Verizon in Wisconsin - Could use help selecting a phone

If I were you I would get the RAZR V3m for both your lines, it has great reception, battery life, and pretty good quality. You don't really need a tri-mode phone, mainly because Armageddon for analog is just around the corner (like I think it's going to be turned off in 2008). If you get any phone from Verizon Wireless you will get service up north, because you roam offa' Alltel and I think they have pretty good digital service up their. I'm not to familiar with the LG's, maybe someone else could help you out with that...

 

I live in WI (around Portage) and have the 8600. It is a great phone and gets good reception. Voice quality is also very good. I don't know anything about the 5300. I also had the RAZR V3m for a few months and it too is also a good phone!! I like the 8600 better because with LG phones, I can force the phone into Extended Network when I know I'm in an area that has low VZW signal!!

 

No way, not at all, Analog is going to be shut off permanetly next year.

 

I have the LG VX8600 and I am very, very happy with it. It has excellent reception. I wouldn't recommend a Motorola, but that's just my experience. With Verizon, you'll be able to roam onto Sprint and Alltel and don't worry about analog because digital is the dominant technology and analog will be phased out over the next couple of years.

 

I am extremely interested in how you go about forching your phone to roam. I was completely unaware of this. I only thought you could do that on GSM phones. I live in an area that will go back and forth on signal, so that'd be great to know how to do!

 

Well, in highly populated areas it will be shutoff right away. So they can add more capacity and free up the spectrum. In fact cdma coverage should improve dramatically because of the increase in spectrum and the carriers will save money in maintenance costs and utilities (power is more for analog). But they will not shut if off entirely. In rural areas they will leave it up until they get around to replacing it with digital. Which does/will cover most if not all areas by the end of 2008-09 or so. The only thing that is changing with analog is that government will no longer require carriers that have it now to continue running it, it will be optional. They are not just going to shut all of it off as soon as the deadline is up.

But you will likely not even need the analog. I would just go with an all digital phone. You won't need the tri-mode.....

EDIT: I would go with either the RAZR or the 8600, Motorolas are typically the best phones out their. LGs are question marks until used, the 8600 does decently with reception about the same as a RAZR.

 

Here is how: Go to Menu, enter 00000, select "Force Mode", then select PCS for 1900 only, or cell for 850. In WI roaming for Verizon is 850.

To the OP, not having analog in WI should not be a problem, and as sillybilly mentioned the ability to choose roaming on the LG phones make them a great choice. The only way I can get a useable signal in my area is to force it to roam on 850, which is USCC. I went from a LG 6000 to a 7000 with no regrets and will probably get the 8600 when I am eligible later in the year.

Hope this helps

 

Sorry correction, you have to enter 0000000

 

I thought Verizons red screen of death would limit the extra functions of the phones to choose networks. I played with my in-laws Verizon LG (not sure what model) and it was real hard to navigate around the UI. Real hard to figure out the camera, but of course getting the downloads was real easy to get to.

 

It is very easy to go to the "secret menu" on LG phones and from sillybilly's post I can see that LG has not changed that in the newer phones either.

In my experience, I find the LG UI simpler than the Motorolas and pretty close to the Nokias.

 

Verizon indeed has not changed their "secret menu"...yet...On newer LG models like the LG 8500 and 8600 it still works just as you described.

 

At least you guys found a way around it. Ive played with a LG flip and a Chocolate, I like the phone but wasnt impressed with the UI.

 

On the Analog thing Alltel and Cellone have pretty much the same stance, as soon as the FCC gives the go ahead-the analog goes by by. I talked to an Alltel tech the other day and thats the word I got from him. Now that everyone is migrating to Digital it does even pay for itself to run. Most of the analog isnt well maintained. There are still a few hard core people out there that wont get rid of their bag phones.

 

Interesting you mention this, but that means that ALLTEL and some of the other smaller carriers need to get on the ball, because there are still plenty of ALLTEL sites that are STILL AMPS/TDMA ONLY.

 

Does Alltel really still have TDMA/analog sites still out there? I know when they went CDMA they didnt do them all at the same time but I figured they would be caught up by now. A buddy of mine owns a oil rig company and Alltel has been sending them letters to hurry up and convert their analog before its cut off. The company keeps bag phones because they are usually in the middle of nowhere and the CDMA coverage is alot smaller than the analog.

 

There are areas mostly out west, former Western Wireless areas that still only have analog. But it's not a whole lot or anything.

 

I applied to Western Wireless as a RF Engineer back in 2003. They were running CDMA (1st GEN) and analog at the time. I remember talking to the Head engineer and told him my story of driving thru their area and told him I couldnt use my Voicestream phone untill I got all the way to Minnesota. He told me then they were CDMA and were in the beginning phases of looking at a company to overlay GSM for roaming. I didnt get the job anyways they desided not to create a new engineer job and tried to off me a Cell Tech job in Iowa, Montana or Wyoming. At the time I was in Washington state.

 

Exactly right. Some popular destinations are still Analog only. For example, ALLTEL's site on Navajo Mountain, which covers a huge chunk of Lake Powell is still TDMA/AMPS. GSM phones are dead on most of the lake, ALLTEL's own phones often roam on Verizon CDMA, coming from the same location, but Verizon has been digital there for years. I understand that Navajo Mountain is a very hard area to get to, but I would think it would be worth it for their GSM roaming revenue...