[olecapt]

I too found Verizon the best around the city by a lot and I obviously care...I tried every one else two years ago and simply found verizon vastly better.

The only problem I had was that I have lousey verizon at home.

So I bought the Verizon femto tower...which solved the problem for phone calls at least in the home and from the way it behaves for a couple of neighbors.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by olecapt

The only problem I had was that I have lousey verizon at home.

So I bought the Verizon femto tower...which solved the problem for phone calls at least in the home and from the way it behaves for a couple of neighbors.

I, too, suffer from lousy VZ coverage in my house. I had never heard of femtocell but I've just spent a few minutes reading about it through Google and it sounds like it would solve at least one of my problems. (It apparently doesn't help with EVDO signals, so I'm still going to drop the 3G coverage for my aircard when my contract expires next month.) However, I may pick up the femto tower to help with the poor cell phone coverage. I'm just not sure it is worth $250 to do so.

[gayleengland]

Originally Posted by Grofica

What is the best cell phone carrier and why???? I am sort of phone shopping right now....

Right now i have T-Mobile prepaid because i dont need a phone all that often.... (I work overseas) but now that I want to come home and settle down I want a real phone plan.

Any suggestions????

I have had two other carriers before going to Verizon. Verizon is the best!! In FL after a hurricane, my phone was the only one in the neighborhood that got reception. Now I live in the GA mountains and Verizon is the best by far! Works great when traveling across country. I rarely have dropped calls when driving through the mountains. Highest elevations have no service for any carrier. I highly recommend Verizon! Good luck to you.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by MadManofBethesda

I, too, suffer from lousy VZ coverage in my house. I had never heard of femtocell but I've just spent a few minutes reading about it through Google and it sounds like it would solve at least one of my problems. (It apparently doesn't help with EVDO signals, so I'm still going to drop the 3G coverage for my aircard when my contract expires next month.) However, I may pick up the femto tower to help with the poor cell phone coverage. I'm just not sure it is worth $250 to do so.

Yeah - Pretty outrageous actually...they bill just the same even though you are providing your own tower and access to the switch center.

It is also not the world's swiftest device...takes a long time to set up driven apparently by a somewhat limited GPS.

Once up and working however it is quite effective in about 100 yards and seems to have few problems.

[WAT.]

Originally Posted by olecapt

I too found Verizon the best around the city by a lot and I obviously care...I tried every one else two years ago and simply found verizon vastly better.

The only problem I had was that I have lousey verizon at home.

So I bought the Verizon femto tower...which solved the problem for phone calls at least in the home and from the way it behaves for a couple of neighbors.

Verizon isn't the best in Las Vegas, hasn't been for some time now.. I've been in a few areas where Verizon is really poor and other carriers have no problems at all. They're lagging behind. Off of the top of my head, in Anthem Verizon is the worst carrier, even MetroPCS has a better signal out there - and they're probably second to last with CricKet for overall coverage here. None of the networks have been at a standstill since 2008, including Verizon but they have been lagging behind. AT&T has really bad network quality but good overall signal strength.

To OP, I'm sure you've made a decision by now but don't let the Verizon commercials fool you, their coverage isn't the best here. It's a neighborhood-to-neighborhood type thing.. If you have T-Mobile prepaid now you should test the network signal strength at home and check to see how viable the signal is, your phone does matter too because some of the prepaid phones have poor signal strength. T-Mobile is good overall but they still have work to do on the 3G side, more 3G towers are going up this year. Sprint is OK, just the company itself is what makes them so bad. MetroPCS/CricKet are both not worth the savings.

[dynimagelv]

I suppose you could get 245 differant carriers for the differant areas of town.....I have Verizon...I LOVE it....traveled ALL over the country....only place I have a problem is in my own bedroom....calls will go right thru to voice mail instead of ringing....

[XBuford]

I've lived in Europe so long that everything about cell phones is foreign to me. I have a crappy phone over here to get by but when I get back, I want to get into the "3 or 4G network" (whatever that is), have internet included and have good coverage. I'll work at Creech so I will need coverage out there.

I learned from this site that Cox had the best service for internet/phone/cable and I appreciate knowing this before my move! Thanks everyone!

[bigmountain]

I would recommend that you get a copy of consumer reports magazine or look at their website. They rate ATT at the bottom in coverage, dropped calls, and no service(only available to subscribers). Verizon is the best for coverage but they are also more expensive. T-mobile is the 2nd best and Sprint is just ahead of ATT for coverage. I have ATT myself only because of the I-phone, otherwise I would have chosen Verizon. There are tier 2 options like Cricket who I heard is going bankrupt, Metro PCS which is pretty sophisticated and well priced. Walmart sells a cell phone service that operates on the Verizon network and is much cheaper though I have heard their customer service can be skakey. Hope that helps.

[XBuford]

Helps big time! Doesn't other companies have the Iphone?

[Buzz123]

Mac seems to have an exclusive deal with AT&T for iPod, iPad, etc. I don't use mine very much so I have the AT&T pay as you go plan. Now all I do is add $25.00 worth of minutes every three months and it's more than I need. Luckily (or maybe not) they let you carry over if you renew on time. Or I can go $100 worth and have a year to use them.

When we went to Yerp, I bought a new phone that the salesman guaranteed would work over there. It didn't. My wife's did, but we had wanted to be able to reach each other in case we got separated. Of course finding a phone person there that spoke Inglese who we could explain the problem to was difficult.