why are there still so may places in the county that can only get Verizon Wireless(CDMA) signal?

Are Cingular and/or T-Mobile not allowed to put up towers in those areas?
(or are they just too lazy/cheap to do so?)

In my home, I cannot get any Cingular/T-Mobile signal, even when out in the
yard. On the other hand, I get 3 or 4 bars of Verizon signal in my basement.
This is why I'm stuck with Verizon.... :(

That's funny cause I have Verizon and I have the spottiest service here. In Springfield and in/around DC obviously I get full bars but in Fairfax Station I get dropped calls all the damn time and can't get shit in the basement. I update my roaming all the time and updated the firmware at Verizon once but don't have time to stop by Verizon store during business hours. Of course there is a Verizon circuit city by where I work but when I asked them about firmware they looked at me like I was speaking chinese.

Where are you in Fairfax Station? I am roughly at the corner of 123 and Fairfax Station Road and the service in my neighborhood is spotty at best. I work out of a home office and typically have just 1 bar inside. This seems like a hole in Verizon's coverage.

SoupCamera Wrote:
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> why are there still so may places in the county
> that can only get Verizon Wireless(CDMA) signal?

it is because the telecoms run by bastards who insist that nobody use their wireless network but their customers. surprise, you're locked in! thank you telecom companies!


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Lester Burnham Wrote:
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> Where are you in Fairfax Station? I am roughly at
> the corner of 123 and Fairfax Station Road and the
> service in my neighborhood is spotty at best. I
> work out of a home office and typically have just
> 1 bar inside. This seems like a hole in Verizon's
> coverage.


By 123 and Henderson and I have basically the same experience.

I have had Verizon Cellular service for YEARS (!) No issues, I cannot think of the last time I dropped a call in this area.

I was out in Middleburg and past Hillsboro last week and did drop a call or two - but there is not much out that way except rural tracts of land. I expected service to be what it was.

I have two Verizon cellular phones, a Motorolla and an LG. Again, no issues with either.

Today, I drove from one end of Loudon County through 90% of Fairfax county on the same call, never once an issue of clarity - that was on the Moto phone.

Maybe it is your phone, not the service (provider)??

Unlike the other providers that just show you a map with all green, T-Mobile actually gives a map of exactly where their towers are and your estimated signal strength street by street.

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/

ffxn8v Wrote:
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>
> Maybe it is your phone, not the service
> (provider)??

Doubtful...we have seven Verizon phones for five people including two LG-VX8100s, Blackberry 7250 and assorted Motorola and Samsung models.

I am sure that some areas that you would not expect have great service, but there are still dead spots (or weak signals) in every carrier's coverage area. You can't have a monopole in every neighborhood.

We live in somewhat of a valley, but the coverage at the end of my cul-de-sac and in the woods behind my house is pretty decent, less than 200 feet from my office, is much better.

I have Verizon and get service most everywhere. Basically need it in downtown FX city and I get full bars. I even got service on the metro going into DC even underground no probs

I have a LG-VX8100. I upgraded to it specically to get a better signal. We also have an older motorolla with the same issues. I have had friends over there thought with T-mobile, Sprint, and Cingular that get no signal so I guess it's better than nothing. I get great signals on the metro too, they put antennas on the top of the tunnels (at least I was told that) so you can get service in the metro. New York used to have this but removed it because they were concerned about terrorism. First time I was able to use my phone in the metro I was very surprised though.

I believe CDMA standard allows more distance b/w towers compared to GSM. But I may be wrong.

I have sprint for personal and verizon for business. For sprint, I had a sanyo 2001 cheap phone, I almost always got good service. I was very happy with it. My new phone, an LG, sucks ass (for other reasons also) and doesn't get service near as many places (including my own house, which isn't a condo made of steel or concrete).

My verizon phone was great until last night actually, when I was driving down the parkway and it dropped twice in the same area you guys were talking about. Quite odd though because I drive this area daily and it's never happened to me before. I still am very happy w/ verizon.

LG phones do indeed suck ass. I have 3 of them and they're gone as soon as I can justify the $$$. Who makes the best cell phone? No fancy shit...just the best phone to make and receive calls? My friend's Motorola (also Verizon) seems to work way better than any of mine.

I was in Home Depot looking at fridges the other day and LG makes some nice looking major appliances....but I'd be afraid to buy 'em on account of their suck-ass phones!

We have Verizon and are happy with it. Rt. 17 is a dead area, even outside of Fredericksburg. As long as we re-program the phones every month or so they are alright. But you don't ever want to go to the one Verizon store in Fairfax. Even late at night there is a line and 2 at the most people doing customer support. That takes a long time. There aren't many places to sit down either. There usually isn't a line to BUY a new phone or service, but when you need help with the phone you better bring food and water to last half a day.

I think the air waves are overcrowded here too. I also have XM and have a hard time with the signal anywhere on the Beltway. There is only 1 channel that I can use on my XM WiFi that isn't already in use.

duh Wrote:
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> LG phones do indeed suck ass. I have 3 of them
> and they're gone as soon as I can justify the $$$.
> Who makes the best cell phone? No fancy
> shit...just the best phone to make and receive
> calls? My friend's Motorola (also Verizon) seems
> to work way better than any of mine.
>
> I was in Home Depot looking at fridges the other
> day and LG makes some nice looking major
> appliances....but I'd be afraid to buy 'em on
> account of their suck-ass phones!
__________________________________________________________________

Yes, that was my point exactly about the brand/model of cell phones - some seem to be better than other.

My Motorolla does have 1 bar in places my LG does not - not a big deal, as the LG means it goes straight to voicemail when there is no signal, Ha! ;-)

re: LG appliances, my wife dropped the bucks on the new (at that time) LG hidden control dishwasher and the side-by-side fridge, both in stainless. She did this while I was out of town... When I came home, they were delivered - she loves the products, they work well and look nice. The LG dishwasher, emits ZERO noise and the hidden control panel is nice and clean looking.

That reminds me, I heard certain gov assets around here use up serious amounts of the wireless bandwidth so that could also explain shitty service in the metro area with the plethora of government communications around here.

.