What service provider is everyone going with these days? We are with Sprint at the moment and have been for 5 yrs now but experiencing problems with service. We need something that works Indiana and Ohio. All the cell service reps talk a good talk but coverage maps dont back up the hype they spill about how great their coverage is. All input welcome! Thanks, Rob
verizon... works for us... 155 a month for unlimited everything... now i know there are cheeper plans out there... but verizon has done me right over the years...
I've been trucking for about 3 years and had att for about 8 years. Seems to work most places
I have Nextel. Sprint tells me that nextel and sprint are not the exact same. Apparently nextel and sprint don't share all the towers. I have always had good luck with nextel in my area.
first thing is make sure you have a good phone. Nokia is by far the best for service. In Australia next g was just released, not sure what it is called over there but now 98% of australia can get enough reception to make a call
I'm in Oregon so I can't say much for anywhere else but I have had sprint/nextel, verizon, cricket, us cellular, and AT&T. I personaly love AT&T's service over here and can't live without the iPhone. There is no better way (in my opinion) to stay connected when I'm in the field. However there are a lot of other people out here using verizon.
Our truck phones are through Verizon and my personal phone is through Sprint. Both phones are BB 8330's and I don't really see much of a difference between the two service wise. There are places where each phone won't have service but the other one will, so it's pretty much a trade off. A lot of the guys I work with have ATT and when their contracts are up, they're done. But you can also go to the companies and see if you can get a trial type phone and then see what you really get on the ground. The other thing to keep in mind is if you get into hilly or out there areas then there'll be a lack of signal no matter who you've got. On my old truck when I was working up in the mountains of Colorado there was places where there was no signal no matter what carrier you had. I ended up buying one of these for the truck and that took care of my problems: http://www.wilsonelectronics.com//Products.php?Type=A
I have AT&T for about 2 years now, sometimes I`m unhappy with it , and I`m thinking about switching to Spring , their service is pretty cheap if you want to talk about money. I mean that`s what concerns people right now , is how much they pay monthly. I don`t know if you ever heard of METRO PCS ( www.metropcs.com ), basically it is a same thing as BOOST MOBILE , but they have better service, they are connected to VERIZON... But you have to check if they have coverage in your area.
Thanks for the replys. We use Sprint in Indiana and Verizon in Ohio because they provide the best coverage in those areas. We were hoping to find a service provider that could cover both areas and have one bill. Once you get west of Indianapolis you can update Verizon"s service with a couple of tin cans and some string. We tried them here and it was nothing but dead air but they have great coverage in Ohio were Sprint is dead. I guess we keep what we have for the time being. Thanks Everyone
We use Verizon. Basically it has the best coverage for the mountains and remote areas of Eastern Washington as well.
They may call em phones but they are really a radio. Radio transmissions work on LOS (line of sight). That means that if you can draw a line from antenna to antenna it works (you can also get signal bounce, "skip" ). If not the signal is blocked. A good example of this is my cell. Tower is less than 3 miles from my house (in a low spot). In the winter I have no problems but in the summer when the trees are green I have to go outside to use it. You also have to understand that the phone is set up to go to the strongest signal from a tower (not the closest). So tower placement comes into effect. If at my brother in laws farm if I'm on the southeast side of his barn I pick up the tower about 3 miles west, if I walk 75 feet to the northeast side I get another tower that is only 1 1/2 mile but a different provider. Because they are in fact a type of radio the signal can also be affected by atmospherics and sun spots/solar flares. I would see which providers have the most towers in your area of operations and go with them. If you are buying a company plan and will be giving phones to employees go unlimited minutes too. You are going to have someone who decides that they can make personnel calls and while that is considered theft you still have to pay the bill. Sure a court of law will tell the (by now former) employee that they have to make restitution you have know way of knowing when that will be. Rick
We all use Nextel because the asphalt plants and agg pits all use it, but it sounds like sprint is getting ready to shut off the nextel towers. http://www.cnet.com/dialed-in-podcast/?keyword=iDEN&tag=mncol;tags Sprint has been treating it's nextel customers like crap for years now so if they think people will automatically switch to sprint they will be sadly mistaken. I'm thinking about switching my guys over to verizon.
I am on sprint/nextel but considering switching to verizon especially if sprint shuts down the nextel network that andoman spoke of. Thanks for that article it was very eye opening.
WOW if they shut down the push to talk Nextel service in 2012... What will we do. I think they really don't understand what its like to be working in construction and try to use one of those "smart phones".
I'm actually playing with some android ptt applications that work quite well but all of you guys would have to have an android phone on the same network. :beatsme I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet but I know this article it a bargaining point when my companies contract is up in a few months, I'm pretty sure verizon will be giving out a lot of free phones. One more note verizon and sprint have a tower sharing agreement so there is not a coverage advantage between the two anymore. I think I'm going to play AT&T and verizon off each other and see what happens.
we use verizon. with the gz one series heavy duty phonesl,the guys just got the new one's so they are happy. the service is ok. i have a booster in my truck so it is a big help. mostly we use repeater's for work communication and dispatch. i use the blackberry storm 2. it is a great platform but i have a lot of problems with it and my earpiece. the other issue us if we need any service from verizon i have to drive about 2 hours to go to the store. spent about 4 hours there the other sunday. it is a pain. but hey, who said life was easy?
I need a plan that covers Mexico and the United States. My co-worker uses ATT. he has a plan that covers Canada, United States and Mexico at the same rate. But they no longer offer this plan. Anybody know of a provider that could help me with this? -Cornelius
I am currently on ATT. I tried sprint at one time but found there coverage was not good in my area. ATT also has the push to talk feature but I have never meet someone that had it so it is not turned on on my phone. JJ
Before U S Cellular put a tower up in town, most everyone had Verizon. It was very poor but better than nothing. To get reception you had to know the right place to get a signal. The one part of town you stood in the street on a manhole cover and got a signal. I was doing the dirt work on a job and the foreman from out of town was trying to make a call. No one liked him so we didn't tell him about the sweet spot. The concrete guy would stand there in the middle of the steet and talk on his phone, we told the foreman it was to get away from the job site noise. By the time the job was done he finally gathered it all up, and would go to that spot to call. I still think he had to of married into the family to get the foreman's job.
If you go with Verizon, you get an 8% discount on 5 lines of service or more on a business account. That is 8% off of phones, accessories, and service plans (excluding fee's, of course). We had a rep cold call us, I complained a little about the pricing, mentioned StraightTalk, and she got the discount started that billing cycle.
Father has Verizon droid 2 and a sprint/nextel combo phone. Got 3 service ranges. :usa Its the American way haha
I have AT&T, its not the best reception but talking to others with the other reception nothing works well in the rural arkansas mountains. All this technology confuses me.