[Rhodes22-list] Cell Phone Issues

[Wally Buck]

Bill is right about sharing towers however sometimes you may have to pay 
extra. And toher times they do not share at all. I used to go to Kansas City 
quite a bit. KC is Sprint headquartes. I was on ATT at the time. Coverage 
was fine everywhere in KC proper, but once outside the city I would be 
roaming and then quickly have no service. The locals I was working with all 
had Sprint, and they had coverage everwhere. We drove 2 hours to Jefferson 
City and they had great signal when I had zip. We passed tower after tower, 
Sprint had the home turf covered.

Sometimes when companies share it is considered part of your National plan, 
other times when they share you pay roaming charges. If you don't travel it 
is easy to get a good plan.

Wally


>From: "Bill Effros" <bill@effros.com>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Cell Phone Issues
>Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 23:44:45 -0500
>
>Brad,
>
>Try different company phones in your home to see which works best.  (You 
>can
>borrow them if you ask.)  Some companies are located in more towers, some 
>in
>fewer, but the only real question is whether the company you use is located
>in towers near where you most often use the phone.  (What difference does 
>it
>make to you if they have a lot of towers in Butte, Montana if you will 
>never
>be there?)  Most towers are shared by multiple companies.  If there is no
>tower near a location you want to use, nothing will work.
>
>Some phones have better reception than others.  Test this, too.  The newer
>ones seem to be better than the older ones.
>
>On Long Island Sound there are overlapping towers all over the place, and
>reception should be excellent everywhere.  But it isn't.  Sometimes the
>magic works, and sometimes it don't.
>
>Bill Effros
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "brad haslett" <flybrad@yahoo.com>
>To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
>Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 7:14 PM
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Cell Phone Issues
>
>
>We're in the process of shopping for a new cell phone
>server.  Sprint PCS has turned out to be an expensive
>"beeper" service.  We live 1.3 miles from the nearest
>Sprint antenna but the phones don't work from our
>home.  I can't call home from downtown Philly,
>Portland, LAX area, the list goes on and on.  My
>friends call me and hang up knowing that I'll find a
>payphone and use the caller ID to figure who to call
>back.  Enough!  We get a company discount on Verizon
>and AT&T.  What's your experience with these services?
>
>Second question:  Has anyone hooked up their cell
>phones to the boats VHF mast antenna?  The marine
>catalogs list cell phone antennas that look simular to
>a standard VHF one.  Every service I've looked at show
>a blank area in the Pickwick Lake area.  The "no
>service" band is narrow and follows the TN river so
>I'm wondering if an elevated antenna might help.  I'd
>like to just leave the phone behind but that won't
>always be possible.
>
>PS:  MJM, I promise not to talk on the phone during
>thunderstorms.
>
>Brad Haslett
>"CoraShen"
>
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