Sprint vs. T-Mobile in MCO

[inkkognito]

I guess this sort of falls in the transportation area! (It's airport related anyway.)
Hubby and I are not big cell phone fans, but in 2001 I signed a two year contract with Sprint because I got a decent rate through my employer. Problem is, when everyone else is yakking on their phones, I can never get any signal. We travel to FL a lot, and in the MCO airport I can never use the phone even tho' this doesn't seem to be a problem for anyone else. Before our Disney cruises, we book a hotel via Priceline and I have to call for the shuttle. There are direct line phones in the baggage area, but it's so noisy there that's I prefer to call from downstairs by the pickups. But I have NEVER been able to get signal in two years!
Now that my contract is up, we are trying out T-Mobile for 14 days. So far so good in the Chicago area, and we'll be at MCO next week so I can check it there too. But I'm just wondering: Has anyone else had problems with Sprint at MCO? How about T-Mobile? Opinions would be most appreciated!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[ncligs]

Don't know if this any help to you,but Orlando and WDW in general has a lot of "dead spots" where calls are dropped.

We have Alltell as are carrier, and we have never had a problem at MCO. But whenever we are at WDW(DVC member), which we visit quite often, I would say our cell phones work 90% time but you may drop a call every so often.

We have Sprint in our area(Ohio) and it has the worst reception of any of our carriers(Alltell,Verizon,T-Mobile,etc). I have had numerous people switch from Sprint to Alltell and they can't believe the difference.

We travel all over USA and never have had any type of reception problem anywhere with Alltell(we have National Freedom-no roaming no long distance).

P.S. I always enjoy your posts on the Cruise boards.

 

[disneymom3]

I wonder if some of it depends on your phone. I have not had problems using my Sprint phone in Orlando, but I don't think I have ever tried to use it actually at the airport. This last fall however, I was in CA and all of my sisters (and I do mean all!) were going on and on about how they hated sprint and had each cancelled and gone to some other carrier or another because they could never get a decent signal. Here I am with my Sprint phone--hence the anti Sprint conversatioin-- and I was the only one of the group who could get any signal on my phone while waiting in the hospital where my mom was staying. Sisters who weren't there kept calling me even though the number was long distance for them because no one else's cell phone would work. Makes you wonder.

 

[sgtdisney]

It may depend on the phone, it is hard to say. But I can tell you my experience.. We had Sprint for a couple of years. Many times we had trouble getting a signal around WDW. Last year we switched to T-mobile and had no problem getting a signal. I don't know if they added more towers, the phone was better or what, but we have had very very good service with T-mobile in WDW, as well as here in Northeastern Illinois. We are very pleased with our service with T-mobile. Sprint was problematic for us in a number of ways... Let us know how it goes..

 

[Gillian]

My mom & I were just there with a T-mobile phone (mine) & a sprint phone (hers). While I had a few problems with my phone, they were usually solved by moving over a few feet. It would say "Emergency use only" and not let me do anything. But that was rare. I will say that I didn't try to use my phone much, but had no problems when I did.

My mom, on the other hand, tried to use her phone a lot & always seemed to be having problems. He calls would drop out all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, even while staying in one place. She couldn't get her voicemail either. She could tell she had voicemail, but not what number it was from. To either make a call or to listen to her voicemail, she first had to find an area with reception.

We both have Samsung phones, but different ones. I know that when I purchased mine, I read a lot of reviews and chose one that was supposed to get good reception on T-mobile.

 

[Gillian]

PS there were certain areas at the airport that didn't work well for mom, but we did not try to call from anywhere after we got off the plane. Sorry!

 

[idontknow]

Wow, we use sprint and have a Qualcom reconditioned phone. I always call home to let them know we are at the airport and ready to board the plane. I usually call from the bar next to the Disney Flights of Fancy stores. (do I have the name right?) The reason we went with Sprint was because of the coverage in Florida. Since we go to Florida a couple of times a year and wanted the phone to call home with, we went with who had the best coverage and plan.

My Mom has had the same carrier since she got her cell phone. She has lost one and had one cloned, making the phone she has now her third. Every time she gets a new phone, they act differently in reguards to reception. So, it might just be your phone.

 

[inkkognito]

Thanks for all the feedback!
My husband has an AT&T "pay as you go" plan, and he could generally get signal in the airport even when I could not. But his phone was totally different than mine, too...he had a Motorola and my Sprint phone is a Sanyo with a flimsy retractable antenna (which is a pain).
Our new T-Mobile phones are Samsungs, and so far so good in the Chicago area. The coverage map they showed us when we signed up showed some areas around Orlando that might be spotty, so we'll see. I'll bring the old Sprint phone too, since the contract doesn't run out for a couple of weeks, and I'll post a comparison.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com