iPhone 5 reception in rural areas?

So I live in the sticks I use my phone for everything including hotspot. I am faced with a choice now. My mother in law has offered to give me her upgrade so I could get a iPhone 5. I of course just bought a used 4s on here a few days ago before she made that offer.

So back to the problem. I am wondering how people with a 5 in rural areas are getting signal better, worse or same reception as your older iPhones. I currently have a rezound that does pretty good around -98 dbm. Before that I had a galaxy nexus that was horrible with -120 dBm.

I haven't activated the 4s yet cause I didn't feel like switching a lot. Not sure if I would be better off with the 4s and hold off on upgrading a while. Or if I just bite the bullet and go for a 5 in hopes it works at least as good as the rezound I have now. I wish I could upgrade keep them all and see what works best for me. But I need to sell the rezound and 4s if I get a 5 to pay for somethings.

Oh I am on Verizon in a 3g area. Over the weekend 4g showed on my rezound a few times for the first time ever since living here. Of course today I can't find that sweet spot in the house to save my life. My husbands nexus right next to mine all weekend never showed 4g once.

Oh an part of the reason I was wanting to upgrade to a 5 was for LTE. Hoping since I saw it a few times this weekend at my house that maybe its just a matter of time before I always see it. Also so I could keep my 4g unlimited hotspot I currently have rather than switching for the iPhone 2gb hotspot.

vastoholic said:

You must not really live in the sticks then. Back on my dad's farm (and generally the entire county) I'm lucky to get 3 bars of edge. You get off the main roads too far and you're lucky to get anything at all. That being said, I noticed the same reception between both devices, 4s and 5. Both were complete and utter ****.

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Well guess I consider it the sticks based on what I see and lack of neighbors. The only way I get any signal at all from any phone is if its in the window. Anyways that said if both phones stink as far as reception goes maybe ill have to stick with my current phone. As it stands I think I am going to just activate the 4s and try it for a week.

Still curious what others have experienced.

vastoholic said:

Wasn't trying to say the signal stinks because of the phone. I have AT&T and out there in North Central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, AT&T is crap. Verizon phones get better reception. It's really kind of sad actually that rural farm areas don't get more attention. I think farmers could benefit greatly from some of the features of an iPhone or iPad if they had decent means to use data out there. Plus if you're broken down in the middle of a field, it'd be nice to have a reliable way to call someone.

It you're able to see LTE only occasionally, it might actually drain your battery worse if you leave it on all the time. Good luck with your choice. It'd be worth it to me to at least try out the 5 in your situation.

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Yeah I normally toggle between CDMA and lte. I just forgot and saw 4g and did a happy dance. I might be trying to get my MIL to the store to upgrade sooner now. Looks like the 4s I bought off here has a bad ESN or something so waiting to see how this pans out.

SAMtheGAM said:

I would recommend the Verizon Wireless Network Extender. This should give you full coverage in your house. Verizon will even work out a deal with you instead of paying $250 for it. In addition you will need internet in the form of DSL/Cable/Fios. It drastically has improved my connection.

With any of the iPhone 4, 4S, 5 I am able to place & receive calls whenever I am upstairs I get a -89 3 bar signal on 3G don't have to be in the window either. Recently tried a Samsung Galaxy S3 and only got 1 bar upstairs and you have to be very close to the window and calls were horrible. It only picked up 1X upstairs and not even 3G or LTE. With the iPhone 5 upstairs I can pickup a 2-3 bar LTE signal but most of the time 2 bars. The amazing thing is what with iPhone 5 when I am downstairs I can also use the phone get a 1 bar signal. The iPhone will constantly switch between LTE/3G so I just turn LTE off whenever I am downstairs.

I was able to get a network extender for free from VZW and now no matter what phone and where I am I get 5 bars of 3G signal throughout my home.

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I would love to have an extender but we live to far out of town. So DSL or cable options, only satellite which is to expensive for what you get. Not sure the extender would work over either. Starting to think Samsung radios are not for me. None of their phone work good were I am at or in some cases work at all.

Pretty much settled that I am going to get the 5 as soon as I can get my MIL to the store. Tried to talk her into doing it OK online but she wants to go in. So not going to push it since I am making out great. I don't think the 5 is going to put me any worse than how I stand now. I just don't want to end up like the nexus again it was horrible and my husband nexus still is.