then you can just have your number ported over, right?

[fl00d_pr0z]

Also, another thing to think about. Sprint's unlimited vision service is 10 dollars, with Verizon it's 40.00 I believe.

[bobfitz]

Sprint coverage was good when I had it but that job was in the city. My new office is in the suburbs and I don't know if I will have good coverage. One thing I have wondered aboutyou allude to in you post jacobh. Can I try Sprint while I keep my Verizon phone and then if I really like the Sprint coverage have my exsisting Verizon number ported over to replace the one they orginally give me from Sprint?
Also my wife and I share minutes on Verizon so it just gets more and more complicated.
But the difference in data pricing is another thing pushing me towards Sprint.

[oxoxtro600]

I have a Sprint Treo 650 and a Sprint 600 before that. The coverage west of Boston has been acceptable to me. Having said that I still beleive that Verizon has better coverage in the Boston area

[SuperCrackBerry]

Sprint coverage was good when I had it but that job was in the city. My new office is in the suburbs and I don't know if I will have good coverage. One thing I have wondered aboutyou allude to in you post jacobh. Can I try Sprint while I keep my Verizon phone and then if I really like the Sprint coverage have my exsisting Verizon number ported over to replace the one they orginally give me from Sprint?
Also my wife and I share minutes on Verizon so it just gets more and more complicated.
But the difference in data pricing is another thing pushing me towards Sprint.

Yes you can try Sprint with another #, then later port your VZ # over. VZ is rather arrogant - try getting them to upgrade your plan without signing another 2-year contract.
I did a trial with T-mo and a BB7100t that way, keeping my old # while deciding. I had software problems with the BB desktop and useless support from RIM. The sw issue may have been on my own PC, but the goofy support turned me against RIM. The 7100 itself seemed like a good gadget. I might try it again if they address 2 outstanding issues. There are few tech headaches over at the BB forum so I'd say my experience was not typical.

[bobfitz]

From everything posted here and that I found searching I decieded to take a chance on Sprint. If it is cool i am going to port my VZW number.

All of the problems attributed to the way Verizon disabled bluetooth was finally the kicker.

Thanks for all the imput both in this thread and the site in general.

[ArtGuy]

I live in Quincy and became a Sprint customer in January after Verizon for several years (OK, but crooked), and Cingular (sucked - and they had the nerve to tell me I live in a "fringe area" - Gee I can see the Boston skyline from my window, that's fringe?) My service is excellent. I work in Framingam, and the phone just works where and when it should. AND when it DOES roam, it is on the Verizon network. Sort of like getting the best of both worlds! And did I mention that the Bluetooth isn't crippled? And Sprint Vision is ten bucks a month unlimited? And it works? I think you'll be quite happy. I know I am!

[nrosser]

don't Sprint & Verizon both treat BT the same, at least at the moment? My point is that if you went to Sprint based on a belief that VZ cripples BT more than Sprint does - well, I think they both cripple it the same. I might be wrong, but....I don't think so. I recall hearing/reading that Sprint also just allows headset profile, right now, with some eventual plan to open other aspects of BT. Again, I might have this completely incorrect, but....maybe not.
You might get the Sprint device and have an unhappy surprise, at least in this aspect of BT. Hopefully not but....who knows....

[sasq]

don't Sprint & Verizon both treat BT the same, at least at the moment? My point is that if you went to Sprint based on a belief that VZ cripples BT more than Sprint does - well, I think they both cripple it the same. I might be wrong, but....I don't think so. I recall hearing/reading that Sprint also just allows headset profile, right now, with some eventual plan to open other aspects of BT. Again, I might have this completely incorrect, but....maybe not.
You might get the Sprint device and have an unhappy surprise, at least in this aspect of BT. Hopefully not but....who knows....

The only thing that is not allowed in Sprint is the Dial up Networking, but that is easily re-enabled.

Sending pictures, hotsyncing, sending bluetooth messages, all enabled. Just sent pics to my laptop today with my sprint phone over bluetooth.

Cingular and Sprint and ATT all have the same Bluetooth capabilities. The only one that enables DUN from my understanding is the unlocked GSM phones.

[DrDoom]

...you look at eighty-seven million different "tiny" little issues to decide who's best! Network? Uh huh. Bluetooth? Right, like that matters! Pricing? Are you serious?
The only thing that matters is this: "Sprint Man" would beat the living snot out of "Testy, the Can You Hear Me Now?" fellow. I'm sorry, but he would. If you want to look at all those other "non-issue" issues I mentioned above, fine, but for me? Sprint Man's the one I want in my corner! Oh, and just so you know, behind your back? Everyone's gonna point and say you went with the "sissy" network!

[BeantownTreo]

I am facing this very question and am also in Boston (west of the city). My Sprint Treo600 gets spotty and unreliable coverage and I know Verizon has full coverage so I've been tempted to jump ship and upgrade. But I really want the BT feature for my car (HandsFree feature) and if Verizon is messing with BT as many of you've been saying then the decision gets much easier.

[bobfitz]

When I had the Sprint 650 before I was able to sync with my powerbook via Bluetooth so I don't think that Sprint is disabling it.