OT: Cellphone choice?

Micoo

Member
Join Date
Jun 2018
Location
Prince Edward Island
Posts
6
Just curious what other fellow PLC talk members have for cellphones as the one I currently have, constantly drops or just straight up has no service inside most industrial plants.
 
The coverage could be better, but you cannot beat the price of Republic Wireless. If you can, please let me know!
 
Just curious what other fellow PLC talk members have for cellphones as the one I currently have, constantly drops or just straight up has no service inside most industrial plants.

Having a better cell phone won't help you with that. However, you can improve your chance of having a reception by going with carriers that supports wifi calling. Here in the US, Verizon and T-Mobile support wifi calling.
 
The first time I traveled internationally with Republic Wireless, I was delighted to learn that they had unlimited roaming data in Japan.

The second time I traveled internationally with Republic Wireless was how I learned that they had quietly discontinued international roaming entirely.

So I use Google Fi. I'm on my second Nexus 5 phone (they don't float !) and it's becoming slow and crash-prone, so I'll probably go with one of their midrange phones. I try to accept that handsets can't last more than a couple of years.

I've never been able to convince myself to shell out $600+ for a premium phone.
 
So I like to tinker with my phones so I buy based on bootloader unlock-ability. My previous phones were Nexus 5 and Nexus 5x, those were both great tinkerer phones but they were garbage hardware. Both failed early, they had known issues with chip soldering. I now have a Motorola G5 Plus. Its a cheap and mediocre phone but I can unlock it and install my own ROMs on it. Certainly not for most people but that is what I do.

That being said, cell service will almost always be bad inside of a plant no matter what you have.
 
Interested to hear about google fi, may have to look into that in the future.

I actually have an old T-mobile plan, and I am grandfathered into unlimited international data although at 2g speed. Its free so I'll take it. The hotels always have good Wi-Fi, so I'm on that otherwise.

right now using LG G6
 
Like Ken, can't stomach the idea of spending $900 on a cell phone, currently waiting for a Moto z3 from Verizon to be delivered. This phone has an 80db speaker which might help as I am hard of hearing after 45 years in factory environment. Verizon is my carrier and reception in plant is good except at my workbench (of course).
 
When i took this job 4 years ago, my boss asked me, "Are you an iPhone guy or Android guy?" My response: "My flip-phone has 12 buttons on it and it stores a list of names so I don't have to know all their numbers." He handed me a Galaxy S-something and said "Now you're an Android guy."

At that time, my cell phone experience was: I dial a number and speak to humans on the other end. I didn't even text...If I needed to write notes, I'd break out the laptop ...

My personal cell provider (Verizon) kept sending me notes about how I was eligible for a free phone upgrade, so about a year after I was Droided at work, I decided to get one like my work phone for my personal use. So now my work phone is a Galaxy S7 Active on AT&T and my personal phone is S7 on Verizon. My travel is within 300 miles or so of Norman Oklahoma, and I find Verizon has generally better coverage, but occasionally only the AT&T service works.

I don't know how I ever got by without Chrome in the palm of my hand for so long. My co-workers who were born into smartphone-dom as iPhone guys hate the Androids, but I don't know any better...I think they are pretty cool. I especially enjoy sync'ing Youtube videos of Pantera songs to my work truck and listening to them as I drive to Gotebo, or Nowhere, or Spinnaker Point Oklahoma.
 
I travel a lot in the rural South Eastern US. I find Verizon works best in the boonies.
My company gives me a monthly stipend, so I added to it and just recently got an S9+, man this thing is fantastic. Battery life is tremendous. I could not survive without a smartphone. I use the GPS function to locate plants, hotels, food, you name it. Work email and Ring Central meetings via phone. Depending on the client, I use it to record part numbers, screen shots of HMI's. Wifi passwords etc...
I do have an Otterbox case, they seem to work best for me.
 
Samsung S9 and a sim card only contract with a UK provider called "3"

$20 a month, and I have free roam of Europe and North America. Whenever I'm outside of the UK it just jumps to whichever provider is sending the strongest signal. So i never really have any dead zones.
 

Similar Topics

I rarely need to add a network card to the drives we install... very rarely. But my sales-guy said he needs to quote a network-connected ACH580...
Replies
6
Views
2,555
When did FactoryTalk Services get intertwined with ControlLogix? I ask this because I have been on Studio 5000 ver 31 up for a while and forgot...
Replies
10
Views
2,804
I have to put 3 UPS's into outdoor cabs. I thought of going with the ones that are used on Traffic lights and such but that is such overkill for...
Replies
9
Views
2,491
Hi guys, What would be a good choice for a drive or servo in a master/slave setup controlling two sides of a lift? The issue is that the lift has...
Replies
7
Views
2,189
Hello, Thanks in advance for your input. I am building a simple alarm panel. It has 8 magnetic door switches and 8 corresponding 4mm leds on...
Replies
17
Views
3,418
Back
Top Bottom