? Cell Phone Provider?

[PILOON]

LOL, same problem here.
On my front porch I have 2 marks on my railing to rest my elbows. Between them my cell works.
On the road to town we all know the cell 'hot spots' and slow down when approaching as for sure somebody is making a call.
We ave fiber optics 2 miles from home but ma bell won't upgrade for us to use TV or phones so we have private 'hi speed??' and no land line phone whenever mother nature downs the power lines. (the fiber optic terminal need battery power to be able to operate the land lines and those batteries only provide 12 hrs of service). Consequently with a 12 hr + power outage we are totally without communications.
Note that we are only 1 hour north of Montreal, one of Canada's major metropolitan areas.
China is better off than we are!

Another 'cell phone peeve'
Unless I have a phone link I cannot take a photo. WTF?

 

[OKnewguy]

One thing to consider, is Google Fi, they are a mvno for T-mobile, Sprint and Us Cellular. The phone will pick the provider with the best connectivity. The big problem is you can only use a few phones (basically all Google phones, some Nexus all Pixels and Moto x4) I have heard that they are gonna open it up to more phones in the future.
Dave

 

[1stDeuce]

You need to find someone with a phone that works where you want it to and use that provider, and that's all there is to it.

In places I frequent, Verizon almost always has service, while AT&T is iffy... That said, we've had a few times were AT&T has a signal, and I've got nothing on Verizon... (Wife's work phone is AT&T, our personal phones are on verizon's network through Page Plus)

If Verizon ends up having a signal, I would recommend buying a used phone you like, and getting service through Page Plus. I pay $32/month for ~1000 minutes and I think 2G of data... I've never hit either limit. I think Page Plus has phones you can get too, I just prefer my Casio C811, and the wife is on an old Casio flip and a $12/month plan, also through PP.

 

[MossRoad]

We have t-mobile for the price and customer service... great price. Great customer service.They work great in/near towns. However, we have a running joke that if you can see corn, your t-mobile service will soon die! While they make claims about covering ninety-X percent of people, and its true, that's because ninety-x percent of people live in urban areas. My recommendation.... stay away from T-mobile if you ever want to leave town and communicate.

 

[k0ua]

We have t-mobile for the price and customer service... great price. Great customer service.They work great in/near towns. However, we have a running joke that if you can see corn, your t-mobile service will soon die! While they make claims about covering ninety-X percent of people, and its true, that's because ninety-x percent of people live in urban areas. My recommendation.... stay away from T-mobile if you ever want to leave town and communicate.

That's why we have Verizon. I have only found once place where we needed data service that we couldn't get it. It was a creek bottom farm far from any town. Fortunately the client had wifi, so we could conduct business. But 99 percent of the time we have data access with Verizon. Certainly not the cheapest, but we feel we have to have it for our work. (Senior market Medicare insurance)

 

[MossRoad]

That's why we have Verizon. I have only found once place where we needed data service that we couldn't get it. It was a creek bottom farm far from any town. Fortunately the client had wifi, so we could conduct business. But 99 percent of the time we have data access with Verizon. Certainly not the cheapest, but we feel we have to have it for our work. (Senior market Medicare insurance)

Yep. If its your business, its a business expense. We have 4 lines, me, wife, adult kid1 and college kid2. Unlimited voice, data and text. Data is hi speed up to 3gig per month and then throttled back to 3G after that. Streaming music doesn't count against that throttle point, and the kids have music on pretty much 24-7. Their customer service it really good..... they apologize profusely for their lousey coverage! :laughing: No contract. $134 per month after taxes, etc... So, about a buck a day per phone.

 

[woodchuckie]

Having one bar of signal cell phone very ify. I have excellent internet and wifi. I set my iphone on wifi calling and have great service. no extra cost.

 

[JRobyn]

In our particular spot, by far the strongest signal is Verizon, so we have no reasonable choice except to use their network. We tried StraightTalk (MVNO using the Verizon network), but actual service was really crappy, particularly with any "smart" applications. Have used "direct" Verizon for several years now with decent service, but still marginal/fringe. It's a "benefit" of being in the boondoggles.

 

[George2615]

Having one bar of signal cell phone very ify. I have excellent internet and wifi. I set my iphone on wifi calling and have great service. no extra cost.

Same here. Inside my house the phone has one bar and drops to no bars just moving a foot or so. I enabled wifi calling on the cell using the procedure in the link that DMax84 provided. Next time I get a call I'll see how it works or if it drops the call. Never knew my smarter than me smart phone had that feature.
Thanks for the info.

 

[PILOON]

LOL, on my porch railing I have 2 paint marks, one for each elbow.
Holding the cellphone with right hand to the right ear gives me 1 bar if I don't move.
Ain't technology great?
Oh, I am 1 hour north of Montreal, not at the north pole.

And add that with frequent power outages my land line goes down as the batteries at the fiber optic station need a phone co truck to keep them charged.
We just hope that no emergencies occur.
On the other hand with my genset I can watch TV via my dish. (but no phone and no internet)