vB Easy Archive - GSM phone that does best on fringe areas

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GSM phone that does best on fringe areas
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Posted by: robr

I have a problem, I've moved and my wife and I both have 9 months left with our Cingular (formerly ATTWS) two year contract. Our phones (T616 for me, my wife has a Samsung with even worse reception) barely work. They ring less than half the time and we have to go outside to even hope to try to have a conversation, and most of those are bad too. It would cost us $175/each I'm told to cancel our contract and they claim the cheapest plan is $39.99/month (I thought about just getting a cheap plan and tossing the phones in a drawer and starting over). The only other thing I can think of is perhaps there's a phone that does will in fringe areas. Any ideas? Thanks very much!

Posted by: beatniks3

nokia's are the kings of reception.....

Posted by: wierdo

You could get a 6340i, they have good reception. You'll need to activate GAIT if you want to use it. Otherwise I'd suggest a 6200 or 6230. (All Nokia) Some high end Motorolas are reputed to have good reception as well.

Posted by: Chainblade

yes the phones you both have suck for signal. in general, Nokia's are the best in fringe areas. I hear the Moto RAZR is great as well, however I won't buy a Moto ever again because they are just not reliable and they are cheap. I have a Nokia 3120 and it works way better than some of the phones I've tried in the past. I travel in fringe areas fairly frequently and it works great. I'd try getting new phones before canceling. I had awful signal with my old phones and considering canceling as well. I had no idea a phone could make such a HUGE difference. Cingular is now pretty **** reliable. Good luck!

Posted by: wierdo

Quote:

Originally Posted by WDS Josh

I had awful signal with my old phones and considering canceling as well. I had no idea a phone could make such a HUGE difference. Cingular is now pretty **** reliable. Good luck!

I think Cingular would be better served by not carrying the phones with bad reception, even if it cost them more to give away the "free" phones. Those bad phones have to be contributing to a lot of churn.

Posted by: chonga

i don't know why ppl bash the sammy's
my gf had the x427 and that thing had good reception....better than my v551 and the same as a nokia 3120
and it's not that im partial towards the samsung cuz i never owned one!

Posted by: Chainblade

not all samsungs are bad. My wife and I had a X427m and it was pretty good. The C207 is pretty good too. The x426 was pretty bad though. For the most part I think everybody can agree that Nokia overall is the best. SE is getting better everyday. Moto is hit or miss, although i mentioned my problems with Motos above. Samsung is hit or miss too. Stay away from LG GSM phones they suck.

Posted by: boston_errol

Motorola V3 and Nokia 6230b equally share the same godlike reception holding ability.

6620 is a tiny tiny tiny bit lower but veryyyy tiny.

Posted by: robr

thanks for all the ideas. any idea on the cheapest place to get a V3 RAZR or 6230b with a return policy (in case the reception is still a problem) without a contract? I need to buy two and I'm not locking myself into Cingular again. I had them from 92-03, couldn't stand their customer service, switched to ATT and then they bought out ATTWS just to annoy me!!! I think VZN has the best coverage in my area right now, but I'll revisit that in 9 months.

Posted by: robr

ugh... called the local cingular store, they want $200 for a razr with 2 year contract (technically a 15 month since the 9 months i still have are void) or $70 for the nokia 6230 after a $30 mail in rebate. the monthly bill would be $5 cheaper though. sort of sucks new customers can get it free with a 2y.

Posted by: robr

whats the difference between the 6230 and 6230b? the b model isn't listed on phonescoop.

Posted by: chonga

the "b" version supports 850 mhz - basically the "b" version is the U.S./North America version

unless you live in europe/asia, you want "b" version phones.

Posted by: orchidghost

Quote:

Originally Posted by robr

whats the difference between the 6230 and 6230b?

The "b" version is the one Cingular carries. It supports the 850MHz band.