Orange County CA --> need opinions

[Powder]

Greetz all.

I'd like to ask some of you Orange County users what your opinion is on the different providers.

Also, will any of them be adding the Nokia 7210 or 6610 in the near future?

Thanks. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[714tmobile]

T-Mobile: Good [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

They have growing pains, much like any other provider...but their coverage is good and the minutes are generous.

Sprint is also an viable option.

Verizon has excellent coverage, however, you are going to pay a premium for the minutes.

Cingular (i've heard) has gotten *WAY* better and they're the only ones to have rollover minutes (which I think is a cool idea).

You may want to check them all out and see what they are offering.

Also, if you want *specific* coverage info, post what cross-streets or locations you're curious about and most people on this board will say "Yay/Nay" on which provider.

[ockidd15]

I had both Sprint & Verizon here in OC, but I had to switch to Verizon because Sprint didn't work inside my home for some reason. Both were great in OC. Neither will carry the Nokias, unless its in the future. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[larry]

Actually Sprint is going to offer Nokia very soon. The 3585 was supposed to have been released by Sprint this month.

[714tmobile]

Actually...they *did* offer a Nokia at one time...

the 2170 although it was recalled (because of quality problems, i was told). They gave motorola or Qualcomm phone as a replacement

[OCMIKE]

For 3 years we had ATT in Buena Park / Cypress and had lousy coverage. I would call every few months or so to put in a trouble ticket, and on several occasions the CS rep would say just be patient and bear with us we are upgrading, mind you this is back in the TDMA days. The trouble ticket was for lack of coverage at our home, 0-1 bars. Sometimes the CS Rep would put in a trouble ticket and sometimes they wouldn't and I did not have the time to wait for another brainless CS ATT rep. We tried nextel for 3 months and there service was terrible and expensive, plus we could not use the phones in our house.

I noticed that about 8 months ago a new cell tower was going up about .5 miles from my house. It was disguized as a tree. I asked the workers who the tower belongs to and they said Verizon. Well I decided to give ATT one last shot and switched from TDMA to GSM and the service was terrible and worse then TDMA. I called CS several times a week to get touble tickets made, and to speak with their techs, but they said they could not let them speak with customers. I though what a crock. Then I asked ATT CSR how far away from my home and I from an ATT Cell Tower and they would not tell me it was like secret they said. So I was pissed with the lack of customer support and coverage from ATT and gave Verizon a try. I signed up for an account with the Motorola T720, I had a 15 day remorse period to cancell the service with out paying for the phone just the service I used. Well after a day and a half we switched to Verizon. Anywhere it seemed like I went I had no less then 3-5 bars. I have full coverage in my house which is great I make alot of calls with my cellphone, cheaper then using a home line.

I would recommend Verizon they may be a bit more, but if you see the coverage they have you can understand why, they have to pay for all of those towers and roaming agreements with other carriers. Believe this you get what you pay for, so if a service is cheap, well you know the rest.

just my .02 cents.
Mike

[Powder]

Thanks guys. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I think I've narrowed it down to T-Mobile or Sprint.

T-Mobile has better plans, but Sprint has cooler phones. Tough decision. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[larry]

Sprint is very good in OC. If you tell me your location I might be able to tell you how coverage is.

[Apoc]

Larry I concur just dont get T-Moible!!

[ockidd15]

Yea, if your choice is between T-Mobile and Sprint, choose Sprint.

[larry]

Yes! Sprint just fired up the new site at the 22 Frwy & Main St. in Orange! I now get 4 bars everywhere around there instead of the usual 1-2! It must have come on air sometime between 11AM and 4PM today.

The new site in LA at the 60 Frwy & Indiana St. also came on yesterday. No more drops on the 60. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Powder]

Ok, Sprint it is. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I would also like some advice about getting a phone... (I heard Samsung phones don't get good reception and have low volume)

Also I have 3 locations:

Home:
Beach Blvd. / Slater Ave.
Huntington Beach

School:
2461 West La Palma Drive
Anaheim

Work:
610 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach

Thanks everyone. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[larry]

Unfortunately you picked three areas that I'm not too familar with. But it sounds like those are areas that should have pretty good coverage.

[Powder]

Thanks anyway, Larry.

Maybe you can recommend a good phone for me?

[ockidd15]

When I had Sprint, I was actually around those areas a lot. Not specifically the ones you posted, but very close and I seemed to get good reception there. Sometimes, it was hard to get a signal inside a building. But it was good.

[larry]

Originally posted by: Powder
Thanks anyway, Larry.

Maybe you can recommend a good phone for me?

Sanyo 4900 is a very good one. Kyocera 2345 is also good and not too expensive.

[socalanon]

610 Newport Center drive is Fashion Island I believe. Are you familiar with that area Larry? Also what about Balboa Island/Pennisula in Newport. THanks

[Jodi]

I work in OC & my job requires me to travel all over the county. My husband also works in South OC...here's what we've experienced...

Cingular...Lots of dead spots! Especially in So OC. We found Newport had some strong areas & many dead spots.

ATT...Worked great in the North & Middle parts of OC, but my husband couldn't get any reception in So OC (Lake Forest, RSM, El Toro areas), so we had to scrap this company.

Now we have Verizon. It's the best reception around in the area between my location & my husband's. We rarely have dropped calls, so the few we do experience, we live with. I usually have between 4-5 bars of service at any given time.

Hope this helps!

Jodi

[larry]

Originally posted by: socalanon
610 Newport Center drive is Fashion Island I believe. Are you familiar with that area Larry? Also what about Balboa Island/Pennisula in Newport. THanks

Fashion Island seemed to have a good signal last time I was there to see a movie. I was just at Balboa Pavillion in Newport last week. Perfect 4 bars of signal in the arcades and restaurants.

[WalterElf]

Just switched my ATT service plan to their extended multiband plan. Got the Siemens S46 which is a multiband phone and supports TDMA and GSM.
I live in Ladera Ranch and have nice GSM coverage. Cool thing about the Siemens, when you are in an area without GSM the phone switches to TDMA. So far I did not have any dead spots in
Mission Viejo, Newport, etc ...

I guess you get the best coverage in OC by Verizon (don't know if they offer GSM) but GSM will
take off (networks of T-mobile or ATT are growing rapidly) and is the better technology (I have 5 days standby and ~240 minutes talk in GSM mode now) .

Also you are able to buy any phone that works with SIM cards, just install the card of your provider and hook it up to their network...

Siemens S46

[caliguy]

go verizon
best coverage in o.c area
sprint is dead in certain areas and works horrible indoors compared to verizon

anyways thats my 2 cents

[larry]

caliguy:

I feel I know Sprint in Orange County as good or better than anyone else (5 year OC customer and traveler) and I'm just wondering where these so called dead areas are? I know there's a part of Irvine (Turtle Rock area) that is pretty much dead but other than that I haven't encountered anything else in the past several months.

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: 714tmobile
Actually...they *did* offer a Nokia at one time...

the 2170 although it was recalled (because of quality problems, i was told). They gave motorola or Qualcomm phone as a replacement

I had (still have, actually, just deactivated) a Sprint-branded Nokia 6100-series (the 6185?)... so they sold Nokias at some point.

[larry]

Yes back in 1999 they offered both the 6185 and the single band CDMA version (I think it was the 5170) for a short time. The reason for the discontinuation was poor network performance and other issues such as not being wireless web capable. I believe they also had problems of not being able to update the PRL over the air.

[caliguy]

mostly i had low signal in cerritos,cypress,hawaian gardens area, the thing that bugged me the most was i would go indoors ie. cerritos tgi fridays and i would have no signal where verizon had 4 bars. i dun know, i am sure sprint is great in some areas but in my area where i live sprint is treated like dirt. also i had 1 bar if lucky in my home. cingular had 2 bars and verizon has 4. another thing that pissed me off about sprint was there customer service is horrible. i would have to be on hold for 10-20 mins. when i call verizon service i am answered fast with a live rep not a stupid computer that asks you to say stuff. i forgot i think it was that lame clair system. oh!! i hated there customer service.
anyways like the thread said need opinions so that was my opinion.

[larry]

Well Cerritos, Cypress, & Hawaian Gardens is mostly in LA County but you're right the signal does get a little weak indoors around there. Sprint did activate a new tower recently near Cerritos and one in Bellflower which have helped. They had planned on a new tower with Cingular in the Cerritos Towne Center disguised as a clock tower but unfortunately the whole thing fell apart. Hopefully they will find an alternative soon. But most of Orange County is covered a heck of a lot better than those areas are.

[Gman]

From experience , I know that Cypress is well covered with Sprint. The TGI Fridays is in the parking lot of the center that Sprint had an antenna planned in Cerritos.

G.

[714tmobile]

Hi all...

It's been a while... I received a promotion at work (yay!), so my time to read/post has been next to nothing for the past few weeks. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I haven't had any problems w/ coverage or the service in the past few weeks (knock on wood).