Cell Phone Service

[lotus]

Who has good cell phone service? We have Sprint, but when we were in Puna in March we got no service in most of Puna and spotty service in Pahoa.

[Kelena]

I HAD Sprint, but dumped them. Their service is abysmal and their coverage in Hawai'i horrible. Had a friend with Verizon. It worked on Kauai very well when my Sprint sputtered. I switched to Verizon and had excellent coverage. As for Puna, my Verizon works in all the places I have been hanging out, such as HPP, and lower HPP. It did fade on me in Kapoho. I think others like Cingular.

[macuu222]

Cingular (AT&T) works very good in HPP and in most places in Puna. I read from some other post in this forum that T-Mobile will be putting in 2 new cell towers in the Puna area (one in HPP on 13th between Makuu and Paradise and one in Hawaiian Beaches.

[ef9]

I have both Verizon and Cingular. Verizon wins hands down.

I only could find one spot that Cingular worked better, in Kapoho.

I live in the middle of HPP and Cingular is terrible(both my wife and I have it). My work issued me a Verizon cell phone. My wife and I will be switching to Verizon when our contract is up.

However, Cingular plans on installing a cell tower in Orchidland Estates, which will help in lower Puna.

Stan

[robguz]

In the 6 years I had Sprint, coverage on the Big Island did not improve at all. Barely worked in parts of Pahoa and nothing south or east of that. Worked in some parts of HPP. Was fine in Hilo and Kona.

[Jeffhale]

Yup, I had sprint, (not a good sprinter) last November and it was lousy, all over the place. I was told to get cingular. So this time i came with cinuglar, and maybe it woks in Kapoho, but it don't work on my lot in Hawaiian beaches, except one or two weird unexpected, must have been meteor showers or satellite over head (ha ha), call in's I've received. Most other places cinuglar works OK. However, Verizon, which I don't care for much, rings right in on my lot and those who have it claim they work everywhere..

[glennoid]

Mark me as another who had Sprint and switched to Cingular / AT&T. Sprint had no non-roaming coverage in Hawaiian Shores, Cingular has pretty decent coverage most of the way down from Pahoa.

[Nalu]

I've had verizon for 5 years and the pnly place I didn't get reception so far, was the Pohoiki/Red Road area. They have great phone customer service too, I didn't care for the retail store much. Angela

[Likalizard]

We have verizon and no problems in Nanawale area. Lika

Lika
Boston/Pahoa

[Adam79]

Lotus,
As you can tell from everybody's varied responses, there is no one perfect company for everybody. No service is going to work everywhere on this island. The best thing you can do is decide what areas you need the service to work in, such as home, work, areas of frequent recreation. Then check with the carrier directly to see how their service works in each of those places. Also keep in mind that coverage is likely the most important factor but not the only factor. Keep in mind value (what you get for what you pay). Customer service is really a close second to coverage in my book. Sprint just happens to come in very low in both categories here. I would recommend checking out AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. T-Mobile and Verizon have great to very good customer service. AT&T and Verizon seem to have the best reputation for coverage in Puna but that can be misleading. T-Mobile actually roams off of AT&T towers in Puna and Kau (for free) if there is no service of their own. Also, they are putting up towers as one of the previous posts mentioned. I will disclose that I happen to work for T-Mobile but don't let that influence you. Do your own research and decide what's best for YOU. Whats right for one person isn't necessarily right for the next.



Edited by - adam79 on 08/14/2007 17:36:04