Signal Strength in Columbus area?

[Celloman]

I live in Upper Arlington, which is essentially in Columbus, OH. UA doesn't allow towers to be built, so reception in my house is spotty at best. I currently am with Verizon. My phone will drop calls in certain areas, though my wife's phone is a bit better (she has a pretty basic Motorola, as compared to my LG). I have two questions: does anyone have any personal experience with reception in UA - which service provider would be best? My guess is Verizon, but I'm open. Second, which phones should I consider for signal strength? The KRZR looks tempting - any idea how the RF on it is? Thanks!

[AnthroMatt]

I used to live in Columbus, but didn't spend too much time in UA. Try the T-Mobile, Cingular, and Sprint web sites. All three offer a "street-level" coverage map that should be pretty good indicators of how well each of them would work at your house. If it looks like none of them offer any improvement over Verizon, then start thinking about replacement phones. As I am not with VZW, I cannot really speak to the RF on their phones.

[UFO]

I did have a friend who is at Ohio State and recently switched from Cingular to Alltel in that area. He has mentioned to me that coverage has been much better in the area since switching and he even gets a good signal in several places where several of his friends with Verizon have a lot of trouble with a weak signal. I have heard that Alltel does very well in the more rural places in Ohio that Cingular and Verizon tend to forget about or don't cover as well. I am sorry that I can't get anymore specific than that tough. It would probably be worth it to give them a shot for the 15 day free trial. If you do try them out, the Motorola E815 does very good with signal and does better than any other phone they, or Verizon carries. When I stood next to my old neighbor with an Alltel Moto E815 and he had a VZW Moto, not sure about the model, but I would be fluctuating between 1 and 2 bars and he would have no service. The Moto W315 is good too and Alltel just got the KRZR if that's what you're looking for. But if your contract is up, I would try out a 15 day trial with one or two other companies to see how coverage is at your house. Best of luck.

edit: Also, if there are few towers around like you say, Alltel and Verizon are the only 800 MHz band providers in your area so I would expect Cingular and Sprint to be more spotty there but based on what I've heard, it would definitely be worth it to give Alltel a shot with their general coverage in the area and prices for their 15 day trial.

[djjim]

Originally Posted by UFO

I did have a friend who is at Ohio State and recently switched from Cingular to Alltel in that area. He has mentioned to me that coverage has been much better in the area since switching and he even gets a good signal in several places where several of his friends with Verizon have a lot of trouble with a weak signal. I have heard that Alltel does very well in the more rural places in Ohio that Cingular and Verizon tend to forget about or don't cover as well. I am sorry that I can't get anymore specific than that tough. It would probably be worth it to give them a shot for the 15 day free trial. If you do try them out, the Motorola E815 does very good with signal and does better than any other phone they, or Verizon carries. When I stood next to my old neighbor with an Alltel Moto E815 and he had a VZW Moto, not sure about the model, but I would be fluctuating between 1 and 2 bars and he would have no service. The Moto W315 is good too and Alltel just got the KRZR if that's what you're looking for. But if your contract is up, I would try out a 15 day trial with one or two other companies to see how coverage is at your house. Best of luck.

edit: Also, if there are few towers around like you say, Alltel and Verizon are the only 800 MHz band providers in your area so I would expect Cingular and Sprint to be more spotty there but based on what I've heard, it would definitely be worth it to give Alltel a shot with their general coverage in the area and prices for their 15 day trial.

Alltel does not offer service in Columbus. They come close, you can go a county or two over and sign up. I have family in Mt Vernon that have Alltel.

[UFO]

Originally Posted by djjim

Alltel does not offer service in Columbus. They come close, you can go a county or two over and sign up. I have family in Mt Vernon that have Alltel.

I see, I was thinking the post was directed at Arlington. When I looked up the licenses I got the zip code for Arlington but not Upper Arlington so I researched that area. Sorry for that.

In Upper Arlington, Cingular and Nextel hold 800 MHz licenses so they might be worth a shot to try since the city doesn't allow cell towers to be built. As mentioned before in passing, I'm not sure about Cingular up there because I assume my friend with Alltel uses the Verizon network in Columbus and has mentioned that network being better. But if you are talking about a specific location, it might be worth a trial period with Cingular to see if you have better luck with them at your exact location. The only way to really know is to take advantage of a trial period. Or better yet, do you know anybody with Cingular, Nextel, or even Sprint to see how their phone does at your house?

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by UFO

I see, I was thinking the post was directed at Arlington. When I looked up the licenses I had heard of Arlington but not Upper Arlington so I thought the OP was referring to an area of Arlington. Sorry for that.

In Upper Arlington, Cingular and Nextel hold 800 MHz licenses so they might be worth a shot to try. As mentioned before in passing, I'm not sure about Cingular up there because I assume my friend with Alltel uses the Verizon network in Columbus. Therefore I would think that Verizon must cover Columbus better than Cingular. But if you are talking about a specific location, it might be worth a trial period with Cingular to see if you have better luck with them.

UA is completely surrounded by the city of Columbus. Alltel holds no licenses in the Columbus market as far as I know.

[UFO]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

UA is completely surrounded by the city of Columbus. Alltel holds no licenses in the Columbus market as far as I know.

No they do not. You and djjim are correct. I looked up licenses for the city of Arlington and not Upper Arlington. Sorry for the misinformation.

In UA, since they don't allow cell towers, Cingular and Nextel hold 800 MHz licenses and might work at the OPs location but overall, I don't think they cover the area as well. Sprint usually builds nice networks so they might be worth a shot too but if they don't allow cell towers there, Sprint would probably have a tough time covering the city with their 1900 MHz signal.

His best bet is Verizon but if he knows somebody with Nextel, Cingular, or Sprint he might be able to see how their phone does at his house or even try them for their trial periods.

One other quick point Celloman, in your location Motorolas usually hold onto signal a little bit better than LGs so I would go with a Motorola or even a Nokia for best signal strength.

[royc]

Originally Posted by UFO

I see, I was thinking the post was directed at Arlington. When I looked up the licenses I got the zip code for Arlington but not Upper Arlington so I researched that area. Sorry for that.

In Upper Arlington, Cingular and Nextel hold 800 MHz licenses so they might be worth a shot to try since the city doesn't allow cell towers to be built. As mentioned before in passing, I'm not sure about Cingular up there because I assume my friend with Alltel uses the Verizon network in Columbus and has mentioned that network being better. But if you are talking about a specific location, it might be worth a trial period with Cingular to see if you have better luck with them at your exact location. The only way to really know is to take advantage of a trial period. Or better yet, do you know anybody with Cingular, Nextel, or even Sprint to see how their phone does at your house?

The latest Alltel PRL (606) now prefers Sprint in Columbus, with Verizon available as lower priority. Your friend with Alltel may be using Sprint. Around the OSU campus both Verizon and Sprint are good. Can't speak about UA specifically, but all things being equal, 800 MHz would be better. Sprint does have a tower location map. Check it out:

http://www.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/co...towermaps.html

royc

[Celloman]

Thanks for all the info, folks. Royc, I looked at the Sprint tower map - if you know where the borders of UA are, you can see towers right along that line on pretty much all sides. Unfortunately, I'm pretty much in the middle of UA.

My wife's dad has an Alltel phone for work. It works in the spots of my house where I don't get reception, but doesn't work in other spots - basically a push overall. Additionally, has has intermittent service problems in Columbus (probably switching between towers owned by other services).

I have a friend with Cingular, but haven't hijacked his phone yet. Based on street-level maps, Cingular has average coverage and T-mobile would have poor coverage (their lightest shade of orange or whatever). Verizon agents have access to street-level maps, though they don't make this available on the website (not sure why that is - if they have the best coverage, wouldn't they want to prove that?). I had an agent look up my address, and it showed the strongest possible signal strength in my immiediate vicinity. Makes me wonder if the problem is interference with my house (trees, hills, etc.) in combination with a not-great phone.
I didn't really look into Sprint - I have been with them a couple times in the past and have had very poor experiences. I am willing to listen (read) if someone wants to make a case for them.

In general, Columbus is dominated by Verizon and Sprint, in that order, as far as I know. I have generally been happy with Verizon, until I moved into this house. UFO - any preference between Moto and Nokia for signal?

[Andy]

Try a Motorola phone, even a basic one will give you great RF over LG phones.

[UFO]

Yeah, any Moto or Nokia would give you better reception over any LG. I don't keep up all that closely with VZW's phone selection to make any specific recommendation, but Motos usually do great and I've seen some Nokia's perform pretty well too but I'd say it's a toss up between them. I would go with Moto but that's just because I like their software better.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by UFO

Yeah, any Moto or Nokia would give you better reception over any LG. I don't keep up all that closely with VZW's phone selection to make any specific recommendation, but Motos usually do great and I've seen some Nokia's perform pretty well too but I'd say it's a toss up between them. I would go with Moto but that's just because I like their software better.

The newer Verizon Moto's don't have the Moto UI on them anymore though.

[VTEC01EX]

I've been extremely happy with T-Mobile everywhere I've lived in Columbus. That would include OSU campus, Grandview, the Hilliard/UA/Dublin/Columbus crossroads out on Hayden Run Rd (by Tuttle Mall), and my current place in Dublin. I work for OSU so I find myself in UA a lot, and I've never had any trouble. You might try T-Mo's street level coverage check on their website.

Interestingly enough, the only place T-Mo doesn't work well for me is in my office, which is in the basement of a building in the middle of campus. They put in a repeater because no one's phone worked, but it looks like it only does 850mhz. Sigh.