Each tower has a field of service. Think of it as a defined circle with the tower at the hub. If you are in the circle service is historically as advertised. If you are in an area where the circles overlap service can be outstanding. If you are outside the circles it does not mean you will not get service, just a reduced service. All that being said, I do agree the engineers who configure the system do not focus at the service during peak demands, but rather static demands. My 3G out here in rural America drops significantly from the morning to the evening. It's all about money. Foliage from your trees may or may not be effecting your reception. Previously speaking with my system's engineers on the issue, height should not be an issue with 3G. Remember, it's actually a cellphone network. You may have a concern created by the lay-of-the land between your home, and the target tower. A hill, rise, cliff, land contour etc. may be effecting it. DA

lukki - It took us *months* to get AT&T to send someone who really looked at the problem, and then multiple visits to fix it. I've got a direct number to their St Louis tech support office, and the cell phone of the latest (and greatest!) local tech, so I can skip the overseas people unless I really need to put in a trouble ticket (then it has to go chain of command). I got tired of hearing them ask me to cycle the power on the modem and tell them which lights were blinking too! This AM the guy in St Louis asked if I worked for them b/c I seemed to know so much LOL! But I'm still waiting for tech to come and test my lines - it seems to have settled down a bit, was getting 2.2Mbps pretty reliably b4 I went to Verizon store, now I can still connect but speed has dropped to about 1.7M - still good, but makes me wonder if we'll have service at all by the time DH gets home. Oh, and I found I'm on a "secondary" ($9.99/mo) line on my mon's contract, my dad was "primary" (I thought he and I had the same plan) so that's why he got a free phone. I'd have to pay for mine (with rebates, but still not free). So I'll hold off and see if DH's company is going to stop paying for his Blackberry. He said it was possibility in next couple of months that they'd cancel and just tell people they'd remiburse them for their own plans (minutes?). If that happens I can drop out of my parents' plan for no penalty (found I'm month-to-month now, if I got a new phone I'd be locked in), then DH and I can get our own plan - if they take away the company device, we can get 2 Blackberry Curves for $50 after rebate. At least if they keep running the same promotion they have now. We'd have to get insurance though - DH is hard on them, esp. the holsters, but he did drop one device in the gutter and break it running across the street a couple years ago.

You guys are too much :-). And I'm shocked at how much a 2 year old's attitude resembles that of a belligerent teen! The refusing to answer when spoken to, the ignoring of direct instructions, the odd eating habits... No wait lists for any of the hotels but I did manage to find a room via Travelocity. The funny thing is that when I specified the town as "Mansfield" the hotel came up as available but changed to unavailable when I tried to book rooms. A call to the hotel itself confirmed that, no available rooms. But when I changed the town to "ashland" (about 20 miles away) the exact same hotel came up as available & allowed me to book rooms. So I did. Printed up my confirmation so I have proof. Now I'm even toying with the idea of flying out & renting a car. What with the cost of gas in my area it wouldn't be all that much more money! But I'm liking the thought of camping more & more & maybe later in the season we can get away for a few days to just camp. bring the little guy & the dog & play wild slumber party in the tent. Both the little guy & the dog would love it. Thankfully we have a big tent! Melanie, I'm beating myself up because I know better. I consciously left this until the last minute. It's a bad, bad habit of mine. I insist that I work better under pressure :-). Yes, Bill, how far west are you heading? And since you're in Maine have you ever done the trip east to Nova Scotia? Now that's a spectacular holiday! Nina

I can agree with just about all that's been said already BUT I also have another POV to offer. In fact, I had a pretty similar experience with my GC who I believed to be a dodging my job in the beginning but the end story turned out pretty good. In the beginning my GC was really gung ho to talk on the phone, come over and check out the site, and bid on the job with a fairly detailed quote pretty quickly. After I reviewed all the bids (about 5 in all), I then got back to him and said I wanted to handle the project. He agreed. And, then it seemed like I just sat and waited . . . and waited until he got around to my house. It was probably 6 months or more, in fact, between getting his quote and actually starting the job. Although he would keep in touch, from time to time, it was usually to tell me he was ill, on jury duty, etc. I was pretty convinced he was just putting me off and had other jobs that he deemed more important. The delay made me mad enough to want to y to ditch him. But the ID insisted I stick with him, on the reasoning that getting the right person to the do the job is more important than getting someone to do it right away and that the time and effort needed to find an alternative GC just might not be worth it. In the end, I'm pretty glad I just waited. When it came my turn for this GC to do my kitchen, he was totally dedicated to the project. He showed up with his subs every day and stayed all day -- no running off to manage other jobs. I could not have asked for a more committed GC. And here's one other really important point to note: At the beginning of the project, I was so TKO and anxious for him to get started but I really wasn't even ready myself! That is, I wanted to sign the contract and get going before I had even ordered my cabs! Yet, the GC was upfront in stating that he did not want to approach the job in a piecemeal fashion. Therefore, he didn't want to get started until the cabs were within a week or so of being ready for delivery. So, from the point of my telling him I wanted him for the job and his agreeing to take it on, it probably took me another 6 weeks to really nail down the cab manufacturer, fine tune the design and to place the order (for which the lead time was another 12 weeks.) IOW, for at least 18 of the 20 weeks I felt like I was waiting on my GC to get my kitchen reno started, I really did not even have core pieces of my remodel resolved and ready to go. LOL! I can only imagine how much more chaotic my life would have been if the GC had given into my desire to hurry up and start the job, demolished my kitchen and then left me sitting in the rubble for months after that! Not saying that any of my story is the same as what's going on with your GC but, for some in these similar situations, there may be another choice than to just ditch the busy GC and move on.