Travelling along I-80

[ZaphodB]

Hello all. I'm back from my world travels here (BTW, GSM service in Hong Kong is unsurpassed anywhere in the world.)

My wife and I will be headed out to Laramie in May. We'll be flying into Salt Lake City and driving along I-80, both for the quasi-road-trip experience and for the cheaper fares into Salt Lake City (have you SEEN what they're trying to charge to fly to Denver?!). I do not want to be without a cell phone, in case God forbid something happens. Since we both have GSM phones, we are going to be raptus regaliter (royally scr!wed) in Wyoming (with the exception of Cheyenne, to which we have no intention of going).

Now, here are my options. Give me your opinion on which of these is best:

1. Pretend I'm interested in Verizon before I leave and sign up for a Digital OneRate plan just before we go, then cancel upon return (we'll be gone three days).
2. Buy a prepaid phone here.
3. Buy a prepaid phone in Salt Lake City.

If I choose #2, it'd be whichever is cheaper in Los Angeles.
If I choose #3, I don't know any of the providers in Salt Lake, and certainly none in Wyoming.

Any ideas? Suggestiobsn?

[larry]

Or if you have an old Sprint phone lying around you can charge it up and use the analog (with a credit card) if needed for emergencies. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[AnthroMatt]

I drove to Lincoln, NE from Reno, NV along I-80 back in November. I use Verizon and the only place I was without service between Elko, NV and just NE of Reno. As long as you are going on your trip for less than 15 days you can do option #1. But don't buy your phone in LA and try to return it when you get back to SLC, as Verizon will give you some grief about not being able to access your CA account in UT. At least that is what they said to me...I tried to exchange my phone within 15 days at a Redding, CA store and they refused to allow me to do so because I had opened my account in Florida. I have since been told they CAN access accounts from other markets, but that this takes effort on the part of normally lazy sales reps.

I think Verizon FreeUp (prepaid) is offering a phone for $50 now, so that would be the other option.Not too expensive for piece of mind. Or you can do as Larry says and take any unactivated phone that works on analog networks (from Sprint or any other company, it doesn't matter as long as it can work on 800MHz AMPS) and just pay per call with a credit card. This is nice if you don't end up needing the phone because you won't have spent a dime.

Drive safe and "watch for blowing snow!!!"

[ILUVSOCAL]

Originally posted by: AnthroMatt
I drove to Lincoln, NE from Reno, NV along I-80 back in November. I use Verizon and the only place I was without service between Elko, NV and just NE of Reno. As long as you are going on your trip for less than 15 days you can do option #1. But don't buy your phone in LA and try to return it when you get back to SLC, as Verizon will give you some grief about not being able to access your CA account in UT. At least that is what they said to me...I tried to exchange my phone within 15 days at a Redding, CA store and they refused to allow me to do so because I had opened my account in Florida. I have since been told they CAN access accounts from other markets, but that this takes effort on the part of normally lazy sales reps.

I think Verizon FreeUp (prepaid) is offering a phone for $50 now, so that would be the other option.Not too expensive for piece of mind. Or you can do as Larry says and take any unactivated phone that works on analog networks (from Sprint or any other company, it doesn't matter as long as it can work on 800MHz AMPS) and just pay per call with a credit card. This is nice if you don't end up needing the phone because you won't have spent a dime.

Drive safe and "watch for blowing snow!!!"

There is service in Northern Nevada between Reno and Elko via CC Comunications, http://www.cccomm.net/, they are in the PRL, I don't understand why you didn't pick up on them, did you play with your Auto A/B settings? Also, labeling all sales reps as lazy is not only incorrect, it's a terrible thing to do.

[TNDan21]

I second Verizon Wireless's FREEUP. Don't bother with option number 1 or 3 that's more of a hassle. Just buy a prepaid phone in your local area before you make the trip.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally posted by: ILUVSOCAL
There is service in Northern Nevada between Reno and Elko via CC Comunications, http://www.cccomm.net/, they are in the PRL, I don't understand why you didn't pick up on them, did you play with your Auto A/B settings? Also, labeling all sales reps as lazy is not only incorrect, it's a terrible thing to do.

I guess I should clarify that that was the only place along my drive where my phone indicated I was roaming. I didn't mess with the Auto A/B settings, but coming from Florid I think my phone would have been on Automatic B.

OK...and I shouldn't label all sales reps lazy. I don't that was my intention at all, but if you interpreted my words as an attack on every single sales rep, I am sorry. I CAN honestly say every Verizon rep I have dealt with with the exception of ONE (he works at the Easton store in Columbus OH) has been incredibly lazy. I have had to talk to managers to get any information or to customer service supervisors whenever I had problems. I get the impression that Verizon's sales reps only care if you are a potential new customer or a customer ready for contract renewal. This was especially true when I was working out of LNF in NorCal and had a Florida cell number. I was always getting "we can't help you, you're from Florida" or "you will have to contact cusotmer service in Florida" when I had question down in the Redding store near Mt. Shasta Mall or a Reno, NV store near the airport there. It was the biggest mess EVER. I was being billed by Verizon CA because that is where my mailing address was but I could never gett help from Verizon CA customer service. When I had a billing quesiton Florida CS would try to transfer me west and Cali's version of Verizon would send me back east. INFURIATING. Two weeks ago when I traded an LG 4400 in for a CDM 9500 the rep basically called me an idiot for doing so, he said the 4400 is "cooler" and "louder", which it certainly is, but that alone does not make it a better PHONE. My experience from the customer service end with Verizon has been atrocious and if I end up not going back to LNF this summer, when my contract is up I will dump Verizon in a heartbeat....

sorry to go off topic...I still think FreeUp is your best bet.

[ZaphodB]

Actually, I do have an old Sprint phone (a Nokia 6185) with such a chunky battery that it MUST do analog. I also thought about asking my grandmother, who has a NJ-based Verizon phone and who never leaves her apartment except to go to the market, if she'd mind lending it to us for the weekend, and then drop-ship it back to her from SLC before we leave.

The thing is that spending even $50 on a service that I may or may not use seems a bit wasteful.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Airb330]

While normally I suggest FREEUP, I'd say check out Alltel's Simple Freedom prepay. I do not know if it is only in Alltel areas or not. It's only sold @ walmart. It covers the whole America's Choice area, alltel and Verizon coverage. Might give you some more area. www.simplefreedom.net

[larry]

Originally posted by: ZaphodB
Actually, I do have an old Sprint phone (a Nokia 6185) with such a chunky battery that it MUST do analog. I also thought about asking my grandmother, who has a NJ-based Verizon phone and who never leaves her apartment except to go to the market, if she'd mind lending it to us for the weekend, and then drop-ship it back to her from SLC before we leave.

The thing is that spending even $50 on a service that I may or may not use seems a bit wasteful.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Yes the 6185 while not a great digital CDMA phone (according to the rumors) can do analog just fine. If you don't mind paying through a credit card to use if necessary.

[BillRadio]

Zaphod,
Here's a tidbit. Laramie now has T-Mobile service! Then you'd only need a 'standby' phone between SLC and LAR.

The two cellular providers in WY are Cellular One (west), and Verizon. Be careful, most old cell phones may not work with a credit card unless there is some kind of traceable number associated with it. Try it before you leave.

I would borrow before buying. Returning the phone during after just using during the tryout period, while unethical, is probably done all the time.

-Bill

[larry]

Really? I have an old Qualcomm 2760 dual band Sprint phone and I can still place calls just fine using a credit card.

[BillRadio]

Larry,
Yes, I thought it was universal that a deactivated phone would still be able to make a call with a credit card. Nope. An old Sprint phone (4000), and an old AT&T phone (6160) get a whole bunch of various intercept messages, none of which offered the option of making a call that could be credited to a cc.

In order to use the AT&T phone, I had to have AT&T assign it a number, even without activation. I've tried The Sprint phone on all the roaming networks and on Sprint, to no avail. I have re-programmed the number to a default, my old number(s), and random numbers...still no. If I can force roaming off the first two preferred carriers (AT&T and Verizon), it will, however, allow me to dial Cricket customer service, for which the wait was WAY too long, so I still consider it unusable.

When it had a legit Sprint number, at the least I would get the American Roaming Service at *2. But now, I can't find the magic combination. My old Sprint phones are good for 911 only. I realize this is not the experience everyone shares.

-Bill

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: BillRadio
Zaphod,
Here's a tidbit. Laramie now has T-Mobile service! Then you'd only need a 'standby' phone between SLC and LAR.

The two cellular providers in WY are Cellular One (west), and Verizon. Be careful, most old cell phones may not work with a credit card unless there is some kind of traceable number associated with it. Try it before you leave.

I would borrow before buying. Returning the phone during after just using during the tryout period, while unethical, is probably done all the time.

-Bill

That's good to know, Bill - how did you find out, may I ask? And is it just Laramie, or will it cover the next town (Centennial, about 32km away) as well?

[larry]

Bill,

Before Sprint had a roaming agreement with anyone here in So Calif., I could use the deactivated Qualcomm 2760 for analog credit card calls. But that was probably because I had PRL 10010 which did not roam automatically on either AT&T or Verizon here. Now that Sprint has a roaming agreement with Verizon and I have PRL 10018 I can no longer use the deactivated phone for roaming. You are correct. I just tried with my old Kyocera 2255 and all I got was a message from Verizon saying they weren't able to recognize my phone (or something like that). So all it's good for is making emergency calls to 911. I suspect if Sprint didn't have a roaming agreement with Verizon here I would be able to place credit card calls.

[TNDan21]

Before I shipped off my grandmother's old de-activated StarTAC phone from ALLTEL I tried making a call on it. I got the "American Roaming Network" asking me to either place a collect call or to enter a credit card number to place a call.

[bobolito]

If it's just for emergencies, I wouldn't bother signing up with a new plan and return the phone later on. I would just borrow any de-activated Tri-Mode TDMA/Analog or CDMA/Analog phone. Someone you know may have one laying around. It will work with 911 anyway.

[BillRadio]

Zaphod said.

how did you find out, may I ask? And is it just Laramie, or will it cover the next town (Centennial, about 32km away) as well?

My source is a cellular dealer in Laramie who turned on his T-Mobile phone, and it worked. Centennial is way off the main roads. Even the main cellular carriers have a dead zone at the county line along I-80 (near the wind generators). You will be lucky to find any signal, and T-Mobile would be even less likely. But it depends on the 'view' from the town.

Cellular One has the best chance, see:

Cellular One Wyoming Coverage

Verizon shows less coverage there:

Verizon Wyoming Coverage

So the odds are against you, but Centennial is a little higher than the valley and may 'see' the cell sites down below.

-Bill