We had been told that a new Cingular GSM cell tower was being installed at Quinnipiac University. Judging from some topographic maps I downloaded online, there was a significant chance we'd be blocked by Sleeping Giant.
After speaking to the guys at Cingular (it's actually American Cellular d/b/a as Cingular, but that's another story) I felt better. A few of them had driven up to my neighborhood, phone in hand, and saw loads of signal. Cingular has a sweet looking, really small, LG-G4010 GSM phone available. Life was good.
Wednesday, I went to the Cingular store and took a phone for a 15 day trial in anticipation of signing up for new service. It worked fine going to work - even in places I had previously had trouble. It worked fine coming home.
And then, I got to the hill leading to our house.
As soon as I started to climb the hill, cell service ceased. I was in the middle of a call, and it ended abruptly.
At the house, no service, until.... voilą. All of a sudden I had 4 bars! But, when I tried to make a call, I was shown the words "Emergency Only." Notice in the photo of the phone the words "CINGULAR" or "CINGULAR EXTEND" are not showing on the LCD screen, meaning this is not a site the phone can roam to.
Here's what I think is happening:
1) I can't hear the Quinnipiac site from here
2) I can hear a T-Mobile site about a half mile away
3) The T-Mobile site isn't on Cingular's PRL (preferred roaming list) because Cingular assumes they are providing coverage here. So, the phone rejects the site.
Even if Cingular would change their PRL just for me (and they won't), I still get little tiny bits of Cingular signal from time-to-time, and that would prevent me from having a dependable signal.
So, you may be asking, why not go with T-Mobile? It is my understanding that their coverage (other than at my house) isn't too good. More importantly, their plans are expensive and don't have free nights and weekends on their family plans.
Sprint may be the answer.
My family and I tried out T-Mobile as our first choice, but living out in Bethany we got nothing. The service was quite spotty in and around Waterbury as well, it wasn't until we were actually at the Brass Mill mall that the phone worked. The service did work in Hamden, but once you're out of the main town, it's a no show. Granted, that was all a little more than a year ago, and coverage does indeed change.
Sprint has some neat plans, and features (such as PCS Vision), but I've heard so much negative feedback about them that I know that personally I wouldn't consider them. I still think that Verizon is the best bet.
Hey, clicked your site on a Slashdot submission and started reading your site. :)
Sprint, is in fact, the devil.
However, from my experience, all cellular service is terrible.
Sprint's customer service is absolutely horrible.
With that out of the way, I have Sprint, and have for 4 years.
They're coming out with PTT (push-to-talk, think Nextel) phones this week. Wait for those to come out, then drop in price. Then buy. Good luck.