I'm the newby putting together BOBs for my grown kids and their families. I see communications as a very important aspect of the modern day BOB. All of us (eight of us total) have cell phones, all with different services.
Has anyone studied which phone service might be advantageous over another? Are there differences in the reliability and/or vulnerability of one service over another? And is there a type/manufacturer of the actual phone that is preferred? Again I thank you in advance for your helpful input.

Probably depends somewhat on where you live. I've read that Verizon is looking better than anyone else at the moment - IF they have their own cells in your area. Supposedly part of the corporate response to the damage they suffered in 9/11. No idea if that's true or not. Anyone know otherwise?

Cingular has pretty decent coverage right now, especially out west after they aquired AT&T Wireless (and their associated cell towers).

Without trying to sound like a TV commercial for them, so far I've had good luck with their service. They have "rollover" (keep your minutes) and "family plan" for multiple phones, not to mention free mobile-to-mobile minutes. Now customer service, that's a whole different animal... 'nuff said.

Also, I try to stay away from any phones with the built-in camera-FM radio-flashlight-music-player-latest-gadget. Had bad luck in the past; instead I try to go for the no frills base model. Nokia has been good to me, but I suspect that's just brand preference.

The older analog and digital cell phones were in the 900 MHz+ range. This signal carried better than the current GSM 1300 MHz+ range. Unfortunately those older setups have pretty much been done away with. Cingular is GSM, Sprint/Nextel is PCS, and Verizon... I have no idea. Out of all of those choices, a GSM phone will allow you to travel internationally and use it, as a lot of other countries utilize GSM technology.

And from what I hear, Sprint/Nextel has the option for newer phones to talk to each other without going through a cell tower, a la very short range two-way radio. This might be handy in an emergency.

As far as cell towers go, most, if not all, are on emergency power setups (generator, batteries, etc.). But in the wake of a major disaster will probably be rendered useless, if not by the disaster itself, then by the system becoming overloaded.

If you get a chance, check out CNET for cell phone reviews: www.cnet.com

Good luck!

Here's overview of latest J.D. Power ratings by region. Recent PC Magazine Reader Survey on cell phone providers; check out link at mid-page "Find Phone Reviews." Some free Consumer Reports info here. $4.95 gets you one month's access to full site and all their cell-related info.

DeadCellZones.com has some pretty decent information.

Yeah the rollover is good. I had gotten the nationwide 1000 anytime minutes thing for like $50 a month. I'm just not sure how I'm going to use my 7000 rollover minutes. (116 hours, 40 minutes). My battery will completely drain with probably 2 hours of talking, luckily I have a spare battery. I just don't think it charges in 2 hours.

Answering your question would be easier if we knew where you were located state wise. The reason I say this is that the J.D Power rankings leave out some carriers. For example, here in Oklahoma, US Cellular has the best regional coverage of any of the national carriers, yet the don't appear in the rankings.

My advice, look at coverage areas for the places you are going to be..who cares if they have excellent coast to coast coverage if you can't get a single unless you are within a mile of a major highway. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Verizon had an antena in WTC1 so after 911 they changed their network to be strategically placed instead of concentraded on one spot. Which means amazing coverage with decent signal strength. Verizon offers the best selection of phones and probably the best service here in NYC. But than again service choice is area specific and new guy didn't post where he lives <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

The only thing that worked in NYC on 911? AOL Instant Messenger Blackberry pagers.

Related subject: It's tempting to go shopping for a pre-paid or disposable celphone to leave in the car kit as a backup. Anyone have any insight as to the best models of phone for this? The ideal phone would be cheap, wouldn't need any special features beyond being able to make calls, and should have a long battery shelf-life when turned off.

I have verizon....all through Hurricane Charley and Wilma (and all of the hurricanes that were in each of those years too) we NEVER lost service. NEVER. Never dropped a call either. Had coworkers (in EMS) who could not get any service with multiple other providers.

I'm not changing anytime soon.

I heard that exact same thing face-to-face from folks this year and I've read it also - though it escapes me where I ran across those reports. That's the sort of thing I was alluding to in my first post, and that sort of performance is what matters, not who's hot day-to-day with the consumers.

Matt - are you sure they only lost an antenna? I thought their corporate HQ (including lots of the network stuff) was massively damaged by the collapses as well - seems to me I read about that, and the repairs, in ENR several times. And I thought I also read that after the last blackout, Verizon started beefing up the back-up power endurance at the cells.

I'm not 100% certain I remember this all accurately and hope that someone who has certain info can chime in. But AFAIK, Verizon is currently the best in terms of robustness in emergency situations by a considerable margin. They are not the cheapest or most chic, of course...

But if some other service provider gets the day-to-day job done for folks, that's important, too.

Tom

I live in the Orlando, FL area and i have only had a cell phone for a about a year, but before i went with a plan i talked to everybody i could about the coverage they had and how well it worked after the storms blew though. Verizon was the best by far.

Here is a corporate line about disaster prep,

http://multimedia.verizon.com/responsibility/service/emergencyPrepardness.aspx

I have Verizon also and have stuck with them for years because I have had a multitude of company phones and/or pagers through other services that have all failed at one time or another.
Also I still try to make sure I have a tri mode phone so I can still get an analog signal when I'm way out where there are no digital towers.
"AOL Instant Messenger Blackberry pagers"
Are you meaning AOL IM AND Blackberry pagers? because Blackberry is not affiliated with AOL in any way, Blackberry actually gives good reliable service...

I doubt that you will find a decent cell phone and service that fits your description (cheap, long battery-life, and great coverage).

Here's what I have ...

Cheap:
DH and I each have a pre-paid phone. Each phone is $15 every 90 days, so it works out to about $5 a month. If you know of a cheaper cell phone, let me know, because even at that rate, we don't use enough minutes on our phones.

Battery Life:
Our battery life is okay, but not great. However, I think that depending on a long battery life for leaving a cell phone in a car is a bad idea anyway. Even if you keep the phone turned off, you will have to eventually recharge the battery, and it is easy to forget if it isn't part of your normal routine. Plus, an "almost dead" battery is just about as bad as a dead battery, because once you start talking on the phone the battery is used much faster. Some alternatives are the one-time use "battery cards" that you can use to power a cell phone with a low battery. There are also hand crank devices for powering a cell phone. Another alternative is just get the car charger for you phone (this is what we have). After all, if you're going to keep the phone in the car, you can always power it that way.

Coverage:
I can't help you there. Our coverage sucks. However, we live within a few blocks of a major freeway, and I almost never travel out of suburbia. However, I have noticed that over the years coverage has gotten better. One advantage of a network with nationwide coverage is that if you end up having to evacuate to a distant (urban) location, hopefully you will have cell phone coverage at your new location.

Special features:
You state that you aren't interested in any special features other than making phone calls. However, I would recommend making sure that you get a phone that can text message. In the event of a large disaster, you might be able to get a text message through when the lines are too busy for phone calls.

Hope this was informative.

-Kuovonne

I cannot speak with authority regarding anything outside New York State, but here you can find cheap pre-paid cells with the brand name TracFone. These make ideal backup cells, especially for putting in a car emergency bag, etc. Heres why:

These TracFones use the unused airtime of multiple cell carriers. When you make a call, the phone checks to see which carrier wants to take the call, and then TracFone gives a portion of the proceeds proportionate to the length of your call to that particular carrier. The practical upshot is youre not tied to one particular carrier; multiple networks can pick up your call and put it through.

Be aware that power will be an issue; match each phone with a charger and a second way of keepeing the battery charges ( dynamo, spare batt, etc.)

I've been really thinking about getting one of those satellite based phones. During 9/11 I remember pretty most cell phones didn't work because the main cell tower for our area was on the twin towers, with a satellite there is less of a chance of the cell towers getting knocked out. Last I checked they were pretty expensive though, especially for something that would sit pretty much unused.

I agree -- Its alot of money to tie up for something you might use. The same $2,100 would pay for gear for five, advanced training/ classes and a nice bike.

Budget well, young jedi,

TRO

( new blog on the way)

My partner went to Mississippi after the hurricane to help out. She was part of a team that went from our EMS service. They brought a Satellite phone with them. She said it just didn't work....No idea if there 'wasn't a signal' or if it was something else but she said that for 2 days it wouldn't work. She also said that the other agencies (not affiliated with us) also had sat phones and theirs wouln't work either. I'd rather spend the money elsewhere personally.

The SAT phones probably didn't work because of a saturation of their use in that area. The other possibility is user error, but from what I gather, things have really advanced in the last 10 years that they nearly operate like a cell phone.

If you need communications out of a disaster area, use HF of some sort. Be it Amateur Radio, your licensed HF freq, or a company that provides them.

Be aware, both satellites and HF are affected by solar activity.

Regarding 911 service:
By FCC regulations, any cellphone that is capable of connecting to a cell phone network (i.e. it has a battery, and can transmit) its emergency calls must be accepted by any provider. Normally, your cell phone will connect to the tower with the strongest signal. My next thought is when you're in a vehicle, how does two competing cell phone providers route an active 911 call between towers?? So, if you're in an suburban/rural environment where cell phone towers are not close together, you might want to get a better antenna. Also, new phones must be capable of providing their location within 100 feet, accomplished via a GPS enabled handset, or differential location among one or more cellphone towers (This is Phase II E911 compliance). This all depends on the provider Just more info to help make a decision.

To answer your question about "routing 911 calls between providers": It works the same as any other call. The only difference is that it bypasses the billing part of the call setup, and the calls get routed to a specific PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point)

Typically, a handset will be programmed with preferred SIDs (system IDs) and sometimes "non-preferred". When a phone powers on, it attempts to register with its preferred network provider. If there is a handoff from one cell site aka tower to another, the system will attempt to pass to another tower from the same provider. If that is not possible, it will pass to another provider going down the list in order of "perference"...basically set up by the roaming agreements between providers. If it finds none in the "perferred roaming [SID] list" it will grab the first, strongest, signal it can find.

Most of this info is based off the old Analog AMPS standard. The concepts are similar with digital phones, but there are many more bands (800/900/1800/1900 Mhz) and modulation techniques (CDMA,GSM,TDMA iDEN,etc.). Overall, the good news is that digital cellular coverage is getting better and better. Analog coverage, while more pervasive, is going away, and providers will soon (if not already) no longer be required to provide analog service.

I am not a cellular industry rep, anyone who is or can correct/clarifiy, please chime in.

i used to have at&t before it was bought out by cingular and now i have verizon wireless.

living in brooklyn i got decent service with the att/cingular but much better results with verizons service over all.
my only complaint is the motorola phone i used with att was much better sound wise then the current verizon cell i have now, especially with the placement of the ear-hole section of the phone itself.

im also buying a sidewinder for myself and a few friends as gifts because they seem to produce good reliable results.