service in New England

I live in Connecticut. I carry Verizon.

In New England GENERALLY, I'd vote Verizon.

What the best service is in YOUR BACKYARD, I can't say. And only you can decide whether you are mostly interested in your backyard or elsewhere through the region.

My wife and I hike. We have hiked throughout the New England region and are frequently in the 'rural' areas of the states. I also travel throughout the region on business.
Everyone we hike with seems to have a cell phone of some kind. In general, my Verizon phone (StarTac 7868) works as well and in as many places as any of them. It often works where others don't -- and is frequently in analog mode. Are there places where my phone doesn't work? Sure! Quite a few, unfortunately. Are there places where someone else's phone works and mine doesn't? Sure! Are there many? No! Does Verizon work in my backyard? Marginally! It's a lot better from the second floor than from the first and a lot better from the backyard than from inside the house.

Do I care? Yes and no! I am not trying to replace my landline phone. If I really, really want to make a free long distance call from my house, I can go to the second floor and almost always make it without difficulty -- or in the summer, I can go to my back patio. I recommend that people who want to phone me call my lineline number. If I'm expecting a call and I go out, I will call-forward the landline to my cellphone.

For WESTERN Massachusetts (west of I-91), I'd probably vote Cingular as my SECOND choice (based on friends recommendation and the fact that I carried a SNET phone many, many years ago!). Note however, that it is NOT an eastern Massachusetts power (that's definitely Verizon country) nor a New York or Vermont provider. So -- as I said above -- it depends on where in the state and region you really want the thing to work well.

 

I live in Ohio, but I would say that if the signal from Verizon isn't getting through your house, then Cingulat definately won't, because Cingular operates at a frequency of 1900 MHz, and Verizon operates at a much lower 800MHz.

 

Here's a link to Nextel's more detailed coverage map, this will tell you if you can get good coverage in your home. Just put your address in and "zoom in".... it will tell you what kind of coverage you can get...i.e In buliding, car or street coverage. Nextel's coverage

 

Christopher/aiwapro,

Sorry! But in those areas of WESTERN Massachusetts where CINGULAR has service at all, it is 840MHz. They are the "A" side carrier. Verizon is the "B" side statewide. Cingular has NO 1900 service in Massachusetts.

And FYI, "A" side in Eastern Massachusetts is mostly ATT with a smattering of others -- mostly, I think, Cell-1.

From my friends experience, VoiceStream service is very bad to non-existent in western and rural Massachusetts.