I am getting a BlackBerry from work but I am concerned about which one will have the best reception. I live in NH & work in Maine, currently I have Nextel but have decided to change carriers to Cingular. I am told they have better service in my area. My major problem with Nextel is really poor reception, especially in my home office. Hopefully a new carrier & phone will fix that. My company uses & supports BB but I just don't find all the features I want in them. I would love a microsoft version with a PDA as well as Bluetooth.

My other choice is to purchase a different brand smartphone & find myself all alone if I have any issues with support. I have read the BB phones are not the best in reception quality. I really would rather "risk" it with another smartphone then have another phone that doesn't work in my own house. Are there any of the newer BackBerry's that really excell in signal quality?

I left Verizon because they are too bloody expensive and the Customer Service is rude and I had some tech issues..But they are the best by far in the US

Now that the newer ones have no attenas it is hard to tell which has better coverage.

It seems that it is a mixture with where you are demographically and where the attenna (how the heck do you spell that word?!?) is located. Tends to be like that with all phones.

I wouldn't say that BB's have the worst reception either. You coverage is generally affected most by your carrier. I mean, do other Nextel devices get better reception at your home office? If not, the biggest change you can make is switching carriers.

If you're capable of fully supporting yourself the WM5 device isn't a bad idea. However, I don't blame your company's IT department for not wanting to support anything but Blackberries. We specifically decided to avoid supporting Treos and WM5 devices because we don't have the time to mess with their quirks. With very few exceptions our Blackberries all work and require nearly no support from us once deployed. So far device management is also much better on the BB.

I think switching to Cingular will be a benefit for me service wise. My wife has a 7101i from work that is also Nextel & it is as bad as my Nextel in the house.

I live in NH and travel all over New England, including Maine. I have a BB 8700c and use it almost exclusively for voice and data, especially when I am on the road. Cingular is my primary carrier but I also have a Verizon phone and air card for my laptop.

I have found that Cingular works very well in the region and is very reliable, but there are some holes in their network, as it is with any network up here, especially in the mountains of northern NH and VT. Once you get past Augusta, ME, going north, every carrier is spotty, although Cingular has certainly gotten better over the last couple years. The last time that Iwas inthe Bangor/Bar Harbor area, Cingular was fine.

Sprint and Nextel are very spotty in their coverage, no matter where you are, as is T-mobile. They tend to follow I-95 and leave the rest to roaming or no coverage at all.

I am usually below Agusta for work, how is your service in your home or office?

Cingular is OK at home, but I am out of direct LOS of a Cingular tower. Usually one or two bars. Data is no problem, voice can be a bit iffy. I don't use the cell much at home, since I have VOIP. If I really need the cell I use the Verizon since it works great there. The Verizon aircard connects at broadband speed. BTW, home is Nashua, NH.

My daughter's Cingular phone has worse reception at home than my BB, or so she complains.

There seems to be a hole in the Ogunquit area. Only Sprints works very well there.

I'm a Verizon customer in the mid-coast region of Maine (Bath/Brunswick area), and have family in Central Maine (Skowhegan/Farmington) that I visit regularly. I've rarely have dropouts in service with my Moto E815, which I just retired for an 8703e. On the stretch between Brunswick and Portland, I haven't had any problems with my BB; signal strength appears to be the same as what I saw with the E815.

Haven't used the BB north of Augusta yet, but based on past experience with other digital-only phones, I don't expect to have any difficulties.

I am in Rochester but cover Portsmouth to Agusta. The worst thing is not having service inside the house, just a real hassle.