Verizon takes the cake. A fellow thru had ATT, and rarely had service, not even roaming. Our running joke was he shouldn't even bother turning on his phone if ours didn't work.
I've at ATT / Cingular / ATT / Cingular consistently for the past 5 years. Always had signal when I needed it.
My girlfriend has Verizon, and she never has service. Absolutely abhorrent. Here in jersey you can't throw a stone without hitting a cell tower.
up over the hills, theres nothing to fear
theres a pub across the way with whisky and beer
its a lengthy journey on the way up to the top
but it ain't so bad if you have a great big bottle o'scotch
Bad Hummus here to agree with Yeti (Smaaax). Verizon is the ONLY way to go on the AT. Stovie, Yeti, and I each carried with them and didn't have trouble getting signal out...even in the woods! Two of our guys had ATT and they never, if ever, had signal. You can go to trailjournals.com and ask anybody who thru-hiked this year and they will agree with me.
Onward Team Deutschemark,
~Bad Hummus
I'm not on Trail Journals and only did 1100 (skipped the top 3 and bottom 3 states) and I don't agree with you at all. I hiked with a Verizon piece of crap. I never had signal below NJ, except in town, while many people with ATT had signal all the time, other than SNP, where no one had signal. I remember once I was standing next to a cell tower and got no signal. I even had the piece of crap checked at a Verizon "Service" Center, they said there was no problem and also admitted that their coverage map is BS.Originally Posted by SparrowHawk
Since I never pass up an opportunity - just a reminder that AT&T sucks. Really.
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
To find out what AT&T claims as far as coverage area you can go to their site, coverage map, plug in latitude and longitude of various towns or shelters (shelter coordinates are available in the thru hiking info section on this site), and see the coverage.
I was pretty impressed by the shelter coverage... between GA and Fontana roughly 65% of the shelters had decent coverage. (Not that I plan on using a phone at the shelter unless emergency warrants it...let's not get off topic here...) Based on this, as well as town coverage, I will use AT&T wireless for our 2009 thru.
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
I thru hiked the AT in 2006 with a Cingular now ATT phone and was satisfied with the results. I found there were times the Verizon users had service and I didn't and other times I had service and they didn't. It was a toss up as to which worked best. I read somewhere that Verizon service worked in Hot Springs which was a dead zone (picture the commercials) for all cell phones.
This is not to say that I had service anytime I wanted it. I would try to touch base with home most evenings and was unable to get through because the shelters were in a valley. I never talked on the phone at the shelter, I hiked up some nearby hill away from the shelter so that I didn't bother other hikers. If I missed a night I would stop on some high spot and make my call if I got a signal.
I was surprised by some of the places the phone did work such as Spense Field in the Smokies, Standing Bear (on the hill above the Hostel, and in numerous places in the hundred mile wilderness Chairback leanto (behind it and up the hill) Antlers Campsite, Hurd Brook (to the right of the leanto as far as you can go). Damascus was a dead spot and Monson I had to walk around town to find a good spot.
I would say if you have ATT or Verizon you should be okay. Just remember no one phone will work everywhere. You have to experiment to find places that work with your service.
Verizon generally worked for me between NY and south-western Virginia. Except in Shenandoah NP. Obviously, less so in the hollows. Let's just say... if I couldn't get through at a given shelter in the evening, I could almost always get through at some time during the next day.
All of the cell phone towers are currently being removed along the corridor of The Appalachian Trail. Sorry for any inconviences but if you want them returned then send me some money and I will think about it..............
I have a Tracfone and have been quite pleased with it. There has been a few holes but not many. As long as I'm on top of a ridge I found a signal most of the time. The one place I could not get a signal was in Asheville NC.
[COLOR="Blue"]Hokey Pokey [/COLOR]
Isn't Tracfone owned by Verizon? I haven't read it anywhere, but on my Verizon prepaid I get free verizon-verizon calls and I can call a tracfone for free. I also noticed that from what I saw they had the exact same coverage. Funny though, I did get service in Asheville with verizon, and so did a friend with tracfone. Maybe we were just in the right part of town or something.
All coverage maps are lies, take it with a grain of salt.
I don't believe they are owned by Verison. I found this on their site.
América Móvil is the fourth largest cell phone company in the world and the largest in all of the Americas with more than 165 million cell phone subscribers. América Móvil has been named "Technology Hot 100" company by Business Week for the past two years in a row.
I was coming into Ashville on I-26 from Erwin and driving right beside big multi antennae towers and no service. That was a year or so ago...maybe things have changed. But their coverage map shows NC as being pretty much completely covered.
[COLOR="Blue"]Hokey Pokey [/COLOR]
Ok, maybe they have some contract with verizon or something. Anyone else get free caling to tracfone with other carriers besides verizon? Thinking maybe a lot of carriers can call them for free. Dunno.
I was in Asheville this spring, so they could have gotten service there since then. Especially since it's been about a year I think since verizon has been pushing their coverage to compete with at&t.
I have verizon and I have always had service on the whole length of NJ. Granted, some times I had nothing but wherever I made camp, if I had my phone, I usually could manage to get a call off if needed.
Smile, Smile, Smile.... Mile after Mile
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
