Cellphone coverage for rural areas

[rfuerst911sc]

My wife and I live in Dahlonega Georgia which is a small rural town in the northern mountains . Previously we lived in a suburb of Atlanta and cellphone coverage was great regardless of the carrier . While we lived there we switched from AT&T to Google Fi .

We like Google Fi as the monthly fee is quite reasonable and coverage was not a problem at the previous home . But since then we have both retired and moved to Dahlonega . Fi works by looking for a WiFi signal first and if not available switches to LTE .

The LTE networks that Fi uses is from T-Mobile and Sprint . Their coverage in our area is very poor/spotty . Friends have told us their AT&T coverage is also poor . The only network that seems to have decent coverage is Verizon .

Our cellphones are our only phones so as we get older having solid coverage is becoming more important . So for those of you that are in similar situations how are you choosing a phone carrier to use ? Anyone can tell you in a store that it will work fine , but after you sign up it's too late to find out that it doesn't .

Even with our own WiFi in the house we sometimes have dropped calls . Our internet provider ( only one available ) is basically two Dixie cups and string ☹️ . Any advice is appreciated .

[cabmandone]

Verizon seems to specialize in good coverage for rural areas. I switched from Verizon to AT&T. Here in the flats I would drop calls or have no service in certain areas. I ended up switching back to Verizon. Another thing I noticed was when travelling along a route I take to visit my brother in VA, I lost signal a lot more than I did with Verizon.

BTW, the biggest reason I switched back, one day I was travelling 40 minutes North to Defiance where I hunt. My wife and two daughters were in Ft Wayne and experienced a flat tire. They tried repeatedly to call me and couldn't get through. Luckily they got ahold of my son who had my good friend's phone number (he was on Verizon). They called my friend who was sitting next to me in my truck. That's all it took for me to switch back to Verizon. When I need my phone, I want it to work.

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

.Our cellphones are our only phones so as we get older having solid coverage is becoming more important . So for those of you that are in similar situations how are you choosing a phone carrier to use ? Anyone can tell you in a store that it will work fine , but after you sign up it's too late to find out that it doesn't .

I think verizon and AT&T will let you "test drive" their network. I think both have a 30 day satisfaction policy.

[GH85Carrera]

Move back to the suburbs?

Get a land line.

Rural coverage will always be spotty. It is like that in every state with countryside. Like utilities of all varieties, no city water, sewer, natural gas, cable TV or cell coverage. Only rural electric and that is likely subsidized by the other sources.

I fully understand wanting to live in the sticks if you don't have to commute. Learn to live with the poor services of having too few customers to make it profitable for any utility to provide much service.

[fastfredracing]

We have verizon and still have very poor cell reception at home. I can make texts, but almost impossible to have a phone conversation without dropping the call several times .
I have grown to love it . I despise talking on the phone, and it makes my home life very peaceful.

[stevej37]

I live in a very rural area and use Tracfone.
Works great and now you can use any phone/smartphone of your choice...as long as it's not locked into another carrier.

[LakeCleElum]

I live rural. Snowmobile and motorcycle in the mountains a lot. Only Verizon with my crowd in the PNW. YMMV.

[juanbenae]

verizon is about it here in the foothills of CA. my pops recently switched from verizon to another carrier and his phone was worthless during his last visit. he sent me some photos via text while up here that i did not get until like a half hour after he had headed home.

i hate paying the verizon monthly fees, but it's all that works up here.

[unclebilly]

Different area obviously and different carriers...

In western Canada, you have 2 choices for networks (Rogers and Telus). All of the carriers use either the Rogers or the Telus towers.

We were with Telus for 15 years and then we switched to Bell 2 years ago. Bell uses the Telus towers so we expected the same quality of service... not even close. It seems like the sig al strength on Bell was not near as good despite using the same hardware. During the height of the pandemic when I was working from home, my company forced me to switch back to Telus on their dime (I was getting an allowance for my phone previously).

I was doing some moonlighting a few years ago and got a Phone that ran on the Rogers network, I might as well have used a soup can with a string in it... just terrible.

The frustrating thing is that we live on the prairie and can physically see Calgary (city of 1.4 million), we can see the Telus tower from our house, and can see the lights on 2 other towers at night

[masraum]

If you want great coverage move back to the 'burbs.

In rural, figure out what's best in your area and get that, it sounds like maybe Verizon might be the best.

For better coverage at your home, you can probably (assuming you've got a solid Internet connection) get a local cell hotspot from your carrier. It's basically a mini cell tower that you would be able to use at your home over your Internet, but that won't help on the roads between your home and other places.

A land line might be a nice option for at your home.

[jyl]

Verizon usually has the best coverage in the sticks, though not always. Ask the locals.

I switched from Verizon to ATT then to Tmobile to save money. Tmobile’s network has traditionally been focused on urban areas. That’s gotten better and will get better yet as they integrate Sprint’s network, but it is still quite spotty in the stick-ish places I go to.

[Arizona_928]

Verizon hands down. I had t mobile. Kinda annoying when other people you're with can could get texts and calls and I don't have any service. Not even 1x....

Neighbor put in a 1,000 dollar signal booster on a 30 ft pole so he could stream Netflix faster.

[Evans, Marv]

We live in a rural location, have Verizon, and no cell signal. We keep hearing of a cell tower being placed in the area but none so far. I'm pissed at AT&T. Since we only have a land line at home, we depend on it when here. A week & a half ago, the land line quit. I called AT&T (talked to India & the Philippines), & they said it would be two weeks before a tech would make it out here. I finally called back saying I'm 78 years old and depend on the land line only for communication from the house, and they put me on some kind of medical priority list. Two days later I got a call from a tech working on the network in the area that our line problem was fixed. He didn't know anything about the outage, except that it affected numberous lines in the area. Customer service seems to be universally missing.

[rfuerst911sc]

Good feedback thanks . No way we are moving we have our little piece of heaven here and will ride it out to the end . Adding a landline is an option . Our next door neighbor has Verizon while others in the house have cell plans with the other major providers . She told my wife that her Verizon phone was the only one that reliably connects .

So next question: it seems like every major cellphone provider has sister divisions/providers that rent cellphone space from the major but at a lower cost to the end user . If the lower cost providers that partner with Verizon really use Verizon's network would the quality be equal ? Common sense says yes but I really don't know .

[Evans, Marv]

My neighbor across the road has a different provider but uses a signal extender. He seems to get a decent signal. I've considered trying one.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

My neighbor across the road has a different provider but uses a signal extender. He seems to get a decent signal. I've considered trying one.

My expeirence with them is that if you do not buy the expensive Wilson signal boosters/repeaters they simply do not last/are erratic with coverage.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Good feedback thanks . No way we are moving we have our little piece of heaven here and will ride it out to the end . Adding a landline is an option . Our next door neighbor has Verizon while others in the house have cell plans with the other major providers . She told my wife that her Verizon phone was the only one that reliably connects .

So next question: it seems like every major cellphone provider has sister divisions/providers that rent cellphone space from the major but at a lower cost to the end user . If the lower cost providers that partner with Verizon really use Verizon's network would the quality be equal ? Common sense says yes but I really don't know .

I was on Virgin Mobil which used Sprint towers. Lower price meant 2nd tier access to busy towers and rural access was approaching zero in the west. Go online and look closely at the coverage maps for your area by different carriers. We moved to Verizon and the cost was only about $10/mo/phone more but coverage is excellent.

[ben parrish]

I travel extensively throughout where you live and have 9 salespeople that work in North GA, Western NC and Western SC.
You are wasting your time and money with anyone other than Verizon up in the mountains. All my guys have had to switch...other carriers "may work" in some areas but coverage is spotty.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

We live in a rural location, have Verizon, and no cell signal. We keep hearing of a cell tower being placed in the area but none so far. I'm pissed at AT&T.

AT&T cell service went down completely up here during the PG&E PSPS power shutdowns last fall. people on the local facebook pages were in a freaking panic over having no phone what so ever for 3-5 days understandably so.

[Noah930]

Satellite phone?

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

I travel extensively throughout where you live and have 9 salespeople that work in North GA, Western NC and Western SC.
You are wasting your time and money with anyone other than Verizon up in the mountains. All my guys have had to switch...other carriers "may work" in some areas but coverage is spotty.

Excellent real world advice for my area ........ thank you !