New Mexico

Yes it's been known for a while that there's no Sprint or Qwest coverage in Taos. It's just one of those areas they've decided not to pursue for whatever reason.

 

Yugo,
You may be having issues with your Sprint phone. They have almost continuous coverage along I-40 from L.A. to ABQ, then north through Espanola. From there into Taos and the ski valley, there is both Alltel and Verizon available for CDMA roaming. You might want to download the PRL again, yours might be corrupt.

Yes, Qwest turned over a bunch of their sites to Sprint, and Sprint coverage is much better. But Sprint in NM is owned by an Affiliate, Alamosa PCS, and I don't know how much, if anything, they have exchanged w/Qwest.

GSM roaming in the Taos area should be supplied by Commnet Wireless who should show as network #400. It's good to know they are now available at the ski area. And yes, T-Mobile does an awesome job in that area. Theirs is the only GSM network South of ABQ on I-25.

Yes, for some reason, AT&T never really built out their TDMA network in ABQ/SF. They have done slightly better in town w/GSM, and much better along I-40.

Did you make it to any other ski areas? Red River? Angle Fire? Santa Fe?

 

When I go to Alamagordo and Ruiodoso, I have pretty good coverage, i'm roaming on Cellular One though. Once you get out of the city limits, goodbye to any signal.

 

Bill, do you know if Sprint was adjusting their coverage and improving it this past summer. The reason that I ask is because I noticed various times that I would have a -84 to -93 Sprint signal on my phone, and when I tried to call out my phone would say Calling.....and then never connect and switch to either Analog or Digital on Alltel?

Does this include Sprint's roaming partners? According to Sprint's coverage map, they say they have native Sprint coverage along I-40 between ABQ, and Gallup, NM, although that is not entirely true....unless they updated their coverage between those areas since the last time I was there with my family in July of '04.

Since between ABQ and Flagstaff I digital/analog roamed a lot.

Here is my review from Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ via I-40 W (from my trip last summer):

 

OK, I'll admit I'm being generous to Sprint. There are still some big holes along I-40, but where there is coverage, it goes a long way. Sprint just recently announced coverage all the way from Flag to the AZ/NM state line. So yes, some coverage is new.

It has been some time that I have been able to make calls all the way from Santa Fe then west to Gallup. If you were roaming on Alltel through there, then something may have been wrong. It's all Alamosa area...who knows what shape their network is in.

The point is, Yugopro should have had better coverage with Sprint than T-Mobile. And anytime you lose the Sprint signal, there are plenty of CDMA roaming opportunities on both Alltel and Verizon, the only carriers on the Cellular band from Kingman to Taos.

If he didn't get a good Sprint signal along the majority of I-40, or Alltel/Verizon everywhere else, then something must be amiss with the phone.

Gamer, your experience sounds accurate, but it does appear you did find an area or two with a tower problem. Analog? I rarely get analog anwhere along that stretch, except on my AT&T/TDMA phone. Sure, where you get off the main roads there are exceptions, but with Verizon, for example, I haven't seen analog along an interstate, except parts of I-35.

Since my relatives moved out of Prescott, I must admit my travels there are less frequent, but I doubt if coverage has been removed, and I've been told some of the bad areas on I-35 have been filled (w/CDMA).

Your inability to complete a call on Sprint is a different issue. Once again, the Alamosa network is suspect since all Sprint affiliates are in or near bankruptcy.

 

Just a few things to add. Alamosa PCS is one of Sprint's better affiliates and are in relatively good shape. They do cover a good portion of I-40 between AZ and NM natively but some of that coverage is very recent. I would say in the past 3-4 months. It's possible that the Sprint phone was not set to 'automatic mode' where it could pick up a roaming signal on Alltel or Verizon.

 

Larry's right, Alamosa is probably the best Sprint PCS affiliate, and it helps them look good when the others are so bad.

Alamosa just got approval today to buy another affiliate, Airgate. While Alamosa's financials aren't rosy, they have been able to convince lenders to give them enough money to buy other systems. IIRC, this is their third affiliate purchase.

 

Alamosa is Sprint's roaming partner? That's weird...since I was roaming, I dialed a "fake" number and it said Welcome to Alltel.....and then the rest of the prerecorded message.

I wonder how I was roaming on Alltel then?

Also, is Sprint adding new towers between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon via US-180 N? The reason that I ask, is becuase according to their map, they don't have any coverage between these areas....and yet I had a Sprint signal, but I couldn't dial a call.

Like I said only a few times were analog. Most of the time I was roaming with a digital signal.

 

Actually my phone was sent to Automatic...since before I left, you said it would be best to set my phone to automatic to pick up whatever carrier has the strongest signal.

So they did add coverage after I went through that area with my family. So that is why I was roaming with a digital signal on Alltel most of the time.

Thanks larry for clearing it up.

 

I think I know what was going on there. Sprint has no sites north of Flag, but they do have this great site waaaaay up on the mountain right in town. But the antenna is on the front (south) face of that mountain, and you would only get a signal reflected off other mountains and obstructions. That signal path is pretty much impossible for your lower-powered phone to traverse back to the site.

It can hear the site, but the site can't hear it. Typical of reflected mountain signals.

Alamosa is not a roaming partner. Alamosa PCS is the Sprint affiliate that supplies Sprint service across N AZ and NM.

 

Sometimes you can pick up stray signals from miles away but it's not a useable signal. In other words your phone can recieve the signal but cannot transmit from it. Like Bill Radio said in the post above ^

To answer your question, no Sprint has no plans to add coverage between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon on 180.

 

I didn't know that.

Thanks Bill for explaining it to me.

 

Sprint should add coverage on US 180 N...since a lot of people were traveling on that road the day we went to see the Grand Canyon. Maybe someday they will add coverage on US 180.

 

I'm pretty sure that Sprint doesn't have that area in their territory. It belongs to affiliate Alamosa PCS. But in any event I think there are restrictions along there that don't allow for any cell towers to be built anymore.

 

What kind of restrictions prevent carriers from building along US 180?

Does Alltel have coverage along US 180?

 

Update! Sprint now has coverage in Taos. In the past month they have activated new towers there.