How would you guys rate AT&T for data coverage?

[Timothy Finn]

I'm in the process of buying a house in Milton, KS. (Chasers, feel free to whip in, if I get it...)

Anyways, I have T Mobile for cellular, have had them since about 2004. Yesterday, when I was scoping the house, I noticed that my phone was on AT&T, and I had reasonable data, and great voice coverage. Knowing T Mobile as intrinsically as I do, I called them up this morning to check a few things.

Well, when I bought my HTC One about 6 months back, they switched me to the new no contract plan. I called them this morning, and it turns out that if I am on AT&T's network, the data roaming is free, but it's 20 centavos per momento for voice.

So, to make a long story short, if this house goes through, I will be switching cellcos. I do get a discount through Verizon, and AT&T through my employer. I know what my Verizon discount is, not sure about AT&T yet....will find out tomorrow at work.

Tim

 

[Marcus Diaz]

AT&T has awesome coverage in the Alley. I've been going through Verizon ever since they bought out Alltel. This year im running both Verizon and AT&T. So I guess I'll let you know which is better lol.

 

[Adam Lucio]

ATT has solid COVERAGE just about everywhere, however its slower in many rural areas than other providers. Its a bit of a catch 22, you can go for the carriers that have a little less coverage, but faster, or go with the carrier that has more coverage, but more of it is slower.

 

[Travis Davis]

I have ATT and for the most part it is okay. In NW OK April 14, 2012 I had issues getting any signal. If I did have signal I couldn't get data. (I'm sure the towers were bogged down that day.)

 

[Timothy Finn]

Thanks, guys! Good to know!

Tim

 

[Brett Roberts]

Gonna disagree slightly with some of the previous posts. In my experience, AT&T's coverage is noticeably inferior to Verizon's on the Plains. I don't care much about speed (in fact, I still use a 3G Verizon card to supplement my AT&T phone), but even for pure coverage, Verizon comes out ahead -- based both on my experience and the two carriers' respective maps.

I will say this: AT&T has improved leaps and bounds over the southern Plains since I started chasing in 2006. Before about 2010 their coverage was just a joke, with even Sprint beating them hands-down. Nowadays, I think Verizon vs. AT&T is a pretty close fight in OK/TX. Once you get farther north, especially north of I-70, AT&T still falls apart pretty badly over large areas.

If chasing is a major concern, Verizon comes out on top every time, IMHO -- unless the cost difference is prohibitive. The only mitigating factor for you, Timothy, might be that your HTC One GSM can be used on AT&T, while Verizon would require you to get a new phone.

 

[calvinkaskey]

What radar sites do you guys use and are there any good free ones? On my Galaxy S II I am having a hard time pulling up cape from the spc site when before I didn't have a problem. The scroll down bar closes before I can select what kind of cape to look at. The Weather Channel radar seems a little off to me when last using it.

 

[calvinkaskey]

I'm using Virgin mobile since it is cheap at has service along most highways.

 

[Bob Schafer]

Your best bet for free radar is probably CoD: http://weather.cod.edu/satrad/index.php
You could also take a look at rap.ucar: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar/

What radar sites do you guys use and are there any good free ones? On my Galaxy S II I am having a hard time pulling up cape from the spc site when before I didn't have a problem. The scroll down bar closes before I can select what kind of cape to look at. The Weather Channel radar seems a little off to me when last using it.

 

[calvinkaskey]

ok. Thank you Bob. Where do I find CAPE and what CAPE should I be looking at?

 

[Matt Hunt]

ok. Thank you Bob. Where do I find CAPE and what CAPE should I be looking at?

You can get RadarScope for just $10. It's well worth it. You're not going to find a radar sufficient for chasing using internet based radar pictures. As for CAPE, surface-based (SBCAPE) is the one you're most interested in when it comes to chasing tornadoes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't even think you can get a tornado from a storm that isn't surface based.

 

[JDMattern]

Gonna agree with Verizon. I had ATT and didn't even get any service just west of Salina, along with having a lot of trouble in western KS. Verizon has had great coverage on 3G. I'll be running a verizon 'jetpack' aircard and will be switching my phone over to T-Mobile once the Galaxy S5 comes out.

 

[Bob Schafer]

You can get CAPE data from about 10,000 different sources, but I think the SPC Mesoanalysis page is the favorite of a whole bunch of chasers. MLCAPE is probably the most balanced approach, but it is seldom going to give you a much different look than SB or Max. Yeah, there might be some reason to look at one or the other based on some sort of unique parameters now and then, but I can't get into that here.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I made my last post without knowing Matt's reply was here.

I may also be wrong, but isn't SBCAPE based on 10m obs? Matt, you are correct about tornadic storms being surface-based, but even they are drawing a whole bunch of their inflow from a lot of different levels. Just look at the beaver tails, for example, of inflow coming in from upwards of 850mb. They are too hungry to settle for just the BL air.

You can get RadarScope for just $10. It's well worth it. You're not going to find a radar sufficient for chasing using internet based radar pictures. As for CAPE, surface-based (SBCAPE) is the one you're most interested in when it comes to chasing tornadoes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't even think you can get a tornado from a storm that isn't surface based.

 

[Matt Hunt]

I made my last post without knowing Matt's reply was here.

I may also be wrong, but isn't SBCAPE based on 10m obs? Matt, you are correct about tornadic storms being surface-based, but even they are drawing a whole bunch of their inflow from a lot of different levels. Just look at the beaver tails, for example, of inflow coming in from upwards of 850mb. They are too hungry to settle for just the BL air.

Good point. I'd agree with your other post, too. The values usually don't differ a whole lot, and there are other factors that are typically more important to consider. I usually only glance at CAPE to make sure it's there, ha!