Cell Phone Problems, Smart Phones and Replacement Cell Phones

Having cell phone problems of one kind or another is frustrating to say the least, especially when the problems affect business calls that should never be missed or lost. Problems like missed calls, dropped calls and battery problems have caused us to start looking into the possibility of buying a new smart phone, buying a replacement cell phone and/or changing our service provider. We have used Cingular/AT&T as our service provider for a few years and to say that the coverage is spotty and unreliable is putting it mildly, but is Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint any better?

Calls drop when going from a 2G tower to a 3G tower and vice versa, and there are local areas we refer to as “dead zones” where we have no cell phone coverage at all. There are times when someone calls our cell phones but the phone doesn’t ring at all, where the call is immediately sent to voicemail and there is no message indicating we missed a call or have a new voicemail. Is that a AT&T coverage problem, a cell phone problem, or both?

Even though the contract for our cell phone plan doesn’t expire for a few more months, we’ve been told we can get an upgrade and new cell phone/smart phone now rather than waiting until our contract comes up for renewal, as long as we sign a new contract with AT&T. We don’t want or plan to sign a new one-year or two-year contract with AT&T because we’re seriously considering switching to another cell phone provider like Verizon, who reportedly has the best coverage in the U.S.
Read the rest of this entry »