New to the forum but need some wisdom

I live in the NY Catskill mountains where cell service is spotty at best. Zero signal here at home but up the road a mile or so I can make a call. Even my internet has to come via satellite and only the 2 providers consider this HS.

We need new cell phones but I am at a complete loss as what we should invest in. We don't text and have never been able to use our phones for anything but phone calls. They are very basic phones used in an area that has very basic service if any service at all.

My thought is that a smart phone in this area would be a complete waste but I don't honestly know if a better phone will give us any advantage. Living in an area that is more in tune with turkeys it is hard to fly like an eagle and we have been in the dark ages and still are.

We currently have a family plan for the two of us at $70/month that gives us 700 shared minutes of which we rarely use more than 20 minutes total between us. Wife calls me at our land line from work to let me know she is on the road where she will soon have zero signal.

My question is; Should I remain with the very basic phones or step up to much better smart phones. There is no hope of better service because the town rejects every attempt to erect towers. We are not travelers so I would not buy better phones for when we go to areas that have good signal. I actually wonder why we even have cell phones given the uselessness they have here. We might be better served with a pay as we go basic plan with basic phones that might work in an emergency situation or when we get in to the local towns and villages.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks Joe, 12777, Forestburgh, NY and Verizon seems to be the best according to what others say.

 

Thanks Max. From everything I have heard, next door neighbor bought and installed an amplifier, there needs to be some signal for it to be able to amplify. When I say zero signal at my home I mean zippo and I can't even get the time to appear. It just says "Searching for signal". My brother has the newest I Phone and is not able to text from here which he claims is ridiculous.

 

I believe that "line of sight" is our issue here. Mountains and tall trees all around us and no cell towers in our line of sight. As I said, I can go about 1 mile down the hill and get a partial signal or I can go 3 miles up and find a good signal. We need to have a tower right by our fire company but the town leaders so far have been against one. Even with a tower at the fire company there is no guarantee it will provide signals to us.

I don't know if it relates at all but I can't get an AM or FM signal here either. We use satellite for XM radio, TV and internet.

 

Could be I am not using it right but it shows no towers here at all even where I know they are!.

 

Thanks JFB but not a working solution here as this unit does not support satellite Internet connections which is all I can get here.