Cellular coverage?

[JohnAckermann]

I either lost track or wasn't paying attention... could someone summarize where the current cell sites are on the Island for the various carriers, and if there are plans for expansion in the next year or two?

All I know is that AT&T coverage on East Side Drive south of the Peaine fire station hasn't gotten any better.

Thanks!

[I'm Just The Messenger]

Verizon seems to have the best coverage. There are still some dead zones. West Side Drive and so on.

[thenomads2]

Verizon never worked at all down at Nomad. Switched to AT&T almost a year ago, thinking it would work. It is better than Verizon but still sketchy. I can text but calls do not happen for the most part, either incoming or outgoing.

[JohnAckermann]

What I'd really like to know is where the tower sites are for each company... I see a lot of antennas on the Donegal Bay Road tower, another batch on the Kings Road hill tower, nothing on the Peaine fire station tower, and what used to be on the roof at Powers Hardware seems to be gone. And there may be other sites I don't know about.

Seems like the tower at the fire station would be a great spot to cover most of the east side; my AT&T coverage ends just about there.

[kboyle]

Unless there are sites lurking someplace I don't know about, both companies operate from two locations: the tower on Donegal Bay Road and their respective towers at the King's Highway tower site just south of the Stone House. The differences in coverage may result for differences in the heights and configuration of their antennas, but I believe they are each at the same locations.

[Gillespie]

John, do yoU have ATT? They have repeaters that work through the internet that you hook up in your house. If you complain loudly enough they generally will give you one. I have a brand new one in the box they sent me but I then switched to Verizon. You can have it! Rich

[AEW]

Get a ATT micro cell. Cost about 75 bucks. No monthly fee. I get 5 bars at the end of reddings trail. Better than sliced bread!

[kboyle]

We have an AT&T Microcell (also known as a femtocell) at Greenes Bay. It is slick when it works. But, sometimes it doesn't work at all, and frequently, you can hear the caller but they can't hear you. We usually wind up calling back on a landline. We had the same issue trying to use my office VoIP phones and our Vonage account. It's all a function of the speed of internet service, especially the slow upload speeds (ours is rated at 725 Kbps up, but it often is much slower). That said, it is pretty good at supporting texting (which can dribble through at the slower speeds).

One thing to note about these devices is that they have to be located where they can receive a GPS signal so they can confirm their location is within AT&T's service area. They suggest near a window with a clear view of the sky. However, when you live in the woods that can be harder than it sounds. We wound up getting an external GPS antenna for ours (there is a port on the Microcell for that).

Another option is to get a GoogleVoice number and use it "port it over" to your mobile phone. You can set it to wring your island phone at the same time it rings your mobile so you ca get the call on whichever is working.

[JohnAckermann]

We're on AT&T and have used a femtocell here for years. But it's only as good as the DSL service, and that's been troublesome.

This year I tried to use the "wifi calling" option on my phone instead of the femtocell and that may have been even worse; the phone seemed to suck up all our bandwidth with its background activities.

With DSL being down all day today, I finally discovered that AT&T is in fact working here (about 0.8 miles south of the Peaine fire station). It's only one bar, but speed test is showing 20+ Mbit on my tablet!!! Upload is 3 Mbit or so, also much faster than TDS. Last year I had no coverage at all; maybe it's a new/improved AT&T site at Kings Highway?

If this performance is not just a fluke, it really changes things.

[Gillespie]

There is a significant upgrade of thevthe phone and dsl system going on. I do not know specific details but I'm told it will be a large improvement in internet and telephone quality. Hopefully that may help!

[Beaver Island Jewelry]

I'm on East Side Drive, near Hanigan's Road and my ATT cell phone doesn't work for phone but I do get texts. Sure wish cell coverage worked here!

Nancy