Motorola E815 / E816 Hollywood

If I spent all my time in New York (or the city where I live), I'd agree with you. But on occasion, I head to rural areas, some of which are still predominantly analog in coverage.

I have a analog phone the V710 and a digital phone the A840 its nice to have one of each but i think the biggest difference for me is that the digital phone reception is a lot clearer and i know with analog your battery can drain a lot quicker you have a chance to lose calls or not get them the quality of the calls isn't the best but i live in Michigan and a lot of people go up north and need it. So it all depends on where you are and how much traveling you plan on doing like Ohio and Indiana are virtually all digital for Verizon so you are better off with a all digital phone. And Verizon only offers a limited amount of tri-mode phones the V265, V710, lg vx6100 and maybe 1 more. The other 15 phones are all digital. But in a couple years ...
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I also have been playing around with the idea of keeping a trimode phone in reserve (I am currently using the VX 4400, which could serve such a purpose) for those times when I will be traveling into areas having only analog coverage. Tell me, do you have much difficulty getting Verizon to switch your service to your trimode phone when you need it, and then back to your all digital phone for the rest of the time?

Thanks.

I have a Motorola T720 which is tri-mode. I plan on keeping it for travel when I know I'm going to be in analog areas. (I live in Arizona with much of the state not having digital coverage.)

I have switched my "live" phone to my "spare" with Verizon in the past without any problems. They have always been very helpful. Just make sure you do it before you leave the digital area.

Ok, you have me concerned now. I have the LG VX8000 and I am travelling to Phoenix, AZ next week. Will I have signal with that phone or should I switch back to my V710 for the trip so I have the analog capabilities?

Please Help!!!!

🙂 As long as you are in the Phoenix metropolitan area the digital coverage is great. The desert areas outside of Phoenix is where the digital coverage drops. Haven't had my phone go to analog in quite awhile.

Cool. I will be spending most of my time between the Embassy Suites on North 44th Street and North 48th Street in Phoenix if that makes any difference. Is digital coverage OK in that area?

Thanks.

Not going to have any problem in the city at all. Only places where I ever drop a call is out in the desert outside of Phoenix or Scottsdale. 😁

Do you drop your calls in the desert because there's no coverage there or because the coverage is analog only?

A combination of both. You have to understand that there is much of Arizona that is still mountains and deserts and is unpopulated. Analog is available in some of the more remote towns where digital is not, but in some areas there is no service at all. A lot like Nevada in that regard.

Thanks. I asked as part of my quest in deciding whether I can get by with a non-trimode phone.

All you have to do is log into My Account on the website, click 'Activate Phone' to the right of the phone image, click 'Activate Existing Equipment', and enter the ESN in either Hex or Dec. Wait about one minute and try the new phone. That's it. (Depending on the model, you may need to do *228 after to get it to work.)

Sounds easy enough, but where do I find the ESN on the phone?

Quoted from VZW site:

How to find your ESN

All mobile phones are identified by an Electronic Serial Number (ESN), which is typically found in the back of the handset, after removing your battery. ESNs are represented in two ways: decimal and hexidecimal. Decimal is represented by 11 numerical characters, e.g 2204596915. Hexadecimal (HEX) is represented by 8 characters which are numbers and letters, e.g. e04624b3.

Thank you.

Well i have 2 lines so i don't have to switch back and forth unless i go out of country than on my A840 i have to switch to GSM mode but i don't want to confuse anyone. If you don't have a Verizon my account set up just call verizon or dial *611 send on your phone than on the first menu hit than on the second menu hit option 3 and it will get you to a customer service rep and they will be able to assist you in changing your phones on your account they are pretty good about it. And when you want to switch back your phones just call them again and they will do it for you. Its always nice to have a bit of both worlds.

Thanks to you, too. The more I think about it, my best solution seems to be to purchase a phone such as the E815 and to switch to my VX 4400 for those relatively few times that I go into areas having analog coverage only.

I don't know how well your VX 4400 works but you might want to even look into the V710 it carries a strong analog signal and is pretty up to date with everything and like mentioned before the V710 is tri-mode you can get a good price on the V710 without contract its $269.99 retail and comes with a $50.00 mail in rebate. It would even be worth trying the 15 day worry free guarantee through Verizon. I just say that because some phones cant carry a analog signal even if they are tri-mode i had a couple that were tri-mode and i was better off not having tri-mode because the analog signal on those phones were so awful. So just a thought.

Once again, this all depends on where you live, and where you go. If you know that you'll be in a predominately digital area fo the most part, the E815 sounds like your best option.