South East' Mich. Providers?

[none]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]Who is dependable in South East Michigan- I would use a cell phone to take in the car with me, when going out- so not for business or long conversations. I apreciate your input!

[KevinJames]

User perceptions and experiences vary. The best you can do for yourself is to check out both ATT & Verizon seeing as both have a no-penalty trial period. ATT allows you 30 days to try their service. If you are not happy, you can return the phone and pay only for the service you used. Verizon is 14 days. Both are national carriers and have service in most (if not all) states.

[CDMA]

I have tried Verizon, Cingular, AT@T, SprintPCS. My job requires me to use my cell phones in residential and comercial basements where it is harder to get signals. Out of the four named above, Verizon and Cingular definately have the best coverage in S.E. Michigan. They are the most reliable, and most of the time, the only ones that would work in the basements. Same is true when you go off the beaten path, out into remote areas far away from freeways. My co-workers use the other two, Nextell and Voicestream. It seems that nextell would win there. Take the free long distance and 3000-3500 night and weekend minutes, (after 9:00pm for both companies) and save yourself some money on your home phone bill.

[aiwapro]

I would get Voicestream if I were you. I have Voicestream and live in Northwest Ohio (Toledo), and you know that that is very close to South-East Michigan, in fact, I travel through there, and my Voicestream phone works just fine. I am telling you first-hand that I have no problems with it; no dropped calls, no static or echoing, or any of those problems. All of my digital features work and everything. You look at the exact coverage on the Voicestream website. Here is a map to look at:Voicestream Wireless (Nationwide Map)

[Mary]

My business takes me thru SE Michigan every couple months. I have Verizon Wireless and I am able to use my phone more often when ever I want. Because they have the largest most advanced network, you are able to use a Verizon Wireless phone in more areas than any other carrier.

Be careful of seemingly "cheap" cellular phone companies. They can not match Verizon Wireless network. Verizon Wireless will never be cheap, but they are more reliable. Verizon Wireless does have a Worry Free Guarantee. Try it and see if you like it, if not bring it back. You only have to pay for te service you use!

[aiwapro]

"they have the largest most advanced network", says Mary.

Ha ha, maybe the largest network only because of analog, but definately not the most advanced and you know it. I am tired of explaining this; How far is Verizon with their 2.5G-3G migration, yeah that's what I though only a few markets. Well before you say that they are the most advanced you should look at other providers. Sprint will be launching their new service NATIONWIDE in the Summer, June or July I heard. Voicestream's GPRS network is already NATIONWIDE, and they will begin work on their EDGE network (early 3G area) at the end of this year. Oh yeah, where is Verizon, only a few markets, that's right, I forgot for a second.

What providers are you calling cheap? How do you have the right to call a provider cheap?

Well Mary has said that she can use her phone in South-east Michigan, and so can I. I can use it with no problem, no signal drop or anything, all the way from Toledo to Detroit. You can probably go beyond their without any signal lose, but I'm just telling you where I have traveled and not had any problems.

verizon has the best in building coverage and largest network. if you want a reliable phone that will work basically whenever you need it i would go with verizon. i have had voicestream, nextel, att and now verizon. i had nextel for 2 yrs and it sucked. i tried voicestream and the call quality was good, but i lost reception in almost every building i was in. i tried att (tdma) and didnt like the call quality and it to lost signal in alot of buildings , including my house. i signed up for verizon and have consitantly great coverage in buildings , everywher in my house, and everywhere i go. when i sign a contract i want a dependable phone, that will work when i need it and verizon can provide that.


check it out like i did and compare. verizon gives you 15days to try them out, att gives you 30 days, and voicestream gives you 72 hrs. i always wondered why voicestream only gave you 72 hrs. now i know, they want you to get stuck in contract fast, so when you figure out the coverage really sucks, its to late to cancel.


good luck

i created the last post.

i forgot to metion im in royal oak mi..

bye

[aiwapro]

No, that's not the reason why Voicestream gives you only 72 hours. All of the carriers use to only give 72 hours, but then they changed, and Voicestream really had no reason to change. I mean if you really call and have a terrible complaint, like you don't have coverage in your home area, than you will most likely get out of you contract, since 10% of your calls are suppose to be made in your home area, that's part of the contract too.

Just because a signal doesn't go through a building doesn't mean that the company's coverage sucks, that has nothing to do with coverage. That has to do with FREQUENCY. Verizon operates at a lower frequency (800MHz) than everyone else. The lower the frequency, the less information that has to go through things, like buildings. That's why Verizon's signal works in most buildings. I say most, because there are some buildings where noone can use their phone, no matter who they have. I work at a Museum, and in parts of the Museum noone can use their phone, no matter what proviser they have.

I have a question though; At first you didn't say Voicestream's coverage sucked, you said that it didn't go through buildings, then at the end of your posting, you said that it sucked. Hmmm. I don't think you really know what you are talking about. I hope that the second paragraph of this posting has helped you learn a little bit more about wireless service.

i said i wanted a dependable phone service , and that includes in building coverage. thats why voicestream sucks. its not dependable. you even said it yourself , its the frequency. voicestream is 1900 mhz gsm and its a scientific fact that 1900 mhz doesnt penetrate buildings very well. voicestream sound quality is great im not disputing that, but only when you have a signal. if you spend most of your time outside and dont care about being able to use your phone in buildings, then voicestream is the service for you. i on the other hand need my phone to work all the time, so i choose verizon.

[Mary]

Gee Chris,

I was busy this weekend so I didn't respond earlier. Were you? I wasn't being attacking. Are you sure you are over 18? I still have the name of a friend who can help you with the pent up cellular phone aggression as well as those challenged in interpersonal communications areas. Let me know.

I was just saying that I have been able to use my phone when I travel thru that area and please be careful of cheaper providers. You get what you pay for.

I want a provider who can cover me in more areas than not. Verizon Wireless gives you the range. Hands down.

[Gman]

Hey Anonymous- your 'scientific' fact about 1900 mhz is more nebulous than what you state. There are far too many variables for such a blanket statement.

You should go to www.google.com and search the archive of alt.cellular.com for that subject (which has been discussed umpteen times). Beware , it is difficult to pick out the experts on the topic -everyone speaks like one.

G.

[CDMA]

Ok everyone. The frequency doesn't have anything to do with how well a phone works inside of a building. THE POWER OF THE CELL SITE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE, NOT THE FREQUENCY. Yes, the 1900MHz PCS carriers definately don't work as well as the 800-900 MHz cellular carriers inside buildings because of this reason. The older cellular carriers usually have more HIGHER POWERED CELL SITES. In the begining they needed to cover more distance with a single cell site, therefore they have more wattage. The newer PCS carriers are made up of more cell sites with less power. This is better for capacity, but worse for getting signals inside buildings. In S.E. Michigan, there are two 800MHz carriers.(Verizon and Cingular) To whom ever said that "you can use Verizon in more areas then any other carrier" is close, but entirely not true. Don't get me wrong, they are one of the best, but when it comes to roaming agreements Cingular definately has just as many or probably more. Verizon is not the only one with all of the coverage. AT@T also has great roaming coverage. All three of these carriers have basically the best travel coverage available in the USA. As far as Voicestream in S.E. Michigan, all I can tell you is what I know. As of 12-18 months ago it was full of holes and other technical problems with voicemail and wierd busy signals when calling someone. I had two different friends with Voicestream and they both left them to sign up with a different carrier because of these reasons. I am sure that they have made some improvements, but I doubt it can compare to Verizon or Cingular. I am going to try Voicestream soon just to try them out for myself, to see exactly how good the coverage is here. But until then this is what I know.

[CDMA]

Ok, it was Mary that said it. As far as verizon "never being cheap", what are you talking about? They have some of the best rates on the market. For example: the new local 600 for $40.00, also with night and weekend minutes and included long distance. They are great!

[Jack]

Verizon now has some very good promo plans.



Jack

[aiwapro]

Hey CDMA, just to let you know I was in the South-east michigan area about 3 months ago and I guess you can say it improved alot, because I had no problems. I went all the way to Detroit with it and had no problems. I have been further with it, but was sleep most of the way, so I can't really tell you where it picked up and dropped off, I just know whenever I got to my destinations, it worked just fine. I went to Selfridge airforce base around May of last year, and it worked great there too. Go ahead and try Voicestream, I'm sure you will like them, but don't go looking for problems, because just like any carrier you try, if you go looking for problems, you will almost always surely find some.

[CDMA]

Ok Christopher, thanks for the info.

[Mary]

Verizon Wireless has a great promotion at a great price, indeed. But in common practice, Verizon is never the "cheapest carrier" out there. If you look at coverage area, Verizon Wireless does have larger coverage than any other carrier.

Chris, your 'in your face attituide' about Voicestream is absurd. They can never match coverage area of most competitor. I have to say most people that I know in the industry don't even consider them a viable contender, or even a distant threat to their customer base. Untill they do shoew better cogverage areas even close to Verizon, I and many others will not even look at them with a second thought.

I am not going to continue to 'beat the dead horse' you present in just about every forum on this site. I am simply stating that Verizon has better service and coverage. Point blank.

[aiwapro]

Mary I just don't know how you can expect Voicestream to have so much coverage all of a sudden, when they have only been around since 1996. They started out as a regional provider, and are just now a Nationwide provider. They have grown alot over the last past two years. How can they have as much coverage as Verizon, if Verizon has been around since like the 80's, truthfully?

[CDMA]

Mary, yes they are the largest wireless provider, but in your earlier post you had said that" you can use Verizon Wireless in more areas then any other carrier", which is definately not true! For example: a Cingular customer could make calls EVERYWHERE a Verizon customer could, possibly with even more coverage, depending on the roaming agreements, like Cingular's agreements in Mexico, etc.. Now you are refering to the actual size of the Verizon owned markets, which is another story, meaning that more people in more areas of the USA can sign up on their plans. One point that could be good or bad about Verizon, depending on where you are traveling, is the fact that there is a good chance that you will be roaming on SprintPCS towers with their new roaming agreements.

[roamer1]

re Cingular having more coverage than VZW -- Take a phone from a Cingular B-side IS-136 market to Copperhill, TN and see what happens. (It isn't pretty.) OTOH, take a Verizon phone with a Ukiah, CA number to the outskirts of the Ukiah area -- you'll see the same sort of thing as you'd see with the Cingular phone in Copperhill.

AFAICT, *Sprint PCS* appears to have the most roaming agreements of any carrier; in many if not most markets, they have roaming agreements with BOTH 800 MHz carriers. Of course with SPCS you pay dearly for that roaming...

-SC

I live in SE Michigan. I hardly ever talk on the cell so after MUCH research I decided on a pre-paid plan through AT&T. I've been pretty happy. I need the cheap way out, and as of recently they offered a $10 card that last for as long as 45 days. You get talktime at $.35/min. Voicemail, caller ID, is included. Only problem is, you need to get a phone made specially for the AT&T network. I have the Motorola V2397. Paid $100, and got the phone, no activation charge, and a $25 phone card included. You get text messages received for free and you can send emails at $.10 a pop. It also came with home charger and plug in hands-free set. Oh yeah, long distance is not extra, unused minutes roll over and everythings seems to work just fine. I'd recommend them if you're like me and just want it as an occasional use phone.

[roamer1]

FWIW, Cingular seems to be OK in the Detroit area now; they did have lots of network problems when they converted the old Ameritech system from CDMA to IS-136, but once that was done the complaints seemed to drop off quite a bit.

For the AT&T prepaid user -- if you plan to go outside of the Detroit area at all, you might want to go with CallPlus prepaid (www.ecallplus.com or www.icallplus.com) once you use up your initial minutes. The only downside is that you'd have to change your phone number -- but if you truly are using your phone occasionally, that shouldn't be a problem.

-SC

[one028]

ok, i have something to say about the carriers in southeast michigan. i live in the royal oak area, about 3 miles north of detroit. ive tried nextel, att, cingular, and voicestream, and i now have verizon. verizon beats them all. most of my family have cingular and they are not happy with them. my family has nokia's with cingular and i had a startac. in buildings i would lose signal, all the time, and so do the rest of my family. i call my brother and dad and the phone fails to ring and goes directly to voicemail most of the time. the same thing happened to me with cingular. the coverage isnt that good. after i was done with cingular i tried nextel , because i liked the direct connect feature.

when my contract with nextel was up, i dropped them fast. i did like the direct connect feature, but the coverage was really bad. plus you couldnt roam with the phones upnorth, so my nextel was useless up north. i became very picky with my cell phone providers after my experience with nextel and cingular so i shopped around.

i went to a local cell phone dealer who sold att, nextel, voicestream and cingular. i signed up with voicestream. i had the samsung n105 and my wife had a little nokia. the voice quality was great. but we would lose signal in almost every building. i didnt like that , since it was important that are cell phone worked when we needed it to. i called customer service and they said " 1900 mhz gsm has a hard time penetrating most buildings" and " coverage was spotty in my area". i then returned the phones and signed up with att.

att was the same as cingular (tdma 800 mhz). i had problems right away. i would have full signal outside, would go into a restraunt or store, and would lose signal. people would try to call me and the phone wouldnt ring, and would go to my voice mail.

during my 30 day trial period, i also signed up with verizon. i got the lg 510 and my wife got a motorola v120c. i took my verizon phone and my att phone with me everywhere and compared the signal stregth and call quality. i always had a signal eveywhere i went with verizon, even in all the buildings i went into.

i went upnorth, to tuscola county with att and verizon phones. tuscola coutny is near the thumb. i couldnt even get a signal with att, but got a extended network connection with verizon (no roaming charge).

after my trip i was convinced that verizon was the best. thats my experience with the carriers in south east michigan. you cant beat verizon coverage , it is the best.

[aiwapro]

That is the only downside to Voicestream, well 1900 MHz networks period; The signals don't go through all buildings aswell as a lower frequency network (800MHz), like Verizon. I have talked on both Verizon and AT&T phones, and I think my Voicestream phone has the best call clarity. Verizon would be the next choice, but AT&T was horrible. I found myself saying "what did you say, huh, what" most of the time.

[CDMA]

Roamer one, Cingular has always has agreements on both 800MHz carriers. Verizon does in many areas also. All cellular coverage must have been bad in those areas that you mentioned.

[CDMA]

ONE028, I don't understand how you lost signals inside buildings with Cingular. I have used both carriers and they are almost hand in hand as far as coverage. The first thing I do when I get to a customers location is call out on my cell phones to report my location, while inside of buildings. The extendable antennas on Verizon's phones are a little better then the fixed antennas on Cingular's phones, but not enough to make that big of a difference. No generally you can't beat Verizon's coverage, but in different areas one can sometimes be better then the other. Sometimes Cingular, sometimes Verizon. I hope you know about the bad batch of nokia phones that Cingular put out when they first became TDMA in Detroit. They had terriable reception. Also, AT@T was never 800MHz in Detroit. It was always 1900MHz TDMA, which explains your in building problems with them. As far as you and your family's luck with Cingular, I don't know? I do however, remember having a better signal with Verizon in the Royal Oak area then I did with Cingular. But overall I am speaking for the whole Metro Detroit area, when I say that the coverage was hand in hand.

[Mary]

When I made my comment about using a Verizon Wireless phone in more areas, I was assuming the United States. My apologies for not being clear, I really didn't think it was necessary at the time.

I do not consider Voicestream to be a competitor for the same reasons you stated Chris. Sorry about your luck for only being in business for 6 years. Gain some more experience then you will be considered a likely competitor. Soemtimes you have to have roaming agreements with other carriers whomever they may be.

Verizon Wireless is still liscenced in more markets than other companies, even with out the argreements. 49 of the top 50 markets and 97 of the top 100. See it yourself at www.verizonwireless.com.

[aiwapro]

Mary whether you consider Voicestream Wireless a competitor or not; They are a major competitor.
What do you mean "luck" for them being around for only 6 years, it's not luck, everyone has to start somewhere. Sprint PCS is a young company too, but Voicestream is still a little younger. You talk about Verizon like nothing is better, like they are flawless, like no one can touch them; They aren't the best, they aren't flawless, and many competitors are taking their customers. Verizon Wireless lost over 200,000 customers in just the first quarter of this year. That left them only gaining a net of a little over 100,000 customers. Voicestream added over 500,000 customers, Sprint added over 700,000 and I don't think no one lost as many customers as Verizon, because it was not printed in the press release what everyone else lost. It must have been small amounts for everyone else. See, Verizon isn't flawless.

[one028]

the reason voicestream gained so many customers is the fact that no one can touch their rate plans. they offer incredible rate plans to attract new customers. i know, because their rate plans sucked me in. they only give you 72hrs to cancel, and most people dont realize how the service is until its to late to cancel. the coverage isnt that good , yet, but their rate plans are great. i chose quality over the cheap rate plan, and got verizon.