cell phone service (Hilo, Waimea: move, discount, best)

[timjoe48]

my forum search for "cell phone service" turned up four threads but to my surprise none answered what i think is an obvious question: which islands have cell phone service and which do not?...second question: will my sprint cellphone service work on the islands? which ones?

[jessiesma]

is on sprint and she called from the road going up to volcano (TBI) yesterday. Lost her for a bit but she said most areas are
good. all the cell companies will show their coverage area maps on their web sites. my husband looked at sprint's and said the coverage is good in most of the state.

Originally Posted by timjoe48

my forum search for "cell phone service" turned up four threads but to my surprise none answered what i think is an obvious question: which islands have cell phone service and which do not?...second question: will my sprint cellphone service work on the islands? which ones?

[scirocco22]

The new Sprint coverage maps are excellent. You can even insert in a specific address into their "Map a location." It will show their native voice and data coverage as well as roaming areas. My Sprint service allows free roaming on both voice and data so anytime I'm in Hawaii, I've never had a problem with voice coverage and also get excellent coverage with my Sprint data card with EV-DO.

Sprint - Nationwide Coverage

[Momma4Kauai]

Sprint, which I believe has merged with Nextel, never gave me good covereage when I was on Kauai. On the Big Island, it worked pretty well if you were near the larger towns (Hilo, Kona, Waimea...) but not further out in the country. Even here on Maui, there seemed to be more dead spots and dropped calls...

We switched to Verizon Wireless, which seems to have the best coverage - and I've tried and compared them on Kauai, Big Island, and Maui.

[Koale]

Aloha, We have used Total Call for our LD service for several years w/no problem. We have a pre-paid program through them for cellular use. So far, on the mainland, no issues what-so-ever. Never had a dropped call or a blind area.

They do have coverage on the Big Island so in March we will see what that is all about. If it is good, we will be very happy. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

A hui hou
Koale

[taxed]

Is anybody using T-Mobile, and if yes, how is the service on the BI?

[Paniolo Cowgirl]

I had good Verizon coverage on the Big Island. Especially around Hilo.

[BillRadio]

All the islands have fairly good service from the major carriers. My first choice is Verizon because they are also the local wireline company and will offer a bundle discount if you move in. They also have sites in place other carriers don't. Here is a map of Verizon Hawaii coverage and even the smallest islands has some coverage.

Next is a tie between AT&T and Sprint. Sprint roams on Verizon in several places, so you might want to prefer the carrier that requires less roaming. T-Mobile is a good third choice, but they have a few places with no service, but that would be away from the population areas.

While I was on the big island, my T-Mobile phone worked, but I never looked at it to see if it was roaming.

[cynmkolohe]

I had Cingular when I moved here...lost service when leaving Hilo, so switched to Verizon and have had few problems. There are places in Puna and on the Hamakua coast where I can't get a signal.

[Kaywren]

AT&T has excellent service on Maui, I got reception in places most others did not.