When investigating a community, bring your cell phone...and test it

    Before our college visit to Sewanee, TN, last week, the University of the South warned us not to rely on our cell phones for communication, indicating that service in the town was “spotty.”  It reminded us of visits to dozens of golf course communities where, indeed, service was often unreliable.  We had no problem with service in Sewanee, but we did speak with others who could not raise a signal with Verizon and the other services (we use Cingular).  Advice:  If you are a big user of your cell phone, make sure you add that to your list of criteria when you check out a potential place to live.


Residents complained about poor cell phone service at The Cliffs at Glassy in rural South Carolina (35 minutes from Greenville).  Developer Jim Anthony responded by putting a cell tower in a flagpole at the very top of the 3/4 mile high community.  (photo by L. Gavrich)