Best call/Voice quality?

Ok, I know this has proably been done before. But really which company IS THE BEST for voice quality?

I'm guessing the best voice quality is between Cingular and Verizon?

I'm going to be using the cell phone in Southern California, so which provides provides the best coverage (and call quality) overall in So-cal? (Los Angeles and Orange County areas)

Like when I talk to someone on the phone, I want it to be CRISP and CLEAR as possible. (and only going to be using phone in the two areas mentioned above). I noticed that when I use sprint to talk to someone, it sounds okay, but when I tried using someones Cingular phone it actually made the person sound more clearer and crisp than my sprint phone. Does cingular have the best voice quality in southern cali?

I tried looking at the different provider maps, and by the coverage maps it seems like Nextel has the best coverage in two areas I mentioned above. But does having more towers in the area mean better voice quality, or just better reception?

Also does anyone know how accurate this site is: http://www.cellreception.com/towers/

I did the tower search, and it seems like nextel has the most towers around this area, and also ones closest too my work, etc. Nextel has 2 towers in the same city, and another tower in the next city over. So perhaps that's the best choice, assuming that site is accurate in the tower placement. But I don't know, does Nextel has the best call quality? I don't talk on the phone much, hardly ever, but when I do I want to sound really crisp and clear to the person I'm talking to!

Also how does call quality work? Like, if the person sounds really crisp and clear to me, is that due to MY cell phone network having good voice quality, or is that due to the OTHER person's network having good voice quality?

 

Hmm, yeah, I dunno. I used a cingular phone to call my manager, who has cingular, and it just sounded more clearer and better quality then when I earlier used my phone (sprint) to call the same manager. Not majorly, but just enough so I could notice a difference. And both the sprint and Cingular phones had full reception in the same spot, but cingular just sounded a little better quality. Maybe it's the cingular to cingular thing that made it sound more clearer? Or maybe cingular has better quality than sprint? Hmmm, I have no idea.

T-mobile, I want, only because the main person I care about talking to also has t-mobile. Although i want the clearest call/voice quality when talking to them, I don't want to sound "far away" or kinda staticy. (which is how it was when I called my friend, I have sprint and they had T-mobile, and they said they couldn't hear me well, etc).

I could try Verizon, but for some reason I have a hard time believing they have the best voice quality. Verizon seemed to kept dropping the calls, phone not ringing, etc. (my mom had Verizon).


I know that it depends on the exact location, but overall in general in southern cali? Or how about this for example:



I'm one on so and so blvd, in southern cali, and have full reception with Nextel

I'm on the SAME blvd, and have full reception with Cingular

I'm on the SAME blvd, and have full reception with T-mobile

I'm on the SAME blvd, and have full reception with Sprint.

I'm on the SAME blvd, and have full reception with Verizon.

Now, assuming they all have great reception on that blvd, and i make an outgoing call, and the person I am calling also has great reception where they are at, which provider would provide the clearest call/voice quality? I know, hard question, but someone out there has probably tested out every provider over and over again and might know.

All i want is when I have a good signal (3 bars+), with any provider, is to have the best Voice/call quality. Which company would that be?

 

I currently have a Sprint A-640.

I actually really like Sprint, a lot, I get reception so far everywhere I've been.

But right now I might need GPS NAV on my phone, and the only sprint phones that offer it are blackberrys I believe.

So what I might do is get a Nextel phone + plan +data subscription+ televnav, and use that, and then if Nextel doesn't have good service/voice quality, then I was thinking of getting prepaid something else.

Whether it be Sprint, Cingular, Verizon, or t-mobile. (I don't think Sprint offers pre-paid though).

I like sprint because it can roam, and almost always have a signal. But I thought my A-640 was capable of analog roaming. It says it is on amazon it can, and when I go to "force roam" sometimes it reads Analog roaming. Although when I try to make a call, nothing happens, most of the time the call counter won't even start up, although sometimes the call coutner starts counting up and all i hear is pure static, and it doesn't ring. When I try calling myself when in analog roaming mode, it rings a bunch of times then goes to my voicemail - but my phone itself doesn't ring at all. I called tech-support and they told me that my phone isn't capable of analog roaming. I said "but it says it is", and they said "well, it's capable of doing it, but it can't do it".. Ahh? lol. They said that the sprint towers are CDMA, and they won't relay an analog signal to my phone. How is that? There are analog towers I'm sure around here, so why doesn't that just relay to my phone? I'm sure that's what it's picking up anyways. I'm not sure why, but I've never gotten analog to work. Even when I have 2 bars of analog reception it still doesn't work. The person at tech support told me that only the older phone models work with analog, even though my phone reads "analog roaming" and says it's analog roaming capable. Doesn't make any sense to me.

I'll be using my phone pretty much only in the northern and southern Orange county areas in California, but wasn't sure which provider has the best call quality around here.

 

Ahh, yeah, I get what you're saying, Andy84094. I thought it was probably because there wasn't really an anlog tower close by, (because it was only picking up 0-1 bars of analog roaming). Although in rural areas they are probably more analog towers, so I'm assuming analog is mostly in rurals areas.

I don't use analog much although sometimes when i use roam only, I get analog instead of digital. Not that often, though.

So I'm guessing in urban areas/major cities Analog roaming is almost useless, but in rural areas it'd be usable then?

As for the PRL list, what's that? And how do I update that?

And for Nexel.. It says on the site "Provides wide array of digital and analog wireless communication services, including mobile telephone and two-way radio dispatch, paging and alphanumeric ..."

Digital AND analog? I thought Nextel's iden network is all digital, which part uses analog? Does the direct connect run off something else? I also wonder how that nextel direct talk sounds, probably really clear.

Thanks for the replies though!

 

PRL: 10035

No idea what that means?

 

Hmm, yeah, digital only is pretty good now-days with the expanding coverage. Although until they replace all the analog sites with digital sites, then analog is still useful. Also analog reaches farther than digitial, so they'll need more digital towers.

Although I'm still wondering why Cingular sounded clearer when I used it. Because both phones had full reception, but for some reason it just sounded clearer on the Cingular phone. Dunno.

T-mobile, I don't think they'd have the best call quality. Isn't t-mobile on the lower end of quality, but you get more minutes? I mean I want t-mobile cuz the person I talk to the most has t-mobile, but I doubt they have better coverage than Nextel in southern cali. And they have no Telenav, which I might need.

For Nextel doesn't their towers supposedly have the best pentration due to being 800MHZ, and in Los angeles and orange county, perhaps nextel would be the best, since they got lots of towers (and their towers reach farther and better). I don't know, hard to say. I have no idea how Nextel's call quality is either.

I'm still debating on which company has better voice quality: Sprint, Cingular, or Verizon. Hmmmmm

 

Yeah, I can tell Larry knows what he's talking about hehe. I wasn't saying Larry was wrong, I was actually just saying that I think NEXTEL has better coverage in Los angeles/Orange county than T-mobile. I can't really tell, but by the coverage maps that seems to be the case.

As for the whole Cingular ATT#T, and T-mobile thing..

So when Cingular bought out AT&T, Cingular sold out its old Network too t-mobile (only in los angeles sites, or all of it?) and Cingular started to use the AT&T network? If so, why? Was the AT&T network better or something? So basically now t-mobile runs off the former Cingular network?

 

What will that do for people with Nextel? Will it affect reception at all?

 

Very nice! So Nextel is adding a lot of new sites in southern cali? Nice.

 

Ok, well still trying to figure this out heh.

How about if I ask it this way:

Overall, which carrier has the best call quality? (not best coverage, but best call quality). Let's say regardless of phone model.

Like, for example:

Let's say that you had SPRINT and there was a sprint tower .5 miles away.

Let's say you had cingular, and there was a Cingular tower .5 miles away.

Let's say you had Nextel, and there was a Nextel tower .5 miles away

Let's say you had Verizon, and there was a Verizon tower .5 miles away

If in those situations, regardless of the phone, which carrier would PROBABLY have the best call quality? I know no one really knows the answer for sure, but which carrier would PROBABLY have the best call quality?

Also another side question for anyone: does your phone model make the calls sound only clearer to YOU, or does it make you sound clearer to the person you are talking to (or does it do both?).

Currently I have Sprint, and I just set up a nextel too (I need it for Telenav). So now I currently have 2 contracts, and was going to just transfer my sprint account over to Nextel, that way I won't have to pay 2 bills. I don't use the phone much, so no way would I need 2 phones and 2 contracts at once!

So I was thinking if Nextel doesn't have good call quality, then of keeping Nextel for it's Telenav and then getting prepaid for another carrier. I want the best call quality, not the best coverage. Remember they are two differerent things. For example, you can have great coverage with say, I dunno, say Alltell, but have poor call/voice quality. And then you could have say, Nextel, and have a smaller coverage map, but better call quality/voice quality when in your coverage zone.

Although I wasn't sure how good Nextel's call quality is. Is it one of the best, or the best? I heard before on the news back a year or two ago that it actually was ranked the best (in terms of call quality, NOT COVERAGE).

If nextel's call quality is superior, then I'll just stay with them. If not, I was thinking of Cingular or Verizon prepaid. Or maybe sprint, because I haven't had any problems with them. I just don't know how the call quality is, my friend says sometimes I sound far away, etc. And don't say t-mobile, lol, let's be realistic here.

In my area, almost all carriers gets good reception outside, so seeing that I was wondering in these situations where all carriers have a great signal - which carrier is most likely to sound the CLEAREST and best? (regardless of phone model, just in general)