Free State Wyoming Forum
Prospective Free State Wyoming (FSW) Members and Interested Parties => Prospective Free State Wyoming (FSW) Members and Interested Parties => Topic started by: Scheherazade on June 06, 2014, 01:11:42 PM
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I imagine that the answer to this question varies from place to place within the state. Which companies have good service in Wyoming, and which have bad service?
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I imagine the question is more one of which carrier sucks less...they're all bad, all over N. America.
Its a bad thing when some third world craphole of a country has better cell service, cheaper, than the US does.
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Depends a lot on what sort of service you want. Tracfone does pretty well in most areas with basic voice calls and texting, as does the other no contract outfit, Net10 (or whatever the name is). If you want the wi-fi and all the other bells and whistles, probably not so much. I have no experience with any of the full contract outfits.
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I use a cheap, off the shelf Tracfone I bought at Walmart and refill monthly with prepaid cards. 45 bux per month with unlimited calls and texts.
On our recent trip to Guernsey I had excellent coverage and no issues. Way cheaper than the ATT service we paid 160 per month for when we left Jersey.
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I've still got my old clamshell dumbphone, with an antenna that pulls up. It always gets better reception than my wife's fancy- schmancy smart phone. Maybe that pull-up antenna is still important...
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Are there any solutions out there for weak cell phone areas that involve some sort of larger antenna and the ability amplify and rebroadcast the cell signal for better coverage in your house?
I have heard that some cell phones have the ability to automatically switch to using your home network to make calls rather than relying on cell signal. I'm not sure what limitations this might have in terms of what phones will work. Probably an older stupid phone like mine wouldn't be able to do that.
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sbeckman: Amazon has a couple of options from Wilson, zBoost and others that do exactly what you described. Search for cell phone repeater. If you have good service outside one of these units may increase the signal strength inside. We use something similar in our office building and it does make my phone useable if I'm near the inside part of the repeater. The coverage outside is marginal so there is not much signal to repeat.
I considered something like this at home but ended up getting a phone that switches to my WiFi (Nokia 521) and it works fairly well. The call quality is good (we have pretty solid internet service) but the phone does not always want to connect. At work jumping to WiFi is a total no-go since the company will not open the necessary ports through the firewall.
You can get a Nokia 521 on T-Mobile without a contract for $75 or less. It's a Windows phone so you don't get all the Apple or Android apps but the price is right. Plus the included mapping software is pretty nice - download maps for free and view without network access.
Hope this helps,
Catfish
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Catfish,
Thanks for the reply. This sounds like exactly what we need.
At our house I have 1-2 bars of signal whether inside or outside. Doesn't seem to make that much difference.
If I could have an external antenna and some gain then we should be solid at least inside the house.
I'll look into this a bit more.
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I polled a few friends before posting this. Most live outside the city limits of Casper.
Verizon has the best urban coverage and data Tx.
Union wireless has the best rural coverage statewide.
T mobile has rural coverage in some places that verizon fails.
Wilson smooth talker seems to be the best off-the-shelf amp. It still needs SOME signal to boost though. The amp i have was 700uSD.
pW