Cell phone coverage in Alaska?

[MamaGoose]

Hi everyone!
Hubby and I are considering taking the motorhome to Alaska late August/early Sept. I haven't read through the 64 page thread on Alaska 2016, wish I had come here sooner to do that!

We are Canadian, with Sasktel cell phones. Our phones work with AT&T and T-Mobile, but not at all with Verizon. I think our phone company doesn't have a roaming agreement with Verizon. When we were at Glacier National Park last week, our phones could find Verizon but couldn't get service at all. I'm looking at the AT&T coverage map and it looks pretty good, but I would like to hear from people who have been there. What is AT&T's coverage like?

Thanks!

[MamaGoose]

Yeti plus wrote:
I bought an unlocked phone at Costco before we left home. Once we got to Alaska I got an AT&T Go phone prepaid sim and we have been using it okay. The first big problem we had was in Denali National park, phone worked, internet didn't. So 3 days without email and checking in to RV.NET. As others have said, good in cities, nothing between cities though, just like Northern Ontario!
Had slow service in parts of the Kenai Peninsula, but it still worked.
When I checked before we left Rogers thinks Canada ends at the border between B.C., Alberta, and Yukon and Northwest territories. Telus and Bell at least have some presence in the "larger" towns.
Brian

I'm not surprised about Rogers. It's only in the past couple of years or so that they had any coverage at all in Saskatchewan outside of the largest cities. Rogers opened a store and marketed themselves enthusiastically to a population in Manitoba close to the Saskatchewan border, people who frequently visited Saskatchewan for shopping, business, and recreation and who found themselves with no cell service in this province other than the largest centres. Their coverage has improved here, but it was a long time coming, far longer than it should have been, in my opinion.

Of the Canadian cellular companies with whom Sasktel has a roaming agreement, I've found Telus to be the best. I was amazed and impressed with their LTE coverage in Alberta. Rogers only provides that for Rogers customers. According to a Sasktel tech with whom I spoke, Rogers actually has different technology which is not compatible with the technology that some other companies use, which could be why Rogers customers find themselves with no coverage in some parts of the country.

We do have a couple of unlocked iPhones, one of them being an old 5 that we're not using and we'll be bringing them with us. An AT&T Go card is an option we can go with if we need to. 🙂

[Yeti_plus]

I bought an unlocked phone at Costco before we left home. Once we got to Alaska I got an AT&T Go phone prepaid sim and we have been using it okay. The first big problem we had was in Denali National park, phone worked, internet didn't. So 3 days without email and checking in to RV.NET. As others have said, good in cities, nothing between cities though, just like Northern Ontario!
Had slow service in parts of the Kenai Peninsula, but it still worked.
When I checked before we left Rogers thinks Canada ends at the border between B.C., Alberta, and Yukon and Northwest territories. Telus and Bell at least have some presence in the "larger" towns.
Brian

[brinasmemaw]

We live on the Kenai Peninsula & most of this area has good/excellent ATT cell service. There are a few spotty areas of coverage but overall it is acceptable between Anchorage & Homer. When going on toward Seward it gets considerably more spotty though.

[c_traveler2]

MamaGoose wrote:
2gypsies: I just ordered The Milepost online, I'm having it shipped to the nearest bookstore.

c.traveler2, thanks for the information. 🙂

Most everywhere we when during our trip a MH could have gone. The Truck camper forum has a few trip report on Alaska, check them out and I have a on going series of our last summer trip trip to Alaska. If i can help you with any further information just PM me.

[MamaGoose]

2gypsies: I just ordered The Milepost online, I'm having it shipped to the nearest bookstore.

c.traveler2, thanks for the information. 🙂

[2gypsies1]

I'd try to get the Milepost BEFORE your trip so you can really use it. It has excellent history of the areas and good maps. It doesn't even have to be the current issue. The history and maps don't change.

Are you near a bookstore that could get it for you? Major Visitor Centers sometimes carry books or your Chamber of Commerce might be able to help or perhaps your library has a copy to loan out.

[c_traveler2]

The summer of 2015 we were in Alaska for about 34 days and found that once you left the cities there for the most part no cell coverage. We did make the drive up to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, only Verizon cell phone worked there and there is public internet at the airport in Deadhorse.

Through Canada my wife's cheap flip phone worked great in the bigger cities, yes we did ave some roaming charges.

[MamaGoose]

OK, good to know. I had seen a web page that said you can only get cellular service with CDMA in the Yukon, but that page is a few years old already. I guess we can still bring the LG just in case and see what happens.

[Ductape]

Our GSM phones with Cricket (ATT) work in all the provinces and Yukon plus Alaska.

[MamaGoose]

I see Telus and Rogers have some coverage in the Yukon, and Sasktel works with both of them...but I am seeing info that there is no GSM in the Yukon, and all the iphones need CDMA. I'm looking at one of our old LG phones, and I have one that is not a smartphone. Maybe we'll see what can be done with that. 🙂

[MamaGoose]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of coverage in the Yukon. I think Sasktel uses GSM, not CDMA. Not anymore, anyway. I had a long talk with a Sasktel tech about the Verizon thing. Sasktel is pretty responsive to customer feedback. When AT&T abandoned a HUGE swatch of northern Montana and left them with Sagebrush (and thus Sasktel customers with no coverage down there), it wasn't long before Sasktel developed a roaming agreement with Sagebrush. So I figured I would have a chat with them about Verizon, but the hardware is different, so it's not likely going to happen.
Sasktel roams with AT&T and T-Mobile, but not at all with Verizon or Sprint. My iPhone 6 is unlocked, but it's been so squirrelly with tech issues that we would be reluctant to change SIM cards. We have an iPhone 5 that was my husband's, and we no longer use it, but it is unlocked. We would be bringing the 5's with us anyway as backup (that's how much I distrust my 6...I've had to use my 5 already while waiting for Apple to replace a defective 6). If we have to, we could put a prepaid SIM in there and use it.

[alaskan-rver]

A lot of it will depend on which technology your SaskTel phone uses--CDMA or GSM, and then which frequencies it uses.

Typically AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM, and Verizon is CDMA. In Alaska we have both technologies. GCI is the main carrier up here (mostly GSM, but they are also operating Alaska Communications' CDMA network. ATT & Verizon also have presences up here. Not sure if you can get your SaskTel number to roam up here, but if your phone is unlocked, you might be able to activate pre-paid service for your stay.

FYI, as far as I know, Yukon only has CDMA (no GSM) network coverage.

[MamaGoose]

Thank you for your responses, everyone. 🙂

[Shirleyshusband]

We have uscelluar at home, which we were told has no coverage in Canada. After some research and a stop at an AT&T store, they assured us we'd be covered using their service. So we bought a cheap phone and one months service. We had very limited service in BC and none in Yukon.
The lesson we learned:just pay the $3 extra per day to uscelluar while in Canada. In Ak, we've had just about as good of service as anyone else using various other carriers.