Best Telephone Service in Western States

[Doc Foster]

My wife has a Verizon based phone and my phone (provided by my employer) is Sprint based. They work fine in Maryland, but we just spent July and August traveling almost 9000 miles in CO, NE, SD, WY, UT, NM, TX AND OK, some of it in some pretty remote areas. Yes, there were a few remote roads and boondocking spots where neither of us could get any signal (I doubt if even a cell phone booster would have helped in a couple spots).
My wife was able to stream/download movies/shows most of the time while on the road and was able to get enough of a signal for phone calls most of the time. There were MANY, MANY days out West where I got 0 bars with my Sprint service (don't believe the coverage maps that Sprint claims) and often not even enough send or receive even a text. It was worthless at least 30% of the time.
I would never rely on Sprint in the Western states.

[Gene]

Even with a booster, canyons and mountains plus low population density mean dead spots in many places. Interstates usually have continuous coverage, but there are still dead zones, for ex., I-15 on both sides of the Idaho/Montana border. It will be a long, long, long time before 5G gets to a lot of the west.

[guskmg]

The only sure way to be located in an emergency is with mySpot.com. It is via a satellite with emergency service (911), track following by others, one and two way communications. Some of the options are expensive, but we had coverage all the way to Alaska from Fort Worth, TX. Also, our travel companions had Verizon and we had ATT. When they broke down in the Canadian Rockies I had no coverage, but they we able to reach Good Sam Road service with Verizon.
guskmg

[smsasf]

Originally Posted by Czarina

Past 100 days full time, and have been in SD, WY, NW Montana, Western WA and now Oregon... mostly in pretty remote areas so often have no signal period. ATT hotspot in AS plus ATT iPad and Verizon iPhone and watch. And a Garmin InReach mini for safety. I have definitely had spots where one carrier works (a little) and the other has nothing - I think possibly ATT maybe wins a little but it’s gone both ways. Mostly though it’s been both or none. More commonly though has been a decent signal (3+ bars) but horrible data speed.

Thanks for insight. As mentioned 2 years ago I had terrible AT&T serice in parts of western WY and then down south of Vernal, UT into Monument Valley non existent (I think the Verizon was so busy that rhe AT&T could not even find space/time through them). And Grand Canyon campground area, nothing. Was particularly bothersome that none of the 3 payphones at the GC grocery store were working. I suppose I don’t care so much for the service for myself, but my adult children were a bit worried when they did not hear from me, as alone traveler. Then again, I would be either dead or alive🙂

[smsasf]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

If good signal is critical, consider investing in a signal booster.

There are other threads on this, so let’s not derail this one discussing them, but I have one and it works great.

Maggie

Thanks. I would not consider comments about a booster as being a hijack of the thread since my OP was about getting communication coverage in areas that can be lean, depending the carrier. But I will be looking into boosters since another poster brought up that as well.

[smsasf]

Originally Posted by Gene

It wasn't that long ago we went to many places without phones, internet and such and survived. The ultimate is a sat phone, but very expensive. Having an AT&T and a Verizon phone is also expensive. Seems best to live with dead spots and cope.

Gene, I agree that we survived. I worked in the field, in western states as a geodetic surveyor back in the day when my wife might not hear from me for weeks. We survived. We also used paper road maps and our sense of N-S and E-W and sun’s location before Google Maps. But given I can change from my current AT&T to another carrier at about the same price per month and given most primary carriers work well in my current home state of NC (except when I was in the mountains a few weeks back at a campsite in a valley in Hanging Rock State Park) I have been trying to get a feel about what others see as best carrier if I will be travelling in the western states. Seems that on average folks have been more satisfied with Verizon.

[smsasf]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I think I got it figured out. I will close out with two interesting (to me at least) stories related to communication.

In 1973, prior to cell phones of course, I was working a USAF-DoD field geodetic survey project in Utah (does anyone know that Army Air Corps built replicas of small German towns at Dugway Proving Grounds to train WWII pilots what to look for in terms of munitions factories placed among city buildings?). Anyway, me and several of my fellow airmen decided to go backpack hiking/camping in Uinta Mtns. on a 3 days weekend. When we eturned to the USAF truck on Sunday evening there was a note for me to call home, nit to Wyoming where I was stationed with family, but to Virginia. My father-in-law had died the day we left for the hike.

Fast forward to 2001. I did not own a cellphone but my wife did. My oldest son had gotten out of the Navy and he and I planned a trip, from Houston, to the western side of the WY Wind River Mtns where he and I had gone camping each year when he got out of elementary school in Bakersfield CA each year. My wife suggested I take her cell phone, so I did. At the Sweetwater River camp ground we had no cell coverage. On the morning of September 10, 2001, as we ate a late breakfast, I looked up and commented on all the jet contrails crossing in the sky over this area of WY. Looked like spokes on a wheel. On the morning of September 11, 2001, at about the same time as day before, I looked up and did not see any jet contrails. I said to my son, that is so strange. Remember all the contrails yesterday morning, now nothing. Did not think anything more. We went off to see if we could find where we had carved out initials and the date into adjoining Aspen trees about 10 years earlier. We wre about to give up when I suddenly spotted the carved marks in the white Aspen bark. Ironically, the dates from before was September 12, 1991. Here we were, 10 years later, and carving an update with initials and September 11, 2001. Later that afternoon I drove my Toyota Tacoma 4WD up a ridge so we could go shoot some targets. We did. I had not been in contact with wife back home for 1 week. As we got ready to head back down I saw what I thought was a cell tower wayin the distance on a ridge top south of Hwy 50. I said, let’s see if this phone can pick up a signal. It did and I called home to learn that the Twin Towers had fallen that day and that all flights had been grounded. That explained the lack of contrails that morning. We packed up and headed back to Houston, not knowing what to expect along the way. So, modern communication can be helpful, for sure.

[Gene]

I hiked many miles into the wilderness and never worried about making or receiving a phone call when I was young. I had a cheap compass, the sun and a watch to know where the sun should be in the sky and some tops. I never thought about getting injured because that couldn't happen to me.

Now I have to check my phone/iPad/laptop too often and worry about whether I will have a good connection at a campground. Will I have to use my phone or the campground wifi? Will my satellite antenna pick up TV or are the trees too thick? Will I be able to read my local newspaper and the NY Times on my iPad?

I'm unsure whether I am better off now or was then. There is a certain feeling of safety when my phone works somewhere where I am climbing up a hill or driving through rough places looking for ancient ruins and rock art in Utah, especially since I haven't been "young" for a long time.

I never worried about getting stuck in the wilderness with a truck and if I did, I had tools to get me out. I never did get stuck, either because of luck or careful driving. Now I have a Subaru SUV, not exactly a backcountry truck, and don't know if I could get out of a mess. The pickup is full sized and not good for backcountry travel because it is so big. Glad to have the phone just in case, but wish I were young and would trade that for cellphones.

Verizon's system is probably still the best you can do except for a sat phone or something in a car that is basically using satellites of you are stuck. A lot of places may have phone, but very weak or nonexistent data especially when using a local provider and roaming. When we changed to Credo they were getting rid of a limited run version of the iPhone 7 and they actually were free. The data plan was the best we could find 2 1/2 years ago, but things keep changing. The phone's battery needs recharging a lot. Look into alternate plans that use Verizon towers.

[Condoluminum]

Just one more thumbs down for AT&T Cell service.. I had major breakdown in Wyoming on Interstate 80 (wheel/brake drum and tire left the trailer at 65 mph..) and learned AT&T has essentially no coverage in Wyoming, outside of possible service in downtown Cheyenne.. Bought a disposable phone at WalMart linked to Verizon, and after 24 hours of grief trying to initialize it (you need a second phone to start service on new phone..) that worked until I got out of the state...

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Gene

Verizon is the best in the west, but you don’t have to pay their high prices if you use another carrier that leases their cell towers.

I agree with Verizon being best, but I wouldn't bet you get the same quality service from a secondary provider.
I hear every day, "We use the same towers". Yes, but do you have the same priority? In other words, you're on a call with B-Mobile on a Verizon tower and a call comes to that tower from a Verizon phone, I'd bet you get disconnected.
It may not matter if there are lots of towers or low call volume. But when a call is important, and the towers are packed, staying with the mother ship makes sense.
It comes down to $ and ¢.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

I agree with Verizon being best, but I wouldn't bet you get the same quality service from a secondary provider.

I haven't seen that. We used Verizon until 2 1/2 years ago and since then the service has been the same so far as we can tell. We don't get bounced off calls either. And in the mountains where there is poor service, it is just as bad as it was.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Gene

I haven't seen that. We used Verizon until 2 1/2 years ago and since then the service has been the same so far as we can tell. We don't get bounced off calls either. And in the mountains where there is poor service, it is just as bad as it was.

Then, why isn't Verizon out of business? If I could buy a Cadillac for the price of a Chevy, why would I ever pay for a Cadillac?
I'm sure the FCC has mandated that the big three (two?) must rent space on their towers, but they didn't mandate they put themselves out of business.

[wmarsha]

A cheap CB from Goodwill and a 2 meter Ham rig from wherever. In the Covid world, Ham radio will quickly become the answer.

[Native143]

I would get an iPad with only WiFi. That way both devices aren't locked into a cell company. Cheaper too. I use my phone as a hotspot for my iPad and that works fine. Now for the choice of companies, that depends on the region as many have posted.

[JayOhBee]

Originally Posted by Gene

...I never thought about getting injured because that couldn't happen to me.

Yeah, being young was great... dangerous, but great.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Then, why isn't Verizon out of business? If I could buy a Cadillac for the price of a Chevy, why would I ever pay for a Cadillac?
I'm sure the FCC has mandated that the big three (two?) must rent space on their towers, but they didn't mandate they put themselves out of business.

1. We have used both Verizon and a carrier than leases tower space from Verizon. The service has been the same. If you don’t want to believe that, it is your privilege.

2. Major phone companies have leased their cable to other carriers for years. This is hardly a new practice.

3. Some independent companies just build towers and lease the tower to someone who puts on cell transceivers and then subleases their use of that. Standard practice in the communications world. Back when there were long distance companies that had better deals than the local phone companies, the local company leased use of local facilities and big companies leased use of their long distance lines. Same deal.

4. People don’t switch from Verizon because it is a major pain to research all the options including figuring out the plans, or they don’t know they can.

5. People also don’t switch because they believe the other carriers have inferior service though they can’t prove it.

6. I have never heard the FCC mandates leasing of facilities to other companies. They do it because they make money doing it. Verizon skims off the big spenders and others get the thrifty or knowledgeable customers.

7. Verizon is a very profitable company and wouldn’t lease towers if they didn’t figure they would make more money that way.

8. GM product lines shared many components and a Chevy and a Caddy were not that different except for options on a Chevy being standard on a Caddy. Of course there were some differences, but mostly they were similar cars and buying a Caddy was a ego option for some, but not that different a car.

[Mreasy2]

I have travelled the entire country. Verizon has the best coverage. Not perfect much noticeably better then ATT

[Goal15]

Two years ago we did Texas to just north of Seattle and the only places we didn’t have Verizon coverage was in the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon and one night in the middle of the Cascade Range. We used to have T-Mobile and it was pretty much useless once you strayed from Interstatd corridors

Dana

[Airdog9]

Service is tough i n many areas. We have a couple of devices and split services; ATT on one and Verizon on the other. Maybe a bit more $$, but they each use different towers and one may be better than the other in certain areas. Good luck!

[jwgreen]

Regardless of the carrier, using any cellular device inside your Airstream is a bad idea. The aluminum shell is an excellent RF shield, also called a Farraday cage. I had a Verizon Jetpack mobile hotspot before my smart phone and would place it near a window. 4G LTE voice/data is at 2.5 ghz and pretty much line of sight so valleys are usually dead zones. I recently purchased and installed a Winegard ConnecT 2.0 which is a combination wi-fi and/or cellular booster. It's on the roof of my AS and requires 12 VDC to operate. I removed an old DirecTV KVH dish and used the existing power cable to power the Winegard. It comes with a SIM card for "pay as you go" data from Winegard. It also works on the Verizon network after you replace the SIM card in a slot on the side. I'm now picking up usable wi-fi signals over a 1/4 mi. distant from my location. Verizon access is way better with the Winegard. You use your laptop to access the Winegard and select the mode you want to use. It was about $300 from CW. You could also check out WiFi Ranger but it's more than double the cost of the Winegard. WiFi Ranger requires more wiring and has a router to mount on the AS inside ceiling. Verizon's 5G deployment plan was urban areas first. Same with AT&T. T Mobile 5G uses 600 mhz for rural deployment. It has longer range than other providers 5G.
I retired from Verizon (predecessor company) in 1999 with 32 yrs. of service. It was difficult to get Vz to send me the SIM card I needed because they said that my Winegard device was the first one they had ever set up. The user manual comes with the IMEI number that they need to verify network compatibility.