Cell Phone Coverage/Providers ~ Please help (Missoula, Kalispell: living, pricing, vs)

[AKgirlinCA]

Greetings everyone!

In 3 weeks I will be joining my husband in Missoula. We are thrilled to be living back somewhere normal

We currently have Verizon for our cell provider. I have been wanting to leave them due to how expensive they are. We will be in Kalispell many weekends visiting family. We will also be spending lots of time out near West Glacier at our family cabin. Additionally, my husband will be out hunting with his Dad. I would like us to have decent coverage in these areas.

Should we just stay with Verizon, or is there a different company with good coverage throughout the NW part of the state that you would recommend? We also do a fair amount of traveling outside of MT, including to Alaska.

Disclaimer: I kind of want the iPhone so if the company doesn't have it, that may be a deal breaker.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm an Alaskan girl who has been in southern California for 4 years, and not crazy about it the entire time! My husband is a Flathead Valley native, and we are thrilled about starting our new life in Missoula.

[montygarlic]

Verizon is your best bet for now, though they won't have the iPhone deal completed for a while yet. How long? Don't know. They say it could be just a few more months....

Good luck!

Welcome home.


mg

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by AKgirlinCA

Greetings everyone!

In 3 weeks I will be joining my husband in Missoula. We are thrilled to be living back somewhere normal

We currently have Verizon for our cell provider. I have been wanting to leave them due to how expensive they are. We will be in Kalispell many weekends visiting family. We will also be spending lots of time out near West Glacier at our family cabin. Additionally, my husband will be out hunting with his Dad. I would like us to have decent coverage in these areas.

Should we just stay with Verizon, or is there a different company with good coverage throughout the NW part of the state that you would recommend? We also do a fair amount of traveling outside of MT, including to Alaska.

Disclaimer: I kind of want the iPhone so if the company doesn't have it, that may be a deal breaker.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm an Alaskan girl who has been in southern California for 4 years, and not crazy about it the entire time! My husband is a Flathead Valley native, and we are thrilled about starting our new life in Missoula.

If you go online to the Verizon website you'll see their famous map of US coverage: Coverage Locator - Verizon Wireless.
Zoom in on NW Montana: Lots of white areas! You'll be okay from Missoula to Kalispell, but Glacier looks more iffy, and west of Kalispell it really dries out. Some places you'll get 4 bars, other places one or none. And that's the best cell coverage available in the area, to my knowledge. On vacation you may have to do what we do: drive to the nearest spot with 3 bars, and have your conversations there! I inquired just last week about whether Verizon sells some kind of signal booster, and they don't. The "Hotspot" device only works where there is already coverage. But if you get an IPhone/another smartphone you will probably be able to text and e-mail even if all you get is 1 or 2 bars, it just takes a while to go through. That's what we're able to do on our property on the ID/MT border.

[AKgirlinCA]

Originally Posted by montygarlic

Verizon is your best bet for now, though they won't have the iPhone deal completed for a while yet. How long? Don't know. They say it could be just a few more months....

Good luck!

Welcome home.


mg

Verizon does have the iPhone! Thanks for your help and for the welcome Looks like due to their coverage, we will probably have to stay with Verizon.

[AKgirlinCA]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

If you go online to the Verizon website you'll see their famous map of US coverage: Coverage Locator - Verizon Wireless.
Zoom in on NW Montana: Lots of white areas! You'll be okay from Missoula to Kalispell, but Glacier looks more iffy, and west of Kalispell it really dries out. Some places you'll get 4 bars, other places one or none. And that's the best cell coverage available in the area, to my knowledge. On vacation you may have to do what we do: drive to the nearest spot with 3 bars, and have your conversations there! I inquired just last week about whether Verizon sells some kind of signal booster, and they don't. The "Hotspot" device only works where there is already coverage. But if you get an IPhone/another smartphone you will probably be able to text and e-mail even if all you get is 1 or 2 bars, it just takes a while to go through. That's what we're able to do on our property on the ID/MT border.

Thanks for your response! I have seen their coverage map; I just didn't know of other providers & their maps to compare it to. But it seems--based on your responses--that they have the best service. Gahh! I didn't want to have to stay with them, but probably will due to the coverage. Thanks again!

[AT-AT28]

Verizon pretty much rules the roost here. Sprint and Tmobile do not have coverage beyond roaming. Sure, you can do AT#T which absorbed Alltel but for best pricing options and packages, you might as well stick with Verizon. If you must try someone else, AT@T is basically your only other options but be prepared to pay a bit more and have more customer service issues. If your gonna be traveling, especially to Alaska, AT%T is gonna have coverage problems, not to mention the pricing plans for you to call frequent people is gonna cost you more then Verizon, even if their on the same network.

Basically, coming back to Montana has its pluses, but a tradeoff is gonna be lack of technology and cellular deployment vs other states. Thats just way it is up here

[bongo403]

Originally Posted by AKgirlinCA

Thanks for your response! I have seen their coverage map; I just didn't know of other providers & their maps to compare it to. But it seems--based on your responses--that they have the best service. Gahh! I didn't want to have to stay with them, but probably will due to the coverage. Thanks again!

There are some local / regional companies out there, and some of them do pretty well with rural coverage in Montana. But if you plan to travel out of state using your phone at all, I wouldn't recommend them.

[AKgirlinCA]

Thank you bongo! That is what I needed to know!