att wireless

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by BillieUSA

I was told by a salesman in Machias that the best reception in this area is US Cellular, and that Verizon uses the US Cellular towers for contract plans ONLY... Verizon pre-paid will not get the same coverage... I do not have experience... just shopping now.

Us cellular does work the best downeast. We had att years ago, and it was just awful.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Tenebrae

Hmmm...is there no Sprint coverage in Maine to speak of?
Also, I've seen some areas lobbying to prevent erection of new cell phone towers. Seeing stuff like that in the news gives me an idea of places I will probably need to avoid.

-T.

I have used Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T in Maine (Mostly in the Farmington, Bethel, Portland and Bangor areas, but also roaming around the state quite a bit).

In my experience, Sprint service was essentially nonexistent except right in the center of towns like Portland, Bangor, Lewiston and along about 75% of the I-95 corridor. Here's sprint's coverage map. As you can see, most of Maine is either "no service" or "off-network roaming" which means you're being bounced to another carrier's towers and your coverage is spotty at best (in my experience it didn't exist).

I actually thought Verizon was slightly better than AT&T in Maine for the most part, but I ended up with and still have AT&T for some of the reasons above (particulaly my lack of enthusiasm for any CDMA carrier).

I agree with the posters who have suggested U.S. Cellular. My girlfriend at the time had U.S. Cellular and she had better coverage almost everywhere. When we were out of Maine, she found that she was often on Verizon's network (I can't remember if there were roaming charges involved). It's definitely the best network for the majority of Maine.

[inthetrees]

I have been very happy with Verizon's service in Maine, I have never been downeast or in the county, however Ive gone near Rangley and Eustis few times, and regularly all around central maine.

I believe that Verizon and US cellular phones will roam freely on each others towers, as they are both cdma technology; however I could be wrong on this; maybe they don't have a roaming agreement.

[Brodels]

Sprint only has native service in Southern Maine. There is no native coverage in Bangor or anywhere else north, east, or west of that.

If you live Downeast, USCC really is the best choice. You will not have native Verizon coverage in Machias, Lubec, Eastport, etc. If you have Verizon, you will roam on USCC, and you won't have LTE. If you go out of the state much, you won't have much native coverage with USCC, but if you will be Downeast most of the time, it's definitely the way to go.

Otherwise, Verizon has pretty good coverage throughout the state. I'm a customer and am relatively happy with coverage in rural areas. And it has the best national coverage.

AT&T is the only other carrier that has a footprint that goes north of Southern/Central Maine. Still, they have inferior coverage in rural areas. You will do fine in Bangor and in the tourist areas on the coast, but once you get into rural areas, you will roam on USCC's slow EDGE network and it will be a bad experience.

[Tenebrae]

Guess I'll have to do my own "Can you hear me now?" run when I visit! Thanks for the info, everybody. Still a few years out, but hey, can't be too prepared.

-T.

[bigchuckie]

US cellular over all best coverage
I have an AT&T phone Above Old town and east of Bangor it may as well be a paperweight.However here inNC ATT is awesome