Cell Phone Service Providers

[Looney2]

Hey all...I have Nextel and had lots of problems with them..However Wilson Electronics makes a cell phone amplifier that installs really easily in your truck. They make one for just about every phone out there and they work really well. I live in a rural part of michigan where I never had good cell service once I left the freeway. Now that I have the amplifier hooked up, I havent lost service yet. Always have full bars when the amplifier is on. It only works when you start to lose your signal from your carrier. Then it kicks on and boost the signal. They aren't cheap. Think I paid around $300.00 but it was worth every penny. Plus I needed an extra tax deduction..

 

[marvinkwagner]

Well here is my two cents My first boss had Sprint and NexTELL
He seemed to like em both except, in the mountains he had no service.]

Steve as he said likes ALLETEL well I beg to differ The plan I had cost me an arm an a leg ( Now dont argue with me I have my phone and a phone to keep in touch with my wife.)

Now I got Verizon and Two Phones and 1400 minits nation wide plan with unlimited nights and weekends after 7pm till 7am for 79 bucks
to me that is still high. But for Two Phone with the option to put a Third on for 6 bucks more for my daughter not bad. maybe. But then if I was in the stinking desert I haggle with the Hey Joes, (Turbin heads) and get the price down. (If ya dont know what a Hey Joe is then ask some one that was in the Military and they will tell ya.

The Service "Can ya here me now" well NO I can't here ya at all in Certain Place like parts of PA WYoming , Nevada, Oregon AZ well I think you get the Pic and Tenn IT goes RED PHONE No service in them Places.

But its what I got, Thats my Two cents.

NOW for the Person that has 3 different companies on here

GOT MILK I QUICK

Now go say that to your BOSS


Have a Safe One
and God Bless
Kevin

 

[FAMILYEXPDT]

Only time we get roaming charges is from Canada. I have not had roaming charges in forever...use to happen occassionally in kentucky for some reason. We have 4 phones on same alltel plan and 3 aircards....so we have lots of ways to compare. Their circle of friends plans are amazing....does not matter whether it is a land line or competitor....if on circle it is free. Also,,,mobile to mobile within alltel group is free 1000 minutes....outside of your calling circle.


-charlotte

 

[Pappy]

I have 2 cell phones. My personal phone is with Verizon and my company phone is Nextel and has the 2 way comunication device. Personally, I have to use the verizon phone a lot for business because of the dead areas I experience with the Nextel. So, I would say that Verizon is about as good as they get. They have a variety of plans to choose from and offer decent service. I also feel that they are competitive as far as price goes.

Pappy

 

[babs3361]

We have both Nextel and Verizon. We both had Nextel but Nextel service area isn't always the best. Although it worked for us for 4 yrs. We also have a verizon air card. Love verizon.....Hubby uses nextel because of all the friends and family who have nextel and boost phones.

 

[LDB]

I have T-Mobile and Sprint. Sprint has more coverage area but still has dead zones. Luckily the dead zones are usually in different places although on back roads both may go dead. I also have a Sprint aircard and get pretty good service with it.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA Life Member 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5508, 5509, 5641
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
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Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Jack_Berry]

can i side track this a little since it concerns dropped calls? are any of you using seperate antennas on the outside of the truck or are you relying on the phone antenna?




Jack Berry

 

[flatbedin]

Don't spend your money on one of those antennas, just find me on the road somewhere and I'll give you two of them. I bought the smaller one first, it didn't work, so I bought the big fancy model. Well it didn't work either.

I have spoke with a few guys that have bought the Wilson amplifier and they say it works really well. I haven't used one, so I can't comment from personal experience. I do know that they are kind of salty to buy. I saw them on sale last week in TA in Jersy. I think it was still almost 300.

 

[Looney2]

I tried just the external antenna and had no luck with that as well. I know the Wilson cell amplifier is kinda expensive. I own my own plumbing company in a rural part of northeastern Michigan. Before I moved up here though I lived in metro Detroit MI. Had no problems with cell service thru Nextel down there. I couldnt change services because of all the advertising I had invested in when I moved up north, so I had to stick with Nextel. I baught the amplifier because dropping a call on a customer was unprofessional. Since I have had the amplifier I havent dropped a call yet. It works great. You have to have an external/magnet antenna that plugs into the amp. The amp comes with an extra antenna in addition to the one that goes on the outside of you vehicle, that gets mounted around the headrest area of your seat. From there everything else is wireless. By that I mean you just use your regular antenna on your cell phone. Also anyone that has the same cell service that you do within ten feet of the vehicle will have the same great service that you do. They also make a wireless system for in your house if you live in a bad service zone and rely on your cell for your primary phone. Never priced the home systems though. To find info on the amplifiers goto Wilson cellular homepage. You wont be dissapointed.

 

[bubbajeffh]

Alltel has a great plan for Nationwide coverage and pretty good free phones or low priced ones. You get some areas that are analog, but they have a good selection of towers even if they go off another providers tower for digital roam service. I very rarely have no coverage and I don't recall the last time I got charged for analog roam service. You get free mobile to mobile, free my circle calls (up to 10 numbers you can call for free anytime), free nights and weekends after 7pm, and the plans per month are pretty reasonable. I don't know about other services other than my parents had horrible coverage with Sprint and Verizon when they visited Michigan.

 

[nightcreacher]

>Well here is my two cents My first boss had Sprint and
>NexTELL
>He seemed to like em both except, in the mountains he had no
>service.]
>
>Steve as he said likes ALLETEL well I beg to differ The plan
>I had cost me an arm an a leg ( Now dont argue with me I
>have my phone and a phone to keep in touch with my wife.)
>
>Now I got Verizon and Two Phones and 1400 minits nation wide
>plan with unlimited nights and weekends after 7pm till 7am
>for 79 bucks
>to me that is still high. But for Two Phone with the option
>to put a Third on for 6 bucks more for my daughter not bad.
>maybe. But then if I was in the stinking desert I haggle
>with the Hey Joes, (Turbin heads) and get the price down.
>(If ya dont know what a Hey Joe is then ask some one that
>was in the Military and they will tell ya.
>
>The Service "Can ya here me now" well NO I can't here ya at
>all in Certain Place like parts of PA WYoming , Nevada,
>Oregon AZ well I think you get the Pic and Tenn IT goes RED
>PHONE No service in them Places.
>
>But its what I got, Thats my Two cents.
>
>NOW for the Person that has 3 different companies on here
>
>GOT MILK I QUICK
>
>Now go say that to your BOSS
>
>
>Have a Safe One
>and God Bless
>Kevin

kevin
if alltel cost you an arm and leg,you had the wrong plan,I have no roaming charges,long distance,and my billis never over 102 bucks,and thats with the taxes and surcharges,and as stated earlier,i have a vision plan that cost an extra 20 /month,so you could be talking for 80/month and useing 4000 mins like me

 

[Crazynuff]

>I have cingular or is it AT&T? What ever it is, I have
>dropped calls a lot but I also have the da*n phone forward
>my calls to my VM box which is not set up. I have worked
>with Cingular to fix this problem and they have concluded on
>4 seperate occasions that I; need a new phone, need a new
>phone number, need to use digital exclusivly or should get
>one of those pda phones. The problem is with the phone
>account that is tied to that number (source for this is the
>level 3 techs).
>
>But here is the problem I now have - I have the family plan
>with three accounts on the same plan. My father's phone was
>an older digital phone and they claimed it needed to be
>upgraded so he goes to the cingular dealer and gets this
>fancy new phone for $50 and another 2 year extension on the
>contract. So now I am stuck for another two years with them.
If you want out this site will find somebody to take over your contract http://celltradeusa.com/

 

[mstaz]

I have T-Mobile and dont have any problems. It has free roaming. It even works in those dead areas where there is no services

 

[jbrbears]

I have verizon, and call to alaska to a verizon phone on a regular basis, and have NEVER dropped a call. On the other hand, sprint was by far my worst experience with customer service and service of the providers I've had. I live in Kansas city, which HQ's one of sprints largest campuses in the country, and I dropped calls DAILY from Overland Park into Kansas city. Voicestream, (which is now t-mobile) was only slightly better, but that was 6 years ago. My wife and I wouldn't change service now, we have honestly dropped so few calls in the 3 years we've been with verizon, until we can't think of the last time it's happened.

 

[tom tinker]

We talked of cell phones a while back on here good topic. I worked for Kenworth, had "Nextel" stunk, son has one bad, son-in-law has one worth less, worked construction company had them for two-way terrible. Nephew in Ca. & Tx. have them, useless at times.
We have Verizon, family plan with our daughter over yrs. no drop calls, even service in U.P. of Mi.:7 can you hear me now????

 

[nightcreacher]

>Don't spend your money on one of those antennas, just find
>me on the road somewhere and I'll give you two of them. I
>bought the smaller one first, it didn't work, so I bought
>the big fancy model. Well it didn't work either.
>
>I have spoke with a few guys that have bought the Wilson
>amplifier and they say it works really well. I haven't
>used one, so I can't comment from personal experience. I
>do know that they are kind of salty to buy. I saw them on
>sale last week in TA in Jersy. I think it was still almost
>300.
300 buck one doesnt work either,if there is no tower there is no signal,even with the so called 3 watt boost.was curious,tried it out,as long as I had any signal,didnt need the wilson booster,and when had no signal,still had no signal.

 

[iheartfaye]

I have had T-Mobile for the past year and it is definitely the best cell provider I have ever had. Most recently I had Verizon, and I could not make a call without constant drops. The coverage area with T-Mobile is awesome and I have never met friendlier and more courteous c/s reps when I have had a question or needed to replace a phone.

Brian
Panther 11322