native coverage maps, all carriers

usually if you look at the coverage map for prepaid services, you'll get a good idea what their native coverage is like.

 

I agree with bobolito. Prepay maps are usually good to see native coverage on since with prepay, roaming is usually extra and not included.
You could be surprised at how much of a carriers footprint in their national plans is actually roaming and not their own.

 

**cough Cough Cough** Verizon **cough Cough Cough**

 

you got that right. Unless i'm mistakin, isnt Nextel the only carrier that is 100% their own network?

 

Nextel is the only iDen carrier in the US, unless you go with something small like cricket, but I don't know if they own their bandwidth or do they just lease it from someone like sprint or verizon.

 

Cricket isnt iden, cricket is CDMA. Are they iden in certain places and not in others?

 

Ok, I guess that was a little confusing. What I was referring to was Nextel was the only large carrier that owned their own network as they were the only iDen carrier in the US. Small local carriers (AKA Cricket) may also own their networks. I did not mean to imply that cricket was iDen. Sorry...


Jay

 

What about Sprint's new National Plans with no roaming charges and free roaming included? Area wise, there is more roaming than native coverage, even though Sprint covers something like 250m pops.
Cingular has a ton of roaming in their national plans, so does Verizon. Cingular hacks their phone to always show Cingular to make the customer believe they're on Cingular's network 100% of the time, Verizon does not. T-Mobile allows roaming on their national plans.

 

Ok, that makes sense now! Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Yeah, but you can "Unhack" that. I disabled that carrier name override on my V551.

 

Nextel is not the only IDEN carrier in the US.

http://www.southernlinc.com/

 

Jerro:
You can check Verizon's coverage locator and click on Native coverage or whatever it says...that's quite detailed for a own-network coverage map.

Jay: True, you can unhack it
Another thing I like about CDMA is that even though a carrier might be blocked out of the PRL, you can most likely still roam on that carrier if you change a few setting in your phone's internal menu. If a GSM carrier has decided to not let you roam on a specific carrier in a specific area you're out of luck.

 

I thought Southern Linc was an MVNO like Boost... guess I was wrong. Thanks bobo, I learn something new every day.

 

cingular has native coverage here now and the map they released about 2 weeks after their first store opened up here, still shows my city/town as a no service.

 

Ok here are some native coverage maps
Verizon Wireless


Cingular Wireless



Alltel Wireless

This show the markets they offer service so it is not a coverage map, but close to it.

Sprint PCS


Sprint Nextel iDEN


I have an attachment for T-Mobile

 

Southern Linc and Airtel are two SMR providers that offer phone service.

There are other SMR providers out there, but I don't think they offer telephone service.
Like in Des Moines The Beeper People

 

What about the Regional Carriers like Alltel?

 

In the middle of my post is an Alltel Map. It is the only one I have seen that includes Western Wireless and show only markets they currently cover.

Here is a real coverage map but it only reflects the deal with AT&T Wireless.




Here is a better T-Mobile Map


US Cellular's national maps show licensed markets they cover most of those markets they have a license for.
All of the maps on the their website are all now in PDF form I was going to post an JPG image from lets talk.com
but since it is an advertisement site it won't let me
- want to see it you will have to get rid of the hyphen in the lets talk.com This URL is just the image so no popus or anything like that.
http://www.lets-talk.com/img/prod/101/566/natl_big.gif

 

That is incorrect, here is the true map for Alltel Prepaid (U Prepaid) (Native Network)

 

This is not in any way Alltels native coverage. Alltel has zero coverage in the state of NY. This includes Verizon.

 

And Sprint CDMA. Alltel does not have native service in PA, OR or WA. The map Hibby posted on 11/11/05 was the most accurate Alltel map as it included the network purchased with Western Wireless.

 

I am sure all of these maps have changed since the original post in 05.
Alltel also doesn't have native coverage in NY/NJ.

 

Nor do they have native coverage in Los Angeles, SF Bay Area, San Diego and other metro areas in CA.

They only have service in Imperial, Mono, and Inyo counties, which accounts for less than 1% of the California's population.

 

But not always. T-Mobile To Go prepaid now roams in several areas and for no extra fee. Roaming in Canada and Mexico costs extra but you can roam. Coverage still isn't as good as postpaid monthly, but TMTG does roam. OTOH Túyo Mobile the MVNO that runs on the T-Mobile network only uses T-Mobile's native network.

 

You are absolutely right, Telekom. My post is now dated and since my post, there have been some changes with prepay accounts and roaming!