Cell phone provider for best coverage?

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by TwoByFour

Both ATT and Verizon support LTE, which is a data-only protocol (no voice or SMS). So in principle, if your phone supports LTE (most do now) you could "roam" to ATT LTE or Verizon LTE but in reality it may not happen because they may not have a roaming agreement between them.

No, the frequencies are different between ATT and Verizon.

https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/15/n...oaming-on-att/

"Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney confirmed yesterday that the company’s LTE phones aren’t compatible with other LTE networks in the US (from AT&T and MetroPCS) because they run on different network frequencies."

[TwoByFour]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

No, the frequencies are different between ATT and Verizon.

https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/15/n...oaming-on-att/

"Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney confirmed yesterday that the company’s LTE phones aren’t compatible with other LTE networks in the US (from AT&T and MetroPCS) because they run on different network frequencies."

iPhones 7 and above from ATT will work on Verizon 4G LTE so they support the Verizon frequencies. But you have to unlock it and have a Verizon SIM. But as I said earlier, you cannot roam to Verizon with an ATT phone because they are competitors and won't forward the traffic from their cell tower to the other carrier.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by TwoByFour

iPhones 7 and above from ATT will work on Verizon 4G LTE so they support the Verizon frequencies. But you have to unlock it and have a Verizon SIM. But as I said earlier, you cannot roam to Verizon with an ATT phone because they are competitors and won't forward the traffic from their cell tower to the other carrier.

Yes, the phones are capable of switching between CDMA and GSM frequencies with a different SIM card- but once you put in a Verizon SIM, it will only roam on CDMA frequencies - same with ATT, once you put the ATT SIM in will it will only roam to to GSM frequencies. Even the new phones only search for the frequency band for which the SIM is enabled.

ATT could probably care less if you roamed to Verizon and vice versa - they'd be happy to pass that roaming cost to you whatever the price would be.

[whtviper1]

Apparently, Big Island residents aren't terribly interested in filling in gaps in coverage as they begin protesting a new AT&T cell tower to fill the gaps in Kurtistown. Even it is 2020, much of the protests are fears of the tower causing cancer - yes, people still think that - at least on the Big Island. Next time you can't use AT&T in Kurtistown, now you know why.

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com...ower-proposal/

[grantw]

We use T-Mobile and have good coverage. We live in Ocean View and travel to Kona every week or two. Coverage between Kona and OV is spotty much like coverage between OV and Hilo.

In Kona or Hilo we have strong signal.