Need better RF

[pacellist]

Help. My wife has just moved temporarily to Cambridge, Harvard Sq. area, and ATT-Cing coverage is at best iffy. Between us we have four phones, and none hold the signal reliably. In descending order of rf they are:
Nokia 6590
Motorola Timeport p280
Siemens S56 (tied)
Motorola v180 (tied)

She prefers a flip phone, but right now we just need to be able to hold a good connection. Bells and whistles beyond that are less important. In fact if we can't make a good call, they are irrelevant. Are there any phones that have a noticeably better rf than those four, especially than the 6590?

And what about external antennas (I don't mean the stick-in things that are essentially a rip-off.) But the small verticals like you see on cars. Do they work in a house?

[wymi]

The Nokia 6010/3595 has incredible RF, you can pick up an unlocked 6010/3595 on ebay very cheap.

[moofur]

Hm... it's weird that you find the 6590 lacking in the RF department, since it's been known for that.

But ya, try the 3595. If that can't get you RF, then i don't think anything can.

[pacellist]

Yeah it surprised me too that the 6590 wouldn't hold a signal. It almost, but not quite does. The area may just be too weak for any phone, but something with a little more solid rf might do it, if there is such a thing. That's why I'm inquiring. Thanks for the recommendations about the 6010.

[Gunner1]

If the signal is not there then no phone is going to work. You should put a phone in test mode and see what dB strength you get on the carrier there. Do they even have 850 deployed in that area?

[TelecomZombie]

Wirelessly posted (Killed By Death: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Check your FW versions are current on your phones because those are some of the better Gsm RF performers.

[TelecomZombie]

Wirelessly posted (Killed By Death: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

Change of technologies or carriers maybe in order also.