Cell Phone Service

chiefsnow

New Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2015
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My cell contract ends at the end of August, just a few days after Swab Summer. Since my parents think I should have my own line (for simplicity's sake and since I will be residing in a completely different area than the rest of my family), which providers do current/past Coast Guard cadets recommend?
 
My DD has Verizon and has no complaints.

For what it's worth, she is still on our cell phone plan even thought we are in the midwest. We do pay her bill, though.

Nicole
 
We have ATT, and we handle the billing as Nigel (but subsidized by our cadet). Chase Hall is variable for cell service. Some rooms are fine, other are pretty crappy, and that seems to be carrier independant.
 
We have ATT, and we handle the billing as Nigel (but subsidized by our cadet). Chase Hall is variable for cell service. Some rooms are fine, other are pretty crappy, and that seems to be carrier independant.

When I was a 4/c cadet, you couldn't use cell phones in your room in Chase Hall. There was a phone booth or two in each Company wing area. You could use your cell phone there or just outside of the mailroom.
 
Some rooms seem to have reception only if you sit in the window. One suggestion has been get a blue tooth/jaw bone system so you can leave your phone in the window, and you be more comfortable. How that prepares you for the fleet I don't know.
 
DD uses AT&T. AuxNoob is correct in that some rooms in Chase have good reception, some not. DD normally just calls us over Skype. We have the app on our phones and computers and it works great.
 
Some rooms seem to have reception only if you sit in the window. One suggestion has been get a blue tooth/jaw bone system so you can leave your phone in the window, and you be more comfortable. How that prepares you for the fleet I don't know.

HAHAHA, I had totally forgotten about leaving the phone near the window. By my 3/c year Cadet Regulations about phone use had changed. For most of my time as a cadet I was in A or B Annex. A Annex had pretty spotty reception. Of course, that was before smartphones, so we didn't really need to carry out phones all of the time. Mostly I was making calls, and rarely received any. It helps when you have little freedom and all of your "friends" live in the same building.
 
Son has Verizon and works pretty good. Some places are weak for any of them I believe. BTW, I believe you can get a discount with Verizon (probably ATT too) as a CG member.
 
Also related to this thread, is it advised that cadets get unlimited data? I assume we cannot connect our personal devices to the CG network, and I bet the connection is not so hot when all the cadets are logged on during the weekends.
 
It depends on how much extra it is. As a swab, you'll have brief access to your phone once or twice during the entire summer. As a 4/c, you will have little or no access to social media until your class earns "carry on" near the end of the school year, so I'm having a hard time seeing why you'd need unlimited data. Overall, you'll be paying for stuff you won't be using.
 
Yes! .make sure you have a good data plan. They ALL seem to use a heck of a lot of data on their cell phones. They can't connect smart phones to the school wifi, so all use comes off the data plan. Once cell phones are returned following Swab Summer, the phones are used for calling/texting. However, one social media privileges are returned in the Spring, the data usage goes through the roof!
 
Also related to this thread, is it advised that cadets get unlimited data? I assume we cannot connect our personal devices to the CG network, and I bet the connection is not so hot when all the cadets are logged on during the weekends.

I would guess less cadets are "logged on" during the weekends. Typically the weekends give 1/c some time to get away. 2/c will also venture out, as will 3/c to a lesser degree. With the exception of 4/c and the 2/c who are training them, Chase Hall gets a little quiet over the weekend (quiet is relative).
 
They get social media in the spring?

The 4/C get social media back once everyone in their respective companies passes the Boards. Most companies have received social media privileges in the past two weeks.
 
I dug this thread up because this has become a discussion point in our family while our cadet is home. We currently have AT&T and like others have said, his coverage over the past 2 years has been spotty in Chase Hall. This carrier is far from the best deal we could go with economically speaking - so I was hoping there might be some anecdotal evidence regarding the coverage of the other major carriers. I'm hoping there are some other folks who have recent experience with their cadets trying to use devices connected to Verizon, Sprint, and T Mobile. Any thoughts you would be willing to share are welcome.
 
I wonder if it has less to do with coverage and more to do with Chase Hall. It's an older building (or much of it is) with brick and concrete. It wasn't built with cellphones in mind. When I was a 4/c, we weren't allowed to use cellphones in Chase Hall (we had to go outside to the smoke pits) or in the phone booths each wing area had... this was the rule for upperclass too... so the phone booths were rarely available, and not never private.


I had/have AT&T, and once were we're able to use our phones in our rooms, I generally had to find a sweet spot near my window to get reception. By that time I was on the second floor of Chase Hall (A Annex, second deck), so there was one floor and the attic (a big attic), above us.
 
My DS is a current 3/C. Per DS, cell service at Chase Hall is spotty but, overall, DS said cadets with Verizon (not our carrier) get best reception.
 
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