Cell Phone Service along Alaska Highway

Mr-MrsPete wrote:
Hey Vebyes some of us still have jobs to do while we are relaxing. Just because you don't doesn't make it wrong for eveyone else. Just saying.

No problem with the really NEED to use the cellphone use. Got my first cellphone in 1989 for my boat tour business. Just me, the boat & the phone. No office. Nobody else. The phone was a very handy tool. Customers wanted answers right away. They did not want to talk to an answering machine that I would not get back to till hours later.

It is the addicted people I am poking fun at. The ones who will not go where there is no service. The people who contantly have them in their hands, looking at the phone every 30 seconds as they walk. The people who can't put the phone away when they are in a restaurant or movie. The ones who think that a moving vehicle is a conference center. The ones who cannot bear to be disconnected from the world, as if the world needs them to be connected. It doesn't.

We have been to Alaska 3 times. We use Walmarts Straight Talk & Tracphone. No service in Canada for either one. We never race through Canada to get to Alaska. Our preference is to use provincial park CGs. No WIFI. We keep in touch using Skype or Email wherever we can find WIFI. That can be the occasional commercial CG or a library. Our itinerary is updated as often as possible so if there is an emergency the police can be given a real good idea of where to find us.

Three to four weeks going through Canada or Alaska without cellphone service...no problem. It is nice being disconnected from the world for a spell.

This is a copy of a post I put up back in 2010. With the fiber optic cable in place the installation of cell towers should go quickly. Only time will tell if it is economically feasible to do. Virtually all the villages in Alaska now have cell service, tied into the state owned TV satellite system that used be known as RATNet. Rural Alaska Tellivison network. It has created a lot of positive situations and some negative ones, especially in the areas of fish and game management. I just hope that soon, it will get reasonable in cost to use a US cell phone in Canada and visa versa for Canadians traveling in the US.
Start of old post:

As mentioned above, cell service is very limited to non-existent along many miles of the Alaska Hwy. However the good news is that Northwestel, a Canadian communications company has in the last few years laid a fiber optic cable along side the Alaska Hwy for about 2,000km, running from the Yukon, to northeastern BC and on into Alberta. This allows for very good Internet service and WiFi in many places. Almost every town or village in Canada, regardless of size will have Internet services, normally found at the local library, town haul, school, etc. Just pulling up to the local library and most of the time you will find a WiFi hot spot, free to use.
So it shouldn't be too long before someone or the Canadian government puts up more cell towers along the Alaska Hwy and uses the fiber optic line for transmissions. Makes it possible for the small remote businesses, to have ATMs, credit card machines, credit card fuel pumps, etc. (the fiber cable was accidentally cut by a drilling contractor the other day and messed up the northern Internet services for users.
We tend to turn our cell phones off in Canada and use prepaid phone cards available at Sams, Cosco, Wal Mart, Target, Canadian Tire, etc. Still many more pay phones available in Canada than in the US.
We use the Intenet for communications with family and any business I need to take care of while traveling. Do my bill paying and other banking needs at certain places, Whitehorse, Valdez, and Fairbanks at systems that use a password. Works great and we have been doing it for years. Our daughters, grown ones now, know that I tend to check my emails every day or two if anything comes up.

joe b.
Stuart Florida
Formerly of Colorado and Alaska
2011 Chevy 3500 DRW Dmax CC 4X4- Rockwood 8281 SS 5th Whl & 2008 Lance 845 TC
www.pajbcooper.com web site
Alaska-Colorado and other Trips posted
"Without challenge, adventure is impossible".

Mr-MrsPete wrote:
Hey Vebyes some of us still have jobs to do while we are relaxing.

Some folks even managed to work prior to the cellphonemania.

Hey Vebyes some of us still have jobs to do while we are relaxing. Just because you don't doesn't make it wrong for eveyone else. Just saying.

I must admit, I was quite uncomfortable to have no cell phone service from the Saskatchewan border to Churchill, Manitoba last summer. I had just turned in my last non gsm phone and Manitoba Bell was a late adopter of GSM.

There was also well over 100 miles with no fuel between Hudson's Bay, SK and The Pas, MB.

It is amazing to me how dependent I've become on the secure feeling I have with having the ability to call for help, if need be. In 15 years I've only had to call 3 times--but I felt very stressed.

It's getting ugly early.

Veebyes wrote:
How did we ever get by without cellphones?

Same as I do now...there's no cell service at our cabin in the bush near the Alaska Highway. Guess we might get it with this infrastructure install.

That will make folks who visit here happier. Last summer had a family stay for a month; one of the teen boys went through major withdrawal and wanted to visit Whitehorse often so he could check in with his friends back home on Vancouver Island.

It will also be interesting to see how many people simply cannot bear to be disconnected for even a few days, & will pay anything to be able to use that phone which has become permanently attached to them.

They will also moan about the high roaming rate they get charged for their hours of idle chatter.

How did we ever get by without cellphones?

It will certainly be interesting to see what it will cost to use those towers.