New Service Provider & Phone

Hi,
We are looking for a new phone and possibly a new provider. At this point we are open to changing from our current provider, which is Verizon.

We live in a canyon north of Albuquerque and had excellent coverage when Alltel was our provider. However, that great coverage ended overnight 14 months ago when Verizon took over Alltel. Since then, if I stand in the proper position I MIGHT get to make a phone call.

So, we complained to Verizon 3 times and they sent a tech out to our neighborhood. I never met with the guy but since they said there was nothing they could do to help they said my 2 year contract could be ended early without any penalty. But, we have not done that yet as we are unsure what to do.

We are fine with Verizon's customer service but at this point are open to changing. We just want to get the best reception at our house.

There is no land line and never will be. We only have cell phone service, sat TV, sat Internet, or 2-way radio Internet. The sat Internet was barely useable and the 2-way Internet I recently switched to is great.

We are looking for a phone that will have good reception & be inexpensive on a monthly basis. We currently use about 700 - 900 minutes combined per month between two phones. When we do travel it is usually to the Denver - Colarado Springs area, central California, Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc.

Since we are open to changing carriers, the least expensive carrier would be an appealing option. We do text but not very often. We do not like the idea of paying $20 - $40 extra per month for the data packages that seem to be required on the smart phones. The smartphones look to be really cool but that extra $ per month is not. We mainly use our phones for voice & text & the occasional picture when we forget the camera.

Our biggest concern is the cell phone reception at our house. SO, given we have a blank slate, what would you recommend we we look at? I will email the lat & long of our location privately. My phone is a Verizon / PCD WP8990VW flipphone I bought because it had a sim card and I thought I would be travelling out of the country. Thta did not happen so I am open to changing phones. My wife's phone is an old LGVX5400 flipphone that may or may not work, depending on it's mood., and hence the reason for looking for answers at this time. My wife has said she does not want a flipphone again as they always appear to have terrible reception, even in town. Thanks in advance.

 

We dumped Hughesnet....waaayyyyy too slooooowwwwww We no longer have sat Internet....

We considered the femtocell previously but that was when we had sat Internet. Now, it might work, but we are hoping to find the best path forward...an idea / solution that appears on the service to be 80% correct., before we buy, phone, plus....femtocel and or Wilson equipment and or ??? Will our lat & long work to help ID best service provider, best phone, best whatever? If so, I will email it privately.

 

Yes, I had to get another handset when Verizon took over Alltel. It was an old handset, as we tend to keep our phones for a long time, but still..it worked great with Alltel. I was told Verizon's system was different than Alltel and therefore that was why my handset just quit working one day..the towers were switched over. The PCD phone I have now is ok, nothing to write home about, but it is another flipphone like my old Motorola Startac. IMHO, the flipphones just do not have the capacity to have good reception, and I am not really confident any other style phone would either. But, I think I would like to try.

I am not sure about the network rationilzation..it could be. I could hike the trail about 4 minutes away at running speed and go up almost to the trail crest and have Alltell coverage. It was great. But, not Verizon, so maybe that is what happened....they took out an Alltel tower.

Lat & long on it's way to you.... the canyon is about 3.5 miles long/deep, north of the main road. Our elevation is 6,984 feet per my Garmin 305 Forerunner watch, and about 7,000' per the topo map. We can see the city from our house, although it is not a full unobstructed view...there is a small mountain / foothill, probably about 5,500 - 6,000 feet high, directly south of our house that splits the view. I can see the city on either side of the mountain. I can see way off in the distance above it, but not the city itself.

Also, if it helps, the 1st floor of our house is made of ICF forms: foam blocks filled with concrete. The 2nd story is solid cedar logs. The reception quality is the same inside or outside, 1st floor or 2nd floor. So, I am not sure if the construction material makes a difference, although some things I have read suggest it would. I have not seen that in reality in my experience at my house.

And, since I 1st posted this I have found this might be a good time to buy a phone given Black Friday is almost here. Now, I need to figure out who has the best deals. I wish our friend's was before Friday night, as Black Friday will be over by then!