cell phone coverage

ruthi · April 05, 2010, 02:24:19 PM

We have had really good coverage with verizons air card, so, I will probably keep that.

Just Dallas · April 05, 2010, 02:29:50 PM

Removed

Barn Owl · April 05, 2010, 04:46:53 PM

Many OTR truckers use Verizon because of coverage.

loosenut · April 05, 2010, 05:22:43 PM

Lisa has an iphone and loves it and while there are a large number of dropped calls even where there is coverage, she is looking to upgrade to the newest iphone when her contract ends. Our Verizon blackberry has the best coverage and least dropped calls. My Tmobile android is closer to Verizon in coverage and dropped calls. Most of our non urban travels are in CA and MO.

Rumors are circulating about bringing out a CDMA Iphone this summer. The government is pressuring the industry to distribute phones across the industry rather than to one carrier so it is just a matter of time.

Mike

johns4104s · April 05, 2010, 06:22:09 PM

Ruthi,

If you ONLY travel interstates ATT is good, but if you get of the interstate AT T's coverage is HORRIBLE and I mean Horrible......

I drive 50,000 miles a year and very seldom have problems with Verizon, we used 5000+minutes a month Both have blackberry's, and both have 3g network cards,(our Son also has a phone on this plan) Costs $400+ a month. but we service 20 = states so we have to have something that Works.

John

ruthi · April 06, 2010, 10:26:05 AM

Do any of you others that travel, use hwys other than the interstates, and if so, what kind of reception do you get? I would stay with verizon if they had an iphone, but, dang it, I am tired of waiting. I am ready to downsize to one device.

Jerry32 · April 06, 2010, 11:53:00 AM

I also have AT&T with great results. but I live in the west and verizon don't work where I live I have had sprint too and it worked fine. I have been in AZ where sprint and AT&T worked great and verizin was very touchy to find a spot. Jerry

BobBoyce · April 06, 2010, 02:31:45 PM

Quote from: ruthi on April 06, 2010, 10:26:05 AMDo any of you others that travel, use hwys other than the interstates, and if so, what kind of reception do you get? I would stay with verizon if they had an iphone, but, dang it, I am tired of waiting. I am ready to downsize to one device.

Hello Ruthi

If you're going to be going to a places well off of the interstates, you might want to invest in a cellphone with the option of connecting a really good quality high gain external antenna. I had phones from both AT&T and Verizon with me in my travels across the USA back in 2008. I found that in the many remote areas I travelled through, neither one worked so well with the factory antenna. I had an external antenna with adapters for both. The Verizon phone worked much better for cellphone coverage, in more remote locations than the AT&T phone did. To be fair, the AT&T phone did have faster internet access when I was close to the cities, but the dead zones for AT&T were a lot bigger in most places. There were a few places that the AT&T phone worked better in, but they were few and far between. Since I tend to avoid the cities and interstates as much as possible in my travels, I dropped my AT&T service last year and just stick with Verizon now. The most difficult areas for me to find cellphone service were the desolate highways passing through remote desert regions of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Bob

Barn Owl · April 06, 2010, 02:50:07 PM

I have been looking at this company: Wilson Electronics

luvrbus · April 06, 2010, 03:24:06 PM

Ruthi, why worry about the coverage unless things have changed I never built a Wal-Mart SuperCenter in the boonies lol go for your Iphone girl.

good luck

white-eagle · April 06, 2010, 07:22:17 PM

the iphone my be pretty, but i like to be online. like Jim, i have satellite. with Verizon, i've only had to make calls twice via satellite where i just couldn't find a signal to make a call. Data use for tethering is even worse. i'm near lakeland, fl and yes, i can use my cell with my PC, but the speed sucks.

We were doing rv shows and traveling a lot. Not always on Interstates. in my opinion, (and a lot of other escapees at their shows), Verizon has the network. Not always fastest, not always best, but almost always able to communicate. lots more bare spots today with AT&T in my opinion, and i did lots of questions when i was doing seminars.

i looked at Androids and blackberrys. both are expensive and i notice verizon is now qouting a mandatory $10 data charge with new phones on top of voice plan. Blackberries and androids have mandatory $30, and if you want to use it with a computer, it''s another $30.

if you are planning on using it the way they want instead of voice calls, then the prices aren't scary. also, walmarts usually are in populated areas where they have people to sell to, as luvrbus said. that means cell service available.

iphone and blackberries and androids, oh my!! i spend way too much time on electronic gadgets. i may be getting old, but i'd rather be working on the bus. (he says as he sits typing on the stupid computer again). that's my 42.5 cents worth.

ruthi · April 06, 2010, 07:25:31 PM

Thanks yall. Every once in a great while, they build them in some out of the way locations expecting the area to grow. But, we handle business sometimes going down the hwy.But, that being said, I am going to go for it, lol. But, I talked with someone today at the store, and they told me that a new iphone will be coming out, prob. in July. She said they all were told no one could take vacations in July, and that is a good sign. It will be a 4G phone, with some extra things on it. It will have a camera on the front for skype too. So, I think I will wait til then to get it, if I can stand it that long. She said that the cost of the 3G will then drop too. So, bummer, guess I will have to patient, and that is not my thing.

Highway Yacht · April 06, 2010, 10:04:04 PM

I know from my experiences that AT&T has a lot more dead spots in the Carolinas and Virginia especially off the main highways. I switched to AT&T when they offered a special deal and only kept it long enough for my contract to expire before returning back to Verizon. I also have a Verizon wireless Net Card in my laptop and (knock on wood) have never been anyplace in the last 2 years that I couldn't use it. Not sure about the rest of the states but for me here in the Carolinas, Verizon beats AT&T hands down.

Dreamscape · April 06, 2010, 10:46:16 PM

We have had Verizon for several years. Then moving to Abilene TX we could not get a local number, that was in 06. So we ended up with AT&T, always have dropped calls, poor service in general. As soon as our contract is up we're going back to Verizon. We also have a Verizon air card and it seems to work very good, much better than an ATT I used for work.

I think it's a crap shoot anyway, it's all about who you are happy with.