We took a trip to Cherokee NC yesterday and here's a coverage report.Cingular service(friends phone)was fine until we got off the interstate after that no coverage.My phone, USCC was roaming on Verizon and i talked most of the way.At Harrah's Cherokee Casino no service on Cingular phone and 2 bars on USCC(roaming on Verizon)i was able to use my phone in the casino while his was a paperweight.
I cant believe Cingular still has no service in Cherokee. I just switched to Cingular from Sprint and although their service has been much better in my house and around town I'm concerned about West NC. I go there frequently and with Sprint I had service everywhere up there, but with Cingular I will not.
Last year I was at Harrah's and USCC was roaming on Ramcell, not VZW. My V710 was even displaying the "D" symbol since Ramcell had not upgraded to 1x. Did they change the PRL?
Unlikely. Unless things have changed in the past year or so, Ramcell and USCC share a switch in Asheville. Lastes PRL interpretations at http://www.rainyday.ca/~dialtone/uscc/us_39932.htm put Ramcell's 1518 over VZW's 139 (the Western Carolina SuperSID). That said, it's also possible that Ramcell is dead wherever he was and the phone went to VZW. Last I remember, people weren't too happy with Ramcell's Western NC coverage. FYI, the VZW SID is in the PRL probably due to the fact that the same one that covers Cherokee and Asheville also covers Charlotte and Greenville/Spartanburg, as well as some other sundry places in the Carolinas.
Ramcell has their own switch now. They've had it for awhile. Someone from USCC told me that but for the life of me I cannot remember who. It was either someone here or one of the USCC employees who are regulars on HoFo. Nonetheless, I'm sure Ramcell and USCC are close enough buddies that they prefer roaming on each other.
The reason I switched to Cingular from Sprint is because of the native service around my area. When I signed up with Sprint, their coverage was awesome around here compared to all the other carriers. However, in those two years I have seen so many Cingular/T-Mobile/Verizon towers go up which has improved their service a great deal. Sprint has not made any improvements to my county in those two years and I know that Cingular has added at least 4 towers close to my house (two of which Verizon and T-Mobile have co-located on). Now, Cingular and Verizon get almost full service in my house, Nextel gets full service, T-mobile generally gets around -90 dbm and Sprint is still constantly pulling in around -103 which is unacceptable considering the improvements the other carriers have made in the same time span. It was at the point to wher I had to keep my phone in digital roam all the time to make any calls at my house and in many areas so when my contract ended I switched. So far I am really satisfied with Cingulars service compared to what it was 2 years ago, but at times I do miss Sprint.
I understand your reasons for switching Chris. It would aggrevate me as well if I didn't have good service at home but all other carriers made improvements. Hope Cingular works out well for you, I'm sure you are getting hooked to the GSM-swap-your SIM into any phone thing. Andy
Correct. The latter...I remember seeing the same thing "over there". The funny thing about Ramcell and USCC is that they directly compete with each other in Oregon, yet have the buddy-buddy relationship in the Southeast! I honestly don't understand much at all about Ramcell, namely how they manage to make any money at all in WNC, given that VZW's coverage is so much better and that they see virtually no roaming traffic (except what little bit comes from USCC and very occasionally VZW); I think Ramcell mainly keeps NC-1 afloat by continuing to offer low-end plans in a rather poor region. -SC
Sprint is terrible in the mountains. They have no towers west of Buncombe County (Asheville) and neither does Alltel or Suncom. They roam on Verizon. If you want coverage in the mountain counties west of Asheville then you need to either go with Verizon or Cingular.
Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.8462/20; U; en)) Didnt Verizon Buy Ramcell? Thought I Read That Here.
Alltel cannot have towers in western north carolina. they are not licensed in western nc. when i was in cherokee in may, i was hitting a sprint tower in the town of cherokee, where all the shops are and was hitting verizon in the casino. most of the trip west of asheville, i was hitting verizon. service was ok. there was still no cingular or nextel coverage in cherokee. i was just happy i had service out there.
When I went to that area back on 12-29-06, I was only able to pick up Ramcell (SID 1518) & Verizon (SID 139) at the Harrah's Cherokee Casino. In the Smokeys NP, I only got signal at Newfound Gap on the NC-TN line at 5,000 feet using Verizon 139 No where else in the park did I get signal. All signal dissapeared at soon as I left Gatlinburg, and it reappeared as I neared Cherokee, NC West of Asheville along Hwy 19, between Bryson City & Waynesville, Verizon was basically the only choice. It was good most of the time. Once I hit I-40 near Canton/Clyde Sprint showed up.
