# Best Cell Phone/Data Coverage East Coast, AT&T or Verizon??



## JohnZion (Feb 25, 2010)

I will be sailing from northern Maine to Florida. I am interested in sailors real experience along the East Coast for reception of phone calls and 4G data (and 2G data) for Verizon and AT&T. Which is better? Problem areas may be the Outer Banks, parts of Georgia, Carolinas, and Maine. What do you think, and what have you heard from other sailors. Let 'er rip.


----------



## tommays (Sep 9, 2008)

I am a Verizon fan BUT all coverage is hit and miss with 1/8 mile making a big difference 

On Long Island Sound I have no problems how ever in many Long Island anchorages you got nothing and then I can be in what would seem a bad place on Shelter island and have 4G


----------



## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

I had no problem with Verizon out to the beginning of the 1000 foot charted depth when going from Florida to Georgia.

ATT crew mates did.


----------



## PBzeer (Nov 11, 2002)

Even in the "wilds" of NC, there where only a couple of places where I couldn't get a reliable signal with Verizon and I don't recall any dead spots further south, though I'm sure some exist. Nor did I have any problems running offshore from Beaufort south (I pretty much stay in sight of land).


----------



## FSMike (Jan 15, 2010)

Verizon, very few spots on the ICW without a good signal.


----------



## SVAuspicious (Oct 31, 2006)

Verizon has better coverage than AT&T along the US East Coast. AT&T has been improving steadily but still has more gaps than Verizon.

I've had crew aboard on deliveries with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint so we've been able to make side-by-side comparisons.

What makes sense depends on where you're heading. If you are going to the Bahamas AT&T makes sense since they use GSM like Batelco. If you're staying in the US Verizon has better coverage.

I have found that where AT&T does have data coverage in the US it is faster than Verizon.


----------



## 4arch (Jul 7, 2009)

Although Verizon is still CDMA, most Verizon LTE phones now support the use of SIM cards and come factory SIM unlocked so they are usable on GSM networks. AT&T and T-Mobile phones are GSM but generally don't come SIM unlocked unless you pay for the phone in full. Even then, there is often a waiting period to unlock.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

Fully agree with the consensus above. Better coverage with Verizon in general. ATT advantage is (or was) international. 

However, it doesn't matter what carrier you have in remote parts of Maine, zero towers.


----------



## Gladrags1 (Apr 9, 2003)

I've been happy with ATT coverage in the Chesapeake and coastal to NY. 

Tod


----------



## mgmhead (Jan 14, 2007)

Agree with comments regarding Verizon. There are some spotty service areas in NC, SC & GA. Surprisingly not many, but they exist. Other times I find 4-G service where I least expect. I've no experience with AT&T nor T-Mobile along the ICW and Atlantic coast.


----------



## doug1957 (Dec 13, 2011)

We have both a Verizon and AT&T when cruising Maine. AT&T is mostly useless once out of Casco Bay, and Verizon can be a bit spotty here and there approaching down East, but overall is better than the AT&T reception.


----------



## JohnZion (Feb 25, 2010)

Thank you everyone for the great feedback, it's much appreciated. I will add my two cents, t mobile data coverage is terrible.


----------



## SVAuspicious (Oct 31, 2006)

4arch said:


> Although Verizon is still CDMA, most Verizon LTE phones now support the use of SIM cards and come factory SIM unlocked so they are usable on GSM networks. AT&T and T-Mobile phones are GSM but generally don't come SIM unlocked unless you pay for the phone in full. Even then, there is often a waiting period to unlock.


I've had three phones unlocked by AT&T at no charge. I explained my needs and they gave me unlock codes. One quite old phone required support from the manufacturer. My two iPhones (a 3G now drowned and a 4) they did right away during a technical support call.

Interestingly the next generation of cellular technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a wideband version of CDMA. Unfortunately carriers are using different frequency bands with different 3G backup systems. In the near-term that means truly world phones will be more difficult to come by.

Aren't the Verizon SIM card phones for 4G LTE only? If so, they will only work where LTE coverage exists _on the right frequencies for the phone_.


----------



## tommays (Sep 9, 2008)

SVAuspicious said:


> I've had three phones unlocked by AT&T at no charge. I explained my needs and they gave me unlock codes. One quite old phone required support from the manufacturer. My two iPhones (a 3G now drowned and a 4) they did right away during a technical support call.
> 
> Interestingly the next generation of cellular technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a wideband version of CDMA. Unfortunately carriers are using different frequency bands with different 3G backup systems. In the near-term that means truly world phones will be more difficult to come by.
> 
> Aren't the Verizon SIM card phones for 4G LTE only? If so, they will only work where LTE coverage exists _on the right frequencies for the phone_.


My 5S seems to work for talking on 1x , 3G and LTE, data pretty much only works on LTE

I know my daughter on a Verizon 4S had no problems paying the piper to use the phone over in the EU


----------



## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

FSMike said:


> Verizon, very few spots on the ICW without a good signal.


Ditto. Very few spots on the entire east coast ICW without verizon coverage .... Even in the 'low' country.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I can access data over my 5S with Verizon in all modes, its just a question of speed.


----------



## nccouple (Jun 11, 2011)

My fiancé has Verizon, I have At&t. Hands down Verizon is better in our cruising area. She has coverage 99% of the time. Me about 25%. I plan on going on her Verizon plan soon.


----------



## XPatriot (May 10, 2011)

AT&T seems to have better coverage in populous areas, verizon seems to have better coverage in the sticks.

My work phone is AT&T but my iPad (personal) is Verizon. My iPad is my principal computer on the boat and it tends to be better than my phone when in the water (I'm not sure if this is affected by the phone/iPads ability to receive a signal).


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I am flirting into stuff I don't really understand. However, I had one of our IT guys tell me that ATT wireless is the successor to Cingular. Apparently, the name was a reference to technology that only require contact with a single tower, while most others required more than one, so you would hand off or have backup or something I didn't quite follow. The "singular" technology does work better in heavily populated areas, as you move less and have better signals. The standard tech is better everywhere else.

Not my story, I'm just trying to repeat it. Poorly, perhaps.


----------



## JohnZion (Feb 25, 2010)

Thanks everyone! Seems the consensus is that sailors on the East Coast have best luck with Verizon. Anyone have experience using Verizon in Europe? I have heard ATT is a bit better there.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

JohnZion said:


> Thanks everyone! Seems the consensus is that sailors on the East Coast have best luck with Verizon. Anyone have experience using Verizon in Europe? I have heard ATT is a bit better there.


I think this is apples and oranges. In the US, the difference is cell tower coverage. In Europe it was compatibility. For years, ATT had the chip used in Europe and Verizon had to imitate it somehow, which did not work well in my experience. I believe there are Verizon phones that have that chip now. If this is important to you, be sure your phone does.

In either case, you need to update your software to be able to work in foreign countries, which is easy to do, but your carrier will likely charge you a fee for access and then very high minute costs. Many just rent disposable phones wherever they go instead, or buy local sim cards, which is less expensive.


----------



## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

Verizon clobbers AT&T along the Maine coast. My brother is on AT&T and for years I had an AT&T work phone side by side with Verizon. No comparison up here.. If cruising Maine I would still suggest a well installed cell amp such as a Wilson...


----------



## Solandri (Sep 7, 2012)

SVAuspicious said:


> Interestingly the next generation of cellular technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a wideband version of CDMA. Unfortunately carriers are using different frequency bands with different 3G backup systems. In the near-term that means truly world phones will be more difficult to come by.


Not exactly. 4g LTE supports a variety of formats, but most (including all the major carriers in the U.S.) are going with OFDMA. To explain how OFDMA works simply, each phone communicates on a set of frequencies assigned only to it. Depending on which frequencies have or didn't have a broadcast, the tower can tell which phone(s) transmitted. Even though two phones may transmit on the same frequency, based on which other frequencies also saw a transmission, the tower can figure out which of the two phones (or both) transmitted at any given time.

CDMA (Sprint and Verizon for voice) works on a similar concept, except it assigns a unique signaling code to each phone. Like writing vertically and horizontally on a sheet of paper, you can tell the signals apart even though they occasionally overlap. Both CDMA and OFDMA work very well for saturating bandwidth, since the bandwidth limit is determined by the noise floor. The more phones are communicating with a tower, the higher the noise floor (broadcasts from other phones are interpreted as noise when processing a particular phone's signal), and the bandwidth to each phone gets scaled back automatically. So when you have few phones transmitting, each phone gets a lot of bandwidth. When you have a lot of phones transmitting, each phone gets a little bandwidth. Automatically.

GSM (AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.) uses TDMA for voice. This doesn't scale at all. Each phone is assigned a timeslice to communicate with the tower, and it gets that full timeslice even if it doesn't transmit anything. Consequently, the tower's bandwidth is split evenly across all active phones, even if they aren't actually transmitting. It's so bad that GSM took nearly 2 years to catch up with CDMA data speeds when 2g rolled out. By the time 3g rolled out, it was pretty clear CDMA was the better technology. GSM threw in the towel and added CDMA to their spec specifically for data (HSDPA is wideband CDMA). That's why you can talk and use data at the same time on GSM phones - they have a TDMA radio for voice, and a CDMA radio for data, and both can be used simultaneously. The Verizon and Sprint 3g phones just have a single CDMA radio, which is switched between voice and data modes depending on the current need (data can suffer latency, voice cannot). Thus the limitation of voice or data but not simultaneously.

Because TDMA uses timeslices, the speed of light becomes a factor. There is a hard limit to the distance a GSM phone can be from a tower and still make a voice call. Beyond that limit, the phone's signal reaches the tower after the phone's timeslice is over, so you can't make a voice call period. Theoretically, because no other phones are transmitting during your phone's timeslice, there is less noise and the range should be greater with GSM. But because of the speed of light limit, your range is actually less with GSM. I don't remember exactly, but I believe it was around 30 miles. With a CDMA phone, if you can mount an external antenna/amplifier high enough and crank up the gain, you could conceivably make voice calls with a tower a hundred miles away. Signal degredation will begin more quickly than with TDMA however, because of the noise from other phones.

OFDMA is so good it's also used for 802.11ac. It's only coming into use now because it requires a lot more signal processing than CDMA. Electronics have finally gotten powerful and efficient enough that you can do this on a phone or laptop without killing the battery in an hour. All phones require a separate OFDMA radio for LTE, so they can now all make calls and use data at the same time (unless your CDMA phone has to fall back to 3g data).

The LTE standard also mandated a SIM card just like GSM, so even Verizon's and Sprint's LTE phones use a SIM card. If you're careful to make sure the phone you buy supports LTE bands used in the countries you'll be visiting and the carrier unlocks it for international use, you can just pop in a local SIM card and use data there. The North American version of the Google Nexus 5 is particularly good for this, as it supports a wide variety of frequencies on TDMA (GSM), CDMA (Sprint but not Verizon), WCDMA (data for 3g GSM), and LTE, and comes unlocked if you buy from Google.
Phones (Phone Scoop)


----------

