Cell coverage in East Tenn (Morristown, Bristol: house, travel, work)

[loonyrich]

I know that this has probably been covered before but could anyone save me the hassle of searching archives and tell me in the Morristown-Greeneville east side of Tenn which phone co. has the best cell coverage.
We are planning ahead for our move later this year and would like to have cell phones during the move.
Thanks in advance for your help

[LookingToGetOuttaAZ]

We were there for one week and all over East Tennessee. We have Alltel and never had any problems with our service. Hope this helps....

[Trevor92]

I have much more experience a little closer to the Tri-Cities where I use to live, but I also had a number of trips to the Morristown and Greeneville areas and alltel also worked very well in my experiences there. Verizon's not bad either, which I use to have, and I would say a close 2nd. Most of the other providers tend to drop off and be more affected by the mountains. But it seemed like my signal was generally a little better in a few more places with alltel. The alltel ads in the Bristol Herald (which I still get) have been advertising a new, 2nd Morristown location so that may mean they're gaining in popularity there (I wouldn't imagine they'd have a 2nd store without the # of customers to justify it.).

[loonyrich]

Thanks folks for the info. Thats kind of what I was hoping to hear. May 1st in Spokane 22 degrees. Global warming????

[Forest Breath]

I live in East TN and have Verizon....sadly I have discovered that many of the areas in East TN do not have good cell reception with Verizon. Actually there is a large dead area near my house that I lose calls in every time I drive through and the reception at my house is sporatic A LOT.

My fiance' came to TN with Altell and he had better reception with them at my house than I with Verizon.

[Eat]

Originally Posted by Forest Breath

I live in East TN and have Verizon....sadly I have discovered that many of the areas in East TN do not have good cell reception with Verizon. Actually there is a large dead area near my house that I lose calls in every time I drive through and the reception at my house is sporatic A LOT.

My fiance' came to TN with Altell and he had better reception with them at my house than I with Verizon.

Verizon's CDMA technology is not suitable for rural areas, unless you close to one of their towers. AT&T, US Cellular, and T-Mobile use GSM, which does not have the same fringe area issues that plague Verizon and Sprint.

Alltel uses a mix of CDMA and GSM.

If anyone want an explanation why CDMA is lousy in rural areas, I will be happy to provide one later.

[JoshB]

I'd like to add to this. I'm coming down this fall and my cell carrier is U.S. Cellular will I have ok reception down in the Smokys? I will also be traveling in Western North Carolina. How's the coverage in that general area?

Thanks, Josh

[JMT]

Originally Posted by JoshB

I'd like to add to this. I'm coming down this fall and my cell carrier is U.S. Cellular will I have ok reception down in the Smokys? I will also be traveling in Western North Carolina. How's the coverage in that general area?

Thanks, Josh

According to the coverage map on the US Cellular web site, the entire Smoky Mountain area is covered. However, I wouldn't be surprised if some places get better reception than others and some of the more remote pockets don't get good reception at all.

Back when I had Sprint, its coverage map also showed solid coverage for the region. But when I got to my cabin in the NC mountains I pretty much had to lean my head out a particular window at a certain angle in order to get reception. So who knows.

[dsimicata]

Just to clarify, many US Cellular phones are not GSM compatible. I have US Cellular in Chicago and my phone is only digital. They don't even offer GSM in the Chicago area and this is their hometown.

However, whenever I travel to rural areas in TN my US Cellular CDMA technology phone works well.

[Eat]

Originally Posted by dsimicata

Just to clarify, many US Cellular phones are not GSM compatible. I have US Cellular in Chicago and my phone is only digital. They don't even offer GSM in the Chicago area and this is their hometown.

However, whenever I travel to rural areas in TN my US Cellular CDMA technology phone works well.

Interesting, I didn't realize that US Cellular had a mix of technologies. I see they offer CDMA tri-mode phones, which include analog capabilities. I wonder how long they intend to keep the analog portion of their network up. Analog is perfect in rural areas, as long as you don't mind the scanner enthusiasts listening in to your phone calls.