Best coverage in Minneapolis MN area?

[bheb]

Hi, Which cell company has good coverage & reception in the Minneapolis area? It will need to be good even outside the metro area, say in the western burbs.

Because of prior bad problems w/ Nextel, Sprint is out of the question.

I've been looking at VZW, but am concerned that there are so many complaints about their phones being disabled. Would US Cellular be a good option?

Are there other local carriers that would be better?

Second question regards being able to carry a family plan in MN where I am the primary user of the phone, but have a phone for my mom who lives on the east coast? She doesn't use it much, so I'd be the main user of minutes. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thanks!

[agentHibby]

T-Mobile is another good option for the twin cities.

[Studogvetmed]

Verizon has advertised new loose rules on family plans that you can add cross country numbers to family plans now. Can't remember what article I read that in....

Go in and ask questions about the verizon phones. They are getting a little less restrictive on some, but a lot of it depends on what you really want to do. In the end, thought he GSM carriers seem to have less restrictions than CDMA carriers it seems. ALmost all carriers have some restrictions though. They want you to use their services after all...

When it comes to that area of the midwest, US Cellular is an excellent thing to consider and some of their plans included unlimited call me minutes.

[Buickman]

US Cellular doesn't operate here in the Minneapolis area. Verizon is a good choice, I use them without any problems. I would have also told you that Sprint is a good choice, but if you don't want them, than by all means VZW should be just fine. You should find out what works at your mom's place too, because it's possible VZW doesn't even operate there, so that could cause you some problems. What zip code does she live in?

[JasonWells]

I would recommend T-Mobile. In MN, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul areas, I have used VZW, Sprint, Alltel, T-Mobile, Qwest, CellOne and AT&T. The Mpls area seems to have fairly good coverage for most providers. However, T-Mobile really seems to have an edge. We have been pleasantly surprised at the great coverage there and many other locations throughout MN and the US. The family plans are priced very well, the phones are not locked up like VZW, they have great roaming agreements for rural areas, the customer service is the best i have experienced, next to Alltel and the plans are all national. I wish you good luck, and hope this helps!

[bheb]

Hi, Mom lives in the augusta ME area. Her Unicel service is very iffy, & was even worse when she had cingular a few years ago. Unicel seems to have towers go out after each storm that takes forever to come back online. Prob not what's really happening, but just seems like it!

[bheb]

Thanks all for the advice! I'll give vzw & TM a close look when I get out there.

[Buickman]

Originally Posted by bheb

Mom lives in the augusta ME area.

Tmobile looks like it has very little coverage around there from the looks of there map. Verizon appears to be 1900MHz carrier there as well, they have more coverage than Tmobile, but it looks like a road map. If your mom has any friend out there that have cell phones I would talk to them and see who they use and how well it works.

[Eric47]

i would think ATT would be good, didnt they take over all the Dobson there and they had some of their own native already? i believe its 3G also

[Buickman]

Originally Posted by EricN4707

i would think ATT would be good, didnt they take over all the Dobson there and they had some of their own native already? i believe its 3G also

The problem there is that I don't know anybody here in MN that is actually happy with their AT&T service. They used to rule here back in the TDMA days, but think most people would rather have Tmobile over AT&T now (and yes, I do realize that they roam on AT&T in northern MN, I just mean around the metro). And if traveling to northern MN is a concern I would suggest staying away from GSM.

[clock3687]

Originally Posted by Buickman

Tmobile looks like it has very little coverage around there from the looks of there map. Verizon appears to be 1900MHz carrier there as well, they have more coverage than Tmobile, but it looks like a road map. If your mom has any friend out there that have cell phones I would talk to them and see who they use and how well it works.

T-Mobile will roam on Unicel in Augusta, Verizon will roam on USCC. To the OP, your phone wont be much better than your moms currently is. Since you want to try something different, id go with verizon since they will probably be taking over the unicel network soon. Since most of minnesota is cdma, and most of maine will be soon, it makes sense for you to go that route.

[bheb]

The issue we had w/ cingular in maine is (we were told) that unicel doesn't share nicely w/ its roaming partners. As a result, unicel doesn't work well in some area where there are other carriers, like in Portland.

Does anyone know what is going to happen to Unicel's GSM structure now that they are going back to CDMA w/ the vzw takeover? If they have to divest to other gsm carriers here in maine, that may improve service here alot.

No one in this area is really happy w/ any service, there are entire areas even along the highways where service just drops out.

I've been looking at coverage maps, & vzw shows good coverage in both areas, but one never knows. It also seems to depend alot on what phone is used.

[Buickman]

Originally Posted by bheb

one never knows. It also seems to depend alot on what phone is used.

I couldn't have said it better my self. There are so many factors, especially when you get into more remote areas, that it is impossible to tell how something is going to work. You just have to give it a try and take advantage of the trial periods. I would imagine that Maine and Minnesota are very similar in that there are areas that phones just will not work no matter what you have or who your carrier is. And yes, the phone you have does also factor into it. I spent a week last summer in a remote part of northern MN with 7 other people (6 who also had VZW and 1 with AT&T) and my phone was the only one that worked good enough to use on a regular basis. 6 other various models that VZW carries were almost worthless and my old Moto E815 was pretty solid, and the GSM phone just said "no service" all week.

[whmason4]

Um,

I work for one of the big 3 and T-mobile has the best footprint in MN. But they don't have 3G. So, I would say if data is important, you should think about A, V, or S. if you ever travel internationally, A is the choice. Done.

[clock3687]

Originally Posted by bheb

The issue we had w/ cingular in maine is (we were told) that unicel doesn't share nicely w/ its roaming partners. As a result, unicel doesn't work well in some area where there are other carriers, like in Portland.

Does anyone know what is going to happen to Unicel's GSM structure now that they are going back to CDMA w/ the vzw takeover? If they have to divest to other gsm carriers here in maine, that may improve service here alot.

No one in this area is really happy w/ any service, there are entire areas even along the highways where service just drops out.

I've been looking at coverage maps, & vzw shows good coverage in both areas, but one never knows. It also seems to depend alot on what phone is used.

Unicel and t-mobile have a pretty good roaming relationship. I am able to force my phone onto the Unicel network and have it stay on the network. The thing about Cingular phones, is that they do not have the ability to manually select the network, so if it gets a hint of Cingular, then it drops the unicel connection completely, and you cant get back onto it until the cingular disappears.

As you know, verizon bought out unicel. The deal is still pending, but verizon will probably keep the gsm going until they overlay CDMA. Afterwards, there wont be any GSM in the area outside of the interstates and big towns.

[Eric47]

im quiet sure that the government is going to tell Verizon to eventually hand that over to some other company to keep competition on the up and up

[clock3687]

Originally Posted by EricN4707

im quiet sure that the government is going to tell Verizon to eventually hand that over to some other company to keep competition on the up and up

They probably will end up having to give up a chunk of Vermont. The gov't has no reason to make Verizon give up any area in maine. There would still be competition even if its all CDMA.

[JasonWells]

I reside in MN, and travel a lot within the state and out from SD-WI and does into IA. I have been very impressed with T-Mobile. However, if you are in the northern parts of MN and west parts, a CDMA carrier has better coverage. Alltel has great coverage. VZW does ok. It seems Sprint has been selling well, lately, and their force roam feature has been wonderful!! VZW and T-Mobile are good starts. I hope you find one that works great for you! Good luck!

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by clock3687

They probably will end up having to give up a chunk of Vermont. The gov't has no reason to make Verizon give up any area in maine. There would still be competition even if its all CDMA.

unfortunately

[bheb]

Does anyone have advice regarding which vzw phones have good reception/signal strength? I've been told in the past to get phones w/ external antennas, but these are becoming extremely scarce. I did try a razr last year, but had terrible service w/ it & ended up returning it.

Neither of us need alot of features on phones, just something basic but not too ugly or bulky.

Thanks again!
-b