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 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
 ·Comcast
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| Good At least it will keep my Verizon rates from going up with increased competition. I keep begging my mother (who lives with me) to switch to Verizon, but she insists on staying with AT&T for her cellular needs. I have Verizon and I remind her who has a better signal (big red) when she drops calls or I have a signal and she does not. She still uses a basic phone (Samsung Rugby II) with no data plan other than texting so she can send picture messages. She gets 200 per month and I get 250 per month of text messages. At least big red is a little more generous with txt messages. I have the iPhone. She was a little angry when I decided to switch to Verizon because I broke apart a FamilyTalk plan on AT&T and gave her the remaining lines while I ported my line to Verizon. Now we have two cell bills instead of one.
Now she uses my phone when hers does not work. When the Nor'easter hit in October, causing widespread power outages in the New England area, AT&T's network went down and their coverage became spotty and unusable. My Verizon phone worked like it usually does and they even maintained full 4G LTE coverage so I was able to use my 4G Mobile Broadband card to connect to the internet when we were without power. My mother used my iPhone quite a bit during the power outage. I was able to charge it with the power from my aftermarket car stereo's USB connection, while mother charged her useless AT&T phone at the Holyoke Mall (which never lost power), and she was not the only one using the power outlets at Holyoke Mall to charge her phone. I was up in Maine when the storm struck (Grandma's house never lost power) but I came to Mass to assist my mother and I spent a couple of nights without power and ours came back on in a few days while many others went without a week.
I guess AT&T only has generators on a select few of their towers in each town (just enough to maintain basic, but unusable service) while Verizon has generators on ALL of their cell sites and maintained full service and coverage. Or maybe AT&T does not have generators and they deploy portable cell sites to disaster stricken areas.
AT&T also has poor coverage in many high traffic areas. Hampshire Mall in Hadley, MA is also an AT&T dead zone while VZ has full coverage throughout the mall. Also the southeast section of Springfield, MA (Sixteen acres area) is also very weak AT&T coverage. Also in areas that have spotty coverage on both VZ and AT&T; Verizon has a stronger and more usable signal. I'll be standing next to my mother at the Christmas Tree Shops at Holyoke Mall (which is spotty on both VZ and AT&T), I'll call her phone (with 1 bar of signal) and her phone will go straight to voicemail (typical when the phone has no signal). AC Moore at Holyoke Mall is also a dead zone.
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All of my CPE (including my EMTA) is customer owned. The only Comcast owned equipment in my house is the CableCards in the two TiVO boxes I own. | |
Reviews:
 ·TekSavvy DSL
| You seem to forget that Hell-Rizon is the ILEC in New England, and as such they have towers at each of their Central Offices in almost every single town and city in Southern New England ( sold off Northern NE to Fairpoint) , which have very deep well lead-acid batteries, and powerful generators to keep the CO's alive for weeks on end, and wireless stays up as well. ATnT in New England does not have such luxurious facilities as Hell-Rizon, hence why they were less reliable in a power outage.
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Sung to the old New England Telephone Ad Jingle: " We're the only one New Eng-Lund, Hell-Ri-zon Tele-phonnnnne! " | |
IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Not to mention that AT&T is the ILEC in Connecticut. As a matter of fact, I wish Verizon would sell their Western Mass assets to AT&T because the town of Enfield, CT has U-Verse and that is less than a 15 minute drive from me (I'm in Springfield, MA). I go to Enfield all the time as the malls down there have excellent bargains. I got a Craftsman drill on clearance at the sears there for $16. The same drill in western mass was $60. As for Verizon FiOS, the closest it's come to Western Mass is Worcester, which is about an hour away or about 47 miles. If AT&T bought Verizon's western mass assets, then they could build U-Verse in Springfield and tie it into the Enfield system since Verizon does not seem to want to deploy FiOS in Western Mass.
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All of my CPE (including my EMTA) is customer owned. The only Comcast owned equipment in my house is the CableCards in the two TiVO boxes I own. | |
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