Trip report: Portland to Spokane on I84 and 395

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Although the coverage locater doesn't show it yet, there is native Verizon
coverage in eastern washington and perhaps oddly, in Umatilla and Irrigon
Oregon. All using SID 222 (same as Seattle).

The route used to have a section of analog-only AT&T service (billed as
roaming) but now includes both US Cellular and Inland Cellular as friendly
roaming partners. At least 100 miles of the trip is analog-only on US
Cellular, but it's quite usable analog.

Overall, much improved since last trip through the area.

-Dan

PS: The funny part is my T-Mobile GSM phone had solid coverage the whole
trip (of course all digital). My Verizon phones had short instances of no
service, and although improved in that section, not the equal of T-mobile.
An odd day when T-Mobile bests Verizon. Of course, a few miles east or west
of the highway, and Verizon's roaming partners may still have coverage, and
T-Mobile would have none.

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Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
http://cell.uoregon.edu

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Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Dan-

Thanks for the trip report. I will be travelling to Spokane on business
in the near future from PDX.

I wonder if that new coverage is using the Qwest gear or if it is just
using the spectrum and Verizon has deployed new gear?

Also, if it is newer gear it may hae EVDO here quickly...

Verizon will be rolling out EVDO in Portland in the next couple weeks
and also up in Seattle from what I understand...

-Eric

Dan Albrich wrote:
> One last thing-- The Verizon coverage in Eastern WA is only in cities, and
> not on the highways. So for example, Kennewick now has native Verizon, but
> a Verizon phone traveling by car roams on the highway between cities.
> Data services did work on the native Verizon areas (of course). I presume
> this is PCS coverage provided by licenses purchased from Qwest but was
> unable to verify Cellular or PCS (I was driving).
>
> -Dan
>