Verizon’s annoying commercials proclaiming their best in the country network use the tag line, Can you hear me now? Well I can’t!

After two years of Cingular service, we needed new phones and wanted to make some changes to our plan. After a couple of months of reviewing all the features and pricing, we decided to go with Verizon. [rant on] I’m going to rant for a minute about how companies these days do nothing to keep their existing customers, they are only trying to entice know ones. Cingular did nothing to make it advantageous for us to stay. [rant off]

Well, I’m sitting in my office and I get absolutely no signal. Occasionally I get 1 blip, but most of the time nothing. At least with Cingular I got 1 bar and could reliably receive calls (now hearing anything clearly was a different issue). With Verizon’s network, my calls go right to voicemail. I am really annoyed (and stuck with thing for 2 years).

The only potential saving grace is that they make wireless amplifiers for building that can help get the signal distributed within the building. There are a couple of products with the PowerMax DA4000SBR from Digital Antenna being one of them. The units cost about $700, I figure by the time you add installation and the remaining cabling and antennas it will be about $1200. So I might (just maybe) be able to convince the powers that be to get one installed in the building to improve everyone’s reception. Stay tuned to see if I can make that happen.