is 3G an alternate way to connect

[gerbilx]

so i used to have great service with tmo, but we had ike down here and it blew out a tower by my house supposedly so we have little to no service here. plenty of bars, but cant send or receive text messages and calls 90+ % of the time. im stuck in the contract so i can't go elsewhere, but if i look at the coverage map there little voice coverage here. but 3g is blanketed all over this area. if i got a 3g phone will i be able to use it like normal?

[Junkie]

so i used to have great service with tmo, but we had ike down here and it blew out a tower by my house supposedly so we have little to no service here. plenty of bars, but cant send or receive text messages and calls 90+ % of the time. im stuck in the contract so i can't go elsewhere, but if i look at the coverage map there little voice coverage here. but 3g is blanketed all over this area. if i got a 3g phone will i be able to use it like normal?

As of now, you should be able to connect if you have a 3g phone.

[analogs]

I have terrible reception in my apartment and have therefore been forced to use HotSpot @ Home. My plan when I got the G1 was to try it out and if it didn't work, I was going to spring for a signal repeater, which I've been meaning to do for a while now anyway (since there are so few decent UMA phones). I guess there's no way to tell if it's because of the 3G network or if the G1 just has better reception than my Samsung t409 but I'm doing fine without UMA. Reception went from terrible (unless you were leaning against a window) to completely usable. 2G phones typically get 1 or zero bars in here and I regularly have 2 to 3 on the G1 now.

That said, I didn't really have the same issue as you. And if a tower that used to cover your area is now gone, it sounds like you're screwed.

[oakie]

so i used to have great service with tmo, but we had ike down here and it blew out a tower by my house supposedly so we have little to no service here. plenty of bars, but cant send or receive text messages and calls 90+ % of the time. im stuck in the contract so i can't go elsewhere, but if i look at the coverage map there little voice coverage here. but 3g is blanketed all over this area. if i got a 3g phone will i be able to use it like normal?
not necessarily. usually 3g antennas are placed on existing towers. so if your most local tower got blown down, you wont have much 3g coverage either.

if you have broadband internet, you may want to consider going with their "talk forever mobile" UMA service. you just need a UMA compatible phone and a wifi router.