Cellular service on the road

[DanielWade54]

I find in traveling Ohio there are decent cell signals in most of our counties, southeast Ohio with its hills might have some dropouts. I’ve traveled with a Verizon and more recently when we switched to T-Mobile we still have good signals most of the time.

[jchristo13]

I used to live in Maryland and had ATT service via Consumer Cellular and had no problems travelling though PA, Ohio and Michigan.

Since I moved to Oregon, cellular service is more challenging as there can be vast distances between cell towers and they are only near the major highways. One resource I use is an app called Coverage which shows ATT, Verizon, T mobile and US cellular coverage. Another is Cellmapper which gives one a map of the locations of all cell towers per each provider. When your travel route is known, it might help to see what cell towers are along your route and select your provider based upon that information.

AS far as Verizon deprioritizing prepaid users, I will have to investigate that. I have very limited experience with Verizon and haven’t seen it at my home in Oregon.
Jim
2015 Dodge Durango 8 cyl
2019 Wolf Pup 18TO

[Sparkyone]

Hello Larry NC --
This was just last week , The coverage had no issues
Check it out -

https://www.onstar.ca/en/plans-prici...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Just how long ago was this? OnStar has always run on Third Generation (3G) wireless. 3G wireless was decommissioned (shut down) in 2022. AT&T shut theirs down in late February, T-Mobile began in March, and Verizon ended on December 31. The built-in OnStar in cars no longer works. The 3G antenna-space on towers has been repurposed for 5G antennas.

GM has offered OnStar users an app which they can use from their cellphones instead. This is fine if you need a tire-change, jump-start, or traffic directions. If you need an unlock (DW's favorite), you are S.O.L.

[RickCanada]

My favorite is Ultra Mobile. You can get the Sim-chip at Walmart south of the border. For 29.00 you get 10 Gigs of 5G data and after that, 4G unlimited. Also get unlimited calling to all of USA and Canada.

[cap10moe]

Telus has a plan offered through Snowbird Advisor, for unlimited Canada-US roaming with talk, text, & data. 20GB for $50/mo., 100GB for $60/mo. https://www.snowbirdadvisor.ca/membe...ck_logged_in=1

[RVTailors]

I read a bunch of posts and didn't see a Starlink suggestion.

Use at home, take a long when you go camping. $150/mo plus equipment cost one time. Use Internet phone everywhere, Netflix, Prime, YouTube, Roku. Well worth it. Love it.

Don't worry about phone using WiFi calling and receiving calls.

And up to 200 download and for the YouTubers, 12-50 upload. That's cool.

If you can afford it ��.

[sherman12]

I don't believe you have AT&T service just because Consumer Cellular uses its towers. All of the major cell companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile sell excess bandwidth on their towers to the low-cost, or pre-paid carriers or their own budget lines like Straight Talk on Verizon, or Visible. These companies didn't get to be as large as they are by letting 3rd and 4th party carriers offer the same connectivity at half or less the price than what they charge. Several years back I tried Boost Mobile, the pre-paid Sprint carrier thinking I had the same coverage as Sprint. Hah, as soon as I got 5-10 miles outside of town I had virtually zero service.

Good camping friends of ours had Consumer Cellular, sold with the AT&T blah blah. Every time we tried to connect either by text or call to coordinate a camping trip there were constant calls to them they never got, or they'd get a text from me days later. Well, finally they wised up and got on a decent Verizon plan. No more missed connections.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Sparkyone

Hello Larry NC --
This was just last week , The coverage had no issues
Check it out -

https://www.onstar.ca/en/plans-prici...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Sparky, surely you realized that the Canadian offering is different than the US offering. The OP, campingChris, is a Canadian and realized that there is a difference. He was asking for advice about the US situation, not Canada.

[PhilSR5]

Hey there

We just did the opposite, traveling into Canada, picking up a Lucky Mobile sim card at Walmart.
It you want a quick one easy to use just pick a Mint sim card, they have several data plans and run in T-Mobile network, we have one into each of our mobiles as well as into our Winegard router.
http://fbuy.me/ufUm-

[65MAX]

Last June I travelled for 28 days through 33 states from AL in the the SE to NE to NW then back (from SD) to AL. Didn't notice any real issues with cell availability and frequently used my iPhone for a hotspot as well. Just check with your provider that US travel is included in your plan.

[AudiDudi]

Originally Posted by Larry-NC

Just how long ago was this? OnStar has always run on Third Generation (3G) wireless. 3G wireless was decommissioned (shut down) in 2022. AT&T shut theirs down in late February, T-Mobile began in March, and Verizon ended on December 31. The built-in OnStar in cars no longer works. The 3G antenna-space on towers has been repurposed for 5G antennas.

GM has offered OnStar users an app which they can use from their cellphones instead. This is fine if you need a tire-change, jump-start, or traffic directions. If you need an unlock (DW's favorite), you are S.O.L.

About 3 years ago, OnStar ran a special with AT&T for unlimited data for $15/mo. It still works. I Just now ran a speed test and had about 10mb down and 1.5mb up.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

Last June I travelled for 28 days through 33 states from AL in the the SE to NE to NW then back (from SD) to AL. Didn't notice any real issues with cell availability and frequently used my iPhone for a hotspot as well. Just check with your provider that US travel is included in your plan.

I believe every US carrier and reseller offers nationwide free roaming? Do you have some information to the contrary?

[sherman12]

CampingChris, the SIL from Hamilton is in the house. She uses Telus, as posted by cap1. She pays $85 per month with service in the U.S. and Canada. While in the U.S. she'll pay an extra daily rate only charged when service is used but capped I believe she said at $5. This is very similar to when my DW and I had Verizon and were visiting Canada we had an additional per day rate only charged for calls and data but not text.

[markaps]

Originally Posted by campingChris

I'm planning a trip for next year to Pennsylvania and Ohio and wonder what would be the best way to get cellular service on the road.
As a Canadian I don't have the best roaming plan, so am thinking I would need a SIM card of a US provider. I use mostly the data plan for Waze while traveling and internet access while camping.
Any recommendations?

I am a Canadian, in the past I have used T-Mobile prepaid sim cards from Amazon, they worked well. Just recently I changed my cell provider from Telus to a Public Mobile Canada-USA plan. I get Canada-USA wide unlimited minutes and messaging plus unlimited international text and video messaging, and 40GB of 5G data for $50 per month.

[sherman12]

markaps, gonna pass that on to my SIL, thanks!