Cel phone reception

Jagmandave · Jan 20, 2006

I have Sprint, and when they were building their world headquarters campus here, we used to chuckle that the only place in town that our Sprint phones would not work was on the campus construction site! They've since fixed it, of course.... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

My wife has Cingular, and when we were visiting the kids in Western North Carolina, my Sprint lost signal 15 min out of Asheville, hers never did...................

I hope Sprint continues to improve, they sure need to, to catch up with Verizon and Cingular. Maybe if they weren't spending so much to support NASCAR................

1962 · Jan 20, 2006

i agree with the external antenna install. i too have a nextel(work phone) and it is only good for a fishing sinker. nextel probably put too much funds into NASCAR endorsements and not into their technology. my other phone is a verizon, been with them since they were bell atlantic mobile.
a couple years ago i had the same weak signal problems at home as some of the other TBN members. i upgraded to a better cell phone, which cost a bit more but was worth it in the end. the phone i had initially was a promo type that was cheap, and had a weak receiver circuit. but the upgraded phone was 100% better. i have not had a land line phone since..

DougM · Jan 20, 2006

Some one please tell me What a good cell phone is...
I have verizon and I am not happy.

DougM

ronjhall · Jan 20, 2006

Every area has both good and bad service. I checked with my neighbors to find which one had service that would work at my place and theirs. The only one that worked reliably enough at home was Cingular. My Son has Verision. It does not always work good at my place. But at his house my Cingular has poor reception and his Verision has very good reception.

CT_Tree_Guy · Jan 20, 2006

Doug - As Ron said, so much depends on your exact location(s), but all in all, I think Cingular/ATT is most likely going to be your best bet. As others have said, try out a good, high-quality phone on the service you're thinking of getting. If it works where you want it to work, case closed.

Rocco - sounds as if Cingular might be the answer to all of our misery! (And thanks for sharing my pain). /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John

Oops, just re-read your post Tom - not sure if you're looking for recommendations on the phone itself, or the service. (Sometimes the two get somewhat linked together, depending on the provider). I've never been a big fan of Ericsson phones, but I've had good luck with Motorola and Nokia. And Samsung is making quite a name for themselves again, after some possible quality issues. I understand they had quite a shake-up in management, and are now making some world-class stuff. Anyone else have any thoughts on the phones themselves?

I'm actually thinking that my next "phone" will be a blue-tooth Blackberry; phone and handheld Personal Information Manager all in one. The Palm Treo is pretty good too, but I'd still like someone to "put it all together" - blue-tooth, WI-FI, blazing processor, tons of RAM, MS Office/Outlook, optional external keyboard, Graffiti AND virtual keyboard AND small built-in keyboard AND touch-screen, tons of (Pocket PC-compatible) applications, maybe Mac apps as well (Pod-cast, IPod-compatible MP3 player, etc.) ... but that's just me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bird · Jan 20, 2006

I don't know how you'd find out which is best for your area, except by talking to friends and neighbors in the area. As I've mentioned before, we've been happy with Cingular. But both of our daughters and our grandson have T-Mobile; one of those family plans where there's no extra charge no matter how many minutes they talk to each other. And they're happy with T-Mobile. And then there are so many "calling plans" available at different prices that it can be confusing. Our youngest daughter got a special deal on a second phone for our teenage grandson. Then her company decided that she spent so much time on her cell phone on business that they now provide her a cell phone. She couldn't get rid of her T-Mobile phone without it costing even more because of the kid's phone. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif So she gave her personal T-Mobile phone to her mother (my wife) and she has a company owned T-Mobile phone. They all work just fine here, but we're in a large metropolitan area; don't know how they'd work where you are.

Bird · Jan 20, 2006

( I'm actually thinking that my next "phone" will be a blue-tooth Blackberry; phone and handheld Personal Information Manager all in one. The Palm Treo is pretty good too, but I'd still like someone to "put it all together" - blue-tooth, WI-FI, blazing processor, tons of RAM, MS Office/Outlook, optional external keyboard, Graffiti AND virtual keyboard AND small built-in keyboard AND touch-screen, tons of Pocket PC-compatible) applications, maybe Mac apps as well (Pod-cast, etc.) But that's just me. )

Whew! That shot went way over my head. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

CT_Tree_Guy · Jan 20, 2006

Whew! That shot went way over my head. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif 

(Bird, don't feel bad - I just made that all up. Sounded good though, didn't it?). /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

*****

Just kidding of course - if anyone has any input on a good "Smart Phone", I'd love to hear it. My HP Jornada 720 is getting a little "long in the tooth", and I'm ready to ditch the "clamshell" form factor and go to more of a true handheld with full PIM features plus phone.

ronjhall · Jan 20, 2006

Don't laugh. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif What you described is similar to a phone a fellow had with him while fishing on our boat last summer. You can add fish attractor to the list when it fell overboard. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Everyone on board got their limit of walleye. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

RedDog · Jan 20, 2006

I have experience with T-mobile, Nextel, and Verizon. T-mobile is my own phone, with Nextel being my work phone, and Verizon being my wife's phone.

What I like about the T is it switches networks to find a signal. Went on vacation and it was on Alltel, AT&T, and Cingular networks.

Verizon is pretty crappy at my house, but the T is not. Nextel also works at the house. We have all brand of towers extremely close to us.

I've been considering switching to Nextel for my phone only because of the 2 way. I wish T had that. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

They all have there hit and miss spots. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

RedDog