Dobson Cellular Question

[cellular_freak]

Does anyone know if the reason why Cellular One (Dobson Cellular) would have such bad reception in the thumb of Michigan? Even while your in town where there is a tower close by, the signal on most people's phones who have Cell One is really sucky? It seems like everytime I talk to my friend on the phone it is constantly dropping calls. He just loses reception. Even when I had Cellular One it would do the exact same thing. Does it have to do with it being 850 MHz? Because when I go to Saginaw, MI or Bay City, MI the reception is PERFECT since we are using Cingular or T-Mobile, who just so happen to 1900 MHz. But even then it seems like GSM is a very splotchy technology. When I was using a Thumb Cellular phone (CDMA) the reception was awesome everywhere I went, even deep in the woods, but my GSM phone worked, but the signal was very bad.

[Buickman]

It all has to do with the tower placement in the network. In theory, for a rural area the 850MHz systems should be superior. But if a 1900MHz system has enough towers it can be just as good or better. Your friend with the poor reception problems, do they still have and old TDMA phone? Dobson may have taken alot of spectrom away TDMA now that they are running GSM.

[agentHibby]

Also Dobson charges way to high of prices for roaming on there network. Even some GSM providers in some areas will forbid you to roam on there network.

[cellular_freak]

No, my friend has GSM with them, he has the Motorola V400. I just know that the signal is very weak. Even when your near the tower, it seems, you just don't have as strong a signal. But the town I live in: Caro, is growing quite a bit. Maybe they have over-crowding issues, but that doesn't explain for the reception problem. It just seems here in the thumb they don't really give a care about us. Even the lone Nextel tower we have can't even support the people that live here. I am constantly getting dropped calls on Nextel also, but no probs in Saginaw. I'm thinking somethings fishy.....

[hillbilly44]

The Motorolas have a known software bug,try powercycling the phone every 3 days and it should work better. Good Luck

[budney]

Buickman is correct, it is all about the tower placement. Dobson is my area is not very good their are lots of weak/dead spots all around Mohave County. The three best carriers in my area are all 1900MHz (Sprint, Cingular/T-Mobile). I would like to see Cingular some day buy Dobson. In my area it would help them in having 850MHz on both sides of the river.The same would be said about Verizon & Mohave Wireless (the other small local 850MHz carrier).

[cellular_freak]

Yeah, I was actually hoping the same exact thing about Cingular buying out Dobson. That way we would finally have PCS here. Also, it would be cool for Verizon to buy Thumb Cellular cuz I'm tired of all the people who come from out of the Thumb conplaining that they either can't use their phone or their roaming. And it would be good for us. I've heard a LOT of great things about Verizon. Also, now that Sprint and Nextel are merging, we would be able to choose from 3 PCS companies!

[svanwormer]

Hey cellular_freak,

I work in Vassar and go to Caro every once in a while. I too have a Moto V400 and also a Nokia 6340i that I lock onto Thumb Cellular with. Dobson overlayed GSM on their towers in the Thumb almost 2 years ago I think. When I first got my GAIT plan, I just used TDMA, but I was able to use the GSM on the tower here in Vassar as soon as it was live. Anyway, I have not driven around Caro enough to tell you where the Dobson tower is for sure. Both Thumb Cellular and Dobson use the 800/850 (cellular) band. Maybe Thumb has more towers in the area. I did definately notice some weak areas to the east on M-46 going out toward Sandusky using my V400. I also force my 6340i over to Dobson TDMA and it actually seems that the TDMA signal is stronger than the GSM, although all Dobson towers should have both TDMA & GSM on them here.