I'm looking to get a cell phone as my sole telephone once I move to my new home in Ames, IA (home of Iowa State University). I need a service provider that provides rock-steady, crystal-clear reception indoors. I currently have a T-mobile phone that I thought would work well, judging by their little computerized "real-time tower info" dealie at the T-mobile kiosk. I'm in Lebanon, PA for a vacation at the moment, where they showed the entire city covered with "good" reception - I'm lucky if I can hold 2 bars in my mom's house without standing by a window! It's the same thing everywhere in the Lebanon area; little to no reception indoors. However, Lancaster, PA seems to have much better reception, but i still think this phone is going to be sent back. So, my question to all of you is who can provide me with great reception in Ames? I understand that AT&T, Nextel, and Verizon are the 3 alternatives to T-Mobile in Ames. Might I be satisfied with T-Mobile in Ames?
well there is no real yway of telling...coverage maps give you a rough idea..the reason you have to stand next to a window is because either the tmobile tower is far away or since t-mo operates on a 1900 mhz frequency it has poor indoor reception...i suggest looking at Att TDMA, nextel or Verizon..unless Ames is a populated area and t-mobile has many towers there...you will get poor indoor reception using t-mobile...
The populated areas of Iowa are actually surprisingly well-covered by GSM... the eastern half of the state has Iowa Wireless (part owned by T-Mobile) and the western half has T-Mobile corporate. That said, you will want a phone that does analog, which kills GSM. It's a long way between towns in some parts of the state, so if you drive about you will want analog... I had USCC at first, and then went to Cellcom, but I didn't live in Ames... I lived in Independence.
You do have a couple other options in Ames. US Cellular and Sprint PCS are also available in Ames. I have Sprint PCS. I've worked in Ames and had no problem with coverage, even in the fringe areas like the ISU Research Park. US Cellular has blanket coverage in Iowa and is very popular across the state. I don't know about T-Mobile though. I haven't had any friends who have chosen T-Mobile because of their lack of rural coverage with analog. I'd imagine that T-Mobile's coverage within Ames would be good because they have been there for a while and Ames is relatively flat. If you are planning to commute from Nevada to Ames, which many people do, T-Mobile won't do you much good. Good luck
