Wireless Coverage Issues and Reports - 2019 Season

[ScottCurry]

I actually felt like this year was better than last year. But of course that's extremely subjective. It depends upon where you chase, what carrier you have, and whether or not you have a signal booster. I have Verizon with a SureCall Fusion2Go 3.0. I also carry multiple phones with me so that I can swap them out whenever each device hits it's 20GB limit (you can buy a used phone for around $50. Activation is another $50 per device each year, and the cost for each additional device is only $10 - $15 per month). Finally, as far as where I chased this year, I spent a surprising amount of time in the Texas Panhandle, where I only lost signal in the Palo Duro Canyon.

I think the most difficult areas to get cell signal for me are in remote parts of Colorado (such as Last Chance, CO and Punkin Center, CO), canyons, and mountains. I did notice KPUB having issues delivering radar during the Lamar, CO tornado. I heard someone on the radio say to switch to Goodland, and sure enough Goodland radar was being delivered just fine, while Pueblo was still lagging, sometimes only delivering data once every 15 minutes. Someone else on the radio thought they were having cell signal issues. Turns out it was a radar data feed issue.

That said, I did notice people on the radio complaining about not getting good cell signal with AT&T in the exact same spot where I was perfectly good with Verizon. Daniel Shaw actually has service from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. He decided not to turn on his T-Mobile coverage this year because it was so worthless. And this year, he hasn't used Sprint yet. Although, he did switch between Verizon and AT&T quite a bit.

 

[JamesCaruso]

AT&T user here, I can only comment anecdotally, I didn’t document specific coverage losses and sometimes my impressions just depend on the aggravation level - for example, even a one-minute period without coverage in the heat of a chase or at any moment I happen to need/want any information sticks in my mind more than a 10-minute loss of coverage that I may not have even known about because I wasn’t online... I’ll say in general I didn’t think it was any worse than last year, but remember commenting to my chase buddy that I was surprised it still didn’t seem to be getting much better either. I remember in particular being really frustrated in areas east of Lubbock; terrain is part of the reason, but I couldn’t even get coverage when actually in the town of Crosbyton. Again subjective/anecdotal, but I also felt like Kansas in general seemed to have more dead zones then other states, even in places you would think you were close enough to a town.

 

[Brett Roberts]

VZW here, and I've been more frustrated with coverage in rural areas this year than the previous 3-4 years. However, I've also spent more time chasing W of 100°W than in any of those years (likely by a large margin), so I'm not making any specific claims. Still, it's raised my eyebrow to see "No Service" on my phone screen only 5-8 miles outside towns like Dalhart or Clayton. Jesse's blurb about 3G being phased out could very well explain some of this. I've been on 3G at times in remote areas, but it never seems to last more than a couple minutes. For reference, I don't use an antenna or amp.

You have to appreciate modern technology and how transformative mobile data has been to chasing. Even still, as I went 30 minutes between updates the other day, I couldn't help but think about it this way: ten years ago, on smaller carriers like Alltel that had roaming agreements with most of the big guys, you could get Plains coverage as good or better than anything available today. That's not a statement of fact, but speculation based on my subjective experience. Does that sound right to anyone else who's been at it for that long? It's rather depressing, if so. Needless to say, average data speed has gotten much better over that timeframe, but coverage is really all we care about once above ~1 Mbps (unless you're streaming, I guess).

 

[Quincy Vagell]

Here is an initial map of the observations I've made about Verizon cell coverage, over the past two chase years, or so. It's far from comprehensive. I've done a lot of chasing across the High Plains and Texas in recent years, so I've sampled the most there. From what I recall in previous years, I have generally not had many issues with Verizon anywhere in Kansas. (at least I have not traveled long distances in Kansas with little/no service)

Basically, if I was in an area or county that had inconsistent service, but there was enough of a data connection to view radar and browse the internet at least some of the time (roughly >25%), I colored in the county yellow. For areas that have absolutely no service, or were only able to occasionally pull data (maybe a stray radar frame or two), then I shaded red. Yellow means service some of the time, but not complete and red means essentially no reliable service.


If I've been through small areas (generally the size of a town or smaller) that briefly lost service, I did not add them to this map.

At this stage, this map is very incomplete. As I do more traveling next week, hopefully I'll have more data to update this.

The note about 3G being phased out is interesting. I know I've had a lot of issues in eastern Colorado, for example, where my phone says I have a 3G connection, but I'm not able to load anything for long distances and/or periods of time.

 

[Joe Cameron]

If I've been through small areas (generally the size of a town or smaller) that briefly lost service, I did not add them to this map.

At this stage, this map is very incomplete. As I do more traveling next week, hopefully I'll have more data to update this.

The note about 3G being phased out is interesting. I know I've had a lot of issues in eastern Colorado, for example, where my phone says I have a 3G connection, but I'm not able to load anything for long distances and/or periods of time.

I am wondering about that 3G going away.
Verizon told me that when 5g rolls out, then the fall back is 4G.
That brings up the question about in areas we only get 3G, i don't see how 4G is going cover that area.
Seems like more areas with no service to me.

 

[Jesse Risley]

I am wondering about that 3G going away.
Verizon told me that when 5g rolls out, then the fall back is 4G.
That brings up the question about in areas we only get 3G, i don't see how 4G is going cover that area.
Seems like more areas with no service to me.

Those areas seem to be few and far between and limited to desolate areas, but my understanding is that yes, they will be forced to put 4G/LTE on those towers that are presently 3G.

 

[Alex Elmore]

I have phone and data through AT&T and use that primarily for chasing, but purchased a Verizon jetpack last year to help when AT&T coverage is poor. Verizon worked well for me last year when chasing in western Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas. This year, however, we had a lot of issues with Verizon when chasing in roughly the same areas in addition to western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. AT&T seemed to handle these areas well, though. Sorry I don't have specifics on exactly where these issues took place.

Regarding western Illinois, I chased there in 2016 and lost AT&T completely for at least an hour, but when chasing there late last year, I had no issues.

 

[Randy Jennings]

I have a Verizon jetpack and use 2 external antennas and had almost no problems this year. I chased all over TX, a lot of OK, and even some AR and LA. My chase parter has AT&T on his phone, and the biggest hole was in Concho Valley (San Angelo) and Big Country (Abilene) even in towns. That was intereating given that is some of the first areas in the country to get cell phone coverage given the old GTE R&D presence in San Angelo. I suspect it has to do with that area being dominated by a local carrier West Central Net.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Verizon here, coverage has still been pretty good just like in the past. Once in awhile I will lose service, but sometimes logging in to my hotspot and restarting it helps.

I've got mine mounted to my windshield near the top behind the UV protection and hardwired into a USB cable that's hardwired into my battery. No boosters, no external antenna. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out some of you people have noisy ass chargers that are causing signal degradation. I also pay for the premium unlimited plan thingy with vzw and use very little data.

Also, stop %@!$!ing streaming and you will notice much better performance.

Also, Windows updates, adobe updates, chrome updates, nvidia video card updates, dropbox/onedrive/icloud etc all run automatically and perhaps those are also filling up your pipe and slowing you down. Even May 20th in Mangum I had no problems with data. I'm not sure why everyone else is complaining but all of the above makes me think it's a problem on their end, and not the cell infrastructure end.

 

[Quincy Vagell]

Verizon here, coverage has still been pretty good just like in the past. Once in awhile I will lose service, but sometimes logging in to my hotspot and restarting it helps.

I've got mine mounted to my windshield near the top behind the UV protection and hardwired into a USB cable that's hardwired into my battery. No boosters, no external antenna. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out some of you people have noisy ass chargers that are causing signal degradation. I also pay for the premium unlimited plan thingy with vzw and use very little data.

Also, stop %@!$!ing streaming and you will notice much better performance.

Also, Windows updates, adobe updates, chrome updates, nvidia video card updates, dropbox/onedrive/icloud etc all run automatically and perhaps those are also filling up your pipe and slowing you down. Even May 20th in Mangum I had no problems with data. I'm not sure why everyone else is complaining but all of the above makes me think it's a problem on their end, and not the cell infrastructure end.

You were also sniping from the east (I assume) before the gridlock arrived. I rarely have longer than brief data issues if I’m in an area with a strong signal.

All in all, much like traffic convergence, the issues with cell data while chasing are few and far between, I’m my recent experience, unless I’ve been in a remote area with a known lack of cell reception.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I use both VZW and AT&T.

I run the same VZW jetpack with no boosters/antenna I have been using since 2013 and it's worked just fine for me this year. I was told by a VZW associate that the unlimited plans sometimes get throttled since they're typically the biggest consumers. Im on a pre-paid 8gb/mo plan for $50 - I don't use much data and its worked just fine - about the same as every other year. I'll lose data for 10 minutes here and there in typical dead spots but thats it.

My cell phone is AT&T to supplement when VZW is down and vice versa. I find between the two I am rarely without some sort of coverage. Over the years I've found AT&T has gotten as good as, if not surpassed VZW in terms of coverage, especially in the N plains.

 

[B. Dean Berry]

Most of you guys know I don't go out west, at least not yet.

That being said, for a report on Northeast and Atlantic, and the most-hated-by-chasers carrier out there:

I use Sprint. I'm currently running the following devices in my household:
- 2x Kyocera Duraforce PRO Android smartphones
- Samsung Tab A 10'5" Android tablet
- Kyocera DuraTR Android-based feature phone
- Kyocera DuraPlus SDC-Legacy-based feature phone
- Sprint/Sierra Wireless AirCard 402 wireless card
- Cradlepoint COR-IBR-650 mobile router

Both Duraforce PRO phones, the Samsung Tablet, and the DuraTR are fully capable of 4G/3G operation, with the remaining phones, cards, and routers being capable of 3G/2G operation only (EVDO Rev A in the case of the card and router). I have found some things about Sprint that I consider to be positives:

- Less throttling
- Higher data caps
- They will still place 3G devices online, and they have announced no plans so far as I know to abandon 3G (yeah, they said the same thing about Nextel iDen about a year before they turned it off, too).

Sprint pursued WiMax technology as their route to high-speed data for a lot longer than anyone else, then had to about-face and embrace LTE like everyone else, way late in the game. This is the reason that Sprint has sucked for several years. They've been playing catch-up. That being said, they have been playing catch-up fast. I can say that Sprint's coverage area has been amazing me as of late. Sure, there's plenty of areas where there's no 4G or 3G signal at all still, but those areas are getting smaller. They've been on-lining massive amounts of LTE tech in locations that didn't used to have service. The only place I've been this year where I had no connectivity at all has been out in north-central PA in the mountains, in a national forest.

Funny thing about Sprint's service, though - I have been in remote areas of PA and OH in the past 6 months where my newer smart devices dropped to nothing, and did not default to 3G, while my Duraplus and EVDO internet devices still had a booming 3G signal. I've also noticed that, in some extremely remote areas, when everything else wouldn't work, my old DuraPlus candy bar phone was able to make calls. I've also been in some areas on 3G where signal seemed good, but I couldn't make phonecalls or use the internet, but Sprint Direct Connect Plus PTT has worked wonderfully, while the same feature will occasionally fail to work at all with a full 4G signal in my living room.

 

[Matt Salo]

In the past I have used a Verizon JetPack for data, with and without an amp. This year, I have been using the hotspot on my AT&T phone, with a Maximum Signal amplifier. The only issues I've really had with signal dropouts has been either a few high chaser density areas (5/20 Oklahoma), or in the TX Panhandle when I drop down into Palo Duro Canyon. Other than that, AT&T has been surprisingly solid this year. (compared to previous years).

 

[Michael Towers]

No noticeable change for me with Verizon over the past two years, ever since I went to a Jetpack and installed the Maximum Signal amp I rarely lose coverage. Previous problem areas in NW Oklahoma now get coverage the only area I was without coverage for longer than a few minutes this year was in the Palo Duro.

Looking back over the years my coverage experience has improved immensely. From 2007 to 2012 I had Sprint and while coverage did improve during that span it was very spotty and a far cry from my coverage today. The switch to Verizon made for a vast improvement but the aircard/antennae combo I used still made for spotty coverage and while chasing I’d encounter numerous and extensive data gaps. The move to the Jetpack plus amp was well worth the investment, I’ve driven over 10k miles using the devices and rarely ever find myself without data and on those occasions I do lose coverage it’s usually only very temporary in nature.

Thanks for sharing that info about Verizon and that data hole in Illinois, Jesse. I always thought it was inevitable the area would get covered by Verizon but now realize the status quo could remain for years. Even though I’ve chased that area each of the past 3 years I can’t personally see the justification of adding another carrier to cover that hole, especially since I rarely encounter such holes elsewhere.

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Not much changed for us this year using VZW and AT&T, as others say between the two you rarely have no coverage.

I was limited though this year to using only HDSPA+ with my new phone on AT&T, but this was hardly a problem as speeds were good and I often held onto towers longer than my chase partner who had the access to the LTE. Nebraska has been a long-standing problem for me though and I always get black-holed in west Neb - apart from the bigger towns like Ogal. and Sidney.

Some notables:

• Still got that problem of a big Verizon black spot in central Texas (greater Brownwood area) where AT&T works just great.
• Got completely kicked off the AT&T network on the Mangum day (like as if they took the sim card out) for a good two hours.
• Montana coverage with VZW getting much better - drove by a cell tower where you would not expect one, only servicing a few people and a state road with next to no traffic.