Well, I recently got a different phone, my previous experiences have been with a Motorola V180, which I replaced with a V188 when it died, I enjoyed both, and they both tended to get excellent service. Even out here in the boonies I was able to often get full service with both of those phones.

It had turned me into somewhat of a Motorola fanboy, but as I was looking for a new phone I jumped off the Motorola bandwagon and ended up with a Samsung SGH-A437 because I liked the looks of it, and the price.

Now I get pretty bad reception with this thing, I used to get 3-4 bars inside my house, with full service outside, now Im down to anywhere between none and 3 inside, and honestly about the same outside.

I just missed a phone call when I was sitting in my front yard a few minutes ago because it had no service.

I really like the features and looks of this phone, but it does me know good if the phone part of it doesnt work half the time.

Is there any way to legitimately improve reception? I see the so-called "antenna boosters" all over the place, but I dont think they work all that well.

You can actually give the phone company rights to put up a tower on your property. In fact some will buy some land from you to use it for a tower.

but thats really the only way

Over the years cell phone outputs and intakes have been regulated more and more so they may not get a signal as well as they used too.

Short of that if your still in return policy bring it back and try something else. Usually an external antenna on the phone works a bit better then an intenna but its a long shot

Well I dont have a return policy, I bought it used off Ebay. I read a lot of reviews, and some said reception was poor, some said it was great. So i figured I would be ok.

As for the tower, theres one...oooh I would say less than 5 miles away as the crow flies from my house, plus were on top of a hill, which is why weve always gotten excellent service out here.

I thought it might be the fact that it uses an internal antenna without the stub, but that theory goes out the window when you take into account my moms Nokia "brick" I cant remember the model number, 6010 I think? But she gets excellent service with it around here, sometimes even in places my old Moto'* dropped off shed still have a bar or 2.

Ill tough it out and see how it goes, one thing I dont like, is that if Im getting this poor of service in the middle of winter with all the leaves off, spring/summer isnt looking good at all.

Keep in mind as well your moms old Nokia may have been tri mode. Most new phones are going to be all digital.

What that means is the trimode phone will pick up analog and digital signals, where as a all digital will only pick up digital signals.

The FCC has deemed analog no longer necessary for phone companies to support, and since it is expensive, phone companies have been converting all analog towers to digital towers.

I can speak for verizon when I say it will be done in February 08, but I cant speak for any other company. Call them if you like to see what the eta is on that, as well if maybe there is a tower problem in your area, you can alert them of it.

Yeah her phone is the 6010, which shows up as a dual-band GSM phone. My other two Motos were tri-band and quad-band GSM respectively. This new one is also supposed to be quad-band.

I think its an issue with the phone, not the carrier, I may end up putting this phone back up on Ebay, digging out the V188, and looking around for something else.

I wanted something that was relatively small and thin, that I could stash in a pocket and not have a massive bulge in my pants....at least not from my phone

I know Motorola has the Razr....but im honestly quite sick of the Razr, you see at least 10 people with one every day, and theyre too wide and tall for me.

I may just end up going back to a Motorola, perhaps I never should have left them.

Well I can only speak from a verizon employee/customer but usually we avoid motorolas because of so many software issues.

And to be totally honest, avoid the razr all together. Between the software issues and drop call issues, its frankly a cheaply made phone. It will break VERY easily and its battery is total junk. On top of that, you might as well hold a piece of cardboard to your face, because thats how comfortable it is.

I usually go with LG because of the lack of problems with them.

If I were you I would find a cool salesman at a local store and get him to talk to you as honest as possible about the phones quality and reception. then when you settle on phone tell him you need to talk it over with the missus or something and buy it on ebay.

Oh yea, PS make sure when you buy a phone on ebay you get the ESN to call the company with and make sure its not stolen as well as have them send a picture of the Litmus Paper to see if its come in contact with liquid.