Cell Phone Advice solicited

[alexxkay]

So, I am getting sick of having crappy cell phone service, and am looking to upgrade. The things I'm most concerned about are reception in specific places, and I can't really find that out from the providers. If you have a cell phone service that meets (or is known to *not* meet) any of the following criteria, please leave a comment below.

- Good reception inside buildings in Dorchester.
- Good reception inside buildings in Quincy.
- Good reception while underground on the MBTA (especially the Red Line).
- Good reception inside the downtown Boston hotels (for use during SF cons).

I know all of these are (individually) *possible*, because I see people talking on cells in these places. It would be great if I could get all of these, but even *one* of these (reliably) would be an upgrade over what I have now.

Comments

[freerange-snark.livejournal.com]

I have Verizon now, and there are very few places I don't get reception. I wouldn't know firsthand about downtown Boston hotels, but I've never had a problem anywhere in city limits, so I think it would work there. I've had less-than-perfect reception occasionally indoors near the North Quincy station, but it's generally good. I have no freaking idea what service people who can talk underground on the subway are using, but it's definitely not Verizon or Cingular. Speaking of, Cingular often failed me in buildings in Dorchester, and dux_arturis has discovered that there are many parts of this house that foil it. Hope that helps.

[mickeymao.livejournal.com]

I also have Verizon. They have good coverage in the city and far superior coverage outside of it. They are, however, expensive. I would also recommend the Motorola E815 phone; I've found that I'm able to have a pretty clear conversation on it with only 1 or 2 bars of signal.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Not sure it will help much, but I get good recpetion in Melville Keep, and the few places in the boston area I have been in recently. No specific knowledge of subways, quincy or hotels. I have U.S Cellular.

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in the last year or so, the various services have put together much more accurate maps of their coverage levels. You can check their websites to compare the relative emphasis on the places you want (compared to two or three high-coverage reference areas, like, say, Rt. 93 in South Boston and State & Broad in the financial district, for reference).

However, you will probably do better to focus on upgrading your phone rather than your service. Some phones manage vastly better reception than others (mostly as a matter of antenna gain, which means the smallest phones will tend to do more poorly). There are plenty of knowledgeable review sites on the web, but at least as reliable would be to keep track of which specific phones you see people using in your preferred locations. [And unlike finding out which service they're using, you can do that just by looking -- no need to ask them about it.]

[Although I work for a giant cellular equipment manufacturer these days, I don't have any special professional knowledge in this area. And I don't talk on the phone much; cellular or otherwise.]