cell phone ?

[jighed]

just wondering if my nextel cellphone will work up there and if not what cellphone does?

[SSSTaxidermy]

I have Spint and mine didn't work. I think Nextel and Sprint share towers now but not sure. I lost signal right after TRF

[FrozenFireman]

I have U.S. Cellular. I use it when I go up to the Angle and it works fine.

[buddha]

I have verizon, and was up there last weekend and it had full bars. Good luck.

[bturck]

I have Verizon and can call from the lake to St Cloud and out to Redfield SD. No problem. My son has TMobil and can't call back to the resort. Bill

[warrior]

Nextel does not work...On the big pond.yet

[Mark Christianson]

Verizon Good

Nextel Bad

[Kaz]

Jig: I've had them all, and Verizon works the best, even far out on to the lake. Nothing before Verizon but AT&T would work in my house on Wheeler's Point, and then only close to the window. Now with Verizon I can be anywhere in the place with at least 3 bars.. No dropped calls either.. Go for Verizon and talk to your Buddies free if they have it too.... Kaz

[jighed]

thanks for letting me know ill post my report when i get back

[bturck]

I checked TMobil about a year ago and their pricing was a little better than Verizon, however when I looked at the coverage map and saw that SD has no coverage nor does Lake of the Woods I opted out of cheap for better. I also use the cell phone only at our cabin north of Mora and have no problem like Kaz said with dropped calls, or service. On Tuesday I was 2/3 of the way to the Angle and called my nephew in Redfield SD and it was a clear as a glass of vodka. NO complaints from here on Verizon. Bill

[Reefer]

You better keep that thing strapped to your thy inside your long-underwear, because it does not matter who the provider is when it's gurggling down your hole to the bottom of the lake, it's not gonna work!! Gotta love first hand knowledge...

[bturck]

Reefer you are correct one of the guides the other day found that they bounce when they hit the floor and when they hit dead center in the hole, they are gooooone. Bill

[minndonn]

UNICEL covers rural Minnesota the best and Verizon uses their towers for CDMA phones. UNICEL also has the tower right outside of Washish. From inside the fish house you may want to use an external antenna. I used UNICEL's wireless internet last weekend at Washish and had 2 bars inside my house which has steel sides. With the external antenna I had MAX bars. I will be using the internet from LOW this weekend also.

[bturck]

Minndonn: Pardon my ignorance, I really know nothing about cell phones other than when it rings i answer or dial to call. How come some companies have such good coverage and others, no insult intended, like TMobil do not. Don't they use the same towers and airwaves to transmit the signals? Bill

[minndonn]

There are primarily two companies that cover rural Minnesota, UNICEL (Cell2000) and I believe cellOne.. They cover all counties except the counties Mpls STP Duluth ST Cloud EGF are in. Those counties are covered by the big companies, ATT Verison etc. In the Analog days there were two systems. They did not share towers between UNICEL and CellOne. This seems to have also carried over to the digital system we are mostly using now. UNICEL was using ATT type phones (TDMA) until about a year ago when the changed from the signal type they were using then to CDMA. ATT went with GMA. This caused UNICEL to share towers in areas with Verison and ATT to go with other carriers. Years ago I was able to get maps of the actual tower locations and UNICEL had more around the state. UNICEL seems to have towers around vacation sites in the north, It seems there are still two systems that have towers and all the companies divide between the two. There are several different technologies and towers will provide more than one technology. The poorest reception area I have seen is the north shore and that is becuase of the terain.

[bturck]

Minndonn: Thanks for the insight. Bill

[MercMan]

I've been with AT&T/Cingular for quite some time. My previous phone was a Motorola flip phone that worked great at Lake of the Woods. This past fall I got a new razor cell phone and it does not work at all at LOW period. Someone told me that my old phone switched from digital to analog up there, therefore made it work. I was told the new razor will not switch to analog, therefore it doesn't work. I'm disappointed because I was supposedly "trading up" in phones, and it ended up this new fandangled "high tech" thing is worse than what I had. The worst part is that I had not choice. I got my phone through work, for work and this is what they gave me.

[warrior]

This is why I still use the old ATT/Cingular phone. Until GSM works at LOW they will have to pry my old cell from my cold dead fingers.I have been told that soon the GSM phones will work. My Nokia/Cingular works all the way out on the lake.

[minndonn]

I am sitting in my fishhouse out from Morris Point on the internet with the wireless air card. It is showing 1 out 4 bars with an external antenna on top of the house. My cell phone has barely 1 bar but I was able to check voice mail and just now talking to the wife with good sound. That is without an external antenna. I have UNICEL Motorola B265 with CDMA service. It will also switch to analog if that is all that is available. Since I have an acceptable signal on the digital it is not using analog. I have had it use analog at other times. UNICEL will normally sell you phones that can use both digital and analog. Verizon and others in the metro will normally NOT have analog capabilities. Analog may go away in 2007 as the companies do not have to offer it after that. It does have a longer range that digital and I think better sound but they will tell you otherwise. Right now I am only about 2 miles out so the tower must be either in Baudette or west near williams or both.