Cell Phone Reception
 

Has anyone in or near the Village of Duval experienced problems with reception of his/her VERIZON cell phone? When we were there in May, we received poor reception (or none at all). We are snowbirds and will be returning next week, and would love to hear others' thoughts, problems, solutions.

Thanks

Re: Cell Phone Reception
 

I will be very interested in the answer to this question. I have Sprint which according to their coverage map is very spotty at best. However, there were many responders who felt otherwise. When I was in TV in September, I then experienced spotty coverage myself. I had made up my mind that I was going to switch to Verizon when my contract was up in February. But, perhaps Verizon is not the answer.

Any recommendations appreciated!

Thanks, Pat

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We've been here since early 2004 and have yet to have a problem with our Verizon phones. Not once have we failed to have a signal or had a call dropped - anywhere in TV

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We live in the village of Caroline and have experienced problems with Sprint since we bought in April. We only get one or two bars on the reception signal strength and have had a lot of calls dropped. Our contract is up the end of this month and will probably switch to another carrier. Anyone from Caroline have any suggestions on a carrier that has good coverage in that area. :dontknow:

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When we leave our "home" service area and travel we often upgrade the roaming capability by dialing *228, then "send" and option 2. This will make reception much better if your normal service area is not TV

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Nextel seems to be the most popular with everyone around here. Most of the gov. agencies and contractors in the area have Nextel. I have Sprint and do find "dead" areas. The roaming feature is an option but it is expensive per minute for roaming.

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After much analysis I switched to Tracfone ( yes martha, the "pay as you go" phone). I have had AT&T, Sprint & Verizon all with varying degrees of success and expense. I travel a lot in my work (on the water) and hands down, Tracfone has THE BEST coverage of all. During two recent house hunting visits the TV I was in every nook and cranny and not once did I notice any drop in service.

The reason for this is that Tracfone has arrangements with ALL major cell carriers to use their tower. For that reason, I may have service on a Verizon tower when the SPrint user next to does not have service. I have shipmates who have mostly Verizon and Cingular and I always have service when they do not.

BTW, I only pay .08 cents per minute and they carry over indefinitely. Not a heavy usage month?.. no problem, the minutes will hang around. I used to think my 2000 minute Sprint plan was the nuts until I started paying over $120/mo for 2 phones and figured I was paying, on average for 1 year of service, .24/minute. That is all costs divided by minutes used.

I can;t comment on other "pay as you go" phones at the moment but when I looked 2 years ago, Tracfone offered the best features.

Another nice thing, you own the phone, no contracts, your existing phone number can be ported to the phone. buy minutes right on the phone, etc. etc..

But I ramble on......

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P.S. on Nextel....

My employer provides a Nextel phone for use the job. I find it to have the worst reception and performance of all services. Very undependable signals and calls drop out all the time. This is in the metro areas of Baltimore and Philadelphia. High end phone set too!

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How about AT&T/Cingular?

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I have T-Mobile - and had great reception when we visited TV in March.

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My wife and I have NEXTELL and we have been using both the cell phone and Direct Connect in the Villages with NO problems. Our home base is Caroline but we travel all over from lopez to 466A. We have experienced few if any dropped calls and we use the Direct Connect quite a bit. Nextell has been great all along the I-95 routing from Florida to NY as well as Florida to Atlanta.

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We have T-Mobile. We aren't in TV permanently yet, but we drove from Calif to TV and spent a month in TV. Since we haven't had a house phone installed yet, it was our only phones. Never had a dropped call in any state and had great reception in all areas of TV. Called Calif every day and made many FL calls. With the "5 Favorites" and all calls to T-mobile cells included in the base charge, I hardly use any of my minutes. Great program and service. :bigthumbsup:

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Verizon reception in TV is great! There is a dead spot by US301 & Hwy 42.

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my 2 cents - was down in TV in april .. have Verizon for cell plus TMobile for blackberry/cell.... didnt have any issues.. it is my opinion overall Verizon has a broader coverage across the USA...