In CT, we have a database available to the public that shows all of our cell phone towers, their heights, addresses and carrier heights. The closest tower to my home is about 2 miles away. Its got 6 carriers on it and sprint is at the very top, verizon is thirty feet lower. What i dont understand is why i cant get a good sprint signal in my home. When my phone roams, it prefers alltel, but sometimes i catch it on verizon. Also, its on a 1900mhz verizon signal, sprint also uses a 1900mhz signal. If they are both using the same freqency and are on the same tower and Sprint is thirty feet higher on the tower, then why can i get a stable Verizon signal that will work in my house, when i cant get one from sprint? It makes no sense. There arent any other verizon towers around that would be in range. EDIT I should also point out that the next-closest-tower, one that "might" reach my home also has both sprint and verizon, and again, verizon is thirty feet lower. On the closest tower sprint is at 177feet, verizons at 147feet, the second closest sprint is at 195ft verizon is at 165ft.
Just a thought, Maybe the antennas that you THINK are Sprint are actually NEXTEL. If you can see them well near the tower, the Sprint antennas should be relatively small compared to some of the other antennas. Nextel antennas would be a larger antenna. You can tell the difference if you know what you are looking for. With the Sprint/Nextel names being kicked around so much, nobody knows who owns what antennas or anything else..
dont forget, sprint usually broadcasts in 1900mhz only. verizon however uses mostly 800mhz. i would guess that you might be mistaken about verizon using 1900 on that tower. it is more likely the 800 bc it will travel a good bit farther, and is going to penetrate buildings better, but is not as favorable (imo) for data. hope that helps
And also, the reason why your phone prefers Alltel, is because Sprint and Alltel have a nice roaming agreement with each other (both voice and data). So more than likely if your phone loses Sprint signal, it will prefer Alltel first before any other carrier due to the fact that your PRL in your phone is programmed that way. Next, your phone would then probably fall onto Verizon if Alltel signal fades away or is not available. Alltel is almost exclusively 850 MHz so that is why you probably would pick them up once the Sprint signal is gone because 1900 MHz does not travel that far. Also, depending on where you are, Verizon signal can vary. Many places are 850 MHz but others are 1900 MHz. You can look at this website: The Cellular/PCS License Resource to see if you live in a cellular area of Verizon. And even if you do, it is possible that they overlayed the area with 1900 MHz towers if there are big cities around or if they upgraded the network to EV-DO (I heard from someone that if the have a PCS license in an area that they will upgrade the 850 MHz tower to 1900 MHz when they turn it to EV-DO - not sure how true that is).
Verizon has 850 in all of CT except for in torrington, ct. Alltel and AT&T have the 850 in the area, and it is very possible that the OP lives in that area.
I just looked at the map to verify CT. Sure enough, CT's B-Side is covered all by AT&T and it's A-Side is covered all by Verizon except in the northwest, which is Alltel.
Yep whenever more than one CDMA carrier is present, Sprint phones will prefer in this order: 1) Alltel 2) US Cellular 3) Verizon In areas where only Verizon is present they will obviously prefer Verizon.
Nope, definately sprint. Its listed in this database. (click "comprehensive list of sites-harwinton tower, 123 campville) http://www.ct.gov/csc/cwp/view.asp?a=895&Q=248312&cscNav=| Nextel is also listed on the tower but lower down the list. I live in an area that Verizon does have 1900mhz. Like another poster said, its 800mhz everywhere else but my county. I also know this because i've tested it in my house, you can look in the phone menus at what frequency the signal is. I also know i'm definately on verizon cuz i can dial without an area code and i get the verizon lady. I dont know why the phone sometimes roams onto verizon instead of alltel, but it does. Usually its on alltel, but i noticed it sometimes goes to verizon. So still, it makes absolutely no sense to me that i would have a better Verizon signal in my home.
