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From: emory!Dixie.Com!jgd@gatech.edu (John G. DeArmond)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: User's Evaluation of Handheld Cellular: Fujitsu vs Motorola
Message-ID: <telecom11.220.2@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 09:06:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 220, Message 2 of 10

motcid!ibbotson@uunet.uu.net (Craig Ibbotson) writes:

> Call me a blind patriot (and possibly a blind Motorola employee) but
> if the two of these portables come up even (as was suggested), I would
> have to think people in the U.S. would opt for the phone that is made
> in America by American workers for an American company.

> Go for the Motorola phone.

As long as non-technical criteria are being used to judge the merit of
one vendor vs another, let me add another fact for consideration.
I'll ask Pat's and the group's indulgence for a moment.

Motorola sits at the top of the civil rights Tower of Shame by having
the most egregiously offensive arbitrary drug testing program in
America. For those not aware, I maintain a list, called the Piss List,
of companies that violate employees' rights in various ways such as
pee-in-the-bottle tests, psychological profiling, lie detectors (yes,
they are still around), and other offensive thing so that people can
vote against these practices with their feet and with their
pocketbooks.

This list is available from piss@dixie.com. Mail a message with the
word "send" in the SUBJECT line.  I can also provide a copy of
Motorola's policy, a document that will strike fear in the hearts of
even the most conservative spectator.  Write to piss@dixie.com and ask
for it.  I also maintain a list of good companies that maintain an
afirmative position regarding employees' rights to privacy and freedom
on their own time.

As of this writing, Fujitsu is not on the bad list.  That should be
enough of a tie-breaker.

Beyond that, my impression of the Motorola luggable (a mobile radio
with a nylon bag wrapped around it) after side by side comparison to
my three year old Panasonic Portable and after some bench testing is
that I'm not at all impressed. It is much more prone to intermod in
the RF-hostile downtown Atlanta area and the receiver is less
sensitive.  The radio itself appears to be a mobile unit to which some
stamped sheet metal brackets and some Molex plugs have been added.
Bare wires are apparent under this sheetmetal bracket.  Looks like
something I might have jerry-rigged up as a prototype but certainly
not as a production item.

On the plus side, the phone uses Panasonic batteries and charges them
when on mobile power.  I suppose at the discounted price of under $200
dollars, the phone is not a bad deal if you can bide your conscience
enough to buy from a company with people policies as bad as
Motorola's.


John De Armond, WD4OQC     Rapid Deployment System, Inc. 
Marietta, Ga               {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd