Conceptual Issue: Coverage in Remote Areas

Unfortunately, cell phone carriers make it the bottom of their priority list to cover remote areas. For what I see in your profile, you have been with both TDMA and CDMA service. What company did you use for the 8260 phone?
Could you even get an analog signal? If both companies are useless in remote areas where you drive then there is no other choice. What remote areas are you talking about? A satellite phone will get you covered but the price is prohibitive for most people. Click below for pricing:

http://shop.infosat.com/help/airtime_rates.htm
http://www.globalstarusa.com/pricing/personal/

 

if you cant afford a satellite phone at least get a nice powerful anntena for your car so you can get grasp even the weakest analog signal in rural areas.....someone should have a link for where to find such a product.

 

http://www.alternativewireless.com Has many antennas and accessories. Good idea Idiot.

 

Barbara,

You REALLY need a 3-watt analog phone, but they don't make analog phones any more and fionding one will be difficult.

Alternatively, you need to get a "car kit / amplifier" (different names) that will let you amplify the phone you've got -- or at least get yourself a new phone that can be amplified.

The low-powered, handheld digital phones just don't have the power to work in really remote places. Only the higher powered analog or amplified phones will do that.

 

Barbara,

Read this link. At the bottom is a link to jdteck. It might be worth your while.

kev

 

The only problem is that the 8260 doesn't have an external antenna jack so if you decide to buy an amplifier you will have to give up your 8260 for a different model that has a jack for an external antenna like the 5160 or many Motorolas like the talkabout or timeports flip models.

 

That describes Hwy.20 between Clearklake Oaks and Williams here in Northern California. For those who aren't familiar with this area, Hwy.20 is THE main artery between the North Coast(Ukiah, Fort Bragg, Willits, Eureka, Lakeport, Clearlake, Northern Sonoma and Napa counties)and the Sacramento Valley. While there is Cell coverage along some of it, and Call boxes on Hwy.20 in Lake County, once you reach the Colusa County line, there are no call boxes, and no reception, even with a 3 Watt phone. This is one of the remotest stretches of highway I know of, there are no towns, no lights, no services, no homes, nada. Cache Creek and Bear Creek, Elk, Deer, Bear, and Oak trees are the main inhabitants. If you get stranded in this area, especially in the dark of night, you better hope a CHP comes along, and nobody hits you(when I say dark at night, I mean EXTREMELY dark, making you a vulnerable target for cars)I hear rumours of their being coverage expanded here, but no action. There is a former AT&T Longline Microwave tower just west of Williams on a high mountain, currently owned by American Tower, which would make an excellent site, and I can name many other sites. Most of this land is either owned by the state or private ranches, so I don't see a problem with NIMBIES. What I am trying to point out, is that to get between the two populated areas of the North Coast and the Sacramento Valley(and there are countless other similar situations), you have to pass through this remote area. Somebody needs to subsidize these areas or something, a cell phone is your only communication out there, not a luxury. I would wholeheartedly pay a little more in fees or taxes to get coverage there, as I travel the route through there between my home near Ukiah and Redding fairly often.