<p>mom60–interesting! Maybe it is that here, they are switching away from digital. Now that you mention it, when I was in Boston in October I had a terrible issue with reception with my GSM phone–as in “no network coverage”, couldn’t dial out, couldn’t receive calls. At the time, I figured it was because they were right in the thick of the switchover/merger, but maybe it was because GSM coverage is worse there…the plot thickens…</p>
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<p>I think curioser nailed it. You have to wait until they are on site to see what really works. For my daughter, it didn’t matter, no cell service works well inside buildings on campus. When we visited the college in the fall of her senior year that was something I made a point of finding out. I do like having her in our verizon family plan because it’s cheaper with multiple lines and since it’s the one that works well here we’re not going to change.</p>
<p>Even just using her phone when she’s outside or off campus, she uses up the bulk of our family plan minutes.</p>
<p>Wash DC Area</p>
<p>Something to consider if attending a college in the DC area is that ONLY Verizon works in the underground portions of the Metro system. And they provide pay phones at 50 cents per for all the others…</p>
<p>Hmm… this is so confusing. The economical thing to do would be to add S to our family plan with ATT/Cingulair. But if that gets poor coverage at his college then that would be pretty frustrating to him… if he goes back for a student admitted day, I guess we’ll send one of our “leashes” with him and see what kind of coverage it gets.</p>
<p>A word of caution: pay attention to what is local, and where you will have to pay roaming and long distance charges.</p>
<p>Case in point, I went to DC over winter break for 3 days with the boyfriend and his parents. I called home a couple of times, talked for the requisite 30-or-so minutes, and didn’t think a thing about it – after all, mobile-to-mobile is free, right?</p>
<p>Turns out that stuff only applies within my home calling area, given the plan I had, and I ended up paying long-distance and roaming charges on all the calls, for a bill of over $200. Mind you, the only charged calls (that is, the ones that didn’t fit under the free mobile-to-mobile, weekend and pre-alloted minutes) were those in D.C. $0.90 a minute is no bargain!</p>
<p>(This was, by the way AT&T/Cingular, not on the Nationwide plan, since we all live in CA.)</p>
<p>Before going to school in the fall, D talked to a current student at the college and asked about phone coverage. Was told that Verizon was expensive, but was the best in terms of reception at her college. We waited till we got to school in the fall to sign up for Verizon coverage.</p>
<p>She got a phone with a college local number, coast to coast coverage. I thought she might need a local number so that people could call her from a land line. I was wrong–she spends most of the time talking to classmates, who use home area code cell phones for calling and receiving purposes. </p>
<p>I’m on Cingular (no billing snafus yet, thank goodness).</p>
<p>Definitely check it out on a visit to campus beforehand. We had a Verizon family share plan, and daughter found out she could even get a signal in the basement of the college library! So we kept her on the family share plan, (which I upgraded yesterday to the $59.99/first 2 lines and $10 each additional line so I’m saving $20 a month over the plan we had before). No long distance or roaming, and more minutes than the 4 of us have ever come close to using. Weekends and nights are unlimited minutes, as are mobile to mobile calls to other Verizon customers. We’ve never had a problem with dropped calls, and customer service is great, both in the stores and over the phone.</p>
<p>We picked a Sprint Family plan 4 years ago because it seemed to have best coverage along the route our college student would drive to and from school. It was a lucky choice because I know many other parents have complained about their cell phone reception at her college. It really helps to check out which plan works best at each school. We had a child at Northwestern last summer and her Sprint cell phone would not work in the dorm.</p>
<p>okay, related question. Has anyone spent any time in the Shenandoah Valley, and if so, any coverage issues with your cell phones and if so which providers?</p>
<p>DS has T-mobile. Free roaming anywhere in US., 600 minutes free per month and free nights and weekends. $40.00 per month.</p>
<p>Is it a violation of the terms of service to give a link to a great forum that discusses wireless related issues? I won’t post it until I know for sure.</p>
<p>Now I know why I couldn’t find this topic…it was moved to the new Parents Cafe. Anyway, my question still stands. I don’t want to get in trouble from the mods!</p>
<p>Kinshasa, I think that the restriction is to links to any site that might be on college-related issues, but I think a wireless-telephone link is fine.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.howardforums.com/index.php?s=[/url]”>http://www.howardforums.com/index.php?s=</a></p>
<p>We have Sprint PCS because Sprint has the most cell towers in our rural area. Last summer D attended a ballet camp in Philadelphia and had no signal problems and no dropped calls in the city. But, the dancers stayed in dorms at Haverford College. D had to go outside in order to get a signal. She said the dancers who had Verizon didnt have as many problems with finding a signal or dropped calls. Since Ds camp was for 6 weeks I went to Costco and bought calling cards for D and her friends back home so she and they could stay in touch.</p>
<p>undecided - Also on ATT/Cingular here. Did you know that before you take off on a trip you can call ATT/Cingular and change your plan just for that month alone? Their cust. service rep told me this years ago. So when I’m about to travel, I change to a m. expensive but less restrictive “home” area just for the month I will be travelling. I do this all the time (just remember to switch back when you are through travelling).</p>