Just Jenney

I'm going to come right out and admit that I am a total novice when it comes to cell phones and am quite intimidated by them. When it comes to cell phones, I go completely blank. If I can manage to turn one on and nothing else, then that's a good day for me.

Ok, so we have one cell phone, a pay-as-you-go Virgin Mobile. We've had it for about 5.5 years now and really only use it when we go on road trips, which is next to never. It's really just for emergencies. It costs us $60/year since we have to top up $15 every 3 months. Generally that's a good bargain, but we so rarely use it that we now have a (non-refundable!) balance of $130 on our account.

The problem is that our phone gets NO reception at our house -- we have to drive about 2 miles before any bars start popping up. The Virgin Mobile phones are on the Sprint Network, and when I look up our home address on the Sprint coverage map, it says the coverage is "Good" (falling between "Fair" and "Best." Same goes for my work address, where our phone also receives zero reception.

The one good thing about our current phone is that there's no contract to worry about, plus it HAS come in useful on a few occasions (including one genuine emergency during a road trip). But aside from that, it seems stupid to keep paying $60/year for a phone that can't be used where we spend 99% of our time, home and work. Also, we're interested in some of the other types of phones that provide a lot more, such as the iPhone, etc.

So what I'm wondering is: If we were to get another phone, how can we know in advance whether we'll actually get reception where we need it? I wouldn't want us to sign up for a contract, only to discover that we can't use the phone anyway.

Any advice or suggestions?

~ Jenney

Bluegrass Lass

With Verizon, who we're with, I do believe that they have a clause that allows you to cancel the contract within X number of days. At a minimum, I know you can return your phone or exchange it within 30 days. Verizon is the only company that gets service at my job (nobody else has a tower out here) so you may get pleasantly surprised by the coverage. They don't have the greatest phone selection either (though they did just come out with the Android phone which is supposed to be pretty good).

Bob

Some carriers will let you try for x number of days before signing the contract....failing that, invite friends and work mates over and see what their reception is like.

Going from pretty much no use to a iPhone would be a pretty big leap, especially in cost though...

hopeful_Mark

I have had similar problems in England, look up address and the scan tells me good reception, reality can be very different. The only thing i can think to make sure is to ask friends neighbours etc whether they get reception and what network they are on.

AmerLisa

iPhone, at the moment is only carried by AT&T....although I've read that may end in June 2010.

Noorah101

I have reception problems in my condo (my home). I have T-Mobile, and get perfect reception everywhere else...but my condo is full of these little pocket of "no signal". It's weird, one side of the room will have OK reception, the other side (about 8 feet away) drops the call. It's frustrating to say the least, since that's where I use my cell phone the most...at home.

Rene

penguinsix

Many of the carriers like T-Mobile have maps that show the exact location of your nearest tower and an estimate of how the service will be at your location. It's not always perfect though. For example while I am technically close to a tower I live on the water and in some parts of my house the phone likes to connect to a tower on the other side of the Bay (a few miles away) instead of the closer one a one mile inland but down in a valley. Really messes with the triangulation/faux-GPS stuff. Needless to say the one on the other side of the water isn't quite as strong. However, the best way to really know is to ask someone who lives in that building or near there so you can find out what service they use.

Michael

I use T-mobile pay as you go. About 3 1/2 years ago I purchased the phone and put $100 on the phone (after $100, the minutes carry over each year if you add as little as $10).

So as long as I keep adding $10 per year, the phone remains activated.

Although T-mobile supposedly does not have as good of coverage as Verizon, I've never had any problems with my limited usage.

I don't know if that plan is still available to new customers.

Noorah101

I agree....my T-Mobile cell phone works perfectly here in the building where I work, but someone else here has another carrier (not sure which one), and they cannot get a signal from our building at all.

Rene

MrEmjoy

Jitterbug.

Bob

Should do, O2 in the UK lost the exclusive rights, Orange and Vodafone get to roll it out too, so hopefully it'll happen here as well.

But for now, you can get an unlocked one and jailbreak it to work on other networks, not worth it unless you've got a massive data plan though or it gets well expensive.

Bill_S

It's possible you have a really crappy phone. If the signal is marginal at your home, a good phone might be ok while yours is not. The best place to look for answers is howardforums. You ought to be able to find out what carrier is best in your area. Generally speaking, Verizon Wireless has the best coverage, but is not the cheapest.

Just Jenney

Thanks everyone for your responses. It never occurred to me that our actual phone might be the problem. On the other hand, we often see other tenants of our apartment building talking on their cell phones outside on their decks, in the parking lot, etc, so I have a feeling that the location itself is just not great for reception. Same goes with my work location -- I work on a college campus and several of my coworkers have mediocre reception.

Funny to suggest Jitterbug. I see those commercials and think they're right up my alley -- I'm just about 40 years outside the targeted age group!

~ Jenney