Yellowstone Coverage Report(November 2006)

[Andy]

Here's my Yellowstone review. I had two digital Verizon phones with me(Moto E815 and VX8300) as well as a Cingular GSM phone.

Leaving Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls, service was great and I talked on the phone quite a bit. No problems whatsoever. Verizon covers the stretch of I-15 in rural northern Utah much better than rural southern Utah, that's for sure. Service in Idaho was awesome and rock solid.

From Idaho Falls, I took Highway 26 to Jackson, Wyoming. Just like two years ago, this stretch was interesting. Verizon native service still fades out the same spot it did two years ago a rest stop or whatever on the north side of the road. As Verizon native gets weak the phone immediately switched to ALLTEL, and I made a fifteen minute call while driving without a problem. Verizon covers Swan Valley as well as the area around Irvin and I believe around the Palisades Reservoir natively. Unless I'm mistaken, Verizon did not natively cover this stretch last time I visited, but I may be wrong. After crossing the state line into Wyoming all service is lost until just outside Jackson, Wyoming. Service in town was great. The major surprise there was that Sprint natively covers the town, which I cannot remember either last time I was there. Their coverage is not that great though... -104 in the hotel(Verizon was -70s) and Sprint was -80s in town where Verizon is -60's but better than nothing. I also picked up SID 6010 which is Silver Star Telephone company...they allowed me to make a call on their network, which I thought was interesting. What is the most interesting is the fact that I piced up SID 6010 just outside Salt Lake City last month on a mountain top...It came in with a -90s signal, but calls wouldnt connect so I couldn't figure out whom it belonged to...I guess I picked it up all the way from Wyoming, hundreds of miles away.

Verizon covers the way towards the south Entrance excellent and service cuts out between Jackson Lake and the South Entrance. Service comes back just before Grant Village and West Thumb on ALLTEL 1441. Quality was great and Ec/Io was -1.0 almost the entire time, which probably means I was the only person on the network.
Around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone my phone continued to stay on ALLTEL with a -60s signal and full bars. I tried to force my phone onto Verizon, but strangely I only got a signal of -103 and the phone immediately switched back to ALLTEL..not sure why Verizon's signal at the exact same location has gone from full bars on Verizon last time I was there to one bar and the phone prefering ALLTEL...this is not the only instance of deteriorated Verizon service in the park so I'm really surprised. Seems like their site is still up and running, wherever it is, but at much lower power? My phone lost service driving around the Lake and areas like Bridge Bay and Fishing Bridge are still dead zones, even for ALLTEL. I picked up ALLTEL again between the lake and Canyon village, and when I looked at my phone at Canyon Village I had 4 bars of ALLTEL, no trace of VErizon, which was in the 80s dbm on the way between the lake and Canyon Village last time I was there. Old Faithful is full bars on ALLTEL once again, but service dies within three miles of the village. What I don't understand is why carriers are not allowed to mount their equipment higher above town, that way less people would see it, since now it is an obvious "eyesore" as people claim...That way huge areas that are unserved would be covered. Also, I don't think that ALLTEL's current location is bad...most people wouldn't even see it, even with its close proximity to town. Its a tower with three or four omni antennas on it.

Up north, Verizon service in Mammoth Hot Springs was weak this time, three bars maximum and only one bar in most of Gardiner, MT, which is covered by the same cell. Last time I visited, I had full bars(-60dbm) in Mammoth and great service throughout Gardiner...Again, what is going on??? Did Verizon have to turn down the power on their cells in Yellowstone??? ALLTEL was nonexistant in Gardiner, which was a great surprise for me. Verizon was the only digital CDMA in Mammoth/Gardiner.

As for West Yellowstone, Verizon is great and signal goes into the park 6-10 miles on the west side. ALLTEL 1441 is also great and lasts about the same into the park. Cells in West Yellowstone are mounted very low...Again, why not mount them on mountains higher up? This would provide coverage much further into the park...again, I don't understand the reasoning.

As for GSM...West Yellowstone was covered, Old Faithful worked as well as the West Thumb area, but no GSM whatsoever in the Mammoth Hot Springs area and Gardiner, MT, which as a big surprise. To be, CDMA clearly had the edge.

On my way back home, we went through Rexburg this time back to Idaho Falls. The only area where signal dropped was right outside of West Yellowstone going West into Idaho across the mountain pass. Again, if carriers wouldn't have installed their equipment low in West Yellowstone, but on one of the surrounding mountains, this area would have been covered much better, along with parts of the West Yellowstone Park.

Also, I thought that ALLTEL in MT was also supposed to be broadcasting Sprint? That was not the case in West Yellowstone or any of the other areas that broadcast ALLTEL's Montana SID.

Hope this is useful for some,

Andy

[Fathead]

I believe that quite a bit the land on the pass going from West Yellowstone down into Idaho near Henry's Lake is privately owned and/or protected, hence the lack of towers. Not 100% certain of how much, however.




Verizon is the only carrier with decent service near Palisades, especially just below the dam.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Fathead

Verizon is the only carrier with decent service near Palisades, especially just below the dam.

Agreed. I didn't get any GSM coverage at all, but it was about 11 p.m. at night when I drove so I may have missed something.

[Fathead]

Originally Posted by Andy84094

Agreed. I didn't get any GSM coverage at all, but it was about 11 p.m. at night when I drove so I may have missed something.

There is no GSM coverage. Alltel has decent coverage in the north end of Swan Valley but has nothing near the dam. Verizon has the only tower at that end. They are the 800 carriers.


The 1900 guys don't cover over there at all.

[markuhde]

I know this is a little late but perhaps still of interest:

"Also, I thought that ALLTEL in MT was also supposed to be broadcasting Sprint? That was not the case in West Yellowstone or any of the other areas that broadcast ALLTEL's Montana SID."

They do, but only inside the cities. Very minimal coverage...

[jimwayda]

Sprint users can roam free on Alltell so this should not be a problem.

Originally Posted by markuhde

I know this is a little late but perhaps still of interest:

"Also, I thought that ALLTEL in MT was also supposed to be broadcasting Sprint? That was not the case in West Yellowstone or any of the other areas that broadcast ALLTEL's Montana SID."

They do, but only inside the cities. Very minimal coverage...

[larry]

Besides Alltel, Sprint also has their own native 1900 Mhz service in some of the cities in MT. But it's limited.

[markuhde]

No larry, they don't. It's shown on maps as Sprint native, it's SID 4188, and all Sprint features work, but it's not native service as evidenced by:

1. You can't sign up with Sprint here (except through Qwest and I don't know how exactly that works)

2. When you connect a random old CDMA phone with no number to that "Sprint" network, you get Alltel messages calling 611 and stuff...

[larry]

Originally Posted by markuhde

No larry, they don't. It's shown on maps as Sprint native, it's SID 4188, and all Sprint features work, but it's not native service as evidenced by:

1. You can't sign up with Sprint here (except through Qwest and I don't know how exactly that works)

2. When you connect a random old CDMA phone with no number to that "Sprint" network, you get Alltel messages calling 611 and stuff...

What I mean by native is that it appears as native Sprint service to anyone using their phones there with all features available. The roaming indicator doesn't say 'roam'. I realize there's some question as to who operates the towers and that they don't sell phones and service to people in those markets. But the service is considered to be native Sprint by Sprint themselves and any Sprint customers traveling there would never know any different. So yes it sucks for people who live there who want to buy Sprint service but can't. For everybody else it's a non-issue.

[larry]

Sprint absolutely has their own 1900 Mhz towers in Montana. I just checked and found a sampling of sites which are part of their Spokane system:

Hamilton, Montana: Site ID# SP55XC043
Butte, Montana: Site ID# SP55XC023
Missoula, Montana: Site ID# SP55XC039

These are sites that Sprint owns and operates themselves. They do not belong to Alltel in any way, shape or form because they have Sprint site ID's.

Whether or not they will ever use these sites to actually sell phones and service to native Montana residents I have no idea. Their agreement with Alltel might prohibit it. Qwest uses Sprint's 1900 Mhz native network and it was Qwest who sold the towers in Montana to Sprint. So if Qwest offers service it has to be on Sprint's native system.

Connecting an old random Sprint phone that's inactive is not necessarily proof of anything. There might have been some changes in the new PRL's or maybe you're trying in an area that only has the Alltel service available. Or maybe Sprint designed the PRL so that Alltel's system is higher priority than Sprint's because it works better (although I seriously doubt that).

[markuhde]

Sprint owns those towers, but as someone who has played with a phone connected to them, they're part of Alltel's network.

Yes, Sprint owns towers in Montana absolutely.

Qwest uses both SID 4188 and SID 1441 as native service here in Montana.

Also remember that SID 1441 appears as "native" service for Sprint customers here as well.