How good is your Cellular Coverage?

[CleviteKid]

Inspector mentioned, in the thread about On-Star, that his cell phone has worked everywhere he has been. I, too, have had good service, most recently in Petersburg, Alaska (investigating a broken Yanmar diesel in a fishing boat - lead plaintiff in a potential class-action) where the attorneys' phones did not work.

I am on Cingular, and they were on Verizon and Sprint.

So let's have some input about how good you have found your coverage to be while traveling.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[loghauler]

I have found that in my travels in NE Pa and upstate NY that Verizon has by far the most coverage both metro and rural areas.

[Wing'n'it]

I also have Cingular service with a GSM phone. I travel 120 nights a year mostly 48 states but also to Hawaii, Mexico, Canada and the Carribean and have found the AT&T/Cingular network to be the best for me. This past week I visited my folks in San Jose, CA and found 5 bars in their house where in the past on AT&T digital I had spoty receiption. Last November, wife & I were camping along Oregon coast near Lincoln City / Newport and my Cingular GSM phone had excellent receiption while my wife's T-Mobile had none.

Mike

[Rocinante]

I live in Tucson and have traveled throughout the U.S., coast to coast. West Texas, west of Dallas and San Antonio to El Paso is DEAD, No signal with Verizon. Also, much of northern AZ and much of Nevada are dead. A lot of the desert areas of CA, Barstow to Needles - no signal. I have never had troubles east of Dallas, or anywhere in the Midwest or NE or South.

[tpitt]

I have Verizon and am relatively happy with it. I travel to Canada once in a while and have some spots where it doesn,t work as good. The cell phones will not get out as good as Onstar though. I hate to say it but your wrong Denny. I have tested this on my trips.
I also have a bagphone I keep activated through Verizon. I carry it on my dozer when I am on fires. It will beat the little phones hands down. I'm almost always in remote areas on fires. (except for the yearly trips to Southern California) I just renewed my Onstar for 2 years. I'm on the road a lot with my side business and need a phone quite a bit. Terry

[Rocinante]

OnStar has reached an agreement with Verizon wireless to use OnStar as a second line to your cellphone and share your minutes between them, including unlimited evenings and weekends. The catch is ... you MUST upgrade to digital and agree to the 3 year pre-paid commitment to get it!

[tanker]

We have Sprint, (still haven't heard a pin drop!)and its getting better each month as they add on. We do not have service in Canada at all. On one trip to the Rendezvous in Missoula, we had service on and off through the mountains in Pa. not bad to Chicago, then spotty to Minneapolis, then lost service until we reached Sioux Fall SD. then lost it until we reached Seattle. Nothing in between. As I said service is getting better, we are good the full length of I-95 and most places on the East coast. We now have "OnStar" and I hope that will fill the void. I have not been with out OnStar service as of yet. If all goes as planned we will put it to the test this September on our way to Salt Lake City for the annual Rendezvous and beyond. ;)

[Driveshaft]

I have cingular and do get good reception most of the time. However, I can not get reception in my yard or house but can walk 1000' to the highway and get reception. I live in rural southeast Mississippi.

[Inspector]

If you consistantly upgrade your roaming capabilitys useing *228 you will find that the dead zones go away. I do this periodically and before going on a trip. Works for me.
Denny

[CleviteKid]

Inspector:

Which cellular carrier are you using?

[Inspector]

Hi Doc:
I use Verison. I have had great service. Even down in the Southern part of Utah and Nevada. I have to get into a deep canyon for service to go away. Most of the time at least 3 to 6 bars.
Denny :D

[a5150nut]

Nobody has mentioned Nextel, or should I say Maybetel. Works nation wide but only in major incorperated areas. Even in the Bay area there are many dead spots. I am begining to think they work like a CB. If someone closer to the tower keys up they steel your signal.............

[mhagie]

untill 15 minutes ago I had Iwireless a arm of T-Mobile and it was marginal on the road but I could't talk from my home and tower is only 1 1/2 miles away.
Have had U.S. cellular,Cingular and Nextel in the house and all work but would't you know it the one I sign up for sucks so now I am searching again.............Merle

[DA BIG ONE]

Had AT&T never any complaint! However, when cingular took over nothing but dropped calls, or busy signal in my AO "Palm Beach", forget 911 too.

There has been news coverage about how cingular has sold more service than it can handle here in Palm Beach, I believe this to be the case.

Cingular staff was not forth coming about all the extra charges on services that was included w/AT&T service at no extra charge.

I think cingular sux!

Some dead spots in Florida rural areas as well as in the desert SW, but I have an uplink for those occasions.

[hd90rider]

Funny, I drive acroos the desert between Barstow & Needles quite often & have good service with Verizon. Also cross some of the other areas mentioned. Think maybe ya need to update more often. *288

[hd90rider]

Change that to *228. sorry

[Heartbeat Hauler]

I travel for a living as an IT Consultant and I have yet to have a problem with my Verizon service. Only dead spot I ever found was between Clarksburg and Charleston W.V. on my way home to see my mom.

Can you hear me now? Good. :D
JP

[Rocinante]

Does anyone use their Verizon in Canada? We are going to Alaska and will be going through Canada going & coming in our RV. (Guess there isn't another way to get there driving) If you do, please let me know if it requires another plan or how you accomplish it.

Thanks

[Kennedy]

I have Onstar (Verizon) and coverage is prety good. Unfortunately, GM never thought about a user wanting to conduct a private/personal call in the presence of others. :confused:

In my 2002, I have a Motorola 3w bag phone with a solid mounted antenna in the middle of the roof. This one works awesome, BUT they say at the end of the year the analog stuff will be defunct. :mad:

[Bill Voitel]

A second vote for NEXTEL if your out in the back forty your out of luck :(

[Heartbeat Hauler]

Originally posted by Rocinante:
Does anyone use their Verizon in Canada? We are going to Alaska and will be going through Canada going & coming in our RV. (Guess there isn't another way to get there driving) If you do, please let me know if it requires another plan or how you accomplish it.

Thanks My wife and I did the 14 day Alaskan cruise and I never had a problem with service. I even called a few times from the ship.
JP

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

"...(Guess there isn't another way to get there driving)..." Try the Alaska Marine Highway. The amount your reservations must be in advance of your travel depends mostly on how long your rig is: You can walk on almost always without reservation, a pickup camper might not need a reservation, but a really long rig needs an equally long (advanced) reservation.

I think you can get on a ferry in Seattle & off in Haines, which isn't too much of Canada. Personally, I wouldn't miss the Alaska Highway experience for anything, :D although I'd like to try the ferry some day too I guess. We went in 1993, & I can't wait for my next opportunity. I know I'll spend more time in Liard River Hot Springs next time through.

Sorry about being so far off the subject... :(

Blessings!

Brian Johnson, # 5044

[HowieE]

I am using a analog ATT system and have had very good coverage across country. Yes there are dead spots but where you would expect them
As for Canada some of the Canadian phone companies have signed agreements with US carriers. Rodgers has but Telus, not sure of spelling, in the Yokon and norhtern BC had not as of my last trip.
While out on the Queen Charletts BC and ontop of a hill I did get coverage out of Ketchikan Alaska.
A question on On Star. If On Star can access your car to open a locked door, and that service has 2 way communication, what keeps them from lessoning in on anything in the car. How near is Big Brother?

[saywhat]

Alltel seems to have a lotta dead areas.Was down in Big Bend country(TX.)and the Onstar did not work either,simply lack of towers I would guess.Also no radio reception down towards the Rio Grande.

[surfbeetle]

I have Cingular. I have had them for about 5 years now, since they were Pac Bell PCS. Before the merge/takeover of AT&T, the service was spotty at times and yes, they had oversold their capabilities. Just try to make a call during rush hour, you would constantly get voicemail. I drove to Lake Havasu from San Diego at that time and had bad service. But since the ATT Cingular merge, its been better. Two weeks ago, I went from San Diego to Tucson, then to Las Cruces to Roswell NM, then to Muleshoe TX. I had server 99% of the time. There were a couple of dips in the road that the server bounced over. My Nextel did not work once we were off of the major interstates.

[cmonroe97]

Anybody try one of those $300 boosters .I need someting for my nextel traveling out west with my fifth wheel 34 ft and my 2002 durmax

[Sneaks]

I had both Verizon and Sprint service for three years and have been all over the US using both while RV'ing. To get the most out of Verizon you MUST have a tri-band phone that works with the older analog cell towers. In any case, Verizon has spotty coverage along the Northern California coast and almost no coverage in Oregon. They do, however, have "extended" system free roaming along I-5. Medford Oregon, for example, is Sprint country. Verizon uses Sprint towers there, so when you on Verizon Extended Network, it's actually Sprint.

Overall, with a tri-band phone, I prefer, and have settled on, Verizon.

Caveat: I often use my laptop and my cell phone to connect to the internet. If I am not using a Genuine Verizon tower, I cannot data connect. This is normal! If one roams, be it extended free or pay, the roam towers disable your data transmission.

[spitfirenut]

Originally posted by cmonroe97:
Anybody try one of those $300 boosters .I need someting for my nextel traveling out west with my fifth wheel 34 ft and my 2002 durmax I've not tried the booster, but my house is in a hole and I got a Wilson antenna for cell phones at a truck stop mounted it outside and ran a cable in and it works great. They have them with 3/8" x 24 and mag mounts. I have both and they are fantastic. The mag mount I use in the car. The only catch is the adapter will sometimes pop out of the jack and the signal will drop, but you learn to pay attention to that.
My carrier is Cingular and the only real dead spot I've found is at my house and my mother in law's. Both are small areas and actually it seems like the one at the house has improved recently. My parents recently came to Cingular due to poor coverage they found with Verizon.

[DickWells]

Hi Dr. Lee:
We have no land line any more. We're on Verizon cell only, with a Smoothtalker booster. We have the America's Choice plan, which gives us 400 any time minutes/month, 1000 mobile to mobile, and unlimited nights and week-ends. It's a good program, but we'd like a little more any time minutes, so we could feel a little more at ease come the last few days of the billing period.
Reception is great in most locations. We're all over the place about 8 months of the year, and we have this here little ol lap top, plus a Delorme GPS working in the Suburban, along with the computer sitting on my wife's lap a lot of the time.
Flat spots? The Ocala National Forest is one of the worst. I don't think we found a flat spot (phone wise) anywhere in Nevada! Go figure.
We don't miss our land line at all any more. For forty dollars a month, plus tax, we get all the phone we need. True, the Smoothtalker cost us $300 plus, but over a years time, we saved a lot more than that. Besides, in Vermont, they have to leave your dial tone on, so that you can dial 911 in an emmergency.
I see a time coming, when phone lines will be a thing of the past.
Thanks for starting this post. Actually, thanks for everything you and others have done for us all on the Diesel Page.
Dick Wells