Howdy all.

Had a question for anybody familiar with Alaska.  Does cell phone coverage exist up there if you aren't around Anchorage?

Going to be working in Bristol Bay this summer.  (Naknek I believe is the town we will be calling home)

Anyways, girlfriend is chomping at the bit and upset because we won't be able to talk often.  Just curious if my verizon phone may work, or if they have any sort of Boosters or service up in that area?  How about AT&T?

cellphone coverage??? what is that, you mean where you don't have to hold on to the other end of the can and string...
cell coverage here is... interesting, some areas in anchorage are dead zones, butyou will get coverage more or less on the road system, problem is you can run into issues with not getting the correct provider so your data speed is none.

Expect to pay through the nose with gci.

Lots of dropped calls,missing texts and poor data.



They have very poor customer service.
Wish to hell the state/feds would go after them.

He is with Verizon; why would he pay GCI?

But Verizon doesn't have any network in Bethel, nor does AT&T. GCI and ACS offer 2G coverage per their maps. Hopefully one of them has a roaming agreement with Verizon.

Not having been to Bethel I don't know how the service is there. Before GCI was there, did anyone else offer cell service? Or does anyone deliver better service than GCI?

This last summer I was in Bethel and Nunivak and pleasantly surprised that my ACS phone worked in both places.

That being said, get any distance away from a village or off the road system you're not going to have much coverage at all.

Pics of girlfriend required before answer.  This is Arfcom!

$1-$3 per minute pre-paid depending on carriers for the most part. Our Iridium's cost around a grand for just the phone. Most times minutes will not rollover, so if you don't use them by the end of the year, they disappear. The N-reach satellite texting phones/Bluetooth up-links may be a better option. Some have Qwerty keyboards and some use Bluetooth to connect to your existing phone.

There are some pretty cheap options out there now.  Spot came out with a phone with service through Qualcom that was very reasonable.  The sales guy said their service is comparable to Iridium as long as you're south of the Arctic Circle.  Obviously Iridium is the gold standard for coverage, but probably more than most people need.

GCI has service in Naknek. ACS uses their towers as well. I do not know if other carriers use the towers. Google GCI or ACS and give them a call to see if your service provider will use the tower. I have seen people using smart phones around there. There is 4g service out there. I have been commercial fishing out there for over ten years.



I have used a cell phone by the X. If you are on a boat fishing this summer, that is the "Y." It is where the tenders hang out at.

Here is ACS' coverage map. You can zoom in on the Naknek area. It looks like they have service at all of the major fishing villages in the area.

http://www.alaskacommunications.com/Online-Care/Service-Coverage.aspx

Have fun, good luck, and be safe out here.

Here is some boat porn

This shot took me at least a dozen tries to get the moon inside the eye.


We were about to anchor at the "Y" to wait until the next opener. Fish and game tells you when the next time you are allowed to fish.



This is from a house in South Naknek looking into the River Mouth around midnight. You can see the "Y." It is the line of boats behind the crane.  


This landing craft got stuck on the sand bar in the middle of the river for a tide.


Here is a boat getting ready to deliver fish

I have both a Verizon and AT&T phone.

Had the Verizon phone before I moved up. There is an issue with some Verizon phones getting their settings messed up and try to pull signal from Canadian towers, making them not work. They had to send me a replacement phone, which was a pain since you cannot activate a Verizon phone in Alaska.

My AT&T phone has better coverage in the Anchorage area and while going down the peninsula. When they both have decent coverage the data is much much faster on Verizon, so now I just keep it at home and use it as a wifi hotspot instead of paying GCI for internet service.

Whats a cell phone?  Could I feed my dogs one to keep the sled going?  Sometimes when I am being chased by polar bears they can barely make it back to the igloo...

hahaha Ok Thanks all!  I just wanted to ask.  Didn't plan on much but asked anyways.  Ill talk to my uncle about using his Sat phone.  But me and the girlfriend got everything figured out anyways.


Frozin will you be up there this summer?  Im going to be up there June to mid July not sure which of 3 boats I will be on though.  It will be interesting.  Always wanted to give it a try.

Verizon uses ACS towers in remote areas.  Been using Verizon up here since 2008 in Delta Junction.  My BIL works for GCI and has a cell through them.  He has terrible service with his phone pretty much everywhere.

WE live on upper Yukon, never owned one my entire life. Pay for my kids I phone bills every month as they are away at school. When I see the Idiots in Anch & Fair, talking away, I don't want them either.  They don't work where we live.  I'd hate to see all the kids with boxes to their ears like zombies. We have a sat phone, but only use it in emergencies.

 

I believe those are based on the GlobalStar network. It's been 5 years since I tried one of those and likely never will again. At the time they said their coverage was "just as good as Iridium south of the Arctic circle". In reality it sucked. I've never had a spot where I couldn't make a call with the Iridium phone as long as I could see the sky. The GlobalStar phone had lots of dead spots and usually involved hiking to the highest point you could find and tilting your head until you found a spot where the call wouldn't drop every 30 seconds....It should have been a dead giveaway when they couldn't get it to work in the parking lot in Wasilla. "Oh it doesn't work here you need to be on the other side of the parking lot".

I travel all over the state and have found ACS to have the best coverage on the road system. Generally you get coverage as you get close to small towns on the high ways and lose it when you get out of range.  As for Bristol Bay I have no idea you probably will have it in the town but will lose it fast once you get too far from the tower.