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All Cell Phone Networks As Useless As T-mobile?


bountyhunter

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A couple of years ago, my wife bought a cheap plan from T-Mobile that had unlimited free calling on weekends which is what we needed to call relatives.

PROBLEM: can't get calls through on weekends.

So she goes out yesterday and gets a fancier phone and upgraded service..... and she buys it from T-Mobile again. With the new phone, from about 2PM to 7PM Sunday, the network was almost constantly "NO SERVICE".

I have no idea why she went back to their useless service, or why she refused to go back to the place she got the phone from and tell them it was a worthless plan after we got no improvement..... The plan: all the calls you want on weekends, just don't bother to try to use it on weekends.

She says all the services are that bad, I doubt it.

Any opinions?

BTW, we are right in silcon valley, so it's not like we are trying to use a cell phone in the middle of the wilderness.

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A couple of years ago, my wife bought a cheap plan from T-Mobile that had unlimited free calling on weekends which is what we needed to call relatives.

PROBLEM: can't get calls through on weekends.

So she goes out yesterday and gets a fancier phone and upgraded service..... and she buys it from T-Mobile again. With the new phone, from about 2PM to 7PM Sunday, the network was almost constantly "NO SERVICE".

I have no idea why she went back to their useless service, or why she refused to go back to the place she got the phone from and tell them it was a worthless plan after we got no improvement..... The plan: all the calls you want on weekends, just don't bother to try to use it on weekends.

She says all the services are that bad, I doubt it.

Any opinions?

BTW, we are right in silcon valley, so it's not like we are trying to use a cell phone in the middle of the wilderness.

Does the phone read 'No Service' or are your calls getting blocked - getting fast busy sound?

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I went with T mobile and it has been great for me. In NW Indiana they get better coverage that pretty much anyone else. Sorry to hear about your experience. If they show you as not getting service in your area, according to their little map (of questionable accuracy) they will probably refund your money.

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I've got cingular in the SF bay area. Availability is pretty good on the weekends but the coverage is pretty spotty. I am Constantly losing the network while moving around in the car. All of the carriers have gone way down since the change to digital years ago. Wish I still had my old analog cellphone.

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I initially got GTE way back when but it switched to Verizon some years ago. I did like my analog Star Tac 2, half dig, half analog, but I get pretty good service so long as I'm on a major arterial route and not way up in the mountains or in a valley somewhere. If I head up to Bend, OR, my service is spotty at best and usually roaming.

Vince

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I've got a Motorola phone on the Tracfone service (pre-paid) plan. I get signal and connections in places guys with "better" service don't. I've connected in the middle of Illinois in an NG base where nobody gets a signal. I've gotten a signal in the middle of Wyoming when there's nothing to be seen for miles.

I love my "pre-paid drug dealers cell phone." :D

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I had a Cellular1 $25 a month prepaid credit card plan. When alltel took over the plan cost $25.75. The stated reason was taxes Cellular1 included as part of the $25 that alltel decided I should pay. Then without notice alltel dropped that plan for a $30 a month plan leaving me without service the only time I really needed it.

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A couple of years ago, my wife bought a cheap plan from T-Mobile that had unlimited free calling on weekends which is what we needed to call relatives.

PROBLEM: can't get calls through on weekends.

So she goes out yesterday and gets a fancier phone and upgraded service..... and she buys it from T-Mobile again. With the new phone, from about 2PM to 7PM Sunday, the network was almost constantly "NO SERVICE".

I have no idea why she went back to their useless service, or why she refused to go back to the place she got the phone from and tell them it was a worthless plan after we got no improvement..... The plan: all the calls you want on weekends, just don't bother to try to use it on weekends.

She says all the services are that bad, I doubt it.

Any opinions?

BTW, we are right in silcon valley, so it's not like we are trying to use a cell phone in the middle of the wilderness.

Does the phone read 'No Service' or are your calls getting blocked - getting fast busy sound?

It says no service, and there is also an icon which shows the phone with a red line through it which means it is not getting connected to the network.

I've got cingular in the SF bay area. Availability is pretty good on the weekends but the coverage is pretty spotty. I am Constantly losing the network while moving around in the car.

That I can understand. But, sitting in my living room in the middle of silicon valley and constantly getting no service is ridiculous.

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It's called over selling the network capacity. AT&T (before the baby South West Bell buy out - how weird is that anyway?) had a class action suit against them because they were continuing to sell service without the capacity to service them. Since you're in Silicon Valley, it's probably the same issue. Too many users, not enough bandwidth as it were.

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Cingular which is now owned by BellSouth in the Southeast. It Sucks, won't switch between towers when driving. Routinely disconnects calls. Tells you person is unavailable at prime time like 5pm. Phones won't ring and go to voice mail. They will give you tons of excuses. Like your smart card, GSM blah blah. PRoblem is that Cingular bought ATT wireless and Cingular was bought BellSouth and SBC ,which is now calling itself ATT then they split up the territory. SBC did a survey to find out which name had a better reputation, ATT wone so that's what they call themselves now.

So Bellsouth ended up with too many towers from the mergers so they are trying to rework to provide data and cut the number of towers they are renting. During all this the system gets screwed. Complain and they will give you credits. I've gotten about 3 months for free so far.

None of the cell systems have backup generators so three days after the power failed during the hurricanes both the land lines and cells went down. So keep you CB or Ham radios and keep you gas tanks full because it will be you only means of communications. Even cable company went down. Satellite TV still worked.

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I've always/only used Cingular since it was pacbell in the bay area. The best advice I ever received was to go TO THE CINGULAR store - not a "dealer" or other "add on" place, but directly to cingular and find out directly from them which phone/network/service they recommend. This has been an extremely successful way for us to transition our service each and every time we've moved.

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I use a Virgin pre-paid phone. It sits (switched off) in my car. It is for 911 or if I get paged when I'm away from home.

I don't even know the phone number of my cell phone so no-one can call me on it.

It is my emergency phone, for everything else there is a land-line and voicemail.

I used AT&T in the past and that was useless. No signal strength unless I was hanging from a cell-phone tower :(

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We have used Alltel for years with great success. I got a call yesterday on a mountain road between Raton and Taos, NM at about 8000 ft. talk about good coverage.

And in the Phoenix area, I routinely am able to receive and make calls in areas where Sprint and Cingular (ATT) drop out. Verizon is a close second in the area for good coverage. ATT is probably the worst.

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I've got a Motorola phone on the Tracfone service (pre-paid) plan. I get signal and connections in places guys with "better" service don't. I've connected in the middle of Illinois in an NG base where nobody gets a signal. I've gotten a signal in the middle of Wyoming when there's nothing to be seen for miles.

I love my "pre-paid drug dealers cell phone." :D

Pat++, I do the same. For my usage patterns it is cheaper, and I get signal almost everywhere including ranges in the middle of nowhere and the inside of my office building, which is possesed by the cellphone radiation eating zombies which make all phones useless, but for some reason they don't like Tracfone juju.

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