Posted on 12/25/2005 7:22:24 AM PST by radar101
Did your family get in touch with them or did the companies ask first.
I ask because we own property on our street that is on a hillside and can't be built upon. Came with the house. I always thought about a cellular tower there because service in our little valley sucks! I'd be very interested if you can please ask them for me. Thanks
Not sure; but I expect the company came to them. Pop would not have thunk that up on his own. I can find out for sure later today.
"I am damned lucky to get a signal half the time at home and many times I have to go outside and stand in the cold."
When at&t was my carrier, the must have had a tower fairly close to my home because reception inside was excellent, even in the basement. After the cingular buyout, the tower was switched and I can rarely even use my phone in my den. If the call is important, I either need to recall on a land line or go outside. I'm investigating a new carrier, but if I have the same problem, all I've done is change problem centers.
It's best to do this about every month. On Verizon, dial *228 then send, select option 2 to update software. On Sprint, they supposedly update you automatically but you may have to dial *2 and ask for an OTA update, which will usually be answered by a WTF, but they will figure it out and update your phone. On T-Mobile, I'm not sure but it looks like they automatically update your phone at times.
What this does is to load the latest image of all the network cell towers and coverage so your phone will not be confused by newly built towers and think it's roaming.
When testing coverage we'd get loaner cellphones from prospective carriers to try it out ourselves.
Our Cingular is fone around town, but out in our little neck of the woods (on the northern ourskirts of town) it's rough. (and there is a tower 2 miles from us!)
The wife and I have been traveling, and my Alltel phone was perfect
whereas her T-Moblie was.... "no service"
That was exactly the issue as described to us (as if we couldn't tell). Where it was really annoying was my Internet access -- when the phone switched from one tower to the other my connection was lost. And that happened a lot in the early days.
On T-Mobile, I'm not sure but it looks like they automatically update your phone at times.
Hm. I wasn't aware they did that. Maybe that explains the infrequent mysterious reboot ('course it's not likely the software crashed... *\;-). But I have to say things work pretty well now; my phone usually connects to the tower with the weaker signal, but at least it stays there.
fone - fine
My whole family has Cingular. We used to get excellent service, before Katrina. (We live just outside of N.O.) Now the service is terrible. We can call each other and get a recording saying the person doesn't have service, busy singal when no one is using the phone or even recordings saying you don't have to dial one to reach that number even though we had not dialed one. The service was really bad right after Katrina and only moderately better now. I'm not sure if other carriers are experiencing the same problems or not. I just hope it improves soon.
Verizon was the ONLY cell company that services my house. I've tried three different others but they all die about a 1/2 mile from the house. That said, if I didn't absolutely need to have a cell phone - I wouldn't keep Verizon for a minute. Their customer service personnel are abrasive and ignorant. Their billing practices are abysmal and their equipment unreliable.
Well you have done more, I signed a 2 year contract for this phone, If I stop using it the cost is $250 even if its the day before the contract runs out. They have you by the nuts when you sign on.
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