Cell service with best coverage in Eastern US?

[Slickone]

My father's a pilot (not airline) and is looking for a cell phone with the most coverage in the eastern half of the US, from the southern tip to the northern tip. He sometimes has to fly to some airports in rural areas.

Would this be Verizon or Sprint? Someone said Verizon. A salesperson said Sprint put up towers everywhere Verizon did, but Spint is $5 more I think. He is in Nashville, TN.

 

[KokomoGST]

Sprint hasn't put up towers everywhere where VZW has... they do have some network sharing agreements but it's not a total share. VZW will get you better coverage 90% of the time than Sprint... at least in the NYC metro area.

 

[Isshinryu]

I get wonderful service with Verizon in Knoxville, TN. I spend part of my summers in Nashville visiting family, and have always recieved near full service.

 

[fredtam]

Cingular seems to have the best coverage map. I haven't hit a dead spot yet. I had Sprint and when I would get a few miles off the Interstate...dead.

Edit: using a multinetwork phone.

 

[dartworth]

Verizon will give you the best coverage. I've used it up and down the East Coast...

 

[Slickone]

Hmm. Thanks. How are the Motorola C343 and Nokia 3589i phones they offer?

 

[conjur]

Cingular....just don't get a Motorola phone...they suck compared to Nokias on reception.

 

[rickn]

I have tmobile, my darn house is a dead spot, annoys the hell out of me, but prior to that I had sprint. gawd aweful service and company

 

[sMiLeYz]

Avoid cingular at ALL COSTS!

Living in the middle atlantic and having cingular for almost 3 years I can safely say I hate them. Im just stuck in a contract right now, they have absolutely horrid customer service... and my reception absolutely sucks. I'm even using Nokia phone!

 

[conjur]

I've had great customer service with Cingular. I've been with them for 4 years (was BellSouth Mobility before.) I've had several situations where I've had to contact customer service over questions on my bill and had it taken care of it in my favor.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: conjur
Cingular....just don't get a Motorola phone...they suck compared to Nokias on reception.

I agree. Motorola phones blow. Their batteries suck and their power connectors blow. Cingular service is pretty good, don't know about the GSM service they offer. But their TDMA, CDMA, or what ever they use seem to have great coverage.

KK

 

[darkshadow1]

the thing is, the northeast and southeast markets are very different. verizon and tmobile/cingular (used to be voicestream) are great in the northeast, but now with Cingular rolling out their own network and the termination of the NYC area agreement may result in big changes in reception. I personally have tmobile and have had great reception in the NE and also florida...dunno about anything in between

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: Isshinryu
I get wonderful service with Verizon in Knoxville, TN. I spend part of my summers in Nashville visiting family, and have always recieved near full service.

Same here. Also, I have great reception in Kentucky, North/South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida with my VZW. I haven't been further north since I got the phone, but I'm sure it will work great anywhere.

 

[Judgement]

My Cingular reception is awesome. My room mates with Verizon can't get any signal in our basement, but I have 3-5 bars

 

[Slickone]

Originally posted by: darkshadow1
the thing is, the northeast and southeast markets are very different. verizon and tmobile/cingular (used to be voicestream) are great in the northeast, but now with Cingular rolling out their own network and the termination of the NYC area agreement may result in big changes in reception. I personally have tmobile and have had great reception in the NE and also florida...dunno about anything in between

'tmobile/cingular'? Here it was powertel->voicestream->tmobile, and bellsouth mobility->cingular.

I personally have t-mobile, but it seems to only mainly be for city and interstate coverage. As I said I'm looking for one that will have coverage in rural areas.

What about the cheaper $10, $40 (LG) and $50 (samsung) flip phones?

 

[Slickone]

^

 

[Slickone]

^

 

[rh71]

Hell no not Sprint. They couldn't even get the coverage right in NY/NYC where it's the most populated. Verizon is definitely better than Sprint if it's between those 2.

 

[chrisms]

Phone calls are important so I recommend tmobile

 

[conjur]

http://www.howardforums.com
http://www.wirelessadvisor.com

 

[nageov3t]

Verizon, by far. Plus, free in-network calling rocks. I can't remember the last time I even came close to using all my minutes, since everyone I know has Verizon.

Coverage-wise, Sprint might be about equal, but their plans and customer service suck pretty badly.

T-Mobile is just a joke. Maybe they're great out West, but I laugh every time I see someone on the East Coast recomending them.

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: rickn
I have tmobile, my darn house is a dead spot, annoys the hell out of me, but prior to that I had sprint. gawd aweful service and company

I had the same exact problem but with Verizon. My apartment was in a dead spot and no matter how much I complained to Verizon CS they insisted it wasn't a problem with their network coverage. I ended up with TMobile and all is well.. Go figure! Sprint CS was by far the worst I have ever experienced too.

techfuzz

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: loki8481
Verizon, by far. Plus, free in-network calling rocks. I can't remember the last time I even came close to using all my minutes, since everyone I know has Verizon.

Coverage-wise, Sprint might be about equal, but their plans and customer service suck pretty badly.

T-Mobile is just a joke. Maybe they're great out West, but I laugh every time I see someone on the East Coast recomending them.

Cingular has had unlimited in-network calling for years. I think all of them do at this point.

 

[NFS4]

I get service with Alltel all over the east coast

 

[glen]

I think Verizon