View Full Version : Cell Phone Plans from the AT
Nameless
05-08-2005, 19:47
First of all, please dont start any arguements about no needing a cell phone when hiking.
I have never carried a cell phone before when hiking, and if i had my choice, i would never carry one. I just do not believe they are needed on the trail. But, I am a young single girl that will be thru hiking the AT this summer (SOBO, i start in 28 days!!!!) and my parents convineced me that if they buy the phone, and they pay for the plan, that I will carry it on the trail, only turning it on in towns. I have them agreeing with me that it will not be used on the trail (and if for some bizare reason i need too, i will walk well out of hearing and visual range of the rest of you). So, now that i am stuck with carrying a phone,
What phone companies and plans have the best, most inexpensive, coverage of trail towns?
Thankyou
Pink
Mongoose2
05-08-2005, 19:53
I understand your parents concern for your safety. I often hike with my son, and for safety reasons I do carry my phone. I have always been able to get service with sprint (either in digital or analog mode). PS, buy a phone with max stand-by hours. I have carried mine and it lasted two weeks....off of course....Good luck with your hike. Above all remember; hike YOUR hike.
Dances with Mice
05-08-2005, 20:02
tracfone.com pre-paid service.
Kerosene
05-08-2005, 20:27
A Tracfone would be ideal, but what you'd really like is a cell phone with a network that has pretty good coverage along the AT. That, and the lightest cell phone you can get since you now have to carry it over 2,000 miles. I'll leave others who have carried a cell phone along the Trail corridor give you their opinion.
Use your bounce box to bounce ahead the recharger. Make sure you keep the phone in a waterproof bag. Shoot for a sub-5 ounce phone, especially since your 'rents are paying for it. You can argue that you'll be adding another (5/16 pounds * 2,174 miles = 679 pound-miles) to your trip, or the equivalent of carrying your 25-pound pack another 27 miles (stick to the 679 pound-miles since it sounds bigger!).
Re battery life
I have heard, no experience myself, that removing the battery from your phone while not in use extends the life of that battery. I turned mine off for the 2+ weeks of my last section, put it under the seat & parked in the shade, it was dead by the time I got back to my truck. It was FULLY charged when I left it. This was a 6 month old battery.
Perhaps the internal clock & other "silent" functions that stay on when the phone is "Off" drained it. Perhaps the truck getting hot did it in. Or both/neither.
I have seen solar chargers for wilderness charging of batteries, some of these chargers were even foldable. Do a search, my bookmarks got deleted when the computer was rebuilt, sorry.
Doctari.
flyfisher
05-09-2005, 07:51
What phone companies and plans have the best, most inexpensive, coverage of trail towns?
Pink
I have T-Mobile and I would strongly recommend another service. Having had Cingular service, it was better. The problem with TMobile is coverage. I have often had many bars of reception, but not a TMobile service. I just hate it when I get many bars of service, and the phone just keeps searching.
I had this specific problem on the 170 miles from Adkins VA to Roanoke VA this April on the AT.
ffstenger
05-09-2005, 08:03
Cingular has better coverage along the trail. Samsung or LG is the best phone to
get, the battery life is very good, especially if you have it turned off most of the time. your voice-mail will save messages for you and alert you when you turn on
your phone so you can listen to them. Green-with-envy for your upcomming start date.....:p
Showme
dougmeredith
05-09-2005, 08:19
and if for some bizare reason i need too, i will walk well out of hearing and visual range of the rest of you Don't get too hung up on this. Just use common courtesy. Get a small distance from people. Keep your voice to the same level you would use talking to someone beside you. If you leave the phone on, you might try to use a vibrating ringer.
If someone gets upset because they see you use a cell phone, or because they can hear you talking no louder than they are talking to their buddy, then they are the ones being rude.
Doug
orangebug
05-09-2005, 10:01
As far as NC, GA and TN goes, Cingular is not worth the weight of any phone. I've heard better of Vorizen. (I know that spelling looks wrong).
BTW, if you are going to have a bounce box for your charger and such, consider just keeping the phone in it.
And BTW, if you think that providing cell phone signals to hikers is a high priority for these multibillion dollar corporations, guess again. Carry the phone if it makes you more confident for your hike.
Uncle Silly
05-09-2005, 12:54
As far as NC, GA and TN goes, Cingular is not worth the weight of any phone. I've heard better of Vorizen. (I know that spelling looks wrong).
It's Verizon. Close, but no cigar.
Living in the mountains near Boone NC, I can attest to the general rottenness of Cingular in the area. I get decent service along the US-421 corridor between Wilkesboro and Boone, and decent service in Boone itself, but too far outside and stuff gets spotty fast.
Cingular has two advantages though: no roaming charges (on most plans but check your fine print), and having just merged with AT&T Wireless. Both of these increases your available towers without increasing your bill at the end of the month.
In Case Of Emergency: If you're trying to use your cell in mountains with spotty service, and you're getting a partial signal (the phone will ring, or will alert you to available voicemail) but can't call out, hike to high ground. If you have topo maps, look for a ridgeline facing a large town, especially with line-of-sight -- if you can look out and see the town, you're more likely to get service from any tower that might serve the town. The more rock between you and the tower, the less likely you are to get service. Valleys are particularly bad, as are ridges facing away from a distant tower -- you could get service on one side of a mountain but not the other.
Hope that helps... and good luck with your hike!
Drum Stick
05-09-2005, 13:13
I have seen a cell phone come in handy on the trail during a medical problem and this is reason enough to carry one in my book. I plan to get a cell phone to use during my next thru hike. Also if you spot a fire, do not hesitate to call the fire department. Response time is crucial to stopping the spread of fire. Who knows, you just might save the lives of firefighters, hikers and many animals. Regarding your personal safety, find safety in numbers. There are a lot of great folks in the community and for the most part we stick together.
Drum Stick
briarpatch
05-09-2005, 14:48
Expect to be using roaming almost everywhere, so make sure the plan supports roaming without a big surcharge.
As far as battery life goes, at 2.5 ounces, this wind up cell phone charger isn't a lot of weight penalty and would work between charging in town with the plug-in adapter.
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/campingsurvival/wicephchnew.html
I've never seen or used one, just saw an ad for one a while back.
grrickar
05-09-2005, 15:09
I carried a phone to keep in touch with the wife. I kept it off and in the pack except at lunch stops or at night when no one was around. For my nightly call, I'd walk 200yds away from the shelter and talk well out of earshot of others. The bottom line is that if people cannot see you on the phone, they would not know but what you were talking to a friend. To me, common courtesy is sufficient when using a phone in the woods or anywhere - just keep in mind that some people will not like the fact you have brought a piece of the world into the wilderness if they see you using it in front of them. Keep out of sight, keep the voice down and no one should make issue with it whether you are in town or not.
To keep the battery fresh, either keep the phone off or remove the battery. If the phone is on (mine was accidentally left on in my pack once) the battery will die quickly since the phone will up the power on the transmitter to try and connect with a tower. No signal+phone left on=dead battery. We did the stretch from Hot Springs to the NOC last year, and we called our spouses from Bluff Mountain, Max Patch, Gatlingburg and Tricorner Knob shelter. After the battery died, we used the pay phone in towns we ran across.
I used AT&T, which is now Cingular, and had moderate success with getting a signal. My hiking partner had a Sprint phone, and between the two of us we could likely have called from about anywhere - there were times when he had a signal and I didn't and vice versa.
Kerosene
05-09-2005, 19:36
...for the sake of God calulating the "pound miles" incurred by carrying a cell.It was intended as a joke as a way to get her parents to buy the lightest phone! Sorry!
NICKTHEGREEK
05-10-2005, 06:21
It was intended as a joke as a way to get her parents to buy the lightest phone! Sorry!No apology required my sense of humor must have dulled a bit, I'll work on getting the edge back up to par
Jack Tarlin
05-10-2005, 13:01
Without commenting on the propriety of cell phones on the Trail, whether or not they should be carried, etc., it should be noted:
Regardless of what company or plan you do business with, there are still significant parts of the Trail where coverage is spotty, unreliable, irregular, or entirely absent. In 25 days on the Trail so far, I've seen hikers fail to get any sort of signal on at least half of the occasions where they wished to make a call. Be aware that even in some town areas this can be a problem....cell phones don't work in Hot Springs, for example.
If someone wants to bring a phone along, that's absolutely their right and their decision, assuming the phone is used properly and with respect to others who don't necessarily want to hear it ringing and who certainly don't want to overhear phone calls, esspecially personal ones, while out in the woods and mountains. But just as important is this: Regardless of what phone you carry, or what plan you choose, they cannot be counted on all the time and will not always work. Whether it's to stay in touch with friends or loved ones, or to be used in an emergency, cell phones are NOT entirely reliable and CANNOT always be counted on when needed. This may well change in the future, but right now it's very clear: Half the time they won't work, regardless of which plan you choose, or how much money you spend.
digger51
05-16-2005, 22:23
I totally agree with Jack even if he did not let me use the phone to call the motel from Blue Mountain Shelter. I use Sprint and for the most part it did ok in the south. But now I feel real bad as I hit a bird this week with my truck. I hope the Fish and Game dudes dont start a campaign against pick up trucks now.
Stray Cat
05-17-2005, 09:01
Hi all,
Okay. The times are changing and so is hiking the AT. Cell phones are going to be out there. No way around it. I hate to have one with me next year when I attempt my second thru hike but I will need to have it to continue my business. I will be respectful of others hike and not use it in ear shot of hikers but use it I will. Feel good about having one with you. It is just another piece of gear. Just be considerate. Have a great hike and call me at 603-252-8295 for shuttle and hostel near Hanover, NH. Stray Kat '96
If I could go back in time, I would shoot Alexander Graham Bell. If only he knew that the cancer he created would metasticize. Telephone tag and phones ringing in the woods - what a legacy!!!!!!!!!
trippclark
05-18-2005, 09:57
I cannot comment on what coverage is like north of Damascus as I have only hiked about 40 miles north of there. I can, however, comment on coverage to the South. I have Cingular service, and while it is generally great in the area where I live, it is worthless on the trail and in nearly all trail towns in the South. My hiking partner, on the other hand, has service with Alltel and he regularly has service in many areas on the trail and in most trail towns.
My experience observing others: Unless you are on a ridgetop, forget about it. The AT gets to or near ridges but spends more time on either side of one or deeper in hollows or gaps.
In towns or places you pass thru, it is somewhat better but there are places I know where coverage is next to none: NOC, Hot Springs come to mind.
MileMonster
05-18-2005, 11:37
I used a Nokia GAIT phone and Cingular last year with good results. Worked just about everywhere in the south, very well up to Vermont, and then on most hilltops north of there (spotty in Maine). Always worked in towns. A GAIT phone uses all the old technologies as well as the new - analog to GSM - in case the rural areas hadn't upgraded yet. GSM coverage might be better by now.
It's also important to note that in remote areas you need a phone that has digital AND analog capability. All digital is becoming more popular with phones, and the lightest phones are only digital for the most part with an exception here or there. But in remote areas, analog still rules the airwaves.
Also, as far as service. I used to travel all the time for work, and found that Verizon worked in more places than any other service. Sometimes another service would get reception and Verizon wouldn't, but that was uncommon. The downside is that it's the most expensive service out there. Look at Sprint... they have really good service, the plans are cheaper, and you can get a no-roaming-fees option for only $5 extra, which is very important since you'll be all over the place and roaming fees are ridiculously high.
I'ev heard horror stories about Cingular's customer service and billing departments, but I've also heard that their reception is good. Dunno... never used them. I liked AT&T when they still offered, so hopefully Cingular picked up some good habbits when they bought them out.
Hope this helps.
My husband does not carry a cell with him on any extended hike. He says trying to recharge the batteries and keeping the thing dry is too much trouble. He does use one on a weekender or a week long hike. He claims he hates all the cell phone carriers but hates Verizon the least, so he has Verizon, claims it has the best coverage areas. hikerwife
Nameless
05-19-2005, 03:48
Thanks to all that have replied.
Verizon is looking like my best bet, but I will look around a little bit before I get the phone. Only problem is it doesnt cover Alaska and I will be here for some of the plan... Well, I still have two more days to figure out that minor detail.
Thankyou
Pink
Yea, these days as small and light weight as cell phones are, you would be stupid not to carry one. Just remember to keep it turned off so you don’t piss off the anti-cell phone purest who are probably pack’ in themselves.
Lone Wolf
06-17-2005, 20:41
Take any one of the staunch anti-cell phone folks who may have been on the trail on 9/11 and had family in NY, PA or DC. They'd be the first hypocrites lookin for a cell phone from other hikers to call about thier loved ones. Get over it. The AT is mainstream.
As small and lightweight as cell phones are these days, it’s stupid not to carry one. I use an LG flip phone and Verizon wireless. I’ve hiked from Springer to Hot springs. Up until Hot Springs, Verizon had coverage. With the phone turned off, battery life last a week. To recharge I carry my car charger and ask folks in town, usually at a hostel if I can recharge my phone. This new charger might just be the ticket though.....
Wind-up cell phone charger, SideWinder.New
Advocate for cell phones in the Backcountry
As far as NC, GA and TN goes, Cingular is not worth the weight of any phone. I've heard better of Verizen. (I know that spelling looks wrong).
BTW, if you are going to have a bounce box for your charger and such, consider just keeping the phone in it.
And BTW, if you think that providing cell phone signals to hikers is a high priority for these multibillion dollar corporations, guess again. Carry the phone if it makes you more confident for your hike.
For what it is worth my experience with Cingular is much, much better on the trail in those same three states! My work requires me to carry a Vorizon phone but my wife's plan is Cingular so my personal phone is cingular. I carry both on weekend hikes and can almost always catch a Cingular signal from a higher elevation. I have much less luck with the Verizon phone. Of course the Verizon phone connects me to work so maybe I just don't WANT to get a good signal.
Reverie
For what it is worth my experience with Cingular is much, much better on the trail in those same three states! My work requires me to carry a Vorizon phone but my wife's plan is Cingular so my personal phone is cingular. I carry both on weekend hikes and can almost always catch a Cingular signal from a higher elevation. I have much less luck with the Verizon phone. Of course the Verizon phone connects me to work so maybe I just don't WANT to get a good signal.
I shouldn't comment, since I don't own a cell phone and have spoken on the devises a total of about three times for a total of one minute. But my wife has one, originally with AT&T, now cingular, I think.
Her ability to call anyone strikes me as marginal at best. All the reviews I've read seem to suggest that Verizon provides the best coverage in the East. My wife and I are planning a six week trip to the west coast starting in mid August. My wife is locked into a two year contract. But based on what I have read from various reviews, were it not for the contract penalty, I would have her switch to Verizon.
Weary
superman
06-20-2005, 10:12
I've never owned or carried a cell phone myself. There is zero cell phone reception where I live I don't have any urgent issues. How ever I hiked with Tex on the AT for a while and he always stayed available for the "in case of" at home. His father and father-in-law were in their 90s. On the AT he carried a cell phone which gave him timely information that required him to leave his thru hike three times. When I hiked with him this spring on the CDT he carried a satellite phone. It was very impressive. So long as you can see the sky you can get a connection. It's pretty heavy in weight and price though.
It's also important to note that in remote areas you need a phone that has digital AND analog capability. All digital is becoming more popular with phones, and the lightest phones are only digital for the most part with an exception here or there. But in remote areas, analog still rules the airwaves.
Also, as far as service. I used to travel all the time for work, and found that Verizon worked in more places than any other service. Sometimes another service would get reception and Verizon wouldn't, but that was uncommon. The downside is that it's the most expensive service out there. Look at Sprint... they have really good service, the plans are cheaper, and you can get a no-roaming-fees option for only $5 extra, which is very important since you'll be all over the place and roaming fees are ridiculously high.
I'ev heard horror stories about Cingular's customer service and billing departments, but I've also heard that their reception is good. Dunno... never used them. I liked AT&T when they still offered, so hopefully Cingular picked up some good habbits when they bought them out.
Hope this helps.
I just hiked from Standing Indian to Newfound Gap. I carried a cingular phone which has both analog and digital capabilities. I got service at Carter's Gap, Wesser Bald, and Clingman's Dome. That's it. Actually, I started getting service on Mt. Buckley, right before Clingman's. I checked my phone pretty regularly because my husband was worried and asked that I check in with him whenever I could. There were plenty, and I mean plenty of times where I would not have service, and someone with Verizon would. If you want a phone that can be used in the backcountry more often, I would recommend Verizon. I'm planning on switching when my contract runs out.
Having said that, please always be aware of others around you. I was alone on Wesser Bald. I was alone on Mt. Buckley. I never used my phone around others unless they produced theirs first. And turn off the sound when you turn off the phone. Even just checking for service, no one wants to hear it beeping. I was staying with some young kids at Siler's Bald Shelter, and they had service with Verizon so they started calling everyone, mom, friends, whomever. It was the same conversation, "hey, guess where i am......." I found it wasn't the talking that bothered me so much, as it was hearing all the beeping everytime they turned on the phone and dialed a number.
each to his or hers own:cool: neo
Cell phones are like seatbelts. If used properly they can save your life. The problem here isn’t the cell phone it’s the people that use them. Just like the “leave no trace” program, we need to encourage people to practice cell phone etiquette when in the presence of other hikers.
passinBYE
07-15-2005, 22:06
I hiked from Dennis Cove down to US321 today with my cell phone..Nextel btw no service..but I was using it for GPS capabilty..I am a tech freak and liked playing, marking the waypoints
I love the people that provide cellphone coverage info. I can just picture them frantically trying to get a signal while out for a hike.
Can you hear me now!!!
Nice discussion, thanks SGT- or is that CAPT Rock!?:) :clap ;)
Cells on the trail? It comes down to consideration of others and there will always be a few that are clueless/don't care. If thats what it takes to ruin ones experience on the trail, then maybe the problem isn't the phone? The good ol' days of no phones aren't coming back.
fiddlehead
07-16-2005, 00:43
A cell phone can be a tool in lots of ways. my girlfriend uses hers for: her watch, her flashlight, her mirror, games, memory (address book). To have all of those items in one small box like her cell phone is a plus i think.
To ignore technology is fine for traditionalists but as an old keyboard player from the 70's, i find that it's usuall best to keep up with the latest toys out there. They can solve lots of problems sometimes: allows me to go hiking and still work, line up shuttles, order pizza, check on hotel occupancy, and numerous possible problems
I don't have a problem with them as long as users respect the solitude of others
Never say never.
Sorcerer
07-16-2005, 13:42
I carried my Sprint phone from DWG to Hanover earlier this spring/summer. I had good reception for the most part (digital). Only in Salisbury, CT (no cell tower yet, but rumors are they're getting one) and just a bit before Great Barrington, MA (I had analog service) did I not get service. I only used it in towns (and from one exceptionally pretty view in Vermont!)
I have switched to Verizon since I got home purely because I got the best deal on a family plan and new phones. People on the trail where I was had pretty good reception with their Verizon phones too. I heard T-mobile was pretty spotty at best (as others have attested to here).
My question about cell phones is: What's the big deal? I don't really like to hear them ring in the shelter after dark.........but I don't like listening to all the snorers in the shelter after dark either. Long-distance hikers have plenty of bad/obnoxious/annoying habits........using a cell phone with a little etiquette isn't any worse than any of them.
dougmeredith
07-16-2005, 19:47
If thats what it takes to ruin ones experience on the trail, then maybe the problem isn't the phone?
Well put!
Doug
I carry my cell phone (sprint pcs). My coverage seems good in higher elevations. I know some here hold disdain for people who carry cell phones, but then again I hike with my dog. I am the devil.:dance