Looking for a Good Cell Phone Provider in Western Illinois (Chicago: apartment, insurance)

[bushnell777]

I live in Macomb, but I'm going to be driving relatively frequently to Peoria and travelling through rural areas (Canton, Bushnell, etc...). My current prepaid cell phone provider is Virgin Mobile and I find that they have no signal strength along most of the rural roads. Due to my budget, I'm really looking for a prepaid plan (to avoid a contract).

Can anyone recommend a good prepaid carier which has good cell phone coverage in rural areas of western illinois? Thanks!

[moiltx]

I just moved to Houston (still moving, actually, staying in a hotel until I find an apartment or townhouse) from Quincy. I have had US Cellular for about a decade in Springfield and Quincy. I've used it to travel to Peoria, Danville, Alton, Chicago, St. Louis, Quad Cities, Champaign, Kansas City, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, Paducah, Rolla MO, Junction City KS, Oklahoma City, and more on the ground including little two-lane blacktops with no shoulders. There are very few places I don't have a signal. I'm talking like a mile between Michael and Hardin on Illinois 100 when the whole county of Calhoun has only about 5200 people.

Their plans aren't always as attractive as the big national GSM carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T. They don't get the newest phones like Sprint and Verizon. My US Cellular phones get signal in all kinds of places my wife's AT&T phones never do. OTOH, she has higher speeds for data in lots of places now that AT&T just did their recent big roll out of new towers and equipment.

Verizon is very good for coverage in west central IL, too, in areas they'll actually sell you a plan. There are large areas where they have good coverage but don't own the towers themselves and therefore won't sell plans. Those towers are typically US Cellular towers as I understand it, since they use the same voice phone technology and all.

Sprint (which is who Boost, Virgin, and some of the other "bargain" brands actually use for network) is great in urban areas an along interstates. They are spreading out to more rural areas, but they don't have the coverage that Verizon or AT&T have. In the particular area you're asking about, they don't have the coverage US Cellular has either.

T-Mobile in that part of the country is like an anemic version of Sprint. They have great connections and good speeds where you can get connected to a tower reliably. You're not going to get good signal in very many places around Macomb, though. Probably anything more than a few miles from 336 and you might as well take a signal mirror and waterproof matches with you.

A dark horse is Simmetry, based out of Golden, IL. You can get a national plan from them, but I'd recommend Verizon or US Cellular or maybe Sprint before them for that. However, if you can stay in their own coverage area the vast majority of the time, they have unlimited plans really cheap. $45 for voice, data, SMS text, and MMS pictures. Those plans kill you for off-network, though. If you travel at all outside their local service areal and want to use more than a few minutes a month while doing so, one of the bigger players with a stronger national plan is a better idea.

The tl;dr version is: compare Verizon, US Cellular, AT&T, and maybe Sprint. T-Mobile and most of the companies that don't own their own towers aren't worth your time or money in that area. Sprint might be, but you're already using Sprint's network with your Virgin phone in the US. I'd get the coverage maps from their web sites and compare.

[linicx]

You are right. US Cellular and T-Mobile lack in these rural areas. What I can tell you is I lam familiar with the area and routes in Peoria, Fulton, Tazewell, Schyler, Menard and Mason Countes.

The most important thing I could tell you today is that the river is flooding and you should probably rethink your route. US 24W to US136 E to IL 29 N will keep you high and dry and there will not be any surprises - except a few more miles.

As to the phones:

I've made many trips from Peoria to California on just about every route possible. I've had Sprint, T-Moblie, AT&T carriers. Motorola, Sanyo. Samsung and LG Phones. I've learned 3 things: Roaming must be enabled. There are dead areas. Some phones do work better than others in your area; most of the free phones do poorly. The phones that work best for me is Samsung. I have a friend who lives in Macomb and has the iPhone on AT&T. His parents live outside of Havana. He says he has no trouble with dropped calls. Verizon and Sprint blanket your area heavily. AT&T tends to blanket Springfield and Peoria but not so much in rural areas. You should have no trouble with Verizon or Sprint with a good phone, but you wlll find some dead sponts. I have a cousin near Cuba. I find more dead spots in Fulton County than I do in the others.

I should add I had T-Moblie and AT&T prepaid and they were both abysmal because they are confiugured for regional coverage areas with no or very limited roaming. So although I might be able to use it in Lewistown or Havana, Neither would work in Astoria or Peoria. You may do better looking at Radio Shack or Verizon in Peoria as Peoria has the largest regional coverage area. Springfield would be a second choice. I think you are going to run into the same problem moving in between multiple regional coverage areas. You may have the same problem with the Walmart coverage area, too. Verizon would probably be ther best bet in your travel zone. . .

[glaud]

What carrier is the best for Macomb,IL? Western Illinois University.

My daughter gets no service on T-Mobile.

[linicx]

The probable your daughter is running to is one of two things. Either the phone is poor quality or its a Verizon area / Sprint area. T-Mobile, US Cellular, Virgin Mobile, and AT&T are all GMS phones. It would probably look at Walmart for a TracFone. They work good nationally if it is better quality phone. I live in a valley surrounded by trees and businesses. I stopped having trouble when I learned to pay more than $100.00 per phone. It is the best investment you can buy if a phone is critical. T-Mo didn't work in Astoria because it is US Cellular country, and neither did AT&T. Verizon doesn't work in Bath or between Rushville and the US 136 junction east of Lewistown.

I also get much better information from Sprint about their phones than I ever did from the other carriers.

Sprint has no contract phones even the Apple iPhone 4 - which does work at WIU according to a friend who is an instructor. The problem with Apple is the extra $30 per month for internet and app store services. Which amounted to $55 extra month over the basic mothly charge for text/talk.

IL state tax on smartphone like the IPhone is 23% per month plus Monmouth will get another $7-9 per month because she lives there.

The Apple iPhone was the easiest to use phone I ever owned. Do not get one with the Apple Care contract and Insurance. They are magnets for thieves. I bought the body glove and cover for the screen to keep it from getting scratched.