Thoughts on Germantown? (Milwaukee, Mequon, Hartford: apartment, renting, low crime) - Wisconsin (WI) - City-Data Forum

andrea3821 · 08-09-2010, 07:47 AM

We're considering renting in Germantown. When I visited, I thought the village was cute and quaint and seems safe. But I'm concerned about cell reception out there. On the drive out (Mequon Rd), I dropped signal a couple times and my GPS (on my phone) quit working a couple times aside from that. I think it was okay when I actually got to the village, though, but I don't remember since I was too busy being confused by the addresses. LOL

For Internet, does Time-Warner service that area? I can't live without my high-speed Internet.

What all does the village have to offer? I don't mind driving to Milwaukee at all, just wondering what's actually in Germantown as far as places to eat, groceries, that kind of thing.

Does anyone know if they're good about keeping up the roads in the winter?

Any other pros and cons I should know about?

Thanks!

andrea3821 · 08-15-2010, 12:45 PM

Nobody has an opinion on Germantown??

Milwaukee City · 08-15-2010, 12:55 PM

It's a nice quiet, clean, spacious suburb. If you have bad cell service try Verizon or US Cell. It's your typical suburb with subdivisions but also more rural parts as well. Time warner is out there with I believe Charter as well. Wisconsin does really well with our roads in the winter but snow is snow and not much you can do when you are hit with 10+ inches.

McDonalds, pick and save and just you typical stores are in germantown. Some small shops but you have Mequon and M-Falls close by where you can find more stores and shopping opportunities.

43north87west · 08-15-2010, 01:39 PM

Milwaukee City summed it up, it's a nice suburb, clean, low crime, etc.

The sparsely populated hilly areas between Mequon and Germantown aren't the best for mobile reception. The same goes for areas west of 41/45. While mobile carriers show some areas as having "moderate" reception, "moderate" is a euphamism for "no service". The GPS is dependent on network reception to download maps on the fly, which is probably why the navigation quit working. Also, data coverage can vary from voice coverage in terms of speed, so the map downloads may not work too well in certain areas, while voice coverage does.

The western Ozaukee County area, as well as much of Washington County, has topography that can be a little challenging for mobile phone service. Some of the valleys don't have much--if any--coverage. This is particularly noticeable around 167, Q, K, and in some of the areas west of 41/45 near Holy Hill and Hartford (south of 60). I always have problems in those areas. Most of the valleys indicate "moderate" coverage. I use T-Mobile service.

Milwaukee City · 08-15-2010, 02:07 PM

I have T-crapo as well and I don't receive very good service anywhere typically outside of Milwaukee. It seems once I go outside Mfalls, Gtown, towards Erin my service is spotty at best. Hence why I am moving to Verizon. I have friends that live out in the country and they have US Cell and tell me they never have problems out there so that is why I rec. Us Cell.

43north87west · 08-15-2010, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

I have T-crapo as well and I don't receive very good service anywhere typically outside of Milwaukee. It seems once I go outside Mfalls, Gtown, towards Erin my service is spotty at best. Hence why I am moving to Verizon. I have friends that live out in the country and they have US Cell and tell me they never have problems out there so that is why I rec. Us Cell.

I have to agree that the service is spotty out in the more rural areas. I have a lot of zero service areas out here in Arizona also, but i think that affects all carriers.

I included some links to some major carrier neighborhood coverage tools below. I think it's relevant to the OP's question about coverage.

Sprint - Nationwide Coverage

Coverage Locator - Verizon Wireless

T-Mobile Personal Coverage Check

U.S. Cellular Coverage Indicator | Cell Phone Coverage | U.S. Cellular

AT&T Coverage Viewer

The reason I use T-Mo is that they are the only carrier to offer UMA (wi-fi) calling, plus allow tethered modem service (other carriers might be jumping on this because of all of the web enabled phones using bandwidth anyway). The UMA enabled phones are primarily BlackBerry models, and one Nokia.

Since I have no service in my all-concrete Phoenix apartment, "just OK" service at my Milwaukee house between Lake and Riverside parks, and no service indoors at my office at Chicago Executive Airport, I need wi-fi calling feature to receive mobile calls. These seem to be the only places I get a weak signal--everywhere else is pretty good.

andrea3821 · 08-15-2010, 06:15 PM

Hmm, thanks for the info! I have Sprint and I might have a problem with service inside a building, according to the link 43 provided. I don't like having a home phone so I might have to rethink the apartment in Germantown. However, it looks like M-Falls might be okay. I never thought to look at that on the Sprint site, so thanks for that.

There's a lot up in the air still so our situation still could change before we move (and thus change the kind of residence we're looking for) but I will keep that site in mind for reference.