Sprint/T-Mobile/VZW in Bryce & Zion National Parks

You will probably be best off With Verizon. If your friend is on AC1 you can also use Western Wireless/Cellular One for free simply by puttin the phone on Auto A in areas VZW doesn't serve.
Sprint should probably also roam on VZW and WW/C1. T-Mobile roams on WW/C1 GSM as well, but it doesn't seem like they do on their whole network for some reason.

 

Looks like WW/Cell One has a little patch of GSM between Rockville and Springdale.

Verizon has cellsites in Rockville, two in Hurricane, one in Hatch. Those are just some of the sites I'm aware of that are more or less local to where you will be.

WW/C1 has some GSM up around Highway 89, but it doesn't reach into Bryce Canyon, or close, at least last time I checked.

 

I was at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in June. My trimode Alltel phone worked nearly everywhere at Bryce. It was usually digital. I have no idea who I was roaming on since Alltel doesn't have native coverage in Utah. (I guess they will now with the Western Wireless buyout, but that is another story.)

My phone also worked at the visitor's center at Zion but not inside the park on the shuttle tour except for limited blips. After all at Zion you are down in the canyon amongst some pretty steep cliffs. There are signs at Zion warning you that there is very cellular service inside the canyon.

Enjoy your visit. The scenery in both parks is nothing short of awesome! Take a real camera or you'll wish you had.

 

You were probably roamin on Verizon and on Western Wireless/Cellular One, now ALLTEL. ALLTEL probably has the stronger network down there, but like I said, AC1 users can access it for free by switching their phones to Auto A if there's no Verizon signal. I agree that Zion seems to have very limited cell service. Bryce is different.

 

T-Mobile doesn't have coverage in the park itself.

 

That's what I thought. Thanks Matt. Coverage outside the park is roaming on WW anyways.

 

*Cough* Cough* Digital Camera *Cough Cough* If you want nicer pictures then a cell phone i LOVE my Minolta Z-20

 

agreed... why on earth would you go to such a beautiful area and take crappy cameraphone pics? No way... splurge and get a real digital camera. Heck, go to Circuit City and pick up the 5MP Polaroid for $99. It's not fantastic but it'll look a ton better than what your phone is going to give you.

 

What exactly do you mean by that?

Anyways, I would think a town like Panguitch, Utah would have the best coverage. Verizon should have native coverage there and T-Mobile should roam on WWCA GSM network. Sprint will roam on either Verizon or WWCA there.
I will be down there shortly and will let you know.

 

I didn't take it as an insult, I was just not sure what to think about it

Like I said, i will be at Bryce soon and I will tell you the best place to use a Verizon phone, I guess I'll carry my GSM phone around too to see.

 

Chinasaur:

Should you ever decide to get a worthwhile digital camera, I've found this site very helpful:

DPReview

 

Chinasaur, Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on that one...my bad.

Our plans actually changed the day of departure and it turned out we didn't go to Bryce or Zions afterall. We went straight to Vegas.

Like I said, though, places outside Bryce like Panguitch should be fine, coverage wise with CDMA and GSM phones. Zions is a little less fortunate with cell service, but like I said, if you're on AC1 with VZW switch your phone to Autmatic A if there's no service with Verizon to see if ALLTEL has coverage. It should be free even though it shows up as ROAM.

 

310-590 is Western Wireless (yes they have GSM for roamers despite being bought out by Alltel)

310-890 is RCC/Unicel

 

I'd be scared to go GSM due to lack of roaming/analog if you go to the sticks much.

 

I thought that too, but amazingly I've run into area's in the *sticks* where I've been surprised at better GSM coverage than CDMA/Analog. There's a lot of non-GSM areas, but here's a few that you can get good GSM signal.

US 50 from Sacramento to South Tahoe. Cingular (now T-mobile) is the ONLY coverage you'll get on most of the drive. There's a dead spot of 10 miles or so, but if you have an external car antenna it works fine. No CDMA or analog roaming.

Mammoth Hot Springs/ Huntington Lake NE of Fresno. AT&T built out GSM pretty well here. Sprint and *might* roam on ATT/Cingular analog, but not sure.

Guerneville, CA - Sprint roams on ATT analog though you can barely get a call in or out. ATT/Cingular GSM works fine. VZW is awful.

Just sharing the wealth of GSM friendly areas

 

Did you have the Sprint phone set to automatic roaming? I would assume that if there is no Sprint signal and there is a Verizon signal, that the Sprint phone would roam on Verizon. Is that an incorrect assumption?

-jim

 

Yes that is correct. There aren't many (if any) areas where Verizon is listed as negative in the Sprint PRL so roaming should work fine. Of course roaming quality also depends on the phone (they do vary).

 

Great report! Thanks for that, like I said, Verizon works best throughout Utah.
Verizon actually has Sprint in the PRL for entire Utah, so that town you said that T-Mobile and Sprint had coverage, the Verizon phone should have roamed on Sprint(do you remember where in southern utah that was???sprint's coverage in southern utah doesn't leave i-15 far).
Sprint doesn't cover I-70 at all. T-Mobile roams on Cingular and Alltel in the Area, USCC doesn't exist here in Utah, so you probably ment to say Alltel. Like I said, Sprint's coverage in Utah is more or less just based along I-15, not far beyond that, especially in central and southern utah.

 

I believe a good portion of Sprint's Utah coverage is run by an affiliate.

 

So you are saying that there was Sprint coverage everywhere you went, other than Salina? This conflicts my personal experience in the area.

US Cellular has no presence in Utah, nor in Salina. The two cellular carriers along most of I-70 are Western Wireless/now Alltel and Verizon Wireless.

I believe that cingular has most, if not all of I-70 covered natively, but as soon as you get off I-70 any coverage you get is Alltel GSM Roaming.

 

Which could be a reason for poor off-I-15 coverage here, since affiliates often don't spend much on the network.

 

Affiliates are only required to do a highway buildout but most of them have done a pretty good job in other areas as well. It all depends on how much money they have to work with.