| Kevin 2007-06-25, 10:33 pm |
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"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:467f5e17$0$2722
6$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>I just spent a week in Southern Oregon. I was very surprised at the good
>quality of CDMA coverage I received in relatively remote areas. I believe
>that the CDMA came from U.S. Cellular. The GSM coverage was very poor
>outside the cities, and I believe it came from Edge Wireless, an AT&T
>affiliate (I brought along a prepaid phone that's on Cingular and other GSM
>carriers).
>
> At Oregon Caves National Monument (42.09806, -123.40722) I had a usable
> digital signal on CDMA when I was outside, nothing on GSM. Same situation
> at Lake of the Woods (42.37889, -122.21111). At Crater Lake National Park
> (42.93, -122.15) I had good AMPS coverage (the part of the park with
> digital coverage was not yet open due to snow). The AT&T web site shows
> partner coverage for Oregon Caves and Lake of the Woods, but no GSM
> coverage at all for the headquarters and lodge area of Crater Lake
> National Park. It was rather amusing to be outside the lodge at Crater
> Lake National park, watching people trying to make calls as probably 2/3
> of them couldn't because they either had GSM, or had a CDMA phone that was
> all-digital. This is the kind of area where hopefully the carriers will
> keep AMPS turned on after the mandate expires, since it's AMPS or nothing.
>
> I'm still on the old America's Choice Plan, and the phone showed
> non-included roaming (steady rather than flashing display of "Extended
> Network") so I am worried about the next bill. However last time this
> happened to me, I was roaming on Cingular AMPS in Florida, and I didn't
> get charged even though the phone indicated that I would be charged. My
> niece was with us, and she has AC2, and was able to use digital with no
> problem, so presumably Verizon does partner with whatever CDMA carriers
> are in the area.
>
> My kids had their PagePlus phones with them, and they had to enter the
> phone numbers they were calling twice, indicating that they were roaming
> at 2x the price that they would normally pay, but at least they had
> coverage. This reinforces the suggestion that many people have made that
> if you have GSM as your primary service, you should carry a prepaid
> CDMA/AMPS phone when leaving urban areas.
I live in Southern Oregon and I'm amazed you got any kind of signal at all
at the Caves or Lake of The Woods. I'm not too surprised about coverage at
Crater Lake National Park as there are cell towers on several local ridges
and peaks around the perimeter of the park and over at Diamond Lake. I use
a Motorola V551 phone, which could certainly be much better with reception
and blue tooth clarity, but I still get generally great service all around
the Rogue Valley. But, as soon as my current contract is up, I'm getting a
different phone. Only a couple of months after I bought my V551, I was
informed that it was having reception issues and the entire line of V551
phones was being discontinued immediately. Just my luck.
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