Cell phone coverage in Montana? (Billings, Missoula: neighborhood, buy, live)

[kali203]

My husband and I are moving to Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls on August 1st, we have heard that Sprint coverage is non existent. What would be the best cell phone carrier to go with for the most reception?

[bigtrees]

Verizon....in my opinion. You'll find holes but they are pretty good. Plus it seems like everyone else uses them and you don't use minutes to talk with other Verizon customers.

[georgiainwyo]

My son worked for Cellular One and I remember him saying a couple of years ago that the main cell providers here, Verizon and Alltell (used to be Cell One) made a deal where they share towers, making the coverage areas the same for both companies. I don't know if it is still that way or not. I don't know about GF, but in the Billings area there are some local companies who provide cellular services as well, but they generally only work for in town, not traveling. I personally have always used Verizon because almost everyone I talk to is on Verizon so I don't have to worry about minutes, especially because we chose to go totally cell and do away with our landline. If I were you I would maybe call a contact person you have in GF or at Malmstrom and ask their opinions. That would probably get you the best answers!

[georgiainwyo]

Oh, I forgot to mention that cell coverage is awful between GF & Billings. This is just an FYI in case you do some traveling. I traveled that road a lot and once a couple of miles out of Billings I didn't get coverage til almost to GF except for a couple very short patchy areas.

[severdsoul]

Cell One (All Tell) or Virison, are the best.
There are many dead spots once you get outside of great falls.
We lived there for about 6 years, The town was not bad, easy to get around in, but man it gets windy there. The last year we were there, we beat chicago in wind.
Have any questions about the area feel free to email.

[rambrush]

I would also advise to check the local phone book. In a lot of the cities up there the local provider has the best coverage. Yes Verizon and Alltel have most of the market. But when you go look at Sprints website and look at there coverage they partner with Verizon or others to provide coverage.
I am heading North again the end of next month (june) and use Sprint. I am soon to find out if Sprint works from Missoula up and over to Anaconda,Butte and Lewistown.

[grizzfan]

I've had no problems with Alltel and it's predecessor CellularOne for many years now. The only thing I wonder about is: why did they have to invent these things??!!

[jimj]

Everyone we know is either on Verizon or Alltel. Personally I prefer Verizon. As far as I'm concerned they all have customer no-service and gouge people for the service they provide. That being said we go with verizon for the nation wide coverage that they have and we've found that at least around here the dead spots with Alltel are more prevelant than with verizon. A good example is in our neighborhood. My neighbor had Alltel and coundn't even talk in his front yard without dancing around to find a signal and forget talking in his house. He'd always ask to use my phone when I was around him and finally changed over to verizon.
Since you can cancel service with no penalty in the first 14 days or so why not get both and use them in your travels and see for yourself?

[sissys_soapbox]

Verizon has given us the least problems. We've lived here 10 yrs. We have tried them all here. Verizon has the least dead spots and the least roaming areas. We go to GF quite a bit. Phone works great there. It doesn't work for beans between Wolf Creek and Alm. Hope that helps

[ElkHunter]

If cell phone coverage is a worry, there are things you can do. The typical hand held cell phone is only .3 watts. 3 tenths of a watt. You can buy an antenna and adapter so you can plug it in your car when you travel. The antenna and plug in will give it a full 3 watts. Makes a world of a difference.