Cellular Service: Deals Gap, Robbinsville, Cherohala Skyway

[STBoo]

Ok, I'm negotiating with Santa for a new cellular phone plan.
I now have the old Sprint service which is ok in areas surrounding big towns or major expressways, but has absolutely no coverage in the mountains.  I'm done with the old Sprint.
So, which service provider has the best reception in the mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee? I don't care about bells and whistles - ringtones, cameraphone, text., etc. I just want reliable talk, talk, talk.
What works for you?

[Scratch33]

My Verizon service was 'unavailable' during my stay at Fontana Village earlier this year.

[rocketbunny]

My Verizon service was 'unavailable' during my stay at Fontana Village earlier this year.

+1

My Verizon tri-mode phone had no service the night I stayed at the Deals Gap Motorcycle *Resort*.

[sprint_st]

My Nextel Blackberry was dead end to end on the Cherohala.  Trakfone too but I don't know who's service they use.  If you take a look around Robbinsville, Deals Gap, or along the Cherahala there is something missing - cell towers.  I think you might start seeing cells around Telico Plains on the Tn side.

[ss2]

What does it matter?  I find this poll saddening.  If you are worried about cell service in these places, you shouldn't think about going to them because you're mind is too worried about other things than to be enjoying what they offer.  

[R.Markus]

What does it matter?  I find this poll saddening.  If you are worried about cell service in these places, you shouldn't think about going to them because you're mind is too worried about other things than to be enjoying what they offer.  

 

You've never broken down in a remote area have you (not that these area are that remote).

[Scratch33]

What does it matter?  I find this poll saddening.  If you are worried about cell service in these places, you shouldn't think about going to them because you're mind is too worried about other things than to be enjoying what they offer.  

Sorry, no fish today.

[zero]

My verizon service was fairly good most of my stay. I had good reception at the microtel in Robbinsville, and good but sometimes patchy service throughout my rides.

[forester]

Funny.  I work all across the country in VERY RURAL AREAS (so far spanning NY to AZ) and have Cellular One for my service carrier and I do not see it mentioned above.  Unfortunately, I cannot tell you whether or not it works in the mountains or not (actually I doubt that it does).  At the time I got the plan, Cell One had the best rural coverage bar none (I could care less about coverage in urban areas, since my business has no interest in those areas).  

As I recently considered changing networks due to this whole "we're phasing out the tri-mode phone systems", as I looked at Verion's coverage map, I would rate them at #2.  If you have GSM, forget it.  GSM SUCKS for rural coverage!

BTW, the whole time I lived in Western North Carolina, I didn't have a cell phone, and I was in remote places down there the likes of which you will likely never see (wood procurement assistance for a sawmill) sometimes in company trucks you might be ashamed to drive.  

Believe me, if you're heading down in that area, if you're staying on any part of the pavement down there, you will not have a problem with finding someone to help you should you have a breakdown.  Most people are pretty nice down there these days.

The best above is probably Verizon.  However, I choose Cellular One, so no vote this time.

[R.Markus]

Don't take a Nextel...unless you are standing in the middle of a city on a rooftop next to the tower, you will not get any reception.

[bsd43]

Well, Cellular One isn't really a company. It's kinda like IGA in the grocery business, or ACE in hardware -- a bunch of smaller regional providers banded together to call themselves a trade name.

The whole "GSM Sucks; go TDMA/AMPS" isn't really true anymore, at least in native Cingular areas -- they've been changing over a lot of the 850mhz towers over to GSM.

As I said in the thread in Gadgets, CDMA is probably the best technology for voice, but Verizon and Sprint suck as implementors of the technology.

[K12RS-Kerwin]

U didn't ask about the one that works in several places on the Cherohala. I use U.S. Cellular because my family are scattered around western NC, Eastern TN and N GA. My Nextel doesn't work at the Gap or on the Cherohala AND I THANKFUL for that!

[sprint_st]

What does it matter?  I find this poll saddening.  If you are worried about cell service in these places, you shouldn't think about going to them because you're mind is too worried about other things than to be enjoying what they offer.  

Last year I was passed in my car by about five sport bikes on the Cherohala just into NC.  About five minutes later we passed two Ducati's from that group with bikes in the ditch and at least one of the riders definitely in pain.  We didn't stop because there was already a crowd of stopped bikes and cars.  Well over thirty minutes later we passed the responding ambulance as we were nearing Robbinsville.  If you do the math, over thirty minutes from the wreck and thirty minutes of road time, it's well over an hour JUST for the emergency vehicle to arrive and then they have to take the victim to a hospital.  Cell phone coverage would have reduced response time significantly and there are helicopter life flights on the Tn side.

[Longpath]

Never checked my service on the Cherohala, but there is NO Verizon service near Deal's Gap.

[Jason F.]

When I started going to Robbinsville and the surrounding area 5 or so years ago nothing seemed to work. Out of all the folks in our group maybe one person could get service in one or two areas if they held their head at the right angle and had a roll of aluminum foil in their left hand.

The last several trips my T-Mobile phone worked while roaming on a Cingular network in Robbinsville, several spots on 129, at elevation on the Skyway, and a few other spots on my favorite roads. Several friends with Cingular had fairly good coverage and I think I saw a Cingular store in Robbinsville.

That long reaction time is just a function of location though. Even with cell signal the time to arrive for emergency services is just plain long due to distance. 3 years ago a trike went over just in front of our group, one in our group had a portable hamm radio in the car and called right away to her husband who was at Fontana with a base station radio setup. He was next to a land line and called services. Services were contacted with in 5 minutes of the wreck with a mile marker and details on location. It still took nearly 45 minutes for them to arrive on scene.

I know I have stood and directed traffic around motorcycle accident sites on three separate occasions and it took 30 minutes or more for help to arrive after I got to the scene and I was not first on scene in most those cases.  

[Stripes]

Every year a couple of us ride down to the Dragon and surrounding areas, and we all have Nextels! When we were in Robbinsville, Tapoco Lodge area, and the Deals Gap store none of our phones worked, and none of is were too upset about it. All those areas are always high traffic areas, so in the case of an emergency we weren't worried. When we ride the Cherohala Skyway service seemed to be "patchy", but once again a heavy traffic area. When we go there for our annual National Triumph Raid, there's all kinds of different cell phones there and I can't recall anybody's getting decent reception.

[happybusa]

Last year I was passed in my car by about five sport bikes on the Cherohala just into NC.  About five minutes later we passed two Ducati's from that group with bikes in the ditch and at least one of the riders definitely in pain.  We didn't stop because there was already a crowd of stopped bikes and cars.  Well over thirty minutes later we passed the responding ambulance as we were nearing Robbinsville.  If you do the math, over thirty minutes from the wreck and thirty minutes of road time, it's well over an hour JUST for the emergency vehicle to arrive and then they have to take the victim to a hospital.  Cell phone coverage would have reduced response time significantly and there are helicopter life flights on the Tn side.

I was on the skyway in July when I noticed a downed Harley rider and
passenger; My verizon did work, I reached 911 in TN and they dispatched
EMS from Robbinsville, NC.
The accident was just east of the border, and I could HEAR the trooper
and then the ambulance comin for ten minutes before I could see em.
Response time was about 45 mins? Please be careful.