Beyond Frustrated with multple Carriers, What to do?

[ShaggyKids]

Hi there,

We live in the country about 10mi out of town. There is a tower about 2mi from us on I94. We have tried VZW (current carrier) and TMO and my service is lousy at home. When I go to work, I basically have close to no service in the building and I work and it's in a decent sized city.

I have a Samsung Flip3 which needs to be replaced and husband has an LG phone. He gets better service at home and elsewhere than I do which is ridiculous because the Samsungs are supposed to be better phones all around than the LG's. I checked both our phones in my office right next to one another and we both have 3 bars yet I have problems and he doesn't.

Stopped at Cricket yesterday. Definitely more affordable service which of course I like. I checked the coverage map and it shows we have great coverage at home and for miles and miles around us, but so does VZW and TMO so the maps are useless. Started reading various reviews and pretty much get that Cricket is very slow. So that's 3 company maps showing excellent coverage 2 of which lie and I don't know about the 3rd. I decided to come here where I trust I get straight answers and a lot of help after reading reviews. You never know when a review is real or if it's been paid for.

Talked to a co-worker who used to work for AT&T and she says its the 5G, everyone from any service is complaining about lousy service since 5G came along.

Another co-worker just got the Samsung S22 Ultra on AT&T and says she gets great service even in our building and that she always has on AT&T.

We can't get real internet out here so my hotspot is my internet service so I need to have better service than I have now.

I don't know what to do anymore. Tired of throwing money at potential solutions that wind up not helping. Husband hasn't worked since Feb and I can't afford to grab service somewhere just to try it and wind up paying return fees if I find out it doesn't work. Phone companies need to have test phones you can borrow to find out. Something like I leave my phone with you and I get to take one of yours home just to see how many bars I get and return to the store right away. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Deb

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry for all that frustration! I know it's a little ways off, but satellite connectivity is supposedly coming at some point, with T-Mobile having made an agreement with Starlink. https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/25/t...RJuGTFRVNnxz2RrypLws7Lq56PVxy5-A1rpqVBF5k8BmQ

 

[J Dubbs]

Hi there,

We live in the country about 10mi out of town. There is a tower about 2mi from us on I94. We have tried VZW (current carrier) and TMO and my service is lousy at home. When I go to work, I basically have close to no service in the building and I work and it's in a decent sized city.

I have a Samsung Flip3 which needs to be replaced and husband has an LG phone. He gets better service at home and elsewhere than I do which is ridiculous because the Samsungs are supposed to be better phones all around than the LG's. I checked both our phones in my office right next to one another and we both have 3 bars yet I have problems and he doesn't.

Stopped at Cricket yesterday. Definitely more affordable service which of course I like. I checked the coverage map and it shows we have great coverage at home and for miles and miles around us, but so does VZW and TMO so the maps are useless. Started reading various reviews and pretty much get that Cricket is very slow. So that's 3 company maps showing excellent coverage 2 of which lie and I don't know about the 3rd. I decided to come here where I trust I get straight answers and a lot of help after reading reviews. You never know when a review is real or if it's been paid for.

Talked to a co-worker who used to work for AT&T and she says its the 5G, everyone from any service is complaining about lousy service since 5G came along.

Another co-worker just got the Samsung S22 Ultra on AT&T and says she gets great service even in our building and that she always has on AT&T.

We can't get real internet out here so my hotspot is my internet service so I need to have better service than I have now.

I don't know what to do anymore. Tired of throwing money at potential solutions that wind up not helping. Husband hasn't worked since Feb and I can't afford to grab service somewhere just to try it and wind up paying return fees if I find out it doesn't work. Phone companies need to have test phones you can borrow to find out. Something like I leave my phone with you and I get to take one of yours home just to see how many bars I get and return to the store right away. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Deb

Your coworker is right about the 5G, you need to turn it off on your phone if you can. The reason your husband gets better service on his LG is because it's most likely a 4G phone, which is currently the much better option.

 

[jckatz]

Also Google Fi might be a good solution for you. Google Fi uses whichever network is best. That way if at&t works before at home and Verizon is stronger at work you get the best of both services.

 

[ShaggyKids]

I think we solved the problem. Went to Cricket yesterday, got a couple new phones and signed up. Figured if there's no other way to test this, I will return if it doesn't work. We both got MOTO phones, one was free and the other $49.99. They didn't have the Stylus but she's bringing in one from another store and I will exchange the Power for it.

I'm still showing less bars than hubby, but so far the reception is wayyyyyy better than VZW even on 2 bars I'm not having a problem.

On top of that money is really tight and we dropped our phone bill considerably so I'm happy about that.

It's still an eye opener for me that I'm getting better service on a less popular carrier than the top ones. I guess that means top dog isn't always what it's cracked up to be So, far, so good. Testing will remain in progress for a few days yet before the final decision is made. Thank you all for your help!