[olug] [OT] Cell phone carrier questions...

[Dan Anderson]

Yeah, we had the same thing (I'm kind of North West - on the top of a
hill).  My wife suddenly could use her phone everywhere except work and home
(constantly dropping calls - failing to ring at all, etc).

Verizon blamed the phone, swapped it out a few times, gave her a different
brand phone, but then just quit trying.  If their map shows coverage - they
wouldn't do _anything_.

Ultimately, we bought her out of the Verizon contract.  Those "Can you hear
me now?" commercials were never funny.  :)

Check with your neighbors and co-workers.  Maybe they know how Verizon
coverage is in your specific area - in terms of drops, data connectivity,
missed calls, etc - "bars" aren't always the whole story.

I've always had Sprint and have had no issues (maybe a handful of dropped
calls in like 13 years - and those were probably roaming calls anyway.)

I just upgraded a couple months back to the Samsung Epic 4G (Galaxy S).
Very cool.  Android 2.2.  Full qwerty keyboard (awesome for terminal/ssh
work :) ) Add a Seidio high capacity battery and it's a really great phone
(mp3 player, video camera, game machine, still camera, GPS, e-book reader,
etc.).  The only annoying part is paying the $10 4g fee when 4g isn't here
yet.

Dan


On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 9:54 PM, Craig Wolf <cjwolf at mpsomaha.org> wrote:

> My wife and i have Droid phones on Verizon and while I love the phones, the
> service in our area sucks (West O').  When they switched to the Alltel
> towers, I basically lost service in my home and around it.  I am not sure
> anyone else is any better in my neck of the woods but that is my opinion...
>
> Craig Wolf
> Linux Server Support
> Backups Administrator
> Desktop/Network Specialist
> Desk: (402)715-6283
> Cell: (402)510-0301
>
>