You know marketing is effective when it convinces you not to do the logical thing. I have lived in a Verizon dead zone for years. Did I switch cell phone carriers? No, because Verizon has the “most reliable network”. At least that’s what they say in their ads.

Thanks to the Palm Pre, I had the push to finally do something. The Pre is only available with Sprint. But, how was the Sprint network? After some Googling, I found gotreception.com. It shows the location and range of all cell phone towers for Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Nextel and T-Mobile. Take a look below and plug in your zip code and select your cell phone provider.

So what can you do if you are in a dead zone?

Sprint subscribers can use Sprint’s AiRave: now this lives up to its marketing. The AiRave uses your cable’s broadband connection to create a femtocell connection which will boost your reception from 1-bar to 5-bars within minutes. Crystal clear! Sprint is the only carrier to offer a femtocell.

Use a Repeater like Wi-Ex zBoost: The zBoost is more complicated to set-up, but it will work for multiple cell phone carriers at the same time.

As I wrote in my previous post, I am very happy with both the Pre & Sprint. I also 5-bars thanks to the AiRave. No more Verizon dead zone!