iphone/ATT use in Wi Northwoods

[rsimeone]

Hi:
I am looking for some advise. Here is my situation: I live in Northern Wisconsin (8 miles west of Land O' Lakes, WI). I travel extensively in the US and to South America (Bolivia, Brazil), and Europe (UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Benelux). I travel internationally roughly 12-15 times per year. I currently use two phones: Motorola Razr V3 with Alltel (which gives me great coverage in the Northwood and everywhere I travel in the US. My second phone is a tri-band Nokia 6310i which I use internationally by just purchasing local sim cards in whichever country I am in. I also use a Monico-based sim purchased from Smartcards of in-touch-USA. Which I reload before each trip and allows my clients to have one number withwhich they can reach me. This situation is less than ideal as the Monico sim is iffy at best and reception varies widely depending on the network I am connected to at the time.

My problem is this: I intend to purchase an iphone (from a Chicago address) and I am hoping that this will work for both my US and international travel (through the ATT international partner network). But since I live in Northern Wisconsin most of the year I am wondering what type of service I can expect from ATT and their partners (which I believe is Dobson/CellularOne in this region). Does any one have any experience using an ATT phone when traveling in Northern Wisconson? Is the service/reception as good when ATT transfes calls to their partner carrier? Also, does anyone have experience using ATT internationally?

Thanks for your help.

[Alienware_51]

At&t won't be roaming to much more on Cellular One, since At&t just bought Dobson Cellular One, and maybe by the end of the year they just might have integrated the Cellular one network with At&t's, then you can get the iPhone w/o having to worry about roaming in Northwoods

I don't have any experience using At&t internationally.

Hope that helps you out

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by Alienware_51

At&t won't be roaming to much more on Cellular One, since At&t just bought Dobson Cellular One, and maybe by the end of the year they just might have integrated the Cellular one network with At&t's, then you can get the iPhone w/o having to worry about roaming in Northwoods

I don't have any experience using At&t internationally.

Hope that helps you out

Lol, I think this is funny, on one hand I have experience internationally. At&t works fine in the countries that I have visited in Europe, Asia & South America. It is pretty expensive but text messaging is always an internative.

On the other hand, even though I am in WI, I have no experience in coverage in that area.

So, between our two posts it sounds like the OP will be fine with the iPhone at the end of the year.

[Andy]

What do you mean when you say that your coverage is iffy with your International SIM Card depending on what network you are connected to? Most carriers these days have roaming agreements with the same (in most countries ALL) carriers, so the phone will automatically pick the networks to use and you can manually change networks depending on who has the best service in your area.
I'm not sure what international SIM Card you are using, but I know of one that gives me pretty sweet international calling rates, Free Incoming calls in a lot of countries and an 800 number U.S. based callers can use if they don't want to call my European Cell Number. This is MUCH cheaper than using any U.S. GSM carrier overseas.
AceTelecomStore.com

[Buickman]

Originally Posted by rsimeone

Hi:
Does any one have any experience using an ATT phone when traveling in Northern Wisconson? Is the service/reception as good when ATT transfes calls to their partner carrier?

Thanks for your help.

Your best bet would be to talk to any neighbors you have that use Dobson, because minus any variation in phone quality, your experience should be identical to theirs.

[Nancy2]

I have a place 14 miles west of Land O Lakes. I have had no luck whatsoever with Cingular (now AT&T). Can usually get cell signal in the middle of our lake while on the pontoon boat. Sometimes while driving around. Usually what happens is that the system does not recognize my phone and actually I've had trouble in the past with my voicemail not even taking messages, just saying I'm not reachable. It's very very frustrating. I'm hoping the AT&T merger will help, although judging by the service last month nothing has changed. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

[dkilen]

Hello,
My family has been going to the Northwoods for years and many of us are in the sales field and travel frequently (mainly US). Some of us use AT&T (Cingular) and at our cabin on Stormy Lake (Conover, WI) we get limited service. If we stand in just the right place outside or in certain areas of the cabin we get ok service. We are considering putting in a boosting antenae to help. I know this doesn't help much but thought it was interesting how close you are to where we go. We seem to get better service when we get about 1/2 of the way to Eagle River.
Good luck

[tiplernorth]

I live in North Of Boulder Junction , off of Hwy M , I can say that I have no issues using cellcom,
neighbor has AT&T and Verizon , they both don't seem to have great coverage in the area
sorry to give you bad news , good luck