Provider in Orange County/Riverside area

I live in Corona, CA and frequently travel throughout North Orange County. Currently, I have AT&T with a Nokia 5160i phone. I like the service plan, but about 30% of my calls get dropped. I'm not sure if it's AT&T or my phone. Regardless, I'm ready to make a change - I can't stand it anymore. Suggestions on service plans for this area and phones with good reception (preferable ones that don't cost > $100).

Thanks!

[larry]

As a long time user of Sprint PCS here in Orange County I can highly recommend it. You will not get 30% of your calls dropped unless you're in a hard to cover residential area or in the hills. Give me the specific locations of where you want to use it and I will check to see for sure. I can also send you a list of Sprint cell site locations in Corona.

I often travel through Chino Hills (71 frwy) and the Santa Ana Canyon (91 frwy). Although I live in Corona, most of my time is spent in the Anaheim Hills, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Placentia area. However, I seem to drop calls no matter wher I am. I don't expect to get service everywhere, but I think I can get better service.

[larry]

Sprint should do the trick. You practically live and travel in the same areas I do! Anaheim, Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, and Placentia are all very well covered.

Sprint site locations include:

Anaheim/Anaheim Hills:

Imperial & 91
Lakeview & Riverdale
Orangethorpe & Miller St.
Canyon Rim Rd & Fairmont Blvd.
Weir Canyon & Santa Ana Canyon Rd.
91 E of Kramer
91 & 57
91 & Acacia St.

Yorba Linda:

La Palma & Fairmont
East Lake Village Center
Yorba Linda Blvd. & Highland Av.
Bastanchury Rd & Imperial Hwy.
91 @ Featherly Regional Park

Placentia:

Rose Dr. & Alta Vista
Yorba Linda Blvd & Valencia Av.

Corona and surrounding areas:

1150 WEST 10TH STREET
24475 MAYHEW ST
790 E. HARRISON ST
21880 TEMESCAL CANYON RD
SE CORNER/MAGNOLIA & CORONA
OFF 4850 GREEN RIVER @ 91
104 MAPLE ST
2770 GRIFFIN WAY
S MAIN STREET & MOUNTAIN GATE DR
SANTA ANA REGIONAL PARK
1150 W. 10th St

I'm not too familar with Chino Hills.

Thanks for the great info! I've also heard from others that Sprint would be a good choice. Can you tell me where you got the Sprint site location information?

[larry]

Send me a private e-mail and I'll tell you.

[bassman]

Anonymous -
It must be your phone! I am an ATT user and the last couple of weekends I spent most of my time throughout Orange County, often spending 40 minutes on the phone while driving around and I never had a dropped call! Try another phone before you go to Sprint.
I will tell you, however, that Sprint's coverage in Orange County IS very good. DO NOT sign a 1 or 2 year contract with them right off the bat - try them out first. I am a former Sprint customer who changed to ATT and the switch couldn't have made me happier. With Sprint be prepared to frequently lose your signal when entering a building. I don't know if it's just Sprint or that CDMA technology doesn't have the same penetration that TDMA has but be prepared!
I will just tell you that I am much happier with ATT than with Sprint. Be prepared to play hardball with their customer care people. GOOD LUCK! Keep the forum posted on your success either way.

Sorry Larry.

Jim

[larry]

I will agree with Jim that ATT should have good coverage in Orange County. Maybe it is the phone. Maybe not. But I don't think you will lose the Sprint signal inside of most places in OC such as malls, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. I rarely ever do. Maybe some big office buildings that have tons of walls inside or such. As far as the customer care thing goes well I do everything via their online system and it works for me. Oh and if you decide to go with Sprint I'll give you some tips on how to save some money when starting up.

[MzChristy]

I live between Corona and Perris, where until about 6 months ago, there was NO cell phone coverage. I used to be a field investigator and traveled all over Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and other counties. I could never ever use a cell phone (provided by my employer for work related calls) from my house, however. The carriers I've had in the past have been MCI Worldcom, AT&T, and Pac Bell. Everyone one of them promised that ... "...in six months to a year, we're going to have very good coverage where you live." Yeah, right. I finally got irked enough at the last one (MCI Worldcom) because of their horrible customer 'no-service' and hour long waits to speak with someone, and so I switched to SPRINT PCS. What a difference! About 7 months ago Sprint PCS built a transponder (?) tower in this area, when no one else was interested in doing so. Coverage is fantastic; I have yet to have a call dropped. Strangely, some pockets of west Riverside (in town) don't have very good coverage, but a conversation can still be maintained.

I have friends who live about a mile from me. They have Verizon as their carrier, and say that it is okay.

Good luck on finding a new carrier. I highly recommend Sprint PCS.

[larry]

MzChristy,

Welcome to the forum. Yes Sprint has been trying to get up coverage in parts of Riverside & San Bernardino Counties where no one else seems to want to serve. They have had mixed results in doing so. Some communties have been reluctant to give them permission to build any towers and others have welcomed the service. Look for more improvements coming soon to your area. By the way please stick around and continue to post as most Sprint PCS supporters seem to come and go with only a post or two. We need more Sprint people in this forum. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[JamesMH]

I also live in Corona North of where the I-15 and CA-91 meet. I use Cingular, get dropped calls a lot while driving around Corona, its quite hilly in places, McKinley to Hidden Valley Parkway.
Tried Sprint last August, zero signal where I live. Has this improved since then?
I have noticed cingular's signal has improved over the last few months.

I've noticed when a friend of mine is here, their Cingular TDMA phone roams really well, think onto ATT, they get a signal just about everywhere way more than me, even in the Majave National Preserve, I didn't.

[larry]

Sprint might very well have improved since you tried them. When I was visiting a friend in Corona last year near Main St. & Mountain Gate Dr., I had very little signal. I was there again a couple of days ago and this time had all 4 bars of signal. I found out that a new tower was added right in the park there. It was just listed on sprintsitesusa.com as a new site added. I'm not sure if this would help your exact area or not but Corona does seem like a difficult area to provide perfect coverage in. I did notice I still had a weak signal near Magnolia & Fullerton.