Can you hear me, aye?

pdxkevin · 05-14-2003, 05:52 AM

I am not the most gentle when it comes to wireless phones. Most have parished because of hard use. So I am on a quest for a durable cell phone with clear, crisp, reliable service. Hopefully with a company that has decent customer service and covers the OR/WA area including the coastal line and those remote areas between.

There probably isn't such a company nor phone. There must be one that is doing a good job.

Are there any phones designed for the fisherperson? So far I have found one that looks like it would work. the Ericsson R250s Pro is water, dust, and impact resistant. You can drop it in the mud, rinse it off, give it a shake to get the excess water off and it is good to go. The downside is that it is being sold in EU and does not look compatable with the US systems.

Which wireless company do you recommend? and Which model of phone do you recommend for rough handling?

pdxkevin · 05-14-2003, 06:00 AM

We had Verison - service was great. the phone lasted 2 months. The second phone lasted almost a whole year. I was going ot get another phone but it was cheaper to switch companies and get a new phone through the new guy.

....well, the phone has lasted almost 9 months now but looks like it is nearing the need for life support. The service is terrible, the sound quality is terrible, and I get roaming charges in downtown Portland! Who is this wonder company? Sprint PCS.

I wish that I could just use that Ericsson. You can even switch out the antenna for one that is High Gain for remote areas or areas with poor signal strength.

Is there a way to convert it to work here in the PNW?

Any and all help/advise is greatly appreciated.

pdxkevin · 05-14-2003, 06:02 AM

I can not be the only one who needs a phone that can handle getting a little wet. Being fisherpeople who live and fish in the rainy PNW, someone has to have found a good way to go wireless.

Cool Texan · 05-14-2003, 06:18 AM

I cant tell you who is best. I have Sprint, and can tell you that if it werent for a dirt cheap rate plan I'd leave them. Customer service is pretty bad, but thankfully I dont need it very often. Signal strength is bad too. I can be eating at Pambiche in NE Portland (awesome Cuban joint) on NE Glisan and maybe 17th, and get no signal. A friend of mine bought a house up by the zoo, and his Sprint PCS phone had no coverage.

AT&T is probably the best in coverage. My wife used to have a phone from her old job through them, and got coverage almost everywhere, including out in Blodgett (West of Philomath, West of Corvalis) in the middle of nowhere.

Good luck. Let us know what you do, and what phone you get.

clearview2u · 05-14-2003, 06:58 AM

We have sprint also, the coverage in Oregon is not very good. We chose it because we travel a lot out of state where we get excellent coverage and no roaming. Our friend with Att get much better coverage in Oregon and Washington.

snowball · 05-14-2003, 12:56 PM

my phone is made by LG-- rock solid flip phone. It's been dropped a few times and keeps on ringing. Service provider is verizon and I've not had any issues--

you can purchase a neoprin case for your phone-- keeps it nice and dry--

FrogPond · 05-14-2003, 02:19 PM

my personal phone is a samsung a310...has been a good little flip phone so far, and with verizon my coverage is pretty good. I do experience dropped calls every once in a while, but I just call customer service and they credit the call.

my work phone is a nokia 3360...it has also been a good phone. I have dropped it into a manhole full of water (not poo). It laid submerged for a few seconds while I fished around for it and it still worked when I pulled it out and is still working fine 6 mos. later.

I have seen the a310 advertised for $0.01 with a Verizon service plan...a pretty good deal considering that I paid $80.00 for mine.

Firedog · 05-14-2003, 05:18 PM

I have AT&T Wireless and have had my phone a Nokia something or other for 4 years now and no problems. I get service a lot of places that otheres don't. Have no complaints about them at all. Getting Ready to upgrade phones to the Motorola V60 flip phone. Consumer reports rates it real good and friends I know that have them really like them also.

Pete · 05-14-2003, 05:26 PM

I have Verizon with a Kyocera 2135 phone. I had Qwest and was getting killed by roaming charges, couldn't get service at my home, so I started talking to folks. I was most impressed by a real estate broker that carried both an ATT and a Verizon phone in his travels. His experience was that the Verizon service was better, so I went with it and have never looked back. I've quit using the land line in my home and have had great service from 20 miles off shore to almost everywhere in the state. As for the equipment, it's been dropped, drowned, stepped on and it keeps on ticking. Can you tell I'm a happy customer? And I have yet to incur a roaming charge!

1pump · 05-14-2003, 09:57 PM

We use AT&T at work, and I would agree that they have the best coverage. We're always on the move in 5 states so we gotta have good coverage. We had Nextel before AT&T, and it was useless. Everybody complained about the coverage, and the company was always having to reimburse people for using their personal phones when they were out of Nextel range, which was frequently. And AT&T doesn't seem to roam as much as my own Qwest phone does.
As far as the phone goes, it's a Nokia, and I've dropped it a few times. Still works. We must have about 30-40 of the phones issued to people so if I remember to I'll ask if we've destroyed any. They're used outdoors by guys that have a lot of body hair and very few teeth, so I know they get abused. :smile:

fish assassin · 05-15-2003, 08:22 AM

I had lots of problems with AT&T ... from roaming charges all over the coast
(which was suppose to be in my free coverage area) to some *really* bad customer
service issues. I've swapped a lot of my stuff off ATT and gone Verizon ... cell phone, home phone, internet access ...
Next stop for me is to get rid of the AT&T cable for my TV. I'm going to go
with a dish as soon as my 19yo moves out of the house!

edit: I also get better service further off shore with Verison than I did
with AT&T. My AT&T service would off-times drop off as little as 4 miles
off shore. My Verison service is pretty much good to 10 miles, even an a bad
day!!!

-assAssin-

[ 05-15-2003, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: fish assassin ]

Cool Texan · 05-15-2003, 08:37 AM

I wish my Sprint PCS plan wasnt so cheap...or I'd probably switch. Closest plans with other carriers are $10 more a month. Not a big deal at all, but I like the idea of paying as little as possible for cell service. :grin:

Digifish · 05-15-2003, 06:09 PM

PDXKevin,

I have Qwest Wireless and believe it or not I have fantastic coverage. I frequently travel Oregon and Washington for business (and occasionally for fishing

) and I get great coverage. In addition I have had really good luck with customer service. They always seem to go the extra little bit to get things right. Might be a response to their well publicized track record.

The primary reason I went with Qwest was/is their One-Number Service. If Qwest is your local provider then they can provide the switching to transfer all your land line calls from one particular number to your cell phone if, and only if, your cell phone is on. That way you only have to give out your land line number. In my case it is my office. It works great because I never miss an "office" call. And all my voice mails go to one place.

Can't make much of a recommendation on the phone itself even though I've been through 4 in the last 2 months! (that's a whole 'nuther story and PS I have one of those for sale, brand new, "cause not every phone will work on everyones network, and don't let anybody tell you any different!

)

Good luck. :smile:

dampainter · 05-15-2003, 06:32 PM

We have had AT&T over a year now, have had no problems.

STGRule · 05-15-2003, 06:50 PM

Moved from AT&T to Verizon a few years ago and never looked back. Have friends and family that have moved to Verizon after sitting side-by-side and my phone works and theirs didn't. I love my Motorola phone, but I'm not very hard on it so I can't vouch for it.

fish_on · 05-15-2003, 07:56 PM

They all have bad CS, from what I have found ATT has the best coverage, I cover 9 western states and have signal when most my distributors don't. We just switched to sprin for our personal phones because of the shared minutes plan we get 2000 min free night and weekends and unlimited phone to phone calling. We got rid of the home wired phone and are totally mobile now.

pdxkevin · 05-22-2003, 06:41 AM

Thanks for all the info.

I am still find it difficult to locate a phone that is built for rough handling. When I asked the various wireless companies what phone they had that would work for my needs.... everyone of them replied with a link to their catalog and basicly said, here look it up yourself.

I am beginning to beleive that they are in the business to make cheap phones so they can sell you a new one every 3-4 months. :depressed:

There should be a way to program the Ericsson R250s Pro to work on the US networks. Am I really asking too much? It is a killer phone.

Looks like they have expanded this rugged line to include the R310s, which is equally as rugged. Why can't we get rugged phones in the US? [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[ 05-22-2003, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: pdxkevin ]

Sky-Guy · 05-22-2003, 09:33 AM

Aye lads-

I work for AT&T Wireless and find using our internal sources that both AT&T and Verizon have very similar coverage areas, with all the rest of the carriers way behind.

When it comes to coverage on the open seas, both AT&T and Verizon vector their cellular radios in port cities out to sea, effectivley creating a conical coverage area which will probably span 30 degress +/- from the port, in Oregon and Washington, north and south.

Coverage 20-30 miles out will be better on some days versus others, due to weather and other environmental factors. Both carriers have coverage off the Washington and Oregon coasts. Both carriers will have holes in that coverage, especially in areas where it does not make good business sense to install a 1 million dollar towers to cover few subscribers. This would be in areas off the coast between Coos bay and Eugene, or in Washington from Toholah to La Push. how much money is Verizon or AT&T going to make by covering those areas?

The best cellular bet for all Salty dogs is this.

Acquire a 3 watt bag phone. You know, the old analog bag phone you used to have in your car? This phone has 5 times more power than a handheld and will pick up your carriers signal much better on the open sea. If you had your cell number programmed into the bag phone, as you went out on the water, you could call your carrier and tell them to switch your service to your bag phone ESN, a very simple task that will not create a service interruption.

Another option would be to put this phone on it's own service rate plan that has no bucket minutes to keep costs down, ususally available for $9.99-19.99 a month.

If you must use cellular on the sea, this is the best bet. However, VHF will always be better.

[ 05-22-2003, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Sky-Guy ]