New Towers In Service for AT&T
 

In today's paper (8/15) there was an article that the two new cell towers for AT&T are now up and running. Has anyone noticed improvement in their AT&T signal?

Now have 5 bars inside the house. Used to be only two. Yeah.

We're in Tamarind Grove...in the last few days we've noted a remarakable improvement...4 bars...4G. Knew nothing about the activation of two towers until the Daily Sun called yesterday. Anybody want a very unused MicroCell? It never worked here for us.

Yup, 5 bars, even in the house. YEA

No More Outside Trips
 

Hooray, now I can talk without going outside with the phone; had given up hope!:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Did the article mention where the towers are located?. What good news! That will help us Consumer Cellular folks, too.

Yeah

I was giving them until the end of September before I switched. Anybody live south of 466A who can tell me how the service is there? Thanks.

sent you a PM

3 bars
 

Sanibel 3 bars inside and outside house. It's an improvement but not much.

I suspect that as the new growth south of 466A continue to expand down towards 44/44A, this same issue with cell phone reception will crop up for those southernmost areas.

Bill :)

ipad will be happy sprint phone not so much

Sitting in McDonalds in Colony Plaza
 

Only have one bar here. Wait two, no three, no two. Well not consistant. At home in Charlotte I have two bars so I'm going to get the mini tower.

AT&T Towers
 

Anyone in the Village of Buttonwood notice any improvement. My house is in the Patio Village area of Buttonwood and I had very little to none for service when I was there in April. Appreciate hearing from my neighbors in Buttonwood to see if things have changed. :highfive:

This is good news! ATT service (which I have) is dreadful in the southern part of the Villages. In fact ATT service kinda sucks EVERYWHERE!

Service now is 4 or 5 bars inside and outside my house in Buttonwood.:coolsmiley:

yep, that's why I switched to virgin mobile, $55 for unlimited EVERYTHING!!! with at&t it was more like $120, over $200 for me and my wife now we pay about $100!

Microcell
 

Bought a microcell for our home in Hadley because we saw no improvement in our amount of bars this week like most everyone else. Installed it this afternoon and now we have 5 bars all over the house. I am thrilled. You can buy them from ATT.com. We've had reception problems for the past 2 years since we got ATT. Also had problems with Verizon not working in our home. The microcell just plugs into our router and then into the wall plug. Then you go on line and register it. So easy.

Bars
 

I had 4 bars in St James. Yay! A friend asked me to check out Seabreeze. I had 4 bars outside of Seabreeze and 3 bars inside. I told him I couldn't find one bar between St. James and Seabreeze...but it was morning. ;)

Does Virgin Mobile have its own cell towers? How is there reception? I'd like to consider an option other than Verizon when I get there. Anyone else have comments about Virgin?

From Virgin Mobile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :

"Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint Nextel. Founded in 2001 as joint venture between the Virgin Group and Sprint Corporation, Virgin Mobile USA began offering service as a mobile virtual network operator in 2002 via the Sprint CDMA 1900 MHz PCS digital network.[9] On 28 July 2009, Sprint agreed to pay US$483 million to the Virgin Group for the portion of Virgin Mobile USA, LLC that Sprint did not already own. [10]

There is no roaming to other networks in the United States.

In June 2009 Virgin Mobile announced and started a pay-as-you go mobile data program called Broadband2Go in the United States, using Novatel Wireless hardware, and available exclusively through the Best Buy chain of stores originally, but now available at other retailers including RadioShack in the United States. It uses a small USB modem for internet connectivity.[11][12][13]".

Bill :)

I have a Virgin smart phone and no contract plan at $25.00 per month. I do not make a lot of calls but do use the internet. The plan has 300 minutes per month and I never come close to that. As far as coverage in TV it is so so. Some areas I have no problem and in others nothing. A number of places I lose coverage when I go inside a restaurant but for the most part that is okay with me.

Overall I would say the coverage is fair but not good. I guess you get what you pay for and I am not about to pay the high price that some carriers are charging. If you are needing full coverage with no dropped calls anywhere in TV I would look to someone other than Virgin / Sprint, it all depends on your needs.

VG

AT&T was terrible last year so we were forced to have land phone. Does this mean we can get rid of land phone? Do many people have land phones still? If so, for what reason?

Dropped our land line a few years ago. Felt strange to "cut the cord" but love it. We have AT&T and have for years. We live north of 466 and have had decent service throughout the years. Of course, the cell phone bill went up because we needed more minutes, so it was basically a wash, financially. But, we don't miss the land line.

so my sprint will still be hit or miss might have to change

At Bonifay I could hardly ever get a signal, Now I get 4/5 bars and quick 3G data when checking radar......FINALLY

we will be changing also
 

We currently have Sprint in Sabal Chase - sometimes no coverage, other times you will drop a call if you turn your head. Seems like it used to be a little better a year or so ago. Our contract is up in October. We will be snowbirds again if we buy the condo in Ohio we are considering.

We currently have a landline in TV with no long distance service. We both prefer it to cellphones when possible, just easier to hear, IMO.

Lots of people in TV have dropped their landlines and then gone back to getting them again. Even with good coverage, I think cellphones sometimes do odd things - like a voicemail coming hours after it was left.

My biggest issue is me - I am constantly forgetting to turn the volume back on from vibrate, or it is buried in my purse. I suppose I would just get better about locating it and checking it if it were my only phone, but I would also questions what might happen in an emergency - would I be able to find my phone, or would somebody else be able to - like a grandchild - if the need arose.

We will be using cell only - with a new provider - in Ohio, so maybe that will get us all the way into the 21st century. Debating to go with AT&T with the 550 shared minute plan (because of the rollover minutes) or Consumer Cellular, which also currently uses AT&T Towers.

Leaning toward AT&T because of free phones (with rebate) and the rollover minutes. We figure we will have megaminutes rolled over by the time we go to Ohio in late spring most years. Typically use about 200/mo. with a landline, but probably around 600-900 without one. We do not feel we need smartphones and a data plan at this time. I would just waste more time online! We travel with a laptop.

Thanks for getting back to me. That is great news. I was close to switching to Verizon but will stay with At&T for now. Now all I need is a new phone! Thanks again.:beer3:

Bob

I'm sorry, but unless I lived out in the boonies around East Bugtussell, Kentucky I'll be danged if I would let AT&T charge me for EXTRA hardware.... just so my phone would function in my own home on their LOUSY network. I would have no choice but to laugh in their face.

I've said it before & I'll say it again: Verizon has by far the best network & best coverage, anywhere. Hands down.

We used to have Verizon cell service. Loved it - good service just about everywhere. An occasional dropped call when switching towers. Lousy reception in areas where they acknowledged their service wasn't very good (WV mtns, for example). Had Verizon for many years.........and then we moved 4 years ago.........to what was apparently "The Bermuda Triangle of Verizon Coverage" in central OH. Go a bit up the street either way - good signal. Unless we stood in just the right places with our tin foil hats on, reception on our property was weak at best. Constant dropped calls......not good for my business. Same problems experienced by our neighbors. Verizon sent a tech out to check out the signal issue - they acknowledged there was a problem with the coverage and graciously - and voluntarily - let us out of our current contract with their apologies.

The only service that's usable here at the house? AT&T. So that's what we have now and their service seems every bit as good as what we had with Verizon. Same occasional dropped calls deal, not much service in the mountains, and until recently, poor coverage close to 466A in TV. If we were frogs, I'd have been yanking my hair out with their coverage issues we'd experience while we were there. But given our snowflake status, it's was more of a nuisance than a show-stopper problem.

I think all of the cell service providers have some issues. Ex.: I work around a lot of guys who have Sprint/old Nextel and they constantly curse their phones and the service. It mostly depends on where you are when you're trying to use your phone - that's what seems to be the biggest determining factor with the quality of signal/service.

JMHO!

Bill :)

:a20::beer3:

I'm surprised Virgin Mobile has any bars. Could make it hard for them to live up to their name.

:posting:

Subtle.......very subtle, P......... :D

Bill :)

South of 466A
 

I would like to know this too. I sure hope so. I don't want to change providers unless absolutely necessary.

See post #28 in this thread - it has someone's feedback regarding their reception at Bonifay.

Bill :)

they are on sprint/t-mobile cellular towers and, as most do, usually lease space or facilities on other providers towers. my reception was as good as att but probably not so now (do people near hadley still need microcells to get the promised excellent reception). You couldn't get any reception, before the new towers, where they put the AT&T store without a microcell.

If you research it, Virgin mobile is now owned by Sprint. T-Mobile uses Sprint towers.

Update on my installation of a Microcell. AT&T salesperson went back to get one out of the back and muttered something about $199. My wife asked me if I was going to pay that much and I said no. When he came back he asked for my Villager ID and said the cost would be $49. The one in Louisville was free, but I went ahead and purchased this one.

Plugged it in. Went to the website to set it up. Made a mistake (due to having 2 microcells, one in Louisville and here in Charlotte. Called the service number and they fixed my problem. Well not quite. They did fix my mistake on setup, but now the microcell says it is in a location that is not listed as my address. They had to open a trouble report and said they will have to contact the US Post Office. It should be ready in a couple of business days. So maybe I'll have better service this week... maybe... hate it when wife complains about her phone cutting out...