does upgrading phone help your service

I have cingular service and the free Samsung phone. I live in WV and often have trouble getting a signal. But someone was visiting me with cingular service and was able to send and receive text messages from my house. Yet I cannot. There phone was a real top of the line job. Does that make a difference?

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There was from 2-3 bars on her phone. Mine shows nothing. Won't even connect to a network.