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Leash selection...
Telephones aren't generally a good way to reach me... I'm rarely near them, and I only check voicemail once or twice a week. Compared to multiple times daily for email... anyone working with me learns this quickly ;-).
However, I'm now supposed to be spending 25-40% of my time being the technical manager of a $10M contract with a large aerospace company, doing vehicle health management for the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) program. I'm based in Silicon Valley, but the SLI program guys are in Alabama. And they are quite frustrated with trying to reach me, given how much I travel... to the point where they want me to get a cell phone.
I have helped design and install wireless communications networks in remote field sites, but I have hardly ever used a cell phone. Never owned one, and have preferred to use payphones while on travel. NASA has given me an assortment of phones and services to choose from, here, but I have no idea what works well in practice... so I'm soliciting recommendations. Their contract is with Verizon, using a national single-rate plan with no roaming charges. Costs are $55/mo for 400 anytime minutes, $100/mo for 900 minutes, and so forth, with no separate night/weekend allowance. I have no idea how many minutes is enough... even 150 minutes seems like a lot to me.
Equipment-wise, there are both tri-mode phones (2 digital frequencies, plus analog) and tri-mode plus something called 1X or Express Network for higher-speed wireless data. All of them have mini-browsers and messaging capability. I don't know if I'd be better off with a phone-with-connection-kit, or a Pocket PC/Palm PDA with telephone capabilities. The former would be the Audiovox CDM9155, or Motorola T720, vs. Kyocera 6035 Smartphone (Palm OS) or an Audiovox Thera (Microsoft). How does one talk into a PDA? That seems clumsy...
Any advice or relevant experience would be welcomed... thanks.
However, I'm now supposed to be spending 25-40% of my time being the technical manager of a $10M contract with a large aerospace company, doing vehicle health management for the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) program. I'm based in Silicon Valley, but the SLI program guys are in Alabama. And they are quite frustrated with trying to reach me, given how much I travel... to the point where they want me to get a cell phone.
I have helped design and install wireless communications networks in remote field sites, but I have hardly ever used a cell phone. Never owned one, and have preferred to use payphones while on travel. NASA has given me an assortment of phones and services to choose from, here, but I have no idea what works well in practice... so I'm soliciting recommendations. Their contract is with Verizon, using a national single-rate plan with no roaming charges. Costs are $55/mo for 400 anytime minutes, $100/mo for 900 minutes, and so forth, with no separate night/weekend allowance. I have no idea how many minutes is enough... even 150 minutes seems like a lot to me.
Equipment-wise, there are both tri-mode phones (2 digital frequencies, plus analog) and tri-mode plus something called 1X or Express Network for higher-speed wireless data. All of them have mini-browsers and messaging capability. I don't know if I'd be better off with a phone-with-connection-kit, or a Pocket PC/Palm PDA with telephone capabilities. The former would be the Audiovox CDM9155, or Motorola T720, vs. Kyocera 6035 Smartphone (Palm OS) or an Audiovox Thera (Microsoft). How does one talk into a PDA? That seems clumsy...
Any advice or relevant experience would be welcomed... thanks.
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