Murphy, NC

I hope you are correct about Murphy. That would surely show a commitment to WNC to see Cherokee and Murphy with coverage.:browani: :browani:

 

From what i hear Cingular and Suncom are putting towers there or are sharing

SunCom has set aside $110 million in its 2005 capital budget to add 20 new cell sites in the Asheville area. Six sites were scheduled to go live in February with a seventh site to be added in March. More than 90 relay stations will round out SunCom's coverage area in the mountains.

"No one will have better coverage than us in the Asheville area," said Michael E. Kalogris, chairman and CEO of SunCom Wireless, which is headquartered in Charleston, S.C.

 

Cingular has good coverage in Ashville and Hendersonville. I go to both cities often. We need west of Ashville coverage.

 

What exactly do you mean with relay stations providing coverage in the mountains?

 

It could be repeater/booster cells that "relay" to/from more distant sites. It isn't uncommon to see that sort of thing in very rural areas, and with WNC's terrain it's almost a necessity to have a lot of sites to have good coverage, especially at 1900.

-SC

 

...especially since Ramcell was stupid and went CDMA when they compete with VZW

-SC

 

I bet it IS Cingular. SBC owns 60% of Cingular...and I can't think of anyone else that has a huge coverage gap in WNC that can't be filled by roaming on other carriers (hint: rules out SPCS, since they can roam on VZW and Ramcell), that causes massive irritation by customers of multiple carriers (hint: rules out Nextel), and that has the money to build out in WNC (hint: rules out SunCom). And given that Cingular has been doing other, mostly incremental upgrades in coverage in the Ocoee/Nantahala region lately, it only seems logical they'd decide to build out Murphy.

I hope the new sites are opened up for roaming by T-Mobile customers...I can't imagine T-Mobile not allowing roaming on them since they currently don't have licenses anywhere in NC except for Elizabeth City.

(Now when exactly will Cingular fix the holes in Decatur and Spring City, TN? )

-SC

 

Thanks for the explanation, roamer. How can you tell relay stations apart from normal cellsites?

 

repeaters are usually very small (about the size of a backpack) but the problem with a repeater is E-911, so I wouldn't bet on alot of repeaters (Cingular's E911 provider doesn't like them because it causes problems with location accuracy).

 

So I guess they really are very small installations on mountain tops then. Very interesting.

 

Is the construction close to completion? I know they can throw one up in a short period of time after the land is acquired.

 

As of a month or so ago Cingular Wireless is now available in Cherokee County. The cell tower is up and functional. Come by and call someone

 

I noticed that on the coverage map. I also put in the address of Harrahs Casino and it looked like made an island with no coverage.

 

Yes, they are Cingular towers. Cingular is expanding in a big way in Jackson County west all the way to Cherokee and Clay counties.

 

That is good news. I checked the new street coverage map and it has no updates since February. Thanks

 

I have cingular in WNC and I love it. Projectui mentioned above is a friend who I didn't know had even heard of this forum, his father leases tower space to cingular and verizon on "Fain Mountain" but cingular has also put up 7 other towers/repeaters in Cherokee County alone, I spoke to one of the guys who was hauling in equipment for it he asked for directions.

 

Cingular Enhances Wireless Coverage in Western Carolinas with Nine New Cell Sites

GREENVILLE, S.C., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The nation's largest wireless carrier is growing its network and enhancing coverage in North and South Carolina. Cingular Wireless has added nine new cell sites in the western areas of the Carolinas, ensuring customers stay connected.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040930/CINGLOGO )
These new cell sites are some of the more than 300 new Cingular cell sites planned for North and South Carolina before the end of 2006. The company has already added more than 200 new cell sites across the Carolinas in the last eight months, enhancing wireless service for those who live, work and play in the region's mountains, Midstate, and Lowcountry.

These new sites bring new or enhanced coverage to the following areas:
* In Marshall County, N.C., new coverage along Business US 25/70 and for
the surrounding residential areas.
* In Transylvania County, N.C., new coverage along U.S. Hwy. 64 around
Lake Toxaway and the surrounding resort and residential areas.
* In Macon County, improved coverage for travelers along U.S. Hwy. 64
between Highlands and Franklin, N.C.
* In Madison County, N.C., new coverage along I-26 between Little Creek
and the Tennessee state line and along U.S. Hwy. 23.
* In Cherokee County, N.C., enhanced coverage for Hwys. 141, 19, 74 and
129, south of Marble and between Andrews and Murphy.
* Enhanced coverage along Hwys. 76, 252 and 178 and the growing
residential areas east of the city of Anderson, S.C.
* Southeast of Pacolet, in Spartanburg County, S.C., enhanced coverage for
travelers on Hwy. 150 and the growing residential areas near Croft State
Park.
* In Spartanburg County, S.C., enhanced coverage along Hwy. 221 and for
the new residential areas south of Chesnee.
* Enhanced coverage in Pickens County, S.C., along Hwy. 93 and for the
west side of the town of Liberty.

"These nine new cell sites will provide both residents and visitors to this beautiful area with a better network, better coverage, and better service," said Alison Hall, vice president and general manager for Cingular's North and South Carolina market. "From Murphy to Charleston, from Greenville to Raleigh, Cingular wants to provide our Carolinas customers with the very best possible wireless network."

 

Yeah I wonder when, for that matter if, they are gonna cover 74 coming through the nantahala gorge and in robbinsville, my signal in andrews (last time I was there 3 months ago) was spotty at best.

 

Sounds good jones. You are talking about my part of the world.

:highclap: :highclap:

 

Tis good isn't it?

 

What about 64/74 West of Murphy into Tennessee, over where I am in Copperhill? We have great Cingular coverage in Copperhill itself now, but if I slip over the NC line to go eat in Murphy I have a dead spot almost the whole 15 miles or so until I get close to Murphy - same goes through the Ocoee gorge going to Benton and Cleveland - I think VZW gets halfway decent coverage in the Ocoee gorge, IIRC..

JB

 

The problem with the Ocoee gorge is it's in the National Forest so you can forget about building a tower there to get coverage. Nobody has hardly any coverage there (except a little analog).

 

Wirelessly posted (Cingula 8125 (Thor): HTC-8100/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

I agree last time I went through ther I ws with a friend who had vzw, no service for either of us. Funny thing is, we were going to the cingular corp store in chattanooga.

 

Boy you're right Resolute. My place is just over the border in NC, just west of Farner. No coverage at my house but if I drive 20 seconds up the road and get out of the car I can get enough usable signal (looking at their coverage map I think Verizon might have a tower in Unaka and that's what I'm picking up). I went with Verizon because when I built here my friends who live near me said they found Verizon gave them the most coverage.

I don't hold out much expansion hope here in the boonies if there still isn't coverage along 64 between Copperhill and Murphy as you stated... I'm thinking about getting a Yaggi directional antenna and playing around to see if I could get something from my house (yes, desperation is setting in)..

 

Wont work, you wont get Line of Sight. Just out of curiosity, you wouldn't be living in the East/West Pine Ridge area would you?

 

nKrypteD1,

(you wouldn't be living in the East/West Pine Ridge area would you?)

Yep, sure do. I'm on Camp Creek..

 

Heh, you may do good with a 3 watt amplifier, my dad lives off of Owassa, he claims he can sometimes get a bar of signal using just an external antenna. Keep in mind, the closest Verizon tower that I know of is on the Edge of Grape Creek and Texana above Murphy itself on Fain mountain. In the past we've discussed building a repeater site in the area (my family and some of the neighbors,) but the idea never made it past paper. I wish you best luck, and FYI my cingular razr and SE w600i would have full service when I hit 64 at the edge of 294, Cingular is building a tower out that way but I don't know if they will get as far back as where your at. I had signal on 68 at about the same time that dad's verizon phone got enough signal to actually make a call.

 

Thanks for the info...

Until we become profitable for one of the carriers way out here we'll just have to live with BellSouth's magnificant landline service. Absolute max. of 28.8 bps dial-up (if it hasn't rained for a few days)...

 

You're doing better than at my dad's house, 14.4 look into direcway/hughesnet best bet back there, I used to own one of the dishes.