April 23, 2006 12:37 pm
Staying Connected
I love gadgets, but I’ve never been enamored with cell phones. I’ve had a one for about 3 years, but I’ve never gotten as much use out of as I’d like. I got very weak coverage at home, no coverage at work, and dropped calls as I drove between the two. With the large number of challenges the family has faced over the past few months, it was no longer good enough. I needed to be reachable, no matter where I was. What follows is how I made it work.
Here’s what I wanted: a phone and service with great coverage at a good price. I wanted it to work in every room in my house and every part of my office. I didn’t care about cameras, mp3 players, downloadable video or anything else that didn’t make it a better phone. The only exception was Bluetooth to use with a wireless headset, primarily for my wife who uses her phone a lot.
I could have just read Consumer Reports and bought the highest rated phone from the highest rated carrier. That’s where the search eventually finished. In the meantime, I personally tried 6 different phones from three different carriers, often side by side. I compared these with several other phones and carriers used by friends and family.
I started with Cingular, my previous carrier. My experience confirmed what Consumer Reports said, that static is a very common. My old phones had lots of static, and a new, highly rated phone from Motorola had just as much. It gave me coverage in just about every room at home but little to nothing at my office. I sent the phone back.
I then ordered two different phones from Sprint. For some reason, Sprint’s phone selection is much more limited than Cingular and Verizon. As it turns out, the ones I got were not rated very highly for coverage. I had one from Samsung and one from Sanyo. They were OK, with good (but not great) coverage at the office and fair coverage at home. There was no static. Maybe different phones would have met may needs.
I went to Verizon last, only because I was able to get discounted rates from other two carriers. I got a pair of Motorola 815 phones and they do everything I need them to do. I get coverage in the center of my office building, all the rooms in my house, and no static. The comercials are right, it’s all about the network. At least where I live, the Verizon coverage is measurably better than the others. I sent the other phones back to Sprint.
My had the new phones just in time. Within a week of getting them, we were making multiple trips to the ER followed by daily hospital visits when one of the boys had a two week stay. The cell phones became invaluable.
New Motorala cell phone: $50. Activation fee: $25. Borg-like Bluetooth headset: $50. Being able to connect with my wife as we split the parenting duties: Priceless.
