Problems with Verizon Aug 17, 2009 Henry Lahore

Evergreen Coho Park has been having problems with Verizon cell phone coverage recently.
I asked for a show of hand of people having problems with Verizon recently - about 10 responded
Herm had heard that the Verizon cell tower at the local airport which points toward the park failed a few months ago. Herm now has an AT&T cell phone.
Verizon provided no schedule as to when service will be restored.
I had called Verizon twice during the last week stating that I no longer could get Verizon connection in the park and this area the way I had for the past 7 years.
Also, I can get no connection at the local grocery store (QFC).
I got zero bars of cell signal yesterday North, East, West, and South of the airport.
Verizon told me that they were unaware of any problem.
Fortunately there is an Extended cell phone service (non-Verizon) about 2 miles away – just North of the WSU branch (near the bank and fruit stand).
I am using that Extended Service in my RV with a Zboost cell phone amplifier – getting 1 or 2 bars of cell service in my RV, but no signal outside of my RV.
The Verizon EVDO (air card) signal uses a different frequency that the cell phone and it appears to not be affected.
I am frankly amazed that Verizon is able to provide such poor service for an extended period of time. I would think that it is a safety issue, at the very least. People with Verizon in the park would probably find it difficult if not impossible to call 911.

Oct 15, 2009

Returned Zboost cell phone amplifier - worked nicely, but too expensive and did not help when outside of the RV
WalMart has just announced a very low cost cell phone service - using the TracFone system
TracFone uses GSM/AT&T, as well as CDMA/Verizon.

Oct 17, 2009

Good overview of the pre-paid cell phone wars http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Deals/Prepaid-Cellphone-Wars/

Oct 24, 2009

Rats, the WalMart prepaid calling plan only works with the CDMA/Verizon portion of the TracFone system.
Thus unable to use WalMart without antenna in Coho
I am now considering using AT&T via TracFone instead

Nov 2, 2009

$124 buys 800 minutes of use of TracFone for up to 1 year for Judy. Uses AT&T network. refills are $100 = 12 cents per minute
Speaker phone on the TracFone Motorola phone is not very loud or clear.
Will soon get pageplus to use our old Verizon cell phones on Verizon network - 1200 minutes per month for just $30
Extensive information on cell phones,including Page Plus on the excellent Howard Forums

Nov 15, 2009 Conclusion: No longer directly using Verizon

Judy uses the TracFone phone on the strong AT&T signal in Coho - somewhat expensive @ 12 cents per minute
Henry uses the Page Plus phone with a roof antenna on the weak Verizon signal in Coho $30/ month for 1200 minutes can roll-over = 3 cents per minute.
The pre-paid services have no contract, unllike the Verizon 2 year contract, which had expired for us,
The TracFone shows right on the screen the number of minutes remaining.
Apparently the Page Plus phone will have an audio reminder when the month/minutes are nearly at an end.

Many reviews of prepaid cell phone providers, such as:
Top Ten - TracFone is 10th
http://www.compare-prepaid-cell-phones.com/
http://www.prepaidreviews.com/
Note: Wal-Mart is too new for those reviews: $30 for 1,000 minutes, $40 for unlimited minutes
uses TracFone - which usually uses Verizon, if not, it uses AT&T: TracFone uses Verizon at Coho

Traveling = off-network use while RVing
The TracFone has no roaming capability and the PagePlus costs about 70 cents per minute to roam off the Verizon network - down at Long Beach, for example
With the two phone services we anticipate getting more connectivity than we had with Verizon.
We will use Skype (@ about 3 cents per minute) with our EVDO (high speed internet) for any extensive communications which we need to do off-network
The TracFone is a GSM phone, so it appears that we will be able to use it for future international travel - just buying a SIM card for the foreign country.