[pct-l] Phone service

[Brian Lewis]

Tortoise said: "If you want a cell phone for just your hikes, look into the
prepaid plans -- some have low monthly fees but relatively high per minute
fees."

Unless, as Halfmile suggested, there's a particular device or particular
service you want that only allows one carrier, my suggestion for
pay-as-you-go plan users would be Verizon's plan.  My logic:  AT&T and
Verizon seem to have the best coverage along the trail, and at least last
time I checked (I think within the last year), AT&T's "Gophone" service has
a more limited coverage map than does their contract service (not an easy
thing to check or confirm ...).  To my knowledge, Verizon's coverage map is
the same for pay-as-you-go customers as it is for their contract customers.

I'm still on AT&T's Gophone plan (was a contract with them when I was
hiking) as mine is a GSM device, but my wife's cell phone uses Verizon's
pay-as-you-go (they call it "prepaid"); we haven't had this long enough to
check backcountry coverage, but overall it seems like a reasonable choice.


Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle