Cell phone coverage in Havre (Bozeman: apartment, home, buy)

[51dimes]

I recently got a job offer in Havre and was wondering if my cell phone will get good coverage there. I'm with AT&T and like my coverage here (western Washington) and my phone, but I'm not sure if it will be reliable in Havre.

Thanks for your help.

[Fodderman]

Originally Posted by 51dimes

I recently got a job offer in Havre and was wondering if my cell phone will get good coverage there. I'm with AT&T and like my coverage here (western Washington) and my phone, but I'm not sure if it will be reliable in Havre.

Thanks for your help.

Entering Havre's zip (59501) into Cell Phones and Cell Phone Plans - Wireless from AT&T comes back with this message, "We are expanding our coverage every day but unfortunately this is one of the few areas we haven't reached yet. Please check back soon. If you think you may have entered the wrong ZIP, please re-enter and try again." Your phone may work, but you'd probably be roaming.

Verizon and a couple small telcos currently service most of Montana. AT&T bought out Verizon's Montana business last year (as well as other rural areas) but the deal hasn't been finalized and everything is still under Verizon for now. So.....it's kind of up in the air. If you move and get a Verizon phone, chances are you'll need to switch back to an AT&T phone sometime in 2010.

[Mt-7]

Yes, Verizon with the above information. Good luck.

[Reedsmit]

I did some research on the cell phone issue as we have an at&t family plan (where we share the minutes) The family would be in FL, with my daughter being in Bozeman and her job is a one year assignment.

at&t will let us out of the contract on that one phone with no penalty if she does not have service in the area. Additionally her at&t phone should work on a partner's network such as Verizon, however there is fine print that says, if you are using the majority of your time on a partner network for more than 2 months, at&t MAY charge you an additional fee.

Verizon has a one year plan, so the game plan is to see what the situation is when we get there, if her phone does not have at&t service, and we are told we will have to pay an additional fee, than we will jump her service to the most basic Verizon plan available and either get the most basic phone included with the one year contract or buy a used Verizon phone off Ebay. I will get a basic phone line for the apartment with long distance blocked (to avoid room mate issues), and family and friends can call her on the home line without it eating up her minutes.

We are also considering Scype in place of a home phone, anyone know how Scype performs in Bozeman?

[trwmontana]

As of a couple of years ago, my Verizon service in Havre was not very reliable. I would often have one bar and would frequently lose calls while driving from one part of town to another. About the time I was moving out of town, however, there were serious plans to construct a Verizon tower. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with AT&T service.

[Fodderman]

Signal Map - Find the best cell phone coverage in your area, or add your own cell phone signal to the map. confirms that Verizon is probably the only game in the town of Havre.

Not entirely sure how accurate this is though. It looks like it might all be user submitted data and might just mean that no one from another carrier has submitted anything for that area.

[Reedsmit]

Originally Posted by Fodderman

Signal Map - Find the best cell phone coverage in your area, or add your own cell phone signal to the map. confirms that Verizon is probably the only game in the town of Havre.

Not entirely sure how accurate this is though. It looks like it might all be user submitted data and might just mean that no one from another carrier has submitted anything for that area.

Interesting site, thank you

[Michael Fussell]

ATT cell phone coverage in Montana is by their roaming partner so if you want ATT coverage look at the Cellular 1 map. If you roam too much (maybe 50%) then ATT can throw you off their network. It is my understanding that they look at roaming coverage of the group rather than each individual so if you have group members not roaming, then one member roaming 100% of the time may not trigger ATT's concerns. I have an iPhone and live in Montana and it works ok with coverage not as complete as Verizons but acceptable.