Coverage Report in Payson AZ area

[RH]

All,

Last thursday I took a day trip to Payson from Phoenix area via the 87 and then past Payson to the 260 and over to Christopher Creek for lunch then up to the Tonto Natural Bridge. I had my Cingular Nokia 6010 and Verizon Nokia 6015 and the Verizon coverage which I thought would blow Cingular out of the water was not that great. Coverage on the 87 was hit and miss with both providers but for most of the drive up when coverage was available Cingular would have full signal and be able to make calls while Verizon would go to one bar and would not call out. Both had no service in some areas of this mountainous route at the same spots. This is a frequently travelled road and I was suprised at the lack of coverage. Once into Payson and the town prior two it Rye coverage for both was fine. Out of Payson on the 260 and in Christopher Creek Verizon back to 1 bar digital and searching for service and Cingular went in and out then no service the same driving up the 87 again past payson to Tonto Natural Bridge which I expected at park itself. I was just very surprised as the gap appears to be closing on coverage for these two carriers. Also I had the latest prl for Ac2. I wonder if Alltel would have been any better in those areas? Cingular was a suprise.

RH

[CellGeek]

Sprint may have been better. I hear that Sprint is good in Az.

[BillRadio]

I'm not familiar with the area, but most GSM service there is provided by Commnet Wireless. Yes, Alltel has many areas where they are superior to Verizon. Cingular's own service is at 1900 MHz only. Coverage gets better when roaming on 850 networks like Commnet's. However, Commnet has some 1900 MHz coverage as well, so it's hard to pinpoint where you get what.

[Andy]

Even though you have AC2, you can still force ALLTEL using NAM2, that's what I do on trips to central/southern UT where ALLTEL coverage is better than VZW. It's not officially included in AC2, but will defininetely allow you to make/receive calls, even send/receive SMS with the SMS delivery notification just like on native VZW service.

[lilaz]

I used to live in Pine which is 13 miles north of Payson, AZ. Have always had a TracFone. Coverage when I lived there was spotty on Verizon when on the highway, but worked fine in Pine & Payson. My phone was an old Motorola 120V. Now I have a Nokia 2126 on Alltel (still TracFone) and get better coverage than before. I visit about once a month from Prescott area and get great coverage all the way over. There are only a few places where the signal is blocked by very tall rock cliffs. Don't know if it's the phone or Alltel service but it's an improvement.

[Andy]

ALLTEL most definitely has the better rural coverage in AZ, hands down. Are they still dropping a lot of calls in the metro areas though?

[Airb330]

ALLTEL most definitely has the better rural coverage in AZ, hands down. Are they still dropping a lot of calls in the metro areas though?

Good question. I definitely thought Alltel had good coverage in AZ, but surprisingly so did ATT and T-Mobile (which will roam on att). If Alltel had coverage, so did ATT which of course is now Cingular. Of course, it seems Cingular and Alltel do the worst in the metro areas

[lilaz]

For a long time I didn't even know what a dropped call was. The only time I have been cut off was on Verizon, driving up from Phoenix to Payson. We went through a dip in the road, rock cliffs, then some large mountains. No one there anymore.