No Qchat in New Orleans

[scratchline20]

For those interested, I found out first hand that Sprint does not offer qchat in New Orleans. The phones are not offered here, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway so I bought a V950. I found a coverage map that showed we supposedly have EVDO Rev A here so I thought I was good to go.

I had an Account Services rep order the phone for me. When I rec'd the phone, I called telesales and had them change my plan and add direct connect. The rep said no problem and did. He said it could take up to four hrs for it to become available. Well fours hrs came and went and no qchat. Qchat isn't even an option in the menu. So I call tech support hoping it was just a glitch, but they were no help. They stated it's not available in New Orleans.

I would've liked to have qchat though I'm not totally bummed. The V950 is a great phone thus far; rugged, thin, good tight holster, great camera, bright screens. It's one of the better non-smartphones available in my opinion.

[stormchaser2009]

Your in luck. I looked at the coverage maps for EVDO-Rev A. and Direct Connect over Sprint (DCS) and the whole New Orleans, LA area is lit up there so you can DC on qChat there with your v950 phone.

Hope that helps out and PM me if you want to test it out.

[Dubspoon]

I had an alright time using my DC in Nashville and am anxious to travel more and get a feel for the coverage. Why isn't more being said about qchat coverage improvements

[scratchline20]

Your in luck. I looked at the coverage maps for EVDO-Rev A. and Direct Connect over Sprint (DCS) and the whole New Orleans, LA area is lit up there so you can DC on qChat there with your v950 phone.

Hope that helps out and PM me if you want to test it out.

That's what I thought when I bought this phone. I saw the maps and assumed I would have coverage even though the Qchat tool on their site said it wasn't availabe yet.

DC isn't even in the menu. I tried alerting this phone from my work nextel, but couldn't.

I had one of those courtesy calls from sprint the other day. I said everything was good except for Qchat not being available here. She of course apologized and stated that it just hasn't been added to my area yet. I asked if sprint was discontinuing this service and she said no. Hopefully it will be soon since we already have the network structure for it.

[stormchaser2009]

scratchline20,

Hopefully they get it working in your area there cuz I have a trip planned for the area sometime in late April/early May with a friend of mine from AR to Gulf Shores, AL if all goes well there and he wanted to go thru New Orleans on his way out there to AL.
I talk to a lot of friends on DC(30 ppl) not all at once but one on one and need the qChat/DCS to stay in touch with business contacts and my brother in North Dallas, TX.

If you want to DC just PM me your DC # and we can chat there if you like.

[scratchline20]

I'm going to give up on it for now. Dealing with Sprint's customer service is tiresome and I don't feel like bothering with it. I'm just glad their voice service is excellent here and I don't have a need to talk to them often. The V950 is my wife's phone anyway. She doesn't need DC and this phone is WAYYYY better then the crappy M300 she had before. Anyway, thanks everyone. If/when SE LA gets Qchat, I'll let everyone know.

[Roger P.]

Okay, here are the facts about Qchat / Direct Connect on Sprint devices in the NOLA area...

- Yes, some these devices will work in the New Orleans Metro area, but ONLY IF they belong to a home market where Qchat is supported.. (i.e. if your phone number is set up in another market such as Texas or Colorado, etc. THEN your DC on Sprint will work)

- The NOLA market has not been "switched on" to support the activation of such devices...a bummer I know.

- If keeping your same phone number is an absolute must, it might be a while until things change in this market. According to what I've found out, there are no plans to change this status within the year. If it's a possibility, you could try and call care and see if they can set your phone up with a number from a different city which supports Qchat, and maybe you will be in luck!

This is why we haven't seen any "DC on sprint" phones in the corporate stores. I guess the good news is that current Qchat phone owners can still use their devices as normal in the area with no problem. Hope this answers any questions and yields a possible solution to your issue! Take care neighbor.

- Roger P. -

[scratchline20]

It's not critical and not worth getting a new phone #. We've had these #'s for a long time. I figured it was something along the lines of simply flipping a switch. It's probably marketing thing. Oh well, it's a great phone anyway w/o qchat.

[Blackburry]

Mine works in NO and yes I had to switch my number and no its not a marketing thing. The rep tried and tried to get it to work but the system would not take my old number. I have two phones anyways so I wasn't mad. The part that is really funny is that sprint wont be coming out with anymore Qchat phones anymore.

[Dubspoon]

Sprint really screwed the pooch with how they are treating qchat and the phone releases. The coverage isn't expanding, the phone selection needs a refresh and now the majority of the midwest will be w/o IDEN

[gemstone3750]

Same thing happened to me and my parents (we have a shared plan) they ordered the Sanyo Pro 700 and the Sanyo Pro 200 after countless calls to Sprint from me asking if the push to talk will work and they said yes and blah blah blah.

It wasn't until he bought the phones off Ebay and went into a Sprint store and tried to switch over to the new phone that we were told that push to talk will not work here in New Orleans.

so....my parents do have the phones and wait for PTT because available.

[Dubspoon]

Now iPCS areas and Sprint will loose the rest of the rest of thier IDEN subs when divested because they haven't upgraded the network so no new ptt for CDMA

[scratchline20]

Mine works in NO and yes I had to switch my number and no its not a marketing thing. The rep tried and tried to get it to work but the system would not take my old number. I have two phones anyways so I wasn't mad. The part that is really funny is that sprint wont be coming out with anymore Qchat phones anymore.

I KNEW IT WOULD WORK HERE. I WAS told that there was a workaround by changing to a phone number from a city where qchat had been officially launched. My wife has had this phone number for too long to change it. It's not that critical, but it is pretty annoying.