Best cell phone service for the AT

[pdhoffman]

Carrying a cell phone is something about which I do not have a choice. I will be carrying.

That being said, is there a preferred cell phone service provider that would be best for the AT in general? If the services are all using the same towers then it wouldn't matter, but I don't think that is true. So does one have better coverage than another.

I do subscribe to the position, articulated so well in earlier threads, that no one is going to know I am carrying. I am mainly going to use it as a voice mail service. Spare me the arguments about carrying vs. not carrying. I just want to know which one to carry.

Pete Hoffman

[stranger]

First of all...I know everything. Second, I am the absolute leading expert on thru-hiking and only my opinion counts. So basically what I have to say is bible. No cell phones...I don't care if you are dying on the trail...under no circumstances shall you compromise your AT experience by carrying a cell phone, even if death is breathing down your neck! I would like to call out to other "traditional thru-hikers" to cut off the hands of hikers who use cell phones. You must realize that when I hiked 17 years ago cell phones were the size of watermelons and I could not carry one because the wings on my feet could not support the weight, so now YOU cannot carry one either. If I didn't do it...then NO ONE should do it. Now please make a personal donation to my webpage.

[Wander Yonder]

pdhoffman, I have been asking around a lot trying to find the answer to that same question.

So far, Verizon is what most people have told me, and if you check the service maps, they seem to have the best coverage. http://www.rentcell.com/coverage-map-airtouch.htm

Also, if you scroll down near the bottom of this page, you can click on the name of the carrier and it will show their service areas on the map. http://www.cellular-news.com/coverage/usa.shtml

Verizon's America's Choice plan looks pretty good to me, but up near Maine it will all be roaming at $.60+ per minute.

Sprint and AT&T don't appear to have as good a coverage.

Hope that helps. If anyone else has personal experience, I'd love to hear it!

[peter2003]

I am going to carry a small cell phone (out of sight) and will use the Verizon America plan. I think the cost is about $39 for 1 phone and $20 for additional phones. You get about 4,000 free minutes a month if you call after 9:00PM. This year I hiked 60 miles in the Troutville area and and had only 1 night where I could not get a Verizon tower.

[Jack Tarlin]

Considering the monumental screwing that Verizon did to its own people (surprise layoffs at Christmas time, limited severance pay, halting benefits, insurance, etc.) while paying its top executives an obscene ammount of money (one of them made 78 million last year) I respectfully suggest that if at all possible, you do business with another company. Surely there are other companies out there more worthy of your patronage.

[MOWGLI]

Baltimore Jack: You may know alot about hiking the AT, but your wading into some murky water when you talk about Verizon. Yeah, people lost their jobs just before the holidays, but it was no surprise. How do I know? I know some of them. I've worked for the company for 19 years. The Union in my locaton was keeping the rank & file in the dark about the layoffs.

Another thing.. No one made $78 million last year. That's called propoganda. Yeah, some executives made millions, but far less than many other CEOs were paid. There was nothing unethical or immoral about it.

Before you think I'm some shill for Verizon, let me set the record straight. I'm anything but that. I spent 5 years as a proud member of CWA and many of my friends are CWA members. I have critized the company many time for many different things.

Here's the deal... In the 90's with the internet explosion, everybody and their brother was calling Verizon for a 2nd phone line. As a result, Verizon hired lots of technicians to meet this demand.

Fast forward to 2003...

The economy is in the crapper, cell phones are cannabilizing the land lines, and Verizon is still regulated and competing against unregulated cable tv providors and lots of other telcos. Verizon lost over 2 million lines to competition in NY alone. All those technicians that were hired in the mid-90s simply don't have enough work to keep them busy. That's called the free market.

Wanna blame someone? Blame the FCC for keeping Verizons hands tied while all their competition remains unregulated. Blame the government bueracrats that allowed companies like Worldcom, Enron & Global Crossing to pillage & plunder and stick it to their shareholders and retirees. Worldcom alone soaked Verizon for several hundred million because of their Chapter 11 filing. Blame the current administration for focusing entirely on Irag while the economy goes down the drain....

Its unfortunate that Verizon had to lay people off. This isn't he old Soviet Union however. We can't keep people employed just to keep the masses happy. If layoffs were not undertaken now, Verizon could become uncompetitive, and even more people might have to be laid off in the future, and the retirees who depend on a Verizon pension (including my father) could be left out in the cold.

The other side of the coin is that the layoffs were in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement, and were upheld by the courts and an arbitrator. That doesn't make it palatable. Those are the facts however. The Union also refused to negotiate with Verizon on a plan to obviate the layoffs as it involved shared pain for all. Thats unfortunate.

So... I don't wanna get in a pissing match about this. Just wanted to provide another side to the story. And by the way, Verizon donated over $16,000 last year to protect Sterling Forest State Park in New York State where 10 miles of the AT can be found. I know, because I arranged the grant through the 501 (c) 3 that I donate my time to.

My hope? I hope that the economy turns around and those that were laid off are rehired (if they wanna come back). I am sure the company would be willing to hire back many if not all of those that were laid off if there was indeed work for them. Maybe in 2003 we'll finally start talking about the economy instead of dropping bombs...

One last editorial comment. Don't use Verizon for your cellphone service during your hike. Don't use Cingular, Sprint or AT&T either. Leave the damn thing home. They're not necessary on the trail.

Little Bear
GA-ME 2000

[Bad Ass Turtle]

I carried a cell phone on my 2001 hike, used Verizon, and could get coverage on the average I would say 3 out of 5 times I tried it. I always tried to be on a ridge line, but there certainly were times when I couldn't get a signal.

That cell phone came in very handy when I was injured and needed a friend to give me a lift to a doctor. . .

[Jack Tarlin]

The 78 million figure came directly from the New York Times a few days ago; I wish I could remember the name of the guy in question and his position. But Little Bear is probably right my knowing little about this .....I very happily withdraw from this discussion.

Oh, and for what it's worth, L.B.'s suggestion to leave the phone at home is right on the money.

[MOWGLI]

Jack, the article in question was an OP-ED in the NY Times by Bob Herbert on 1/1/2003. The guy in question was the CEO Ivan Seidenberg. The $78 million comes from the value of stock options that he holds at their apex in value. They were not exercised, and the stock has dropped significantly since the $78 million figure was calculated.

I think we beat this one to death...

[Dirtyoldman]

Just too add a bit of fuel to the verizon fire....
I had a contract taken over by verizon who promptly tried to alter the terms of my service. To make a long story short after many trips to the local manager for billing adjustments and so on I finally ended up dumping them. Verizon was sued in a class action suit for this and many other practices. I will never,ever use verizon again!

At+ t has given me solid service and coverage for the last year and a half. I highly reccommend them over Verizon!

[Hammock Hanger]

Of the cells I saw on the trail ATT got the best reception. Nothing was 100% but there service seemed to get out when others didn't. HH

[pdhoffman]

DOM,

I understand that Verizon might be SOB's on their business practices. The question still remains are they the best for having the phone actually work while on the AT, or is there someone better

Pete Hoffman

[Dirtyoldman]

considering the fact that most cell phones can use anyones tower (for a price) I would tend to look very closely at how much you will have to pay for using a competitors system. I would also point out that for a long conversation a phone card in town is way cheaper then any cellular call.

if your really worried about coverage they do make 3 watt phones.

[SkyKing]

I have AT&T..and not having hiked all the AT....have driven most of the US and everywhere the AT covers. I'm very happy. No L/D or Roaming. But then again....I ain't IN the mountains! p

[CeeJay]

I have a Verizon cell phone and tried to use it from Iron Master's Mansion during the Ruck last weekend. Three times it didn't work at all and the one time I did get a connection, the connection was so poor that the person on the other end hung up. We had it with us out west last summer and it worked about half the time. I am going to put mine in my bounce box and use it when I am in a town.

[Papa Bear]

The Verizon all-america plan worked fine for us (from Ridge tops) from NJ to ME (which is as far as we hiked last year). Even in Maine (through Stratton) we did not have to pay roaming charges, although it usually would switch to analog there, which uses up the battery MUCH faster.

This is because the analog circuits in your cel phone use more power - nothing to do with your carrier. Beware of that - you can run your battery down in a few minutes!

Pb

[gravityman]

I had no idea that the digital phones also had analog capability! Pretty nifty... Do all phones have this ability?

Gravity Man

[sli74]

No gravity man, not all phones have both digital and analog, it has to be a dual band or a tri mode phone. You can set it up to pick up digital only or either.

[Papa Bear]

Originally posted by gravityman
I had no idea that the digital phones also had analog capability! Pretty nifty... Do all phones have this ability?

This ability is not only nifty but it is essential if you intend to use a cel phone over a large area and especially in more rural areas. Plans that provide service over multiple states generally must use multimode phones, since the local service providers that are aggregated together to make a wide area service, often use different digital protocols, and in more rural areas the only service is often the older analog technology. I know that NY and CT use two different digital protocols and in upstate NH and ME only analog would work. Hence "tri-mode".

Before signing up for a plan make sure you have a phone that will work in all relavant areas. BUT don't worry too much about this (just check) since most phones sold now a days are tri-mode.

But still be forwarned: watch out for analog - it eats batteriies. I use a Motorola Star-tak phone and it tends to last several weeks in digital mode (probably 20 - 30 short calls) but could run down in just 2 or 3 analog calls.

Pb

[Scorpion]

Can you tell when a call is in analog mode?