Verizon Wireless Users

[Dave R.]

I have Verizon as my cell phone carrier and my home is located in a fringe area of their coverage area. As a result, we often have dropped calls while using our phones at home. My daughter has Verizon as well and it seems regardless of which phone she has, they seem to recieve much, much better than our phone's do. We are now due to replace our existing phones so can anyone tell me how to determine which phones Verizon offers that have better recievers? We don't need any thing more than the abilty to make calls and recieve them, so the super high tech style phones are a waste. I've asked sales people at the Verizon store and marvel at the Deer in the headlight looks I get when doing so. They admittedly haven't a clue. Thought I'd take a shot at finding someone here that has maybe experienced the same and found resolution. Thanks in advance.

[swampler]

Verizon has a phone with a plug for an external antenna. You could plug it in at home for better reception and unplug it while out and about. Unfortunately, I don't recall the phone model, but might be something to search for. It's one of the "rugged" ones that are supposed to survive drops, water, etc.

[brian.austin]

The other thing to consider is if you're updating your phone regularly. New roaming profiles will give you better coverage.

[nrottley]

Once you have decided the model you want to buy you should look for reviews on the internet to see what the reception is like with that particular model. Personally, I have found that the "flip phones" generally have poorer reception compared to a non "flip phone" from the same manufacturer. I suspect that this is due to the physical length of the internal antenna

[bill8131]

I too ALWAYS had that problem as I live in a fringe zone. I switched to a Boulder by Casio, which is the "rugged" one for water, dust and what I always do the " dreaded drop". It has done very well in that area. tough phone. Prior to that one I used a Motorola 750 which has some of the same mil specs the boulder does but the charger plug went bad. Anyway, the boulders been good. Verizon also has also has a stationary booster you can put in your house that works really good, but I think there around 250-300 dollars. Having said that, it reminds me that the boulder is around the same price as well. The motorola 705 is a lot cheaper.
For what it's worth, my two cents.

[L. Robinson]

I also live in a Fringe area, here in the San Juan Islands of Washington we still have alot of analog towers. All the carriers are upgrading, as someone else said, you need to update your profiles to get the new equipment signatures, *228 with Verizon will get those new profiles for you.

[Dave R.]

Thanks everyone. Great suggestions and information.