COVERAGE REPORT - Colorado Front Range

Hope this helps some people around here. While I am on vacation in Colorado, I took along my Sprint CDMA phone with me; and decided to pay some attention to the service I have been getting while there. And thought it might be helpful if I posted my findings here for others to reference.

The phone I am using is a Sanyo SCP-8400. I am on a National Plan, with PRL of 20230.

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April 1st, 2008
- At Devner International Airport service was great; -70 to -85 dBm.
- Traveling away from the Denver Airport through the metro area (westbound - towards i-70), service was just as good as at the airport; -72 to -87 dBm
- Once on i-70 all the way to Idaho Springs was excellent (considering we were going through all the mountain passes); -83 to -93 dBm
- After passing the Idaho Springs exit, continuing to the town of Silver Plume service become a bit less reliable with -87 to -95 dBm (but it was still good!)
- From Silver Plume to the exit for Highway 6 coverage picked back up; -78 to -84 dBm
- After passing the Highway 6 ramp service fluecuated a tad. For about two miles from the exit service was at -95 to -102/3 dBm. (This includes the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel)
- After about a half mile from exiting the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel service increased with -74 to -82 dBm.
- Once in Dillon coverage was excellent again; maintaining a -63 to -69 dBm reading throughout the valley.

This was for our trip to Dillon (from Denver, via i-70 westbound). Also, worth noting is that Sprint stayed with me, through all the tunnels!

-GST

 

Today, we took a road trip from Dillon to Leadville - great scenery, and beautiful vistas!

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April 2nd, 2008
- In Dillon service is great (as mentioned above)
- Leaving Dillon; eastbound on Highway 6 (headed for i-70 southbound) coverage was good; -70 to -76 dBm
- Southbound on i-70 was good until we reached the parallel with Frisco; -75 to -81 dBm
- Once leaving the Frisco parallel service started to get a bit weaker; -84 to -97 dBm
- Service was maintained all the way to Copper Mountain; -92 to -104 dBm
- Once passing Copper and getting on 91 service quality greatly diminished. Sprint service was very spotty, I would go for twenty seconds on a tower, ten seconds off. That happened for about a minute, then I fell to "Searching For Service..."; -99 to -105 dBm
- Until we reached Kokomo there was no service. In Kokomo, my phone showed a roaming signal (I am not sure from whom - VZW?); -92 to -104dBm
- After one "flash" of the roaming signal it was gone; and we had no service once again
- Until we were about a half mile outside of Leadville, in which we picked up ALLTELs CDMA system; -70 to - 89 dBm
- In the town limits of Leadville, ALLTEL gave us great service; -62 to -70 dBm
- Outside of Leadville town limits we did still have ALLTEL but the service was very spotty; -93 to -105dBm


So overall service was good - both Sprint native, and ALLTEL (roaming). Data services were available while roaming (SMS, EvDo), and normal voice services as well. Leadville is a nice little town, but they only seem to have VZW sold there; no mention of ALLTEL in the areas we visited.

-GST