Best cell phone for Montrose? (Durango, Fruita: buy, live in, legally)

[montrosebound]

I've been looking and from what I can see, it looks like Verizon is the cell to go with in that area? Can a few in that area give me their opinions?

Thank you!

[winglady]

We don't have Verizon (since we seldom use a cell phone, we went with the absolute cheapest solution we could find), but most of our friends do. We are often frustrated that we can't get coverage as we drive around away from town while our Verizon friends seem to get great coverage.

So, from the perspective of listening to friends talk about their service, yes, I think Verizon is a good quality service to use around here.

[jazzlover]

Away from the Front Range and Interstate corridors, there are really only two cell carriers that have decent coverage across Colorado (or Wyoming, for that matter)--Verizon or Alltel. Verizon has generally the best coverage in most of Colorado, including Montrose, except for the area down in the San Luis Valley, in some rural areas around Durango, and in North Park. In those areas (except North Park), Alltel generally has better coverage. From what I can tell, Alltel's coverage is pretty similar to Verizon's in the rest of rural Colorado--maybe not so much in the urban areas. It may be a moot point soon--Verizon and Alltel are making merger noises these days.

The other big caveat--which I have mentioned several times before is this: though the cell companies are no longer legally required to maintain analog coverage in their service areas, there are still a lot of isolated portions of rural areas in the Rocky Mountain West that have only analog coverage. If you do not have a tri-band phone with 800 AMPS analog, you won't have service in those spots. The rub is that none of the fancy Blackberries, picture phones, etc. that are all the rage now have 800 AMPS analog. Both Alltel and Verizon only offer one or two tri-band models that have 800 AMPS analog--usually one of their basic phones. I have a 3-year old LG phone that I doggedly keep because it is a tri-band with 800 AMPS. There is still many places in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming where I will have service (albeit analog) where people with the fancier newer phones won't. That may not be an issue for urbanites who travel infrequently or never in the isolated portions of this region, but for those who live there or frequently travel there, it is. North Park (mentioned earlier) is an example of a place where a good chunk of the area only has analog service.

[HappyMontrose]

Sprint has improved a great deal the last year ,but I find up in the Spring Creek area there are a few DEAD zones..

As a Realtor ,I am all over the Montrose area as well as Delta and Ouray..
And find sprint to work well.

Have not tried the V service.

HM

[BillRadio]

While Verizon has a slight advantage in the area around Montrose, AT&T is a close number 2, which is not the case elsewhere in the state. After Verizon completes their purchase of Alltel, Verizon will have a significant advantage, but it won't make much different right in Montrose. Be aware, most of AT&T's coverage in rural Colorado (away from Montrose) is supplied by Alltel. When Verizon buys Alltel, AT&T's coverage may be in question.

A possible 3rd choice is Sprint. Sprint started in the area at a disadvantage, but they bought a local carrier which improved their coverage dramatically. Verizon and AT&T would be equally good choices and work in any direction away from Montrose.

[DOUBLE H]

Jazzlover is right. Verizon opened up a small satellite store close to me as I live in Fruita. I had heard the merger rumors between them and Alltel and it looks like a go from what I heard from customer service. Been with Verizon for close to 10 years, had no problems, and they have a great reach as I go through Montrose a few times a month.

[esya]

I use Verizon for work to travel and have a sprint system for personal. They both don't work pretty much in the same places, except south eastern colorado where the sprint is terrible. I travel the entire state all the time.

[winglady]

Since posting earlier, we made the switch to Verizon (we found a plan that lets us buy just the few minutes we'll actually be using, which turns out to be even less expensive for us than our previous TracFone plan was). We're much happier using Verizon -- coverage is far better than we had before.