Cell phone service in the mountains? (Asheville, Lenoir: real estate, job, house)

[jack358]

It seems all through WNC everyone and their dog has verizon, but from my experience its not that great and fails to pick up signal in various locations. Is it the best of the worst?

[mm34b]

I've got Verizon Wireless in the Asheville area (Buncombe-Henderson-Haywood & Madison counties). I've never had a problem picking up a strong signal. Alltel should be good in the area too.

Whichever wireless carrier you choose, be sure they provide CDMA 850 service. That technology/frequency seems to work better in the mountains than others.

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[Asheville Native]

I also have Verizion, and at least areas where I frequent it works fine, but I know many areas within a few miles of Asheville, that service is nada, zip, zero.

Due to the nature of cell service in mountains, the same can be said for all providers. A friend has SunCom, and he also runs into to dead spots, just different ones than I run into.

[AshevilleNeighbor]

I switched a couple years ago from Sprint to Verizon and saw a big improvement. Among realtors (who spend a lot of time driving around the nooks and crannies of the area) Verizon seems to be the most popular choice. It's not perfect: I was in a cove near Mars Hill the other day and coverage was hit-or-miss. But Verizon seems to be the best available.

[slaz]

I have sold Sprint, ATT and US Cell. I used US Cell untill Sprint gave me a better deal as an employee and wish I never changed from US Cell. I was also a real estate agent for about a year and found that in the hills north of town it had the best service.

Here is a trick you can use to get a better signal. (ONLY if you have a no roaming plan) and don't blame me if you get charges for trying this:

If you find yourself in a place with no signal or very weak. Go in the settings and change to the secondary service or to roaming only. It will very from phone to phone what its called but you may be able to pick up a tower from another provider that is closer.
No matter who you are using the phone will always try to pick up a signal from your provider first. For example I can sit at my house and have one bar of signal with Sprint. If I set my phone to roam only I get a full strength digital signal.

[a2zmom]

Hubby and I have AT&T and have never had a problem finding a signal...

[jlrich]

I live east of Asheville and Verizon has the best signal than the others. There are little "black holes" where you lose signal but they're not bad and you know where they're at and to expect them. But I can go from here to Memphis and never roam and with very little loss of signal. My only issue with Verizon is some of their "occasional" billing issues...but that's another story.

[Trevor92]

I know a few people in Asheville that swear by US Cellular. If you're disappointed with Verizon, you should definitely give them a try. They have a lot better plans than Verizon too with free incoming calls and texts on many plans.

To me, it just seems like a lot of people generally assume Verizon is best because they have a lot of commercials that talk about their coverage and 'the Network of Reliability' and what not. And it seems like they generally do a better job than at&t or Sprint. Overall, they may even be the best, but I've heard sterling reviews of USCC in the area. And a lot of people tend to forget about the smaller, coverage-oriented carriers like USCC and just assume they're not that good. USCC has some 6 million customers to Verizon's 60 million, so you don't see near as many advertisements, but the truth is, they're usually very coverage oriented, have better plans than the larger providers, and will roam for free on the larger providers if you ever lose signal. If all else fails, most providers have trial periods you can sign up for service and return it if you're not happy.

[jack358]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

I know a few people in Asheville that swear by US Cellular. If you're disappointed with Verizon, you should definitely give them a try. They have a lot better plans than Verizon too with free incoming calls and texts on many plans.

To me, it just seems like a lot of people generally assume Verizon is best because they have a lot of commercials that talk about their coverage and 'the Network of Reliability' and what not. And it seems like they generally do a better job than at&t or Sprint. Overall, they may even be the best, but I've heard sterling reviews of USCC in the area. And a lot of people tend to forget about the smaller, coverage-oriented carriers like USCC and just assume they're not that good. USCC has some 6 million customers to Verizon's 60 million, so you don't see near as many advertisements, but the truth is, they're usually very coverage oriented, have better plans than the larger providers, and will roam for free on the larger providers if you ever lose signal. If all else fails, most providers have trial periods you can sign up for service and return it if you're not happy.

Yeah, its not that Verizon is bad, its just that they aren't REALLY GOOD like they were in Houston

[hymnsinger]

I use Carolina West in Boone, Blowing Rock, and Lenoir . . . Blowing Rock is always iffy no matter who you're using, but I only have trouble at home. I live under the ridge the cell tower sits on. Now that the leaves are back, I get about 20 seconds of signal at a time while at home. I don't have any serious problems anywhere else. I went to Tuscon with it and did fine all the way there and back . . . except for one very strange town in Arkansas. I got nothing but a busy signal every time I tried to dial out. I was trying to get through to a garage to have the truck serviced and finally after 30 minutes went to call on a land line . . . I couldn't use my cell until I exited that town. Any idea what that was all about???

Tracey