Cell Coverage in the Western U.P.
- Thread starter mvedepo
- Start date
mrsrunningbear
Active member
All I can tell you is Verizon has put up several towers in the Western U.P. I know there is 1 in Ewen and 1 Paulding and I think 1 in Rockland too...not sure where all the others are. They don't have them turned on yet they say Dec or Jan but this should make a big difference
Dsbasecamp
New member
We have Verison... No problems ..My Dad has Sprint & had no service in the UP.
harvest1121
Well-known member
I have sprint did not have a problem anywhere in the up. We stayed in Rockland the only place it did not work was in copper harbor and they said nothing works there, There was a few spots out of lake linden that some phones worked and some would not. A lot of the problems people do not switch the phone to the dual band so it does not work up there.
I could o' sworn I heard AT&T was adding cell antennas in da western UP too, Ontonagon and da Keweenaw?
And some of those coverage maps are somewhere between wishful thinking and fiction!
booondocker
New member
That's been my experience too.
booondocker
New member
mrsrunningbear
Active member
I had the guys working on the towers staying with us...the one's I know about are Verizon for sure, I think they said 10 or more have gone up, heard nothing about AT&T
Professor PC
Banned
same here....i had NEXTEL...loved it....cut out at CEDAR RIVER MI....went to VERIZON...only signal available in the YELLOW DOG PLAINS area.....buddies all had it before me.....switched to VERIZON....miss NEXTEL in the civilized world though....it was way better than VERIZON in civilization.....remote....VERIZON wins
If you stop and think about the two choices you have presented, the logical (non-technical) choice is Verizon. Verizon has over 92 million subs, Sprint has 48 million. Verizon is growing while Sprint continues to suffer from some of the worst customer retention in the industry. BTW, I am a Sprint customer because years ago Nextel was a good service in Door County so I went to Nextel, then moved to Sprint with the acquisition of Nextel.
Anyway, given the option to start over and do so for the UP I would pick Verizon over all carriers. The CDMA service will "stretch" a bit further then AT&T's GSM service (my opinion sort of half based on fact) And, since you have limited your choice to the two CDMA carriers, by logic you can expect Verizon to be investing more in their network in remote areas, solely due to size of budget.
If you look at coverage maps you will see that in areas like the UP where people "drive through" coverage is built along the highways. That is a core strategy of network expansion...cover the drive-throughs first so the existing traveling customers have service, then expand out for local customers. Over the long term one would expect Verizon, with twice as many subs as Sprint would be more inclined to expand local service in Da Yoop just 'cuz they have more money, more people, more tower leases, and more trucks.
Since you will have to sign a 2 year contract one should expect that in 2 years the Verizon network will have grown in Da Yoop while the Sprint network will probably remain static. Also, I have been unable to get an HTC EVO, it has been sold out online and at Best Buy online since end of June. I will be ordering the Samsung Epic tomorrow from Sprint. The EVO shortage is apparently due to a shortage of screens, oddly enough they are made by Samsung!
Sorry for being so wordy, but in 2 years you will be happier with Verizon IMHO.
Anyway, given the option to start over and do so for the UP I would pick Verizon over all carriers. The CDMA service will "stretch" a bit further then AT&T's GSM service (my opinion sort of half based on fact) And, since you have limited your choice to the two CDMA carriers, by logic you can expect Verizon to be investing more in their network in remote areas, solely due to size of budget.
If you look at coverage maps you will see that in areas like the UP where people "drive through" coverage is built along the highways. That is a core strategy of network expansion...cover the drive-throughs first so the existing traveling customers have service, then expand out for local customers. Over the long term one would expect Verizon, with twice as many subs as Sprint would be more inclined to expand local service in Da Yoop just 'cuz they have more money, more people, more tower leases, and more trucks.
Since you will have to sign a 2 year contract one should expect that in 2 years the Verizon network will have grown in Da Yoop while the Sprint network will probably remain static. Also, I have been unable to get an HTC EVO, it has been sold out online and at Best Buy online since end of June. I will be ordering the Samsung Epic tomorrow from Sprint. The EVO shortage is apparently due to a shortage of screens, oddly enough they are made by Samsung!
Sorry for being so wordy, but in 2 years you will be happier with Verizon IMHO.
Thanks for all the input! The main reason I was considering Sprint is the fact that I get a nice discount with them and being a pilot I get travel to a lot of areas served with 4G.
How is Verizons 3G speed? My ATT is good WHEN you can keep a signal. I am pretty sure ATT's slogan needs to be changed to "less bars in more places." That being said I do use my phone to surf the net a lot. So thats pretty important to me.
How is Verizons 3G speed? My ATT is good WHEN you can keep a signal. I am pretty sure ATT's slogan needs to be changed to "less bars in more places." That being said I do use my phone to surf the net a lot. So thats pretty important to me.
In our riding group we are split pretty much 50/50 between Verizon & AT&T as our carriers. Our experience has been they are very similar in the Wi. northwoods & The Western U.P. up to Silver City area (our typical riding area). We get to other areas, but not enough to comment on signals elsewhere. There's places where AT&T gets a signal but not Verizon and vice versa. One thing to keep in mind if going the smartphone route, is that at this point in time AT&T is the only carrier that supports Voice & Data simultaneously (3G only). It doesn't seem like a big deal if you've never had it, but I can't count the times I've used it. Email exchanges while talking to someone, giving directions while on google maps, looking up something on the internet while talking to the person, etc.....Rather than hang up receive email, call back, hang up, reply, call back. All depends on how you plan on using it. I use my phone alot , 3000-4000 minutes a month, 2gb-3gb of data and go up north (Iron Cty., Wi.) at least 10-15 times a year, so if AT&T had sub par service up there (or by me for that matter) I would have changed years ago.
t660redrocket
New member
Verizon has beenthe best for me. Many times 3G coverage is better than regular coverage. Matt at the Bluff is a AT&T dealer in Ontonagon. He said a few new towers have gone up but are not activated yet. AT&T should get better.
Another major factor is quality of phone unit you have. Motorola and LG by far have better signals than the other brands. Samsung not so good.
Another major factor is quality of phone unit you have. Motorola and LG by far have better signals than the other brands. Samsung not so good.
http://www.mininggazette.com/page/content.detail/id/510543.html this confirms what our AT&T people have been telling us about Twin Lakes. Still nothing.
Unscientific, but..... http://www.cellreception.com/search.php?zip=49931&page=1
Not sure I buy the logic regarding Verizon being the best choice (nor would I buy it if ATT had been suggested as the best choice) for the UP. There are areas where either one or the other will work and opposite will and there are areas where nothing works (lots of them).
Bottom line, look at coverage maps (which are not up to date with new towers going in) in the area you intend on hanging. While I only know what I experience with Verizon Tracephone and ATT in our area, Tracephone has the cheapest prepay plans (if you buy the double your minutes card) and at least what I have seen in my store...ATT is almost always a cheaper option than Verizon.
Unscientific, but..... http://www.cellreception.com/search.php?zip=49931&page=1
Not sure I buy the logic regarding Verizon being the best choice (nor would I buy it if ATT had been suggested as the best choice) for the UP. There are areas where either one or the other will work and opposite will and there are areas where nothing works (lots of them).
Bottom line, look at coverage maps (which are not up to date with new towers going in) in the area you intend on hanging. While I only know what I experience with Verizon Tracephone and ATT in our area, Tracephone has the cheapest prepay plans (if you buy the double your minutes card) and at least what I have seen in my store...ATT is almost always a cheaper option than Verizon.