Cell Phone Coverage on the PCT

I contributed to that list. Even if the info is old, coverage can have only improved. If it seems out of date, that's because no one since then has bothered to email any updates. If you hike, don't follow the recent trend. Its the same with the Water Reports. Only a few hikers bother to email reports in.

The best coverage in the sticks is going to be Verizon as they have the largest network outside of the major cities. ATT is next best. This applies to any remote trail such as the CDT and not just the PCT. Most of the other carriers don't have any network outside of the cities or major highway corridors; so their coverage depends on any roaming agreements they have with other carriers which means you are less likely to find coverage. Sprint has great service in populated centers, but don't think you are going to be using it much in a deserted wilderness that often. I know many who had Sprint and T-Mobile that were borrowing other phones.

In SoCal Verizon and ATT are about the same. There are a few places where one or the other has better coverage but it averages out. But once you go north of the Sierras, that changes as Verizon is clearly better in many places. I had coverage with Verizon in some trail towns that no one did with any other carrier. Imagine what it would be like away from town.

There are 2 places where I remember ATT being clearly better then Verizon. One was at Lake Morena Campground near the border though you could find coverage if you walked 1/4 mile into town. The other was in the middle of the Sierra Nevada at Lake Edison where VVR is (even at the resort itself where the coverage seemed to stop, if you walked down to the beach, ATT would work).

Most of the time, I found that I could get a signal about once a day if I was actually trying. But there are some very remote sections where you could go several days without one such as the High Sierra and parts of Washington as there is no reason to put a cell tower in the vicinity.

Thanks Sean! Also, thanks for contributing to the list on Half Mile's site. I'm a notorious note taker, so I'll pick up the torch and report what I find. So now I definitely want to stick with Verizon, but I have an opportunity to get on a Sprint Family plan for half the cost. If it's not going to work well, I won't bother.

>"The best coverage in the sticks is going to be Verizon as they have the largest network outside of the major cities. ATT is next best. This applies to any remote trail such as the CDT and not just the PCT."

Good to know. I can confirm it is also true in Alaska – all of the trails and mountain highways I've compared between my AT&T and someone else's Verizon phone had far more extensive, remote coverage with Verizon.

Thanks David! I'll be backpacking a lot during this 2-year contract, so I don't think I want to risk bad service. I think I'll stick with Verizon.

I can't speak to the PCT but verizon was waaay better than anything else on the entire length of the AT. You could consider a pay as you go phone. I had a couple phones that ran on the verizon network that worked really well for what I needed. They only cost $30 at the time and I bought the second one so I could get a lighter phone and so I could steal the battery. That meant I had two batteries which was pretty great when I wasn't near electricity for a few days. You just have to make sure the phone run on verizon towers. As an added bonus, the phone would use AT&T towers when there weren't verizon ones.

I was ok with Att for 400 miles of pct sections. Is Verizon that much better? Willing to switch btw.

I carry a Verizon phone for work and an have a cheapie AT&T phone for personal use. I can't speak for the entire PCT but for Washington, AT&T delivers noticeably better service between the two. Superficially, the coverage appears to be the same but I get far more dropped calls from Verizon than I do with AT&T.

Prior to Verizon, my work phone was Nextel/Sprint. Coverage area was much smaller than ATT or Verizon.

Not sure if you see a difference but I'm curious if you do see a difference with these.

I was in SoCal so SoCal was good for Att but could be better. Was surprisingly good around warner springs and above sciccors crossing. That was pretty sparse for houses but good enough for us hikers.

Do most towns still have pay phones? I would think they still do (they were everywhere in 2008). I just carried a re-loadable calling card and it worked well.

At one point I had an ATT iPhone and a Verizon iPhone for work. They both seemed to work about the same coverage wise.

A few years ago, we were really happy with T Mobile's coverage and the only reason we jumped ship to go to ATT was for the iPhone which T Mobile didn't have at the time. From where I traveled in Washington and Oregon, which wasn't on the PCT, cell coverage was comparable with ATT. Never used them for data.