Best cell phone coverage while traveling?

[TIH211]

My contract is almost up and my service has merged with another company. I need to get hooked up to a cell phone company by Sept. I would like to get with a company that has good coverage throughout the U.S. Anybody got some comments on their service? Good or bad, it doesn't matter.

 

[JackandJanet]

It's my understanding that Verizon still has the best coverage. I don't have one of the "premium" cell phones however, mine is a Tracfone, but my service for it is provided by Verizon. I seem to always have a connected status unless I'm in the "wilderness".

- Jack

 

[RichR]

I just switched from Verizon to Consumer Cellular and am quite happy with it. The coverage here in hilly PA is just as good as Verizon. It uses primarily AT&T. There is no contract and the monthly rate is half of Verizon. If you are an AARP member you get 5% discount.

https://www.consumercellular.com/aarp

 

[Treeclimber]

We have Straight Talk thru Wal-Mart $45 a month, unlimited text and data. I understand they use the AT&T system. Worked in Peru and Costa Rica and all across the US. I truly have had no problems.
Treeclimber

 

[Garry-HILO]

My contract is almost up and my service has merged with another company. I need to get hooked up to a cell phone company by Sept. I would like to get with a company that has good coverage throughout the U.S. Anybody got some comments on their service? Good or bad, it doesn't matter.

We also have Verizon and I have been in campgrounds where I did not have any service but others did. Go figure.

 

[DeLana]

I'm curious; why would certain cell phone users have AT&T indirectly and not go directly to the AT&T source? We have a package deal with AT&T (cell phone, land line, modem service, and cable TV) which when parsing out the cost of each service separately shows me that the package is more economical than buying each service separately.

Dee
Summerville, SC

 

[RichR]

I'm curious; why would certain cell phone users have AT&T indirectly and not go directly to the AT&T source? We have a package deal with AT&T (cell phone, land line, modem service, and cable TV) which when parsing out the cost of each service separately shows me that the package is more economical than buying each service separately.

Dee
Summerville, SC

Many of us don't have that type of service available.

 

[Luckydog671]

Many of us don't have that type of service available.

Ditto, up here in the Tehachapi mountains we have limited options. We receive internet through a microwave link from a line-of-sight cell site. Our only other choice right now is satellite but there is a company which will be offering fiber optic later this year. It's part of the "Obama internet for everyone, even you rural backwater folks" program.

Don't have a land line (by choice) and my cell is through Verizon which seems to work well in most places, except remote camping areas.

 

[DeLana]

RichR and Luckydog, I now see your situation. I need to correct something I said in my previous post. Cell phone service is not part of our AT&T package. Our son in NC has AT&T cell, and he adds us on to his service. We just pay a proportionate share of his costs each year.

We are presently camping in a KOA outside of Cherokee, NC in the Smoky Mountains. Cell service is non-existent in this valley, but Wi-Fi is good but somewhat slow. To get service to call someone or pay a bill, we have to travel up the mountain about three or four miles to the Welcome Center in Cherokee. So, I think there will never be a perfect cell service company without some dead spots.

When reading a lot of blogs from full-timers who are from the U.S. And Canada, they seem to have more luck with their Verizon service while traveling in the U.S. than any other service.

Dee

 

[Hersbird]

The coverage maps are available. I think out west is where AT&T has more holes then Verizon. They both are pretty much 100% covered in the east. In Montana 5 years ago I wouldn't have even considered AT&T especially if you wanted data not just phone but lately they have improved, probably because they have all the Sprint towers as well.

 

[hilltool]

you may also want to look into cell phone signal enhancers. They aren't cheap- but reviews on some say they work well when dealing with weak signals. If you are somewhere with NO signal then it may not help---- but if you are getting like one bar somewhere these things can boost it to three or more, or so they claim. Im looking into it for traveling west-

Here is a link. : https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/?gclid=CIeyzqiT7cYCFYcWHwodemkOGQ

 

[Hersbird]

There is actually something great about losing cell coverage. Last month on our trip to Yellowstone we lost cell phone coverage for 2 days straight. Then suddenly upon pulling in to coverage at Old Faithful area we learned our A/C back home was broken, the stock market had a big downturn, the supreame court had 2 major rulings, there were riots and protests going on, and there was some other family drama going on. The bears we had been watching, and the river we had been swimming in seemed unaffected by all this therefore so were we.

 

[JackandJanet]

^^^ And, life goes on!

- Jack

 

[Papa-HILO]

cell

TIH211,
We had Verizon until a friend told me about PureTalkUSA.com. They have very reasonable plans and impressive coverage area. You can get unlimited talk and tex plus 500 mb data for $29 per month. I found the coverage just like Verizon. You can take a look at their web site.
God Bless
Papa