mobile phone service

THIS PAGE IS OBSOLETE. PLEASE VISIT THE UW CSE SEATLE LIFE WIKI!

Please contact Ken Yasuhara at yasuhara@cs to suggest updates to this page. Thanks.
Last modified: Thu Feb 5 08:56:45 PST 2004

Disclaimer. Please bear in mind that these are excerpted/digested from uw-cs.grads newsgroup posts relevant to choosing mobile phone service. These messages do not represent anything beyond the personal opinions of the posters at the time of writing, and your experience might vary.

service availability in Allen Center

• Verizon: works on Floors 1 and 6 (at least) [kasiaw]; also on Floor 4 and atrium [lizhang]
• AT&T: works fine, but weak signal [amol]; "performs very well...even some signal in parts of the upper basement" [spencer]; no signal in most of building [sbfan]; great (analog/AMPS) reception throughout building [karthikg via sbfan]
• AT&T GSM: 2--3 bars in Floor 4 office, up to 1 bar in breakout areas, no signal elsewhere [aliu]
• T-Mobile: "nothing but horrible coverage...in Allen and throughout Seattle" [antoine, Feb 2004]; "no reception inside the [new CSE] building" [kgajos, Feb 2004]

The rest of this page is mostly outdated information about signal strength in Sieg Hall.

service providers

• 4 Sep 2001, Julie Goldberg: reception trouble w/ Sprint on campus
• 19 Sep 2001, Isaac Kunen: Sprint not so good
• 24 Sep 2002, Andrew Schwerin: happy with Verizon

If they don't have a cell phone but want to get
one, different providers work much better than others on campus.  Sprint
is awful on campus.  At my old desk in 427, I'd move an inch and lose a
call.  I'm hoping it'll be better at my 428 desk, since it works at
Marianne's desk in 428 (though not at Gerome's desk there).  And there is
absolutely no reception in EE.  I think AT&T is better, but you should ask
someone who uses it.  I don't know anything about other providers.

Julie

[editor's note:  Another grad did point out that he
doesn't mind Sprint's nonexistent service in Sieg, since
he's usually got an office phone nearby and is often not
able/wanting to chat when he's there anyway.]

[Isaac reports that Sprint's coverage in Sieg is patchy---OK
in some places, nonexistent in others.  He also hears AT&T
is good, though possibly more expensive.]

On Tue, Sep 24, 2002 at 11:01:14AM -0700, Ken Yasuhara wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Sep 2002, Andrew Schwerin wrote:
> 
> > Finally, for mobile phones, I have had excellent luck with
> > Verizon both here and throughout the country.
> 
> Signal strength OK inside Sieg?

I've had no problems.  It's weak, and often fails in the basement of EE, but
seems to work throughout Sieg.