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Old 10-07-2016, 07:30 AM   #1
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Cell phone reception while traveling

On the recent cross country trip to acquire Prairie Schooner, I was dismayed with both the cell phone and the truck's internet reception. The truck's issue is not that important but my T-Mobile with the iPhone 6 was really sporadic. No service or third party towers were abundant on the other side of the Mississippi. This was my first cross country trip with both TMobile and the iPhone 6.
Well I went to T-Mobile yesterday and they were aware of the problem. They said that they allow third party providers to use their towers in exchange for using their towers in other areas. So roaming is not an issue.
Reception with the IPhone 6 is poor. It seems to be an Apple problem which was fixed with the iPhone 6S which came out last year. TMobile will trade my phone for a $60 fee and give me the IPhone 6S. I still owe $300 on the old phone which they will forgive and drop the price on the new phone so that my payments will drop $5/month but I now owe them $550 for the new phone. They also guarantee better reception or my money back.

Am I being taken for a ride here or is the new iPhone 6S that much better in reception than the first IPhone 6? Anyone with this phone, please let me know your thoughts, thank you,
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Old 10-07-2016, 08:06 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
On the recent cross country trip to acquire Prairie Schooner, I was dismayed with both the cell phone and the truck's internet reception. The truck's issue is not that important but my T-Mobile with the iPhone 6 was really sporadic. No service or third party towers were abundant on the other side of the Mississippi. This was my first cross country trip with both TMobile and the iPhone 6.
Well I went to T-Mobile yesterday and they were aware of the problem. They said that they allow third party providers to use their towers in exchange for using their towers in other areas. So roaming is not an issue.
Reception with the IPhone 6 is poor. It seems to be an Apple problem which was fixed with the iPhone 6S which came out last year. TMobile will trade my phone for a $60 fee and give me the IPhone 6S. I still owe $300 on the old phone which they will forgive and drop the price on the new phone so that my payments will drop $5/month but I now owe them $550 for the new phone. They also guarantee better reception or my money back.

Am I being taken for a ride here or is the new iPhone 6S that much better in reception than the first IPhone 6? Anyone with this phone, please let me know your thoughts, thank you,
I am heading towards Spokane as we speak, on our way to Chilliwack to pickup our 21 "Stargazer". Have had no problem with our Verzion reception or Sirius XM reception.bought phone for $50.00, $62.00 a month for two phones and 700 shared min. $ 25.00 for 5 months for XM. Kinda glad i got the simple plan.
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Old 10-07-2016, 08:33 AM   #3
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We have Verizon cell phone service. I have an IPhone 6 and my traveling partner has an iPhone 6s. We live in MA. We have made round trips to Chilliwack, Yellowstone and Florida. We are traveling in Nevada presently. There have been very few places where we didn't have service. Occasionally the iPhone 6s might have 2 bars and the iPhone 6 1 bar so the iPhone 6s has slightly better reception.
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Old 10-07-2016, 08:50 AM   #4
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I can't help with T-Mobile or the iPhone 6 - I'm still in the dark ages with an iPhone5, but I have found that a Sleek amplifier (now WeBoost Drive) makes a big difference driving cross country on secondary roads for my AT&T service.

On national highways and major state roads (as well as interstates, of course) I rarely lose signal. When I do, voice service usually still works, but data may stop. Like any cell service, there are parts of the country that don't have any service, but with the amplifier, there are rare (even more rare with my Verizon Jetpack in a similar amplifier).
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Old 10-07-2016, 09:53 AM   #5
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We have Verizon because there is better coverage here in the west - my sister has T-Mobile and has little coverage when she travels between Washington and Minnesota.
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Old 10-07-2016, 09:54 AM   #6
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cell phone reception

Our whole family travels a lot, daughter to East coast and everywhere else, son western area and us, usually out west only. We all have Verizon and Apple with no problems and minimal lack of reception. Just in mountains we lose out at times unless it's a freeway. Disclosure- I do own Apple stock and have had Verizon at times, good dividends.
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Old 10-07-2016, 10:02 AM   #7
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Handsets (phones) are going to make only a marginal difference. A carrier''s network is the key. There is a no doubt that Verizon is by far the best network for cross-country travelers. Just ask a trucker what he/she uses. While AT&T has pretty good voice coverage the fact they use so many roaming partners compared to Verizon means you will probably be getting an alert saying you have exceeded your roaming data allowance for the bill cycle- a generous 100 MB- which of course is nothing.
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Old 10-07-2016, 10:07 AM   #8
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Cell phone reception

Hi Jim
We have Verizon too. One of the things I like about Verizon is that when we cross over into Canada, we get a message from them that service is available in Canada for $2.00 per day. We use it. If we do not use it that day, no charge. It updates each day and goes away when we re-enter the USA. It worked well at Osoyoos, St Malo Provicial Park in Manitoba and across Ontario when we went to Niagara Falls. My IPhone makes me know that I am pretty much clueless when it comes to using all the features provided. Good thing I have a 7 person technical support staff led by my 9 year old grandson.
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Old 10-07-2016, 10:26 AM   #9
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Hi Jim
We have Verizon too. One of the things I like about Verizon is that when we cross over into Canada, we get a message from them that service is available in Canada for $2.00 per day. We use it. If we do not use it that day, no charge. It updates each day and goes away when we re-enter the USA. It worked well at Osoyoos, St Malo Provicial Park in Manitoba and across Ontario when we went to Niagara Falls. My IPhone makes me know that I am pretty much clueless when it comes to using all the features provided. Good thing I have a 7 person technical support staff led by my 9 year old grandson.
Dave
We just changed our plan to the new Verizon Plan XL- 16 GB for four phones and they just added 2gb to two of our lines for life yesterday as it just popped up on their end as being available. Total bill per month for four phones with tax is $180. That price is with all lines being out of contract. We buy our phones on Amazon and while they aren't the latest/greatest they do everything we need and a lot more- and we're saving $20/line each month. This new plan lets us use our phones in Canada or Mexico and call both from here at no charge. Keep checking your plan at least twice a year as the industry is super competitive- thanks primarily to T-Mobile who is on a tear for customer adds. If I lived in a big city and didn't travel much I would use them.
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Old 10-07-2016, 10:39 AM   #10
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Traveling across country and living in the boonies...Verizon, seems for us, to have the best coverage.
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Old 10-07-2016, 10:59 AM   #11
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Same here. I'm going to change to Verizon as it seems to have better reception.
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Old 10-07-2016, 11:07 AM   #12
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Verizon is the only network that provides coverage in our rural area. Visitors with various other networks have had no coverage. We have traveled extensively around the country using Verizon and have generally found only sporadic areas with no coverage; ie in valleys and in very sparsely populated areas of the West.

I just got a new iPhone 7 and it does seem to have 2 bars of reception here when my older 5s used to usually have only 1.
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Old 10-07-2016, 11:27 AM   #13
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I'm still in the dark ages with an iPhone5,
We're even farther behind you with our clamshell, flip phones.

We pay a 100 bucks for 1000 minutes and I usually don't use them all in a year, so they roll over when I buy another 1000 minutes.

Yeah, not big cell phone users here. But, I know that may change with the trailer getting used, so we've started to talk about our options. I'm hoping I can use my Ipad mini for the times I want to check weather and routes. We really don't want to pay those huge monthly rates for a phone.
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Old 10-07-2016, 12:19 PM   #14
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We're even farther behind you with our clamshell, flip phones.

We pay a 100 bucks for 1000 minutes and I usually don't use them all in a year, so they roll over when I buy another 1000 minutes.

Yeah, not big cell phone users here. But, I know that may change with the trailer getting used, so we've started to talk about our options. I'm hoping I can use my Ipad mini for the times I want to check weather and routes. We really don't want to pay those huge monthly rates for a phone.
My AT&T plan is also an antique. 450 minutes with rollover for $35.00 per month. When I moved to an iPhone (the original) adding unlimited data was another $35.00 per month. They raised the unlimited data by $5.00 a couple of months ago so my total bill with a job related discount is around $73.00 per month.

I have rollover on the voice - the last time I checked I had 3000 minutes, and while they call the data unlimited, when you hit 22GB, they slow you down for the rest of the month. I would have to give up the unlimited data to tether the phone, but I use it a lot for internet radio, Pandora, etc on the phone itself. The most I've used for a month was just over 20GB.

I have a Verizon Jetpack from Millenicom that was transferred to Verizon when they shut them down. $100.07 per month for 20GB. I pretty much use all of the Verizon data each month when on the road.
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Old 10-07-2016, 02:02 PM   #15
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We're even farther behind you with our clamshell, flip phones.

We pay a 100 bucks for 1000 minutes and I usually don't use them all in a year, so they roll over when I buy another 1000 minutes.

Yeah, not big cell phone users here. But, I know that may change with the trailer getting used, so we've started to talk about our options. I'm hoping I can use my Ipad mini for the times I want to check weather and routes. We really don't want to pay those huge monthly rates for a phone.
Raises hand proud! Flip phone here also! Never text either.....a bit of a dinosaur....
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Old 10-07-2016, 03:34 PM   #16
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I have used AT&T on at least 10 trips to distant destinations in the US plus three to Canada. I found minimal interruption and very good service. AT&T is now offering free Canadian roaming on voice, text and data. You have to ask for it. They offer the same for Mexico and the Caribbean. I just used the Canadian for three weeks in the Maritimes and had excellent service.

Just the past couple of months AT&T began a plan with no overage charges. Between the two of us we have 1 Gig of data and will run out while travelling. For this we get dinged $20 for another .5 Gig of data. The new plan, which includes roll over minutes, does not have an overage charge. Rather they throttle your speed. We have encountered the throttling and do not find it to be much different. You probably cannot watch videos, but we refrain from that anyway. I find the peace of mind not worrying about overages a nice feature. I believe the plan is costing us $45 each.

If you purchase this plan and give them my name I will receive thousands of dollars in money and swag. Do it!
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Old 10-07-2016, 04:15 PM   #17
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Raises hand proud! Flip phone here also! Never text either.....a bit of a dinosaur....
OMG, I got a text once (other than the usual junk/spam ones that I delete) and I didn't know how to reply to it. So, I never did. Hardly anyone knows my cell number and that's the way I want to keep it. I had to laugh when a business once tried texting to my landline - they just assumed it was a cell number. (Least I think that's what they were trying to do.)
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Old 10-07-2016, 04:37 PM   #18
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Originally Posted by Iowa Dave View Post
Hi Jim
We have Verizon too. One of the things I like about Verizon is that when we cross over into Canada, we get a message from them that service is available in Canada for $2.00 per day. We use it. If we do not use it that day, no charge. It updates each day and goes away when we re-enter the USA. It worked well at Osoyoos, St Malo Provicial Park in Manitoba and across Ontario when we went to Niagara Falls. My IPhone makes me know that I am pretty much clueless when it comes to using all the features provided. Good thing I have a 7 person technical support staff led by my 9 year old grandson.
Dave
Dave we just used that $2 a day plan when we picked up our 5.0 a couple of weeks ago and it is definitely user friendly!
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Old 10-07-2016, 04:44 PM   #19
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Raises hand proud! Flip phone here also! Never text either.....a bit of a dinosaur....
I got a flip phone also! Don't want no Smart Phone that is smarter than me. I don't want to text, don't do facebook, i don't tweet, don't want to. We go visit our grandkids, our daughter, and they have they're faces stuck in those things. People's whole lives revolve around those stupid things. How sad.
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Old 10-07-2016, 04:47 PM   #20
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[QUOTE=Am I being taken for a ride here or is the new iPhone 6S that much better in reception than the first IPhone 6? Anyone with this phone, please let me know your thoughts, thank you,[/QUOTE]

Yes, I think you are. We switched to T-Mobile from Verizon when they offered a buy one get one half off iPhone 6s. We also wanted the Binge On feature which allows you to stream apps like Netflix and HBOnow without using data. Love the phones but not the service. We traveled to Escape Industries in BC in April from Las Vegas Nv. We traveled down the Oregon Coast on our return through Northern CA and back to NV at Lake Tahoe. Service was very sporadic. For the most part only available in metropolitan areas with 4G or LTE. In rural areas we sometimes had E which only allows for voice. In other situations we had roaming, but with a limit of 200MG per month.
In July through Sept we traveled to Southern Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona same problem.

We are waiting to pay off the phones and will then our goal is to have 1 phone with one carrier and one with another if we can make that work for a reasonable price.

Hope this helps.
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