cell phone coverage at Ohio airports

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secretapproach

New Member
Do any of you Ohio(-area) pilots have experience with T-Mobile. I'd like to switch to them from Sprint because of some features but I'm a little afraid that I'll have bad coverage at some rural airports and not be able to call for wx, etc. Does anyone have experience with T-Mobile outside the bigger Ohio cities?
 
All I know is that Tmobile's coverage at KCVG at the airport is terrible. Don't know much else about N. Kentucky/Ohio though.
 
I'm a Columbus guy, and I just dumped Sprint after 3 years and switched to Verizon. My company flies into tiny podunk airports as well as big airports all year long (not only throughout Ohio but all over the Eastern U.S.). Our company phones are Verizon and the service is excellent in rural airport areas. Not 100%, but definitely worth switching. Can't speak for T-Mobile, though.
 
Sprint sucks... I'd def. go with Verizon or T-Mobile. I have Sprint, and once my contract is up I'm going with T-mobile. Don't know much about Verizon though.
 
I went to my grandmother's vacation place over the summer. Their place is out in the middle of nowhere off of I 77 (East Sparta) and I got perfectly fine reception. I use T Mobile and have since last December. The only problem I have had with them is related to here in off campus housing while indoors. I think with all the people and lines etc there is too much electromagnetic interference. To top that off all the houses here are OOOOOLD big brick houses.
 
having worked as a Cs rep for AT&T wirless, i can give you some info. first off...t-mobiles coverage is horrible. if you look at their coverage map and compare it with Cing/att you'll see what i'm talking about. secondly if your going from sprint(CDMA) to tmobile, cing, att (GSM) you'll want to get a phone that does all the freq's in the US, there are some phones that only do 1 (900 or 1800 not sure can't remember) but you want to be sure that the phone does both, especially 850 mhz, that'll give you advanced signal strength and less dropped calls. Don't go into a cingular store asking for a "tri-mode" phone, cing, att and tmob don't use those kinds of phones, just ask them for a phone that does the 2 freq here in the US, once they show you those phones, pick one of those. if you need some model numbers let me know and i'll give you some you can ask to look at.
 
Go with either Verizon or Alltel as they have an agreement to share their cell phone towers, which means greater coverage.
 
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Go with either Verizon or Alltel as they have an agreement to share their cell phone towers, which means greater coverage.

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If thats the case go with Cingular, they just took over all of AT&T's towers...It's the largest GSM network in the world. Don't settle for Verizon...
 
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It's the largest GSM network in the world

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But who wants GSM? Go with CDMA!
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GSM? CDMA? Which one is the one where I open my phone, mash a few buttons and the call goes out?
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GSM = Global System for Mobile Communications is an all digital network that has a CDMA platform but better stability.

Why is Sprint still on CDMA? Because they can still charge people for roaming. A CDMA capable phone can pick up a signal in mountains better than the GSM phones because the towers are still left over from older technology.

CDMA is worse sound quality, more dropped calls, and less calls a tower can handle.

GSM is better sound quality, less dropped calls, and a GSM equipped tower can handle more calls.

It's bad to get Sprint because almost all towers nowadays are GSM, when they're still feeding off there CDMA towers which sooner or later will become obselete and they will have to switch...

Basically...get Cingular or Verizon. If you're in a metro area (major airports) then any service will do, but if you're a regional pilot or CFI get something that will be useful...

Upstate New York (Ithaca/Syracuse/Binghamton) Cingular/ATT is the way to go. Nothing but praise for them.

Good luck.
 
I'm having a bit of trouble understanding why companies would switch from CDMA to GSM given the fact that CDMA was released much later than GSM. Take a look at these links and perhaps reevaluate your statement.

Why would carriers wish to switch to an older technology? Do the research and decide for yourself which technology to go with.

CDMA vs GSM

The History of GSM
 
I had nothing but problems with ATT. I would HIGHLY recommend that you stay FAR FAR away from them. I switched to T-Mobile and I couldn't be happier. As far as coverage in Ohio goes, I have no idea, but around here it is very seldom that I don't have great coverage. The nice thing about T-Mobile is that it allows you to jump on other networks that they have agreements with, for example, I was up north michigan skiing in the middle of BFE and while I didn't get T-Mobile up there, I was on Up North Cellular (or something like that) and I could use my phone as though I was on T-Mobile's tower without any charges or BS like that. T-Mobile has great customer service, and the people I spoke with at ATT were extremely rude and unwilling to help me with any problems that I had. I've got nothing but great praise for T-Mobile.
 
I just have to say my buddy used to have T-mobile. The coverage in the CLE area is okay, but when you get out in the country the reception isn't that good. But whatever floats your boat.
 
Thanks for all the info. I have never had a problem with Sprint so I'm not dying to switch except for the fact that Sprint doesn't understand that there is a world outside the US; they have almost no networks in Europe with which you can exchange text messages. Seems a crazy reason to switch but I have a lot of friends in Europe I'd like to keep in contact with by SMS and Sprint just doesn't allow it to the places I need. I'm just worried about getting out to rural Ohio during my instrument training and not being able to use my phone. Otherwise I mostly spend my time in cities, anyway. Oh well...life's full of choices I guess. I appreciate all the opinions.
 
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