Cell Phone coverage in Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks: home, camps, living)

[junestag]

I'm doing some research on which cell providers have the most coverage in Alaska and I'm having trouble finding any relevant research.

Does anyone here know of any white papers on the subject (specifically in Alaska)? Or any common wisdom on which providers are most common, not just in the larger cities, but in the villages as well would be appreciated.

For example, are there many iPhone users in Alaska including the villages? What about Blackberry users?

[warptman]

For now you can only use the full features of the Blackberry or Iphone anywhere on the road system. GCI is the only provider for Cellphones in the Bush. They don't have the full system up yet so you can't go online with your phone or blackberry or Iphone. You can still text with them and make calls if you have GCI service. AT&T and GCI are competitors so they aren't sharing towers in Bush Alaska.

http://www.gci.com/

[Jason28]

What the hell is a cell phone?

[warptman]

Originally Posted by Jason28

What the hell is a cell phone?

It's the phone you make one call with from your jail cell.

[Jason28]

Originally Posted by warptman

It's the phone you make one call with from your jail cell.

Is that what they're calling Bethel these days?

[GrammasCabin]

If you need to make a phone call in any Alaskan villiage or small town, just walk in the nearest door and use the phone!

[MissingAll4Seasons]

From what I've been able to experience, if there is a mountain between you and the nearest big city forget about using your cell phone unless you are one of the major highways (i.e. one that is paved and plowed it's entire length). Sometimes, if you're really lucky, you can get one bar when you're standing on a high hill and the clouds are low... but it's not a G3 network or anything. Heck my SmartPhone didn't work for anything other than voice unless I was right in the middle of Anchorage or Fairbanks, so I doubt a BlackBerry or iPhone will be much use.

[RayinAK]

All depends on where you are at before you use a cell phone. For example, I call home from a lot of places along the Elliott Highway between Fairbanks and Livingood. During moose season as I ride my ATV on some of the trails on the ridges leading out of the Elliott, I often stop and call home. My campsite is on high ground (around 1,000 sea level), and I listen to the radio stations from Fairbanks (70 miles away), and I can call home using my hunting partner's iPhone as well as my ACS cell phone. But there is a pretty long dead spot on the Steese and Elliott, around FOX and Chatanika. Lots of mountains between Fairbanks and Chatanika make cell phones useless, but once you get to high ground on the Steese, things change. On the Richardon, I call home from Delta Junction and vicinity, Summit Lake, Glennallen, etc., but there are some dead spots in between. Once I drive from high ground on the Richardon down to Chitina, cell phone use is sporadic, but I can still call home from the bridge at Chitina.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by warptman

For now you can only use the full features of the Blackberry or Iphone anywhere on the road system. GCI is the only provider for Cellphones in the Bush. They don't have the full system up yet so you can't go online with your phone or blackberry or Iphone. You can still text with them and make calls if you have GCI service. AT&T and GCI are competitors so they aren't sharing towers in Bush Alaska.

GCI - Voice, video and data communication services to residential, commercial and government customers.

Depends on where you are. Here on the North Slope ASTAC also has cell service. And as far as I know with either ASTAC or GCI it is not restricted to just text messaging, but allows full Internet access. I've seen people pull up a map of Barrow on a cell phone. And today while I was chomping on dinner a friend with a Motorola whatever it is went surfing and was showing me pictures of starter motors for my truck...

One thing that might take folks by surprise (and I have no idea if they do this everywhere or only in specified locations) is that local cell calls here in Barrow are switched in Anchorage. That means a double satellite hop, and the long latency it brings, for even calls to a telephone 5 feet away!

[BudinAk]

Originally Posted by Jason28

What the hell is a cell phone?

It's a small, secret phone that prisoners have...


Ooooh...me bad!