Nokia 6256i = good; Verizon = bad:

Here?s a culmination of 4 weeks of incredible effort to simply have what I?ve HAD for 12 years ? hope it helps you.

First, I plan to post this on several sites and pardon me if you see it more than once but it seems there is no real feedback on this New Flip-phone from Nokia. I can tell you that everything I have read on the ?net about Verizon messing up the Java, MIDI Tones, and BREW on this VERIZON STAMPED phone appears to be fact. It also appears that the Hacks to return the 6256i to ?AS ADVERTISED? in Nokia literature may well work and are VALIANT in their efforts to make the thing work as it was meant.

Second, I have to share some background. Had a cell phone for 12 years while driving the same Virginia corridor of 90 miles every weekend since before digital. My original analog only Sony CMRX-100 gave good service and as towers went in got much better. Would not handshake to roaming service without dropping which happened in only 5 locations ? no big deal. Verizon forced me to get digital so next was Nokia 5185i. This phone was a little better but still dropped in 2 locations upon carrier B/A switch. In meantime, service in corridor expanded and saw other phones (on Verizon service) uneffected at my drop locations. Got my next Nokia digital 3285 and out of 4years it only dropped ONE call, EVER!!! The only time it did not work is when the local tower went down or there was no service for anyone. I could run the entire 2 hour trip getting on the phone before I got in my car and off after going through the front door of the house - impressive.

Third, Verizon in its effort to meet the FFC requirement is KILLING phones that do not have the GPS 911 location system. YES, They admit it if you hold their head underwater for a bit. Mine came up ?INVALID ROAMING LIST? and never finds a service. After much, Much, MUCH effort and several trips to a Verizon Wireless store while in FLORIDA (where they were able to download a virus roaming list) I gave up and decided that I would just start from scratch. After all, Verizon tried to tell me the phone was broke but couldn?t substantiate that after I told them I was using it in 5 minutes ago in a fixed location. Told me they were ?sure a store could fix it? ? NOPE! Told me because ?I was such a good customer they would give me a deal on a new phone for $29.99 but there were no free phone ? right now.? Bounce that against a top-of-the-line AND TRUE FREE PHONE with a new number for a $35.00 activation fee (IDIOTS) and that brings us to today. Search ?Invalid Roaming List? on the ?net and you?ll find a lot of information on whys and whatfors ? all true I?ve found.

*6256i Effort: Using my 6256i in Florida I seemed to have no problem. Coming back to Virginia the phone dropped 2 calls out of 5 ? I thought that odd? Running the corridor 15 miles from home it started dropping calls continuously. No Joke, every five minutes in one stretch for 30 miles (30 min). I had poor sound quality the entire distance getting worse to inaudible I verified due to terrain features. I used to have this issue with the analog and lack of towers TEN YEARS AGO! It definitely dropped calls EVERY time in its switch from Carrier A/B. I had noticed Nokia has a programmable tone when it switches, i.e. Roams and turned it on one of the trips ? sure enough the switch over tone would step on the ?dropped call? tone every time. Verizon said it was the phone (I believed because I knew the service was great 3 weeks ago). Got a SECOND 6256i replacement and was smart enough to drive the corridor to test. Every spot the old one dropped this one dropped. It dropped calls on a raised 12 mile stretch of roadway of farmed flatland where I could see the red blinky lights on the tower on the hill the whole time. Correction, when I went behind a group of trees, the quality would actually get so bad it was completely garbled and if I passed through a 15 foot hill cutaway (virtually instantaneous) it dropped the call. After driving this stretch to test repeatedly, I noticed that when it dropped, I could not call out for a minute or 2. This only appeared to be the case with the second phone as the first would let me call back almost immediately. Don?t think this is relevant to phones but only to express just how poor the system was acting. If I stopped anywhere along this route, including spots I lost calls, I could call out and talk every time. Still not very clear but neither of the pair has EVER come close to the quality of the 3285.

After a lot of research, actual driving and refreshing my knowledge base (as I?ve kept up on this technology) I?ve concluded that the phone has some strong points and week ones, but overall this is NOT a phone problem. Running through the ?net I noticed a trend. Everyone who had this phone used Carrier A (Nextel, Sprint, etc. ? NOT Verizon). This starts to make sense as everyone I talked to at Verizon didn?t know ?they [Verizon] even sold the phone; never heard of a Nokia FlipPhone; or, could not figure out what ?store? I bought it from.? Obviously, this phone is new to Verizon despite their logo stamp on both the front and back; and wall paper on BOTH displays; and text tagging on BOTH displays and the startup and shutdown .graphics ? seems they want you to know who they are? It should also be noted that when I received the replacement 6256i it was not set up. I got into the system menu and checked versions and goodies. All the important stuff was the same except for the PRL. I also noticed that before I programmed the phone using Verizon?s famed phone killer *228 it was getting 4 bars signal strength and was ?roaming.? Of course at first I was a happy camper as I thought the replacement fixed the problem. After getting the phone setup manually at instructions by Verizon it still stayed at 4 bars BECAUSE it was still on ROAM. Turned out Verizon did not even have the ESN activated in their system. Once that happened it reduced DOWN to TWO bars immediately. In reality this makes no sense. The only way this could happen effectively is if Verizon sent Power Control information VIA the CDMA to dial down the power. Factor this in with the dropped calls when it should be doing a SOFT HANDOFF (drops between towers and providers); Poor quality, especially when moving; Verizon Customer Service surprise that I even HAVE a 6256i and TWO different phones acting exactly the same thing in KNOWN good areas with PROVEN record using a 3285? Well, the evidence points squarely at the program Verizon downloads into the phone. I have no doubt that they have a conflict with the control sets they download and suspicion they are using programming from a similar model, HOWEVER IT AIN?T THE SAME. I?m pretty sure the POWER CONTROL programming information is HALVING the required power in the phone. This would explain everything including the Soft Handoff, poor quality, terrain interference and signal strengths reflected in the phone at all times. There could be other factors like the PRL etc. but this one glitch would explain my issue pretty accurately. I should also note I tried all the setups possible in the phone including forcing an Analog call (Nokia only does it temporary) and had no better signal (3 bars not 4 as ALL my other phones have) or clarity sitting line of site to a tower. Most scary of all (and the reason I?m posting) is Verizon says I?m the only one having problems with this phone. Humm? Of course they said my phone was ?broke? too?

Useful notes to consider: Sending the pair back ? can?t afford such lousy service for the next 2 years. I am pretty computer savvy so what you read will have to be balanced against your knowledge. In the meantime I have some input that may be of use in the future or even for those perspective Carrier A customers.

- BlueTooth works well with headset. Easy setup with great voice recognition - actually pattern recognition so no one else?s voice will work unless you sound alike. There are difference in headsets. My pair came with free sets. One was a Jabra BT-130 and the other Scala 500. Like the Scala as it has better characteristics, 3 styles of clips, better (more) controls and better LED communication to the user.

- BlueTooth with a PC? Not so much. You can BUY programs to support the technology with every other WINDOWS version but you MUST HAVE Service Pack 2 of XP to see the BlueTooth communications WITHOUT buying a program. I absolutely hate SPYWARE Pack 2 but installed it to access the 6256i.

- Nokia?s PC Suite is a nice program HOWEVER there is no support built in it for the 6256i. Instructions tell you to go to Nokia web site to download modem drivers ? searched everywhere including foreign country sites and believe me, they are NOT there! This causes several issues with this program that may put you off buying phone: PC Suite would not connect to the net via phone and the modem would not set up with several tries of drivers including Nokia?s generic BlueTooth and a number of the 62hundred series drivers (gave up after a while). PC Suite did pull the 4 hours of contacts I reprogrammed into the phone so I could place them into the other phone. This is a little scary and if you have any new info in the new phone it will overwrite it. Did not kill copy protected files already on the phone. Does NOT copy over voice recognition but phone only supports 25 of those. Sent E:Mail to Nokia C.S. about the Modem Driver, supposed to respond in 24-48 hours ? got a ?received you E:Mail immediately but nothing else in over 4 days!

- Tried MID (midi) files and phone would not let me choose them as ringtones AND would not even play them. Same with MP3. Tried some other files too but don?t remember what all. Fact is the only thing I got to work were JPG and GIF as wall paper (put a Skull holding up the finger to send it back). THIS IS VERIZON MESS THAT?S REFLECTED ALL OVER THE ?NET you can look up.

- I also have an iMac with built in IRDa. They talked but without supporting software [read: ?Buy?] it did nothing. Nokia did not have a MAC version of PC Suite that I could find ? that would kick ***.

Last but not least. Consider this overlooked trick. In Verizon you can forward your cell phone to another number WITHOUT having the other number pick up. Even if it does, its not an issue to send an occasional fax to avoid some long distance charges. Of course, I could do this with the old 3285 too? So if the special 6256i features don?t really work, or at least work easily enough to utilize, then it is probably a waste of money, time and an incredible amount of effort ? like it was for me!