VZW Coverage in Western NC

I have Alltel but roam on Verizon when I go out there. It is pretty rough. I was at Cherokee and drove through Maggie Valley. Do not expect to hold a call very long. On the otherside of the coin, be thankful you are with a CDMA provider as most GSM phones are paperweights out there. I can't say I saw "No Service" displayed that often, but the service was not that good. Be prepared to be disappointed. I cam also roam on Sprint and USCC but I am pretty sure I was on Verizon 90% of the time. Service gets good once you get to Waynesville and move east towards Asheviille. Report back after the trip if you can.

 

Take an outdoor magnet mount antenna with you to mount on your cars' roof if you can...that makes a HUGE difference in weak/fringe areas. I can't believe the difference my Wilson antenna is making...20 mile dead spots disappear with that thing plugged in...

 

Not sure about the SID but I can definetly verify to take an External Magnet Mount Antenna, it's imperative, I grew up a little further west from there, you'll be surprised how much range you get out of one of those antennas.

 

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12))

Alltel doesn't have a license for that area of WNC...or for pretty much any of WNC for that matter. The SPCS SID will be the one for Charlotte (4376 I think), but 1) without that SID in the PRL, your phone won't know what the appropriate ACQ for that SID will be so it probably will never be able to acquire it, 2) most VZW phones are quite particular about only connecting to systems in the PRL so that will probably involve some PRL hacking, and 3) that system has been out of the PRL since before 2003 at least, so if you start making calls off SPCS Charlotte, VZW will probably get really suspicious really quickly.

Besides that, if SPCS has good coverage there, VZW probably does. Maggie Valley is a pretty touristy area, so VZW will probably have good coverage there. The roads to or from Maggie Valley might be a different story.

 

Verizon's coverage in western NC is strongest if you have a tri band phone, meaning a lot of their rural coverage is still analog. As far as Sprint's coverage map showing coverage in the western mountains they are including roaming on Verizon or US Cellular towers. Sprint has very few towers west of Asheville. AT&T has good coverage through the western part of the state too.

 

Huh??? Every post I have ever read says At&t and GSM coverage is horrible out there??? Confused

 

Here's AT&T West of Asheville...



It looks to me that the coverage could be greatly improved, especially west of the Waynesville / Canton area on Hwy 19.

Verizon is what I prefer west of Asheville.

My phone Even worked in the Smokey Mountains NP atop Newfound Gap
right on the TN-NC state line at 5,000 feet (roamed on Verizon 139).

 

Well, AT&T is better than SPCS and SunCom.

 

definitely for WNC

Suncom doesn't go anywhere west of Waynesville.
Sprint is mostly only along I-26 west of Asheville.