New phone for rural cell reception Doogee/Blackview?

164963_1454180874 · March 5, 2019

Hello,

I'm looking for a new cell phone and reception is key. It can have a big old antenna at the top and I would be ok with it. Do you guys have any suggestions? Do a rugged phone offer better cell reception? Is there any lesser know phone company that specializes in this type of thing?

thank you for your opinions and feedback.

aisle9 · March 5, 2019

My first suggestion would be to use Verizon. T-Mobile and Sprint suck in rural areas, and AT&T is hit or miss. Verizon has at least passable coverage just about anywhere. By going to Verizon, you're locking yourself into CDMA phones, which basically means phones sold by Verizon plus unlocked Google, Apple or Motorola devices (maybe HTC now?). Moral of the story: if the network you go with doesn't have any towers within 10 miles of you, even the longest-ranged phones won't do you any good.

kokakolia · March 5, 2019

1 hour ago, 164963_1454180874 said:

Hello,

I'm looking for a new cell phone and reception is key. It can have a big old antenna at the top and I would be ok with it. Do you guys have any suggestions? Do a rugged phone offer better cell reception? Is there any lesser know phone company that specializes in this type of thing?

thank you for your opinions and feedback.

Are you in the USA or Canada? If so, avoid China phones from the likes of Doogee/Blackview etc... They just don't have all of the cellphone bands used in the US/Canada. You're better off getting an iPhone (even an older model, the iPhone SE, 6S or 7 are all excellent affordable phones if you buy refurbished) as they typically get slightly better reception than most other Android phones.

In my experience working in the woods and very remote areas, you need a cell booster in your car. There's no smartphone with a giant antenna to circumvent the problem of requiring a cell booster. If that was the case, my company would be using such phones. And even then, cell boosters don't do much. It's sad but true that cell reception drops dramatically as you drive 1~2 hours away from any major town or city.