Dead zone begone.

March 18, 2008 9:33 PM

How can I convince a wireless provider to eliminate my dead zone?

The dead zone in question is right along the Delaware River (literally right on it), in an area that is surrounded on all sides by coverage by Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile is about 10 miles away. However, the problem is that property ON the Delaware River, along pretty much the entire length of the Delaware from Calicoon, NY to Port Jervis, NY, is out of range for all the wireless providers.

Verizon currently comes closest to offering service at my place, but it's not quite there. I'm willing to switch my cellular service to any company that offers workable service, so I want to know what I can do to persuade them to boost their signal/put in a new cell in my area.

Bonus points if you've been successful at doing this.

posted by LGCNo6 to technology (5 comments total)

If you have high-speed internet access, you could use Tmobile's "at home" service-- your phones connect using wifi, and it doesn't use minutes to boot. The nearest actual tower being 10 miles away would be a problem, though. Maybe the other providers offer similar services?
posted by alexei at 1:04 AM on March 19, 2008

Call and complain. Be friendly and courteous. You should call the carrier you currently have service with. Wash, rinse, and repeat every month. The complaint/suggestions get compiled. It took my neighborhood (I roped in three neighbors, and we all made phone calls every month plus egged our families into making phone calls too, if they had the same carrier) 8 months to make it happen. (This was in SoCal with Sprint, btw, so YMMV)
posted by arnicae at 1:31 AM on March 19, 2008

Sign up for a landline at home.
posted by unixrat at 4:18 AM on March 19, 2008

All you can really do is call (or better yet, write) and complain. I wouldn't expect much though. I've been trying to get Sprint to fill in a dead zone in a densely-populated place in Michigan for the past 7 years with no luck.

Last month, I finally switched to T-Mobile and am using their "@Home" service to fill the gap. (This area is a dead zone for all carriers, including T-Mobile.) I find that it works pretty well. I'm not sure it would work for you though; you'd have coverage in your home, but you'd have no signal from the time you leave home until you enter T-Mobile's coverage area.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 5:35 AM on March 19, 2008

Since cellular companies are public utilities and regulated by the Public Utility Commission, if enough people complain about a lack of service in the area, they're required to do something about it. You could start a petition and hopefully get enough leverage that way. Of course this isn't much of a short-term solution, but it's been successful in my area at least - the provider put up another tower so we can actually get service now.
posted by flod logic at 11:52 AM on March 19, 2008