Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle - Gizmodo Comments

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

ssaroff — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:15:01 EST

As Amazon has now admited and posted on thier Kindle site, There is absoltuely No Coverage in Montana, as well as in other areas, yet their map (shown here in this article) still shows coverage (the green areas) in all of the major Montana cities. There may be many other areas arround the country where there is also no coverage, even if the Sprint/Amazon map shows green coverage. I would suggest that no one purchase a Kindle until the lack of wireless coverage issue is fully dealt with. There are some complex technical issues at play here and the provided maps are, obviously, not correct.

ssaroff

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Absent Blue — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:40:07 EST

Looks like good coverage in most Texas cities and along 35 and 10... too bad I don't care about the Kindle, but my parents might... methinks a good Christmas present it may make, will have to research...

Absent Blue

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Skeptical_Geezer — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:50:23 EST

No Kindle in Nevada desert testing grounds!?! WTF! Hulk ANGRY! Not GOOD to make Hulk angry!

Skeptical_Geezer

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Trackback — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:38:51 EST

If you had your hopes set on getting a Kindle this holiday season, I hate to break it to you but you may be outta luck. Not only because they are sold out till after Christmas, but because you may not get wireless connectivity where you live, making your Kindle virtually useless.

Trackback

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

ideaman2020 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:36:51 EST

@ideaman2020: Oh, wait. Did you mean the phone manufacturer..?

I'd call that a false analogy, since the Kindle is essentially a webservice lookup device, that would make Amazon the service provider [ie, phone company], right?

ideaman2020

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

ideaman2020 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:34:25 EST

"you wouldn't expect your phone company to do that right?"

I wouldn't expect my phone company to tell me that they don't have coverage in my area??

Heck yeah, I would! That would be the first thing I would want to know. And if they failed to tell me that, the phone would go right back to them [and I would be expecting a full refund]!

ideaman2020

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

timerider42 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:53:54 EST

I think I'm screwed. AS USUAL.
Only CDMA works in my area, no GSM, EVDO, or any of that stuff. I still can't get DSL.

timerider42

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Ultraorange — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:06:37 EST

@Hitchcock: no it's not in KCKS it's in Overland Park and that is eastern kansas so the western Kansas Signal is probably due to terrain

Ultraorange

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

rollinghills — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:34:41 EST

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm not sure I buy them. I know sprint has headquarters in KC, I used to live there. If that's the reason why does coverage stop just outside of KC but cover almost the entirety of Western KS? If it's because the original Sprint customers became cell customers, well OK. But if you've driven through the area towns are separated a dozen to a hundred miles, and the population density is very very low. I could understand Sprint providing coverage to towns in the region, but why is there coverage for all that open land. If you haven't been there, it's OPEN LAND.

Is it some technical reason, can their towers cover huge distances of flat lands?

rollinghills

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Jesse in Japan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:53:25 EST

@rollinghills: Maybe it's because Sprint is headquartered in Kansas City.

Jesse in Japan

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

lordargent — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:26:23 EST

SHANIAC: It is odd that the actual data shows the fewest dropped calls on Sprint

I think a dropped call is when you make a call and it cuts out.

However, if you don't have a strong enough signal to make a call in the first place. Boom, no call to drop.

/When I moved here 6 years ago, I didn't have a signal with sprint in my condo. Despite living ~1 mile from a major college. I dropped sprint, switched to verizon and never looked back.

In San Diego CA

Verizon, t-mobile, AT&T, leap and even cricket all get a signal in my condo.

lordargent

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

supesguy — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:29:17 EST

It's cool. Actually, no one can read in the white areas anyway.

supesguy

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Ethan Allison — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:08:52 EST

Sprint's network blows goats in most of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area too.

Ethan Allison

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

shaniac — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:47:11 EST

Remember this is only the Sprint high-speed data network that the map is showing coverage of. If it doesn't have EV-DO coverage then the area is not on the map.

It is odd that the actual data shows the fewest dropped calls on Sprint but that is now how the market sees it. I guess the curse of Sprint Customer Service and their above the "fray" marketing is not what American customers are ready for in a wireless carrier.

shaniac

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Buford T. Justice — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:37:56 EST

@Windhawk:

...as do T-mobile, Cingular, Verizon and all the other majors. Rural=regional carrier. This is a good thing, national carriers SUCK when it comes to rural coverage.

@TVGenius: No worries, all the folks in those whitespace areas wouldn't be ordering one anyway. They'd just be watching Springer re-runs.

But seriously - Sprint has the vast majority of the US population covered. For the rest... paying half or less than Sony's eConnect will still be an advantage.

Buford T. Justice

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

aaronhoffman — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:33:40 EST

I guess we Alaskans will have to continue dipping our raven quills into crude oil, writing on tanned beaver and caribou hides and distributing them by dog team instead of hoping to download a book.

Oh well, at least we'll be able to get the iPhone in our state soon, once AT&T moves in next week.

aaronhoffman

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Windhawk — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:28:02 EST

Wow, Sprint pretty much hates Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

Windhawk

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

someToast — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:39:25 EST

I was curious why Idaho got that smiley face across it, so I overlaid it on a US map. Turns out you're well-covered if you need a new book while driving I-84.

Odd that it cuts off so immediately at the state line. State subsidies?

someToast

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

packetsniffer — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:32:01 EST

@nocar:
LMAO
So true!

packetsniffer

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Bobino — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:25:45 EST

Keep in mind that the Kindle will also work on Sprint's 1xRTT network, which is much more wide-spread. It's not as fast, but it's usable.

Bobino

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

ploeg — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:59:22 EST

@rollinghills:

Sprint started out as an independent local phone provider in Kansas. When they got into cell phones, their first customers were their long-time landline customers.

ploeg

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

TVGenius — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:59:06 EST

Guess I should clarify I don't live in Wyoming. My Engrish is broked tonight.

TVGenius

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

TVGenius — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:58:31 EST

I'm guessing Amazon won't be shipping many to Wyoming. I live in a county of 250,000 and Sprint has no EV-DO here at all.

TVGenius

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

DRoberts — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:57:33 EST

You can always sync by USB, but you should be able to get about a $200 discount for that, since that's my off the cuff estimate of the amount going to Sprint (in addition to a likely per book).

DRoberts

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

Hitchcock — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:56:35 EST

@rollinghills: Why is it so good in Western Kansas? Maybe because Sprint has had their headquarters in KC, Kansas for years and years.

Hitchcock

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

ploeg — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:55:17 EST

@honozooloo:

Just check the Sprint website. Oahu has good coverage, the other islands are iffy.

Alaska is just SOL.

ploeg

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

rollinghills — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:49:27 EST

Why is the coverage in Western Kansas so good? The terrain is almost identical in Eastern Colorado and Southern Nebraska. That's really interesting.

I just recently drove through that area and my GSM phone switched between a handful of regional carriers fairly often.

rollinghills

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

honozooloo — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:07:01 EST

uh oh. Hawaii isn't even on that map.

honozooloo

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

redman042 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:43:48 EST

"Sprint's network blows goats" hahaha so true.

Well I guess Sprint users don't have as much of a problem, because Sprint allows generous data roaming on partner networks. But sounds like the Kindle is confined to their native network, which don't look so good from that map above. Sheesh, how could they be losing money when they aren't spending much on new towers?

They just need to get bought out, and quick!

redman042

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

kezratt1 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:36:31 EST

blows goats...thats funny

kezratt1

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

kyledwards — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:36:03 EST

TANDE: You're right. As soon as I saw the Kindle's whispernet used sprint I checked around to see coverage. Doesn't everybody check that? Well, I guess geeks do.

kyledwards

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

nocar — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:34:13 EST

RE: "Hey Stupid! Keep This in Mind Before You Buy a Amazon Kindle"

When you're calling anyone stupid, it's best to use proper English. That would be "an Amazon".

nocar

Keep This in Mind Before You Buy an Amazon Kindle

tande — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:29:58 EST

Huh, since thats the exact same map that shows up on amazon's site when you check whispernet coverage I'd say amazon did notify him of this when he bought it

[www.showmycoverage.com]

tande