I am shopping for a new Cell Provider and would like to hear about the service and coverage in and around the Hagerstown area.


If you have bad reception/coverage, let us know where the bad signal is located.

Dropped calls?

Poor customer service?

Are there any deals out there that cant be beat?


let us know...


Thx,
Mike

I have nextel and am very pleased. The coverage is very good around this area.


I am currently testing a phone from Sprint right now, but i am not too pleased with the signal strength in the areas i frequent.


I am thinking about trying US Cellular... being that they share towers with Verizon Wireless. VW coverage i hear is unmatched.

TracFone with US Cellular as the provider. Coverage is excellent. And no dropped calls.

Guys at work use Nextel. They complain about it all the time.

I have verizon wireless and I have great coverage in the area. VW doesn't have any towers in the area that they own, so you have to get a Frederick number, but it doesn't cost me any kind of roaming charges.

Their deals aren't too bad either. For $40/month you get 450 anytime minutes, plus free weekend/nights and free IN-calling (to other VW customers) and a free phone, with a 2 year contract.

I used to use Tracfone, and their coverage was excellent, since they essentially rent from all other cell phone towers. However, if you plan to use your phone on any type of regular basis, I'd suggest going with a plan, instead of pre-paid. Pre-paid is only worth it if you use your phone on a very limited basis, since you are essentially paying between $.10-$.25/minute.

<-- uses Sprint

Can live with it, but gets dropped a lot in Clear Spring area.

Frankly, all the cell phone fees has me about crazy. DH and I realized that we're paying $20 a month just in taxes and fees! Craziness. I'd love to drop coverage for me, since I hardly use mine, but then I wouldn't have anything for emergencies.

Peacefrog.... that's when you should go with a pre-paid. Just have it for emergencies.

We have Nextel. Hubby used to work for them so we stayed with them. Coverage in the area is good and gets better all the time as they add new towers. The thing about Nextel is that they charge more than other carriers. I'm hoping that since Sprint bought them, things will change in that department. We've had some problems with bills when we upgraded and got new phone; they charged us the fees as if we called and had a person take our order when we did it online. It took a while and some patience, but I finally got it cleared up. I've had similar problems with other non-phone related services; seems all companies try and get away with inflated fees or over charging.

Why is Verizon even listed? I was shopping for cell phones online this Holiday season and they CLAIM that they do not even serve Washington County at all.

My daughter's Trac Fone was working great, but it was just too expensive.

My employer gives us all Nextel phones, which don't reach my home nor most of the areas I travel to around the area (most of Washington County, though more the southern parts) on weekends, so I'm never bothered by any after-hours emergency calls. In my experience Nextel generally sucks the big one. I get voice mail messages hours, sometimes days after they were left, at random times. Signal strength varies greatly, even near downtown Rockville where I must be surrounded by cell towers and as I sit at my desk I can watch the signal strength go up and down and all around. Sprint was stupid enough to buy Nextel so by association in my opnion they must also suck and I would never even consider them.

I stopped by T-Mobile's booth at the mall, and their map showed a great big hole in coverage around my home - kudo's to them for being honest and not trying to sell me a phone that I would've had to return anyway. At least I would say you can trust them to tell you the truth, so ask.

I wound up buying from Cellular One, which gives me a very powerful signal at home (south county) and did so most of the way home from Valley Mall, and their map shows them having very solid coverage over the entire county and surrounding areas - best I've seen.

I've heard US Cellular is also pretty good locally and my ex's Verizon gets good signal at my home and in Hagerstown though it says it's "roaming". I don't know how you can avoid roaming charges when you're not in their home area, but who am I to call Phish a liar? One thing she;s right about - they won't even sell to you if you say you live in Washington County - you have to pretend you live in Frederick.

I'm not sure about Cingular. Their maps show more holes in coverage than Cellular One's, but they do seem to provide general coverage of the area.

Hope that helps!

I have sprint (the wife mostly carries it )
Work gives us Cellular One
Both are ok but from the Prison south to Sharpsburg they suck... dropped calls all the time.
My brother inlaw has VW and it seems he always has good signals even when mine say no service.

I have had US Cellular for over 5 years and hated it until the last year or so... it seems everything has started to improve with them.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get service at Whitetail, but I've had service everywhere else, and it's been crystal clear at college in Richmond.

I've had T-Mobile for 1 year and have had no problems. Signal is good along all major roads. I know some who say T-Mobile has improved greatly since 5 years ago. At the time I signed on it was one of the cheaper plans as well.

I have had AT&T/Cingular for at least 4 years. Reception from the shopping center at 40 & 81 out to Clear Spring is rotten, but from St. Paul's Church Road to Shade Gap is very good.

Several years ago I had Verizon and it stunk, and before that I had Cellular One, and the one time I needed it for an emergency (4AM on PA 75 in Kaisiesville), it didn't work. Perhaps in the time since I've had my current provider, the other 2 have gotten better, but I figure why mess with it if I'm satisfied. Lately, I don't even use the cell phone, and would get rid of it, except for emergencies. Yes, I know pre-paid is the better option, but those minutes expire after a while, and the way I'm using it now, I'd probably be buying minutes just to waste them.

I've been hearing about some phone that parents can give their kids that only calls 911 or home. I think they said it's a Cingular phone. Anybody know anything about those, and are they for kids only?

We have Vigin Mobile. Reception is "fair". Better along major roads. You only have to "top up" $20 every 90 days and they don't expire,they just keep accumulating. I think it's something like .25 per min. for first 10 min,then .10 per min for the rest of the day(24hrs). I only keep it in the car and hubby uses it sometimes to call home or sub-contractors to return their calls if he's not at the office. I've got like over $80 loaded up on it. Guess I should call my friend in Texas and use some of them.

Well, i bit the bullet last night and went with Cingular.

For my phone I chose the Moto Razr for $99. The plan is a 39.99 plan, which is the Nation 450 w/Rollover. It includes 450 anytime, 5000 Nite/W'ends, and Unlimited mobile/mobile. I will test for 30 days... and then go to US Cellular if i don't like them. I would like to have Verizon, but they don't offer local numbers for Htown.

I also heard that if you don't use Verizon in their 'home calling area' at least 75% of the time, they will cancel your service. I am not sure if that's the case of not... a US Cellular rep told me that.

That is total b.s. I can attest that 99% of my calls are made from Hagerstown, and my bill is the same amount every month, no roaming charges or anything.

A few years ago when my hubby still worked for Nextel, I would have agreed with you. We only paid $10 a month, so we didn't complain too much But now with all the new towers, we don't have the problems you describe. Maybe your work bought cheap phones.

phish, that's good to hear.

hehe... the US Cellular rep asked me who my carrier was when i spoke to him about their service. i said nextel, and he said, 'yeah they suck'. i was like, oh that's professional. lol

My work gives me a Nextel. While not the best I've ever used, they have made tremendous strides in coverage around here during the last year or two.

Here in south county, and in the areas of Frederick County (down route 28 into Rockville) that I travel through, I have seen absolutely no improvement in Nextel's coverage. I still get voicemails days after they're left for me, at random times, and as iIsaid, even in an area where their coverage is supposed to be total, the signal drops off completely at random times for no apparent reason.

I've seen no change over the several years that I've carried a relatively useless piece of junk from Nextel around with me.

Come on, BMIC. You can't expect them to cover the whole way down yonder where you're located?

I was thinking more along the lines of the coverage in and around Hagerstown and points west. Coverage used to just stop around the Rt. 63 exit on 70 west and if I walked into my basement (I live close to H-town)I'd lose my signal. Vastly improved......for my usage.

Still, I would never pay my own money for Nextel.

Sprint bought Nextel for their direct connect technology. They will not be using Nextel's infrastructure.

i ordered my cell phone/service via the cingular website on Dec 29. ...and then 3 days later they let me know it was back-ordered. ugh! i hate when that happens. i wish they would have stated that on their website b4 i ordered it.

it's finally arriving tomorrow. yay!

Verizon has these phones. LG Migo

I wanted to bump this back up to the top because on saturday, a major cable was knocked down and we were without our land line for 9 hrs on sat and then for 7 hrs on sunday. that means that we had no 911. Our Virgin Moble does not work here at the house and we have to drive like 2 miles up the road to get a signal.
We're shopping for a new cell carrier. the neighbor has US cellular and she says she gets a signal on her front porch!
Any opinions? that way I can only research the sites that have the best reveiws. thanks people!

I have had Nextel, US cellular, and Cell One service over the past 5 years. By far the best carrier that I experienced locally was Nextel. However, the work paid for it and I cannot afford the coverage for what I want. I have had Cell one for the past 3 years and Love it. My wife and I split 900 minutes, nights 7pm on and weekends are free (don't count towards 900) we have coverage throughout all of the US and to call anywhere in the US is local. I have never had any issues with service. I have used this phone from Boston, Mass to Tampa Florida from Delaware to Ohio and have always had very good reception with that exception to ok service in Hancock, MD and Lake Raystown, in PA. We pay $80 a month for both phones.

I had Sprint, switched to T-Mobile, then switched back to Sprint. I switched to T-Mobile because the prices/plans were better and I wanted to be on GSM because of traveling. The service was fine for about 2 weeks, then I was lucky if I could get a signal at all. I swapped phones a couple of times, and phoned customer support. Eventually I got tired of the runaround so I switched back to Sprint and have been happy with them. My service with Sprint has always been fine from PA to Florida; its the plans that I didn't really like back then, but they are more flexible now.

You can read all kinds of reviews on the web, but because some areas are covered better than others and vice versa, it's hard to draw a real conclusion as to which is better.

My suggestion WVD, for where abouts I think you are, is hands-down US Cellular. I get all the signal bars anywhere I go in the area. They just put a new cell tower somewhere around Martinsburg and I pick up that tower clear over to Charles Town. And I know it works great in the Hedgesville area. And I think they have a 30-day money back guarantee.

well thats 2 for u s cellular so far. neighbor and yoss. wonder what pheather has?

If you have her number you can find out here:

http://www.fonefinder.net/

I have used Cell One for the past 10 or so years. I pay around 70 a month. I get unlimited nights weekend, 1600 minutes anytime and there are no roaming charges. That base plan is I think 50 a month.

Tony

But does it work where WVD needs it to work? Good plans are fine, but if you can't get bars it's useless.

I do pretty well with it in WV and in Western Maryland. I even had pretty good reception up in Green Ridge. I can't knopck US Cell though cause I have that at one o f the places I work and I get good reception also I just don't know about the plans.

Tony

Should have PM'd me, Dragon.

Me and everyone I know has Sprint. We all get the 5 buck discount thing for mobile to mobile. All the people I call on a regular basis have Sprint also and no one I know has ever had a problem. If you want to change plans or phones...expensive yeah. Out-grow your plan, expensive.

Get a basic phone with a basic package and you're set...but Dragon, you live in a mountain area...that's different. That's horror movie territory...mobile phones will statistically not work there. I think you should stay with me...I have a spare room.

But, where's Kevin going to sleep?

you just want me to be your wife. and cook for you. and clean and mow the yard and trim the weeds and do your laundry and take care of cello and bishop and feed kevin who is kept chained under your bed ...and...and...

I use Sprint & I travel all over the back woods country. The worst place seems to be in the area between Charles Town & Ranson with Sprint. I had a company Cellular for awhile & it broke up all over the place--I used to end up using my own phone--so after awhile I just gave up..I tried to convince mgt to change but they were not ready for prime time..so I changed my employer..

In fact I just changed my plan for my work. I needed alot more minutes than I had and needed a new phone--the only problem I have is I keep my cell phones long past their 'use by' date..This is the 3rd phone I've had in 7 years...each time I traded in only because I could not find a battery pack that fit the phone...I am not of the type just to discard because new features show up...this one takes pics & has web capability which of course I never use..

I don't understand the "use by" date thing on the phones. what did you mean by that?
and we don't need web. I have a digital camera, so don't need that feature. I had to sit with the manual to learn how to store numbers and do it step by step. I'm such a techie...not!

ok, so...so far it's u s cellular,sprint, and now tracfone

I have Cingular and it works from Boonsboro to Carlisle with little to no problems. I would rate their coverage area very good but call quality ,even with good signal, as poor. When at work in Waynesboro I am usually calling on Cellular ones network.


I like Virgin Moblie which used Sprints network but it got expensive and very limited coverage. It either worked or it didnt no roaming.

Sprint Call quality was good but I was always roaming in Chambersburg where I live. I read the fine print and decided to return the phones within 2 weeks since 75% of my calls were roaming.

I STILL have US Cellular and will recommend them. I've had them for 7 years straight with no problems in college in Richmond, visits to WV, Cumberland, PA, Ocean City, etc. I'm moving down the road, so hopefully they'll still be good for me there too. My only complaint is the sales reps I've had seem to look down on the fact I want very basic service with a basic phone.

well, it's looking more and more like u s cellular. hubby was just talking about sprint, but how do I find out for sure if it'll work here in this valley? that's why I want a new carrier. our virgin mobile doesn't work here. it works only fair in call quality in some areas aroud town( some times theres an echo and at other times it sounds like you're talking underwater( glub glub glub). it works really well on the interstates( because thats where the towers are).
guess I'll have to check into u s and sprint's websites and see whats what.

WVD, pull up that fonefinder website I mentioned previously, plug in your phone number and see who the provider is. Like tracfone, Virgin leases blocks of numbers from other providers. That web site will give you the provider. You may very well actually be getting service thru Cingular or something. Whatever the provider is, since you now have crappy service, at least you'll know to stay away from them.

If you want, pm me the area code, exchange and 1st number (like 301-733-2xxx) and I'll check it.

just checked it. Sprint Spectrum L.P.-WV
so that leaves US Cellular to look into. have to do that today some time.

That is not true. I have no problems cleaning, mowing, trimming, laundry, and the little baybahs...it's that insatiable Kevin Spacey that I find hard to swallow .

And then there's the people in the dungeon...

dungeons ain't no problem for the Dragon!






oh, and we went with US Cellular. I can get 3 bars on a low battery in my bedroom!
thanx for the info people!

Always glad to help, WVD.

There's a low battery in WVD's bedroom.

Just because the phone can be set to vibrate......