cell phones and the Ohio Turnpike

Factual Questions
1

So I recently had occasion to drive 3300 miles across many of the major and not-so-major highways of the Northeast and the Midwest. I was accompanied by my two teenage children, who were better behaved than you might expect, and my trusty cell phone, which was extremely well behaved in that it did not ring once.

I did notice, however, that the phone COULD NOT have rung across much of the Ohio Turnpike, which I crossed from end to [almost] end and back. That was because I got an almost constant NO SERVICE message on the screen throughout the state. Now, I traveled through much hillier and less populated territory, such as I-80 across much of Pennsylvania and the Great River Road through parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and rarely drove more than 5-10 miles, straight, with NO SERVICE looking up at me–anywhere except Ohio.

Anybody know why the pike is so cell-unfriendly? My curiosity has been piqued. Thanks!

2

There are two major possibilities. One is that there was no antenna close enough to the turnpike to give you a signal – unlikely, as you noted, because it’s more populated than that.

The more likely reason is that your service provider has no coverage in that area. Most of the national providers actual subcontract the service in some areas to smaller regional providers; if they have no agreement, they have no access to a network.

I, for instance, had no service in Denver – PITA, that was.