Analog phone, difficult to make calls & retrieve vms

[LJ]

Hi,
I have a StarTac 8600 phone, analog only. I recently bought this phone refurbished to replace my StarTac 6500 that was 3 years old and starting to develop problems. I am still using analog phones because they just work, regardless of where I travel, mountains, basement, elevators, etc. After I switched to the 8600 model, to gain the voice recorder feature, and a 2 line display, the call problems from my 6500 phone have followed. I am starting to suspect that the network may be attempting to limit my usage since I am always making analog calls. Besides call origination problems, I have great difficulty accessing touch tone services like voicemail retrieval or touch tone menus, the system on the other end usually can't understand the touch tones that I am transmitting. To further confuse the issue, my phone still works great in most cities, just not the one I live in! I have severe problems making calls and voicemail in Greenville / Spartanburg SC, Harrisburg PA, Charlotte NC, Daytona Beach Fl. These access problems have been consistent for nearly a year, and do not appear to be affected by time of day or network call volumes. However, I can make calls out in the barren swamps of I-95 flawlessly, and talk for hours at 70mph with no problems, and only occasional static when between some towers. I just don't see how the phone can work this well everywhere else, but not at home, or in certain cities, even when outside with a full signal. I don't know if I have something set wrong in my phone, as I copied the settings over from the old 6500 manually through the programming mode. I keep the phone in the Scan BA mode to allow it to use either availiable analog carrier, but I have tried forcing it to the home only or B only to see if it would eliminate the problem, but it didn't. I really like this phone, and I have the 3 watt car kit installed in one of my cars, and adapter cords in the others, so I hate to switch to something else and loose all of the accessories, especially since I remember how perfect this analog service worked from 1998-2001, I don't see why it should have become worse. I've combed the web for info on this, but can't find anything, and of all the telecom friends that I have, no one is in cellular, so I don't know where to go. Thanks for any info you can offer.

[t720]

You should really switch to a digital CDMA or TDMA phone. It will usually have built in analog along with it's digital capabilities. If you think about it, sooner or later analog will be phased out and not used anymore...(ex. record --> casette --> CD) so later on the phone will be useless. Any provider will give you good digital service (well, depending on where you are).

[t720]

If you look on AT&T, Verizon and Cingular's maps...they all cover the places you need service in, as do many other providers. Those three would be my top choices though.