Verizon / AT&T & PocketMail

[Monkeywrench]

A bit of a conundrum here: I'd like to use a PocketMail Communicator to handle email chores while I'm hiking next year. Ideally, I would like to be able to use it with whatever cell phone I am carrying. (Cell phone use is REQUIRED by my spouse) From what I've read here and elsewhere, Verizon has the best cell phone coverage along the AT, but Verizon operates on a CDMA network, and CDMA is not compatible with the PocketMail Communicator. Arrghh! Life shouldn't be so darned complicated!

Now, AT&T is on a TDMA network (I believe), which is compatible with the Communicator. Any experience on what AT&T's coverage is like along the trail? Has anybody else found a good solution to the Communicator/cell phone issue?

[Alligator]

Have you thought about maybe an Iphone or a Blackberry? Someone started a thread about Iphones recently.

The new Google phone, G1, looks interesting as well, but it will be released for T-mobile. That phone looks like it has a decent Qwerty keyboard. I was looking into this phone after I saw it, but I got the feeling the T-mobile network wouldn't be the best support for it.

This is just some things I've been looker into lately though, I'm new to smartphones.

[Monkeywrench]

Have you thought about maybe an Iphone or a Blackberry?

I currently have a Palm Treo smart-phone with a data plan, which is capable of web browsing and sending and receiving email. But there are issues that make it less than ideal for use on the AT:

- It is on the Sprint network, which from what I have read is about the worst in terms of coverage along the trail.

- I have big hands and have never really mastered the thumb keyboard. I used it very successfully when bicycle touring by using a portable bluetooth keyboard with it, but that is just another thing to have to pack and haul along the trail.

- The battery life is pretty short.

So I was thinking I would get a simple voice-only cell phone and plan from Verizon and a PocketMail device and account. That way I could use the Pocketmail with pay phones when in town, and hopefully also with the cell phone when on the trail. But my discovery that the Communicator won't work with CDMA, and Verizon uses CDMA, has made that seem like less than a brilliant solution.

[smaaax]

If you want good cell service on the trail, you really should go with Verizon. I would suggest a smartphone. I used one and it came with 2 batteries. They each lasted about 2 weeks since I never made calls on the trail, just did emails and journals. Also checked the weather and posted to my journal.

To conserve your battery, take it out until you are going to use it. Talking kills your battery a lot faster than typing up emails, popping on the network and syncing.

I found a small bluetooth fold up keyboard cheap on ebay. Worked like a normal keyboard. I could find you a link if you are interested.

[Tennessee Viking]

From what I researched AT&T only picks up coverage near towns or major highways. I know for my area, AT&T will only pick up while directly in Erwin, Elizabethton, Hampton, but not on mountain tops.

I have gotten Virgin/Sprint on Roan

Alltel will pick up in most areas, but it will roam off Verizon towers while on mountain tops.

You you shell out the dough and by a satelitte phone.

[bathtub boy]

i never carried a cell on trail, but i did carry a pocketmail for about 7 thousand At mls, now i did try to send/recieve mail with several cells that belonged to various folks i hiked with, and never had luck in sending. no matter, there was always a landline available every few days, for the most part, anyway. to tell the truth i witnessed hikers useing cells in some places that i never figured reception was possible, with maine as an exception

[SteveJ]

Did anyone ever mention to you that AT&T sux?

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27746&highlight=at%26t+sux
(general non-AT talk subscription forum, if you can't see it).

...and this one...

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29669&highlight=AT%26T