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Old 10-07-2016, 07:37 AM   #1
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Cell phone reception on the road....

On the recent cross country trip to acquire Prairie Schooner, I was dismayed with both the cell phone and the truck's internet reception. The truck's issue is not that important but my T-Mobile with the iPhone 6 was really sporadic. No service or third party towers were abundant on the other side of the Mississippi. This was my first cross country trip with both TMobile and the iPhone 6.
Well I went to T-Mobile yesterday and they were aware of the problem. They said that they allow third party providers to use their towers in exchange for using their towers in other areas. So roaming is not an issue.
Reception with the IPhone 6 is poor. It seems to be an Apple problem which was fixed with the iPhone 6S which came out last year. TMobile will trade my phone for a $60 fee and give me the IPhone 6S. I still owe $300 on the old phone which they will forgive and drop the price on the new phone so that my payments will drop $5/month but I now owe them $550 for the new phone. They also guarantee better reception or my money back.

Am I being taken for a ride here or is the new iPhone 6S that much better in reception than the first IPhone 6? Anyone with this phone, please let me know your thoughts, thank you,
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Old 10-07-2016, 07:52 AM   #2
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I don't know about the iPhone specifically, but we used to have TMobile and could not get reception at any of my family members houses in Eastern Nebraska, 45 miles from Lincoln, and my parents have a cell phone tower IN THEIR PASTURE. We also dropped calls all across the Denver Metro area and could never get service in the mountains. We switched to Verizon in 2012 and get service EVERYWHERE, even in places like Death Valley and remote camping in Colorado. I don't think we have ever been anywhere and not had reception. Honestly, I'd check with a new provider and see if they will buy out your old contract for switching to them. We found TMobile to be very frustrating.
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Old 10-07-2016, 08:35 AM   #3
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Consumer celluar

Get the Home unit that you can connect your land line phone to and you can take it on the road with you.

Get their cellphone and they charge you an extra 10 a month for each cell phone and all u its share the minutes.

Check it out and you will save a bundle and everyone in the family can have a phone. They do not deduct minutes for the phones in your plan calling each other.
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Old 10-07-2016, 11:16 AM   #4
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Loved T-mobile but had to leave

T-mobile has great service people, but coverage not so good. Still, I stayed with them for years until my husband moved his office into one of the 'no coverage' zones. We switched to ATT, better coverage- service: meh. And $$$ more.

As for the iphones: my husband has the 6s I have the 5s. We often compare side by side and I always have one more dot than he does. I'm a longtime devoted apple fan and don't know what to make of this anomaly but it is consistent enough that I am staying with my 5s even though I would appreciate the larger screen.

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Old 10-07-2016, 11:44 AM   #5
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They moved the antenna around in various models of iPhone. I remember the big issue when the 4 (I think) moved the antenna to the outer band and depending on how you held the phone it would block or interfere with the signal.

As far as 6 vs 6s - take the upgrade. They improved the touch chip that has a lot of 6 and 6 plus found screens failing.

And T-Mobile has never had great coverage. But be warned about Verizon - some of their coverage is off other providers' towers and will not work even though you show good signal. Was in a Verizon owned store in Gainesville FL for a reception issue and over heard several others also in with complaints. Basically the phone shows full signal but people calling would not be able to reach them. Employees said they local cell company they had a roaming agreement gave preference to its own customers so if the tower was busy then you weren't getting through. Don't know if that happens else where but more often on Verizon networks since they still use the old CDMA tech instead of upgrading to GSM.

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Old 10-07-2016, 12:20 PM   #6
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Were Canucks and travel as much if not more than most,

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Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
On the recent cross country trip to acquire Prairie Schooner, I was dismayed with both the cell phone and the truck's internet reception. The truck's issue is not that important but my T-Mobile with the iPhone 6 was really sporadic. No service or third party towers were abundant on the other side of the Mississippi. This was my first cross country trip with both TMobile and the iPhone 6.
Well I went to T-Mobile yesterday and they were aware of the problem. They said that they allow third party providers to use their towers in exchange for using their towers in other areas. So roaming is not an issue.
Reception with the IPhone 6 is poor. It seems to be an Apple problem which was fixed with the iPhone 6S which came out last year. TMobile will trade my phone for a $60 fee and give me the IPhone 6S. I still owe $300 on the old phone which they will forgive and drop the price on the new phone so that my payments will drop $5/month but I now owe them $550 for the new phone. They also guarantee better reception or my money back.

Am I being taken for a ride here or is the new iPhone 6S that much better in reception than the first IPhone 6? Anyone with this phone, please let me know your thoughts, thank you,
e originally had T-mobile and it never worked so we also switched to Verizon and rarely do we have a problem now and we have been in places where u think for sure it is not going to work and it does. Same for our Internet we use a Hot Spot & we get service 99% of the time there is the odd area in Colorado we did not get service but these are no name side of the road locations.
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Old 10-07-2016, 12:22 PM   #7
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i could not tell you how many times we have leant our phone to other people who could not get reception. we are sticking with Verizon. doesn't matter what type of phone over the years.
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Old 10-07-2016, 01:23 PM   #8
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We have both Verizon and T-mobile. On the east coast we get good service with both. In Eastern Canada including NL T-Mobile was superior. We have not yet been west of MN though in true northern MN(north of Duluth) neither Verizon or T-Mobile worked very well.
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Old 10-07-2016, 01:26 PM   #9
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My primary phone is T-mobile, but I keep https://www.pagepluscellular.com/ (Verizon MVNO) as a backup and purchase $30 monthly plan when I'm going to travel. In some places I'm getting reliable T-mobile signal, but Verizon is not available, in some places T-mobile is out but VZ works. Once I stayed in FL state park where the only option was Sprint. AT&T is almost everywhere but T-mobile has no roaming to ATT network on prepaid plans, only 911 calls are allowed.

There is no T-mobile coverage in the entire states of South Dakota (except for Fargo) and Montana. SD rest areas on I-90 provide free WiFi. In WY T-mobile is available near Jackson Hole resort (south of Yellowstone NP) where Federal Reserve has their regular meetings.

Flamingo campground in Everglades NP is served by AT&T only, don't trust T-mobile coverage map, been there, know that.
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Old 10-07-2016, 01:27 PM   #10
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We just got back from 3 months on the road: Across the top of the US on Rt 2, to Blaine, Washington, then south eventually to San Francisco, then east eventually Home to Tennessee.

We have Verizon on the phones (I have a 4s), and we have Sprint on our stand alone broadband hotspot.

There were many places Verizon was not available, but was much more so than the Sprint 3G broadband. Sprint was terrible. (we prefer the back country.)

We will be upgrading to Verizon jetpack and newer phones before next season.
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Old 10-07-2016, 02:50 PM   #11
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Why would I care. My cell phone is usually off. If somebody wants to call me they can leave a message or not. I'll respond to a message.
Most of my life cell phones didn't exist, so the loss of connection is a plus for me.
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Old 10-07-2016, 03:57 PM   #12
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Norm and Ginny, my wife and I have been into the USA all the

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We have both Verizon and T-mobile. On the east coast we get good service with both. In Eastern Canada including NL T-Mobile was superior. We have not yet been west of MN though in true northern MN(north of Duluth) neither Verizon or T-Mobile worked very well.
ay to the east coast and around to the south, west, north and up the middle and across the middle and many other places T-Mobile was useless for us and when we got the Verizon we have never had any problems. Last year we did I90 from Washington to Maine then into Canada and as far as NL, then all the way home to BC and never a problem with Verison, nor did we have any internet problems. We have been as far as Dawson Creek, east to Bella Coola, northern Saskatchewan, no problems. Only place we have not been yet with a cel phone is Alaska.
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Old 10-07-2016, 05:40 PM   #13
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Cell phones I have known

Sprint, Tracfone, Verizon. Of those Verizon and Tracfone had about the same Excellent coverage, here in the mountain west, with all my travels mostly west of the Mississippi. Sprint was good in bigger towns and along major highways only. They may have improved since I used them a few years ago.

More recently:

Tracfone (prepaid) was by far cheapest, with about $10-15 per month average, if I bought a year's worth of time $100, and 400 minutes, doubled or tripled on most phones. I average 200 minutes a month on the phone, as we have no landline. But I am not phone chatty. Tracfone uses everyone elses towers as I understand it, so coverage is excellent, even deep in the western mountains, camping or hiking. My Android smartphone with Tracfone had 3G, with good service. It only had 2 gigs of memory, so did not hold many/hardly any, of the apps I use for birding and other things.

Recently I wanted an iPhone, so bought one outright and signed up with Verizon prepaid, $45.00/month, unlimited talk and text, with 3 gigs monthly, 2 unless you sign up for autopay. Just as good as any Verizon coverage I ever had, and now 4G, and more data than I'd ever need or use, as I don't stream anything and use it for email and web searches occasionally, as well as online checkins on travel. We do boon dock and hike a lot, mostly in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. There are gaps in deep canyons, but amazingly good coverage overall. My experiences only, based in New Mexico, for information...
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Old 10-09-2016, 04:53 PM   #14
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Folks, I have one question.

How did our forefathers and mothers exist with out a phone hooked to their body?

Wow!

Just a thought.
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Old 10-09-2016, 04:57 PM   #15
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Folks, I have one question.

How did our forefathers and mothers exist with out a phone hooked to their body?

Wow!

Just a thought.
They existed, and they died young.
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Old 10-12-2016, 09:46 AM   #16
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Hotspot

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Consumer celluar

Get the Home unit that you can connect your land line phone to and you can take it on the road with you.

Get their cellphone and they charge you an extra 10 a month for each cell phone and all u its share the minutes.

Check it out and you will save a bundle and everyone in the family can have a phone. They do not deduct minutes for the phones in your plan calling each other.
Has anyone tried consumer cellar hotspot
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Old 10-12-2016, 10:38 AM   #17
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They existed, and they died young.
Well, for one thing they made their own decision on either purchasing a quart or gallon of milk. Today, they stand in front of the milk and call home - Honey, should I buy a quart or gallon of milk.

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Old 10-12-2016, 10:40 AM   #18
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We have T-Mobile and notice their LTE coverage has been getting better every year. There are still several areas where they don't have coverage and we use a straight-talk hotspot using Verizon coverage for those areas.
Even Verizon doesn't have coverage everywhere, when we were in Big Bend TX, there was no Verizon coverage, but we were able to use ATT coverage based on our T-Mobile account.
Last week while camping at Land Between the Lakes in TN, our Verizon wouldn't work in some spots, and our T-Mobile wouldn't work in some spots, but both had coverage in many spots.
I notice that our phone that has LTE band 12 picks up better than the one that doesn't in our home.
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Old 10-12-2016, 10:45 AM   #19
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Cell phones are nice accessory. But, many of us lived quite nicely without them for most of our lives. We do have "voice mail" and "texting" on our dumb cell phones. I really dislike the intrusion of the phone ringing or beeping at me. Therefore the phone is mostly off. I turn it on when I want to know if anybody tried to contact me or I feel the need to contact somebody. I'm not a SLAVE to the phone or the internet.
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Old 10-12-2016, 10:56 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman View Post
Cell phones are nice accessory. But, many of us lived quite nicely without them for most of our lives. We do have "voice mail" and "texting" on our dumb cell phones. I really dislike the intrusion of the phone ringing or beeping at me. Therefore the phone is mostly off. I turn it on when I want to know if anybody tried to contact me or I feel the need to contact somebody. I'm not a SLAVE to the phone or the internet.
I have an AT&T iPhone & a Verizon hotspot. Since I'm on the road for 5 - 10 months of the year, paying bills, etc would be a problem without the internet. I'm also not a "slave" to it, but I sure appreciate the freedom it gives me to travel.

As to the phone, one advantage of AT&T over Verizon is I find lots of places without coverage so no one bothers me! (although it does bet better year by year).

While I average less than 20 minutes per month on the phone, I still need it at times, if for nothing else to look up camping locations in unfamiliar areas.
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