Montana coverage?

[chris4434]

I am thinking about planning a trip to Montana to see Yellowstone, and other sights. Does anyone know what kind of cell coverage they have? On every national providers map there are a ton of holes in Montana. I have Sprint and T-mobile, so I could bring both phones, but I dont want to just know about Sprint and T-Mobile. Some of my friends will prob go and they have the other national providers like Verizon, Cingular and ATT.

[agentHibby]

Verizon will have the best coverage there next is Western Wireless.
Bill Radio, can tell you about the PCS providers: Sprint (probably no coverage), T-Mobile don't know?? AT&T/Cingular no. There should GSM coverage there don't know who?

[larry]

Sprint does own exsisting towers now in Montana so they just might be up and running now. But nobody has confirmed this yet. As for Yellowstone no native coverage from Sprint. Only roaming.

[agentHibby]

That why I put [probably not for Sprint] Larry,

I did know if they had got towers up and ready in that area up yet?
as we know, Bill Radio would is the man for that area!

[larry]

Sprint reported a transfer of ownership of the Qwest towers to the FCC in Montana & Wyoming on May 27th and June 16th. I suspect they are now in operation.

[agentHibby]

Thanks for the info

[Steelhead]

I was up in the Island Park area 3 weeks ago. We had my edge wireless phone and a verizon. Both had service in this area. Went over to West Yellowstone for awhile and I had service in West with my edge phone witch was a surprise.
Yesterday went over the the Victor, Idaho area and then went over to Jackson Hole, Wyo. I had my edge phone and uscelluar and my friend had his verizon. I was surprised again, the edge phone did better than the uscell and verizon over their. The edge is tdma.

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by agentHibby Verizon will have the best coverage there next is Western Wireless. Bill Radio, can tell you about the PCS providers

There are 7 cell sites in Yellowstone Park. Only one of them (that I know of) is Verizon's, just off rt 287 @ the Snake River Ranger Station. They also have a site at West Yellowstone, outside the park. They may have another near Mammoth as their Wyoming map shows some additional coverage across the north end.

4 sites belong to Cellular One, including the infamous eyesore at old Faithful. They are:
-Mammoth Hot Springs
-Mt. Washburn
-Old Faithful
-Grant Village

2 sites belong to Union Cellular:
-Old Faithful (hidden)
-West Thumb

Sprint is available south of the park in Jackson, otherwise you'll be roaming, very likely in analog. With any luck, Cellular One will have added 1900 MHz GSM for T-Mobile roamers, however, C-1 has been getting so much heat from one of their sites, they may hold off installing PCS antennas there until the issue dies down.

C-1 and Union Cellular have a slight edge over Verizon in coverage, and both are working on a GSM overlay, some of it at 1900 MHz. As long as you have a Sprint PCS phone, you'll have cood coverage, although some will be analog, and, except for Jackson (which includes some of the most popular Yosemite areas), will be roaming.