Well, to be honest with you I have not traveled to many places in the U.S. where I would prefer GSM over CDMA, but Bear Lake is one of them. The Idaho portion of Bear Lake has ALLTEL, Verizon, Cleartalk as the CDMA carriers and Edge Wireless as the GSM carrier. The Utah portion has AT&T, T-Mobile and Union Telephone on the GSM side, and only Sprint on the CDMA site (thanks to a recent NEXTEL synergy colocation). I don't think Verizon is licensed for the Utah side of Bear Lake since AT&T and Union hold the Cellular licenses for that area, so I see no relief in sight for CDMA users to the area. I mean CDMA coverage was acceptable, but my phone kept on switching between native VZW signal from Idaho, an ALLTEL Extended Network signal from Idaho and that one Sprint tower near Laketown. That could get a little annoying and sometimes it was hard to get calls out. On the GSM side, Union's coverage on the UT side of Bear Lake is the best. I also traveled to some places in rural Idaho and was glad to have my CDMA phone- the only GSM carrier was Edge Wireless and they barely covered some of the main roads.
It is so good to hear from you! I'm not surprised CDMA is still king in Eastern ID; everywhere I went I was very pleased with CDMA coverage- GSM is just lousy in too many places there.
Hopefully Sprint will continue to build out. Two years ago I was in the area with an Alltel phone and the only coverage I could get on the Utah side was analog roaming. I ending up just turning the phone off to avoid the chance of any $0.99/minute roaming charges. In all of my travels that summer in Utah, it is the only place that I didn't have access to a preferred network and therefore free roaming.
Yeah Bear Lake does not and will not have good coverage for a while I think there is just not a large enough population to support it you know.
My guess is that you were analog roaming on Union Telephone. CDMA coverage, overall, in Utah is King. ALLTEL is king in Central and Southern Utah, hands down, no roaming needed there.
You know, considering the area, the GSM carriers have pretty damn good coverage there- it's the CDMA carriers that are not as good up there, and I don't think it will get any better anytime soon for the CDMA carriers there. During the summertime, there is a HUGE population at Bear Lake!!!!!!
Andy or Ryan, does Verizon have native service in Central/Southern Utah (say between Nephi and St. George along the I-15 corridor)? Or is it Alltell and???
Yes, Verizon does have native service along the whole I-15 corridor, but real life experiences give me headaches using Verizon while driving along that stretch. One time I was on the phone(or trying to be on the phone) almost the entire ride and dropped over 20 calls...it's bad. :O ALLTEL's coverage probably is the best along I-15 from Nephi to St. George, followed by Sprint and AT&T actually is really good too, but stray off the freeway and you will have No Service, whereas Verizon's coverage is actually better "off the beaten path" than on the Interstate. :loony:
Well being from that area let me tell you andy had it right. With that in mind Alltel is wonderful I would say they are the best for that. Also if one were to go through this area I would recommend a magnetic antenna as this could help out alot.
I have never had my edge phone pick up a gsm union signal anywhere in the bearlake valley. To get a union signal you have to go over Laketown canyon toward Randolph ut. then you get into unions service area. When I go to Laketown my edge phone picks up at&t then as you travel north you start to lose at&t and then you get a spoty edge signal till you get you the town af Ovid. Edge has a very good signal from there to Montpelier and the other towns on that side of the valley.
Hmm....that is interesting, because I swear I got a Union Signal on my phone on the Utah side of Bear Lake...maybe I confused something, lol. Verizon has some weak spots from Ovid to Montpelier, but ALLTEL seems to have that covered excellent. Seems like ALLTEL has more towers than Verizon there.
It is not surprising that Alltel's coverage in southeastern Idaho is excellent. That network was built by US Cellular who has a stellar reputation concerning network quality. Alltel traded USCC the old Western Wireless licenses in Kansas and Nebraska that they had to divest for the eastern Idaho license.
Oh yeah I am not surprised at the excellent network ALLTEL owns in Idaho either. U.S. Cellular networks I have roamed on have always been of excellent quality and I am not surprised their Idaho network was of the same quality. The ex-USCC now ALLTEL network in Idaho covers places no other carrier covers.
Yeah they did it right from the start and have a huge lead on most everyone in the areas they cover in utah and idaho to bad alltel cant obtain a liceanse for salt lake and provo. I would get on ship really fast if that were the case
You wouldn't be the only one. ALLTEL has done a great job in the areas they are licensed to serve in Utah and they are adding sites very rapidly again this year in Utah, despite it being mostly rural. Most people I met in Idaho used ALLTEL service, so at least their investments are paying off.
Alltel has been bleeding dealers lately, though. Lots of issues with customers on old US cellular plans.
That's interesting to know. Is ALLTEL just not dealing well with the situation of the old U.S. cell plans or what?
US Cell had a lot of snowbirds (and others) who would be on a local plan for a good chunk of the year, and then let them switch to the regional plan to include AZ and UT (before they pulled AZ out of the regional plan). No extentions, no penalties. People got used to this. Then Alltel took over and pissed all these people off by stopping the practice. The dealers are the ones who are now having these customers blow up at them. They are tired of getting screamed at so they are switching to other providers and offering plans that include UT and AZ.
Oh wow, interesting. Thanks for that information. Sounds like there may be some opportunity for other carriers to steal away those customers.
I think that it would be easier to get a national plan. I personally dont know anyone that lives in sothern idaho or northern utah with a local plan. My 82 year old father even has a national plan with Alltel.
