cell phone service

[mabel]

What is a good cell phone service that works when you are in areas away from freeways and cities. I plan on traveling west on us 2 from michigan

[pitch]

I think Verizon is best overall. For nothing but phone service Trac Fone is good, they seem to contract with all the carriers.

[DodgeVoltage]

hershey wrote:

BurbMan wrote:
Verizon has the most complete network. Sprint has a roaming deal with Verizon so if you have Sprint you have voice coverage everywhere Verizon users do.

I guess I would have to argue that statement. My son lives in Albuquerque, right at the very edge of the city at the foot of the mountain. We stay in his driveway when in the city. He has Sprint and we have Verizon. He has zero cell service at his home, we have very good Verizon signal.
Perhaps they only share the towers in remote areas????? Who knows.

+1. My neighbors all have Verizon and I have Sprint. They have good signal and I have none most of the time. I hate to give up my unlimited calling and data for Verizon since it works marginally most other places, but may have to eventually. My Sprint doesn't work well anywhere in the DC area where I live. I came from Oklahoma and will move to Kansas in a couple years, so I will live with it until then since it works pretty well there. Hard to believe that I have better 4G in a wheat field in Kansas than I do in Washington DC!

[The_Texan]

hershey wrote:

BurbMan wrote:
Verizon has the most complete network. Sprint has a roaming deal with Verizon so if you have Sprint you have voice coverage everywhere Verizon users do.

I guess I would have to argue that statement. My son lives in Albuquerque, right at the very edge of the city at the foot of the mountain. We stay in his driveway when in the city. He has Sprint and we have Verizon. He has zero cell service at his home, we have very good Verizon signal.
Perhaps they only share the towers in remote areas????? Who knows.

I have to agree with Hershey, as that is what we find in south Texas, northern Nevada and western Idaho, good to excellent Verizon and NO or very spotty Sprint service.

[hershey]

Sorry, double post.

[hershey]

BurbMan wrote:
Verizon has the most complete network. Sprint has a roaming deal with Verizon so if you have Sprint you have voice coverage everywhere Verizon users do.

I guess I would have to argue that statement. My son lives in Albuquerque, right at the very edge of the city at the foot of the mountain. We stay in his driveway when in the city. He has Sprint and we have Verizon. He has zero cell service at his home, we have very good Verizon signal.
Perhaps they only share the towers in remote areas????? Who knows.

[BurbMan]

Verizon has the most complete network. Sprint has a roaming deal with Verizon so if you have Sprint you have voice coverage everywhere Verizon users do.

Data coverage is another story....if you are using an air card or similar, Sprint still roams on Verizon, but Verizon pushes roaming users down to 1xRTT which is slower than dial up. If you are looking for good 3G/4G coverage it has to be Verizon...we are switching back to them when our Sprint mifi contract is up next month.

AT&T now has the fastest data network with more 4G coverage, but Verizon's is overall more extensive with the most 3G/4G coverage.

[msmith1199]

btd35 wrote:
Had all the services, and Verizon has the best outlying area coverage hands down. Yes there may be those rare places that Verizon doesn't, but by far it is better.

I have Verizon and I can tell you in California and Nevada there are many many places without coverage. And all of those places are places you like to go in the RV. But it's not just Verizon, no cell company has coverage in a lot of remote areas in the desert and mountains. I was out in the desert near Lone Pine just last week and ran across a Federal Park Ranger out sitting on a hill top. I stopped to chat with him. Since there were lighting storms in the area his assignment was to sit on this hill top where he could see for miles and look for fires. But if he saw one his cell phone had no coverage and his forest service radios had no coverage, so he had to drive to another hill about 10 miles away to call it in.

[mileshuff]

We have Sprint which allows free roaming. So when off the highway if Sprint signal isn't available theres a good chance we still can roam. Friends who travel with us have Verizon and while they often have better signal in cities their middle of nowhere calling ability is lower...at least in the southwest USA.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

Verizon. We've used it all over the US. We also have a Wilson Sleek signal booster that we ordered from Walmart online. Helps in areas where the signal is weak. Won't help if there is zero signal.

[hershey]

Verizon has not failed us in the last 4 or 5 years of fulltiming. I wouldn't gamble with another carrier at 1/2 the price.

[btd35]

Had all the services, and Verizon has the best outlying area coverage hands down. Yes there may be those rare places that Verizon doesn't, but by far it is better.

[sljkansas]

We have Verizon and have had very good service just about everywhere we travel.

[CincyGus]

Best to take the time to check their service area maps to see how many places your going to be are not covered. As a General rule, Verizon gets the best reviews for coverage from things I've seen on TV, The Web and posts I've read on RV.net. I am sure there are places that ATT or SPRINT work that Verizon doesn't and vice versa.

[The_Texan]

Have had all 3 major carriers and Verizon is the one with the least gaps or the BEST total coverage. There are some areas where AT&T did work and no other carrier did, but those holes are rapidly disappearing, especially in south Texas. We still carry an AT&T Trac phone for the possibility of getting into an area where we have no Verizon in south Texas, but have not needed it for over 1½ years now.

[WyoTraveler]

Not sure it matters AT&T or Verizon. Both have holes in service area. The way to find those holes seems easier to find when you really need your phone.