cell phone service

[Michael Kosowsky]

There was a great discussion here about a year ago about cell phone
service. I'm trying to make some decisions and would love to hear if
anyone knows about ATT's local intentions. I live in Lincolnville
where I have real marginal GSM coverage; is ATT planning any build-
out? And any hope for ATT 3G in the area? Anyone have any luck with
T-Mobile 3g? Is Verizon the only high-speed cell choice around here
for the foreseeable future?

MK

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[Kevin Callahan]

Verizon owns all the gsm hardware and bandwidth for Knox county.
Verizon has also recently announces that they'll be switching from
CDMA to gsm. Sooo long term not looking very good for AT&T in Knox.
That said there are persistant rumors that the 4th gen iPhone will be
available through verizon on CDMA.

As far as 3g data service here. That seems pretty farfetched as well.
Not sure what verizon offers for bandwidth.

I also know that some people in Camden had their AT&T contracts
canceled for being off network. In Appleton my phone says it's on AT&T
even though I'm not officially on heir coverge map :/

hope that helps!!

-k

[John Smith]

I've been using US Cellular and couldn't be happier. I even have 3G
data service here, and have great service pretty much anywhere I go.
They use CDMA tech and I believe Verizon rents some of US Cell's towers
to cover the area. I've heard Verizon's coverage isn't quite as good as
USC's, due to priority being given to Verizon's towers, which might be
farther away.

As for AT&T (& T-Mobile) all I hear is complaints about their service.
They have spotty coverage and poor reception most of the time. Not sure
if they offer 3G here either. (Actually not sure if Verizon offers 3G,
even though USC does).

I'd recommend not going with AT&T if you have a choice. If you want the
iPhone, then yeah, wait for Verizon. Supposedly they're releasing one
"this spring" but who really knows -- spring is close to being over. :-(

[John Smith]

Oh, and Kev, where did you hear Verizon is swapping to GSM? I can't
imagine they'd throw away 10 years of CDMA tech/towers to swap. I know
they're going to built out LTE for 4G, but that's just Data AFAIK.

Educate me!

On 5/20/2010 8:03 AM, Kevin Callahan wrote:

[Gus - CedarWorks]

I have tried AT&T, Verizon and US Cellular and US Cellular does have the
best coverage in the area. The only issues that I had at my place in
Union with Verizon was Verizon Tower priority. There is a fairly new US
Cellular tower in Union but when I would get just a bit of signal for
the Rockland Verizon tower, my call would drop which was extremely
frustrating. As far as the AT&T service, it sucks. I got very little or
no reception on the commute between Rockport and Union, although the
coverage at both locations was great. I found that there were many
scattered no service areas where I would still get signal on my US
Cellular phone. When I signed up with AT&T I did ask about cancelled
contracts in our area and they did say that they would only cancel
contracts for non-business accounts.

Gus

[Kevin Callahan]

My brother told me about Verizon going to GSM; a quick google picked up this:

http://gizmodo.com/327849/verizon-switches-to-gsms-side-for-ultra-highspeed-4g-technology

And as much as AT&T sucks here in rural Maine, you should see just how
bad it really sucks in LA and SF. Couldn't make calls worth shit even
with signal in either place much of the time :)

So yeah, iPhone's the only reason to be on AT&T IMO, and at this point
it's probably worth the wait for 4th gen to see what shakes out...

-k