I’ve noticed recently that when I need it most, I don’t seem to have cell phone coverage. On several occasions we have been early arrivals at not too happy occurances (we motorcycle a lot in the California Sierra and Coastal ranges).
but have been unable to call 911. Additionally, we live in a rural, wooded area. I lose coverage about 7-8 miles from home.
Since it’s time to change, I’m wondering which service provider has the bestrural/remote coverage?
Anyone out there with an opinion?
That’s going to depend entirely on where you are. One company may have excellent coverage in a particular rural area where others have no coverage. In a different rural area, the situation may be reversed.
Even if one company has more “coverage” based on a nationwide average, that does you no good if they don’t penetrate the area you are trying to call from.
Each carrier should have availabe on their web site or at their stores a coverage map showing the areas where they have good signal and where they have roaming coverage. Usually they will have a nationwide map and a map for the local area that should give you more detail.
Also, all carriers have a “trial” period, where you can go in and get their phones and be released from your contract for any reason within a certain period of time. Get a phone, test it in a few key areas, and choose the best one for your purposes.
You really need to check the area where you are traveling the most. Cingular says they have good service in Cincinnati but whenever I take my phone over there it misses calls. The type of phone you chose can also make a difference according to some of my friends who reported better coverage after upgrading their phones.
Go to the T-Mobile web site. Look for the personal coverage check. This gives you access to an interactive, street level coverage map. Put in any address you like, or zip code, or town name, or whatever. You will be looking at a very accurate map of exactly the coverage you can expect in that area–it’s the same map we use in customer care or tech support to check for coverage and outages. This is NOT a static “guesstimate” map, but an honest to gosh, slightly pessimistic real time map of actual coverage.
After that, it depends a lot on the phone you use…
That is not true. The map is not accurate. My house is in the dark green area, which means “excellent” and none of our phones work in the house. T-mobile sucks.
The type of materials used in the construction of your house, the type of cell phone you use, the age of said phone and the age of your SIM card can all factor heavily into the end coverage you experience.
The map is, as I stated, quite accurate in the level and strength of coverage available in a given area. It is, also as I stated, the same map used by engineering, field techs and customer care to research and troubleshoot coverage issues.
However, who can argue with such a sweepingly accurate summation as the one you’ve posted above–indeed, who would bother? You’re right, TMobile sucks and I’m a liar and the map is a figment of my imagination. Glad to see you taking the motto of the boards so to heart.
Whoa, SmartAleq, for just a minute. I can’t speak for T-Mobile’s map, but I’ve noticed some inaccuracies (that is not the PIT, so I won’t call them lying bastards) in Cingular’s coverage map. I had to switch phones following the Cingular buyout of AT&T. Before I chose to stick with Cingular, I studied their map and decided to stick with Cingular because the map showed the were using the same towers as the former AT&T service.
Little did I know that they were going to sell some of those towers and now my service is almost non-existant, but that’s not my point.
My point is, in studying the Cingular map, I noticed that they were showing gradients in coverage from low-medium-high in some large areas where I know for fact that they did not have physical access to perform a signal strength survey. When I looked at the map for a while, I was obvious that they had performed some type of extrapolation using the USGS elevation data. The higher areas showed strong signal coverage and the creek bottoms showed weaker. This did not take into account timber coverage, intervening hills, and mineral composition of the surrounding hills (there’s a lot of iron rock in this area).
So,
is a bit broad and sweeping itself. It map be true in areas thickly populated both people and cell towers, but the OP was asking about coverage in the rural, wooded areas.
I work for Wireless Advocates, a cell phone kiosk that can be found in most Costco wholesalers across the country. We sell Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Like some of the other posters in this thread have said, you would be best to check each providor’s coverage map to see who is the best in your neigborhood.
If you’re looking for a general answer…well, here’s I describe everyone.
Sprint has the most minutes for the least amount of money. Their rate plans are priced the same as T-Mobiles, but they have 7pm nights. They also have the weakest coverage and sucky customer service.
Verizon has the strongest coverage nationwide, but the highest prices.
T-Mobile is the median between the two and has fair prices and fair coverage. Excellent customer service too. Their towers are run off of GSM technology, which is the same as Cingular, so the two have the same coverage.
I work in Orlando. Of the three, I recieve the least complaints from Verizon.
No - that’s not necessarily true. T-Mobile uses a 1900 MHz network for their primary coverage, while Cingular uses an 850 MHz network. If you are a T-Mobile customer and your phone doesn’t have the 850 MHz band (the new ones do, but many previous models didn’t), there’s no roaming agreement in the world that will allow you to use a Cingular 850 MHz network. There’s also no guarantee that a given area is covered by a Cingular - T-Mobile roaming agreement. Your phone may be able to recieve a signal, but without a roaming agreement in place, you won’t get service. This is the situation in Philadelphia’s Suburban Station - there’s a Cingular repeater in the station, I’m on T-Mobile and my phone can see it, but I can’t use it.
So thats how that works. You explained the whole roaming agreements thing to me better than either of my managers or any of my coworkers have been able to. Thanks.
