Big Bear CA Coverage

I spent the weekend in Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City California with my
Sprint phone and folks that have Verizon. Receptino and performance was
quite comparable between Verizon and Sprint. If I did not have a Sprint
signal, I roamed on Verizon digital. On one occasion Verizon did not have a
signal and the folks that I was with could not make a call because Verizon
does not permit roaming on Sprint. On the other hand, I could make a call
with a native Sprint signal.

-mij

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› See More: Big Bear CA Coverage

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> I spent the weekend in Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City California

and you didn't call me? I'm 45 minutes from Big Bear :P

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

I will call you next time I go to Big Bear and buy you a beer.

-mij

"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>> I spent the weekend in Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City California
>
> and you didn't call me? I'm 45 minutes from Big Bear :P
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
>
> "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
> --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> I spent the weekend in Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City California with my
> Sprint phone and folks that have Verizon. Receptino and performance was
> quite comparable between Verizon and Sprint. If I did not have a Sprint
> signal, I roamed on Verizon digital. On one occasion Verizon did not have a
> signal and the folks that I was with could not make a call because Verizon
> does not permit roaming on Sprint. On the other hand, I could make a call
> with a native Sprint signal.
>
> -mij

Thanks for the report. Last time I was in Big Bear (about 2 months
ago) Sprint had two new towers under construction. Not sure if they're
finished now. One was on the West side of the Lake near Fawnskin on a
utility pole and the other was right in the main village area behind
the Bowling Barn disguised as a pine tree. My phone used to go into
roaming in the Village. Hopefully things have changed now. The ski
resorts have had good coverage for a while now.

Larry,

The coverage in the village is very good so the new towers are most likely
up and running. Sprint now has good coverage in both Big Bear City and Big
Bear Lark. I also found a Sprint tower in the mountains while going up hwy
330. It was disguised as a large pine tree. My wife actually pointed it out
and said "what is that in the pine tree?".

-mij

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>> I spent the weekend in Big Bear Lake and Big Bear City California with my
>> Sprint phone and folks that have Verizon. Receptino and performance was
>> quite comparable between Verizon and Sprint. If I did not have a Sprint
>> signal, I roamed on Verizon digital. On one occasion Verizon did not have
>> a
>> signal and the folks that I was with could not make a call because
>> Verizon
>> does not permit roaming on Sprint. On the other hand, I could make a call
>> with a native Sprint signal.
>>
>> -mij
>
> Thanks for the report. Last time I was in Big Bear (about 2 months
> ago) Sprint had two new towers under construction. Not sure if they're
> finished now. One was on the West side of the Lake near Fawnskin on a
> utility pole and the other was right in the main village area behind
> the Bowling Barn disguised as a pine tree. My phone used to go into
> roaming in the Village. Hopefully things have changed now. The ski
> resorts have had good coverage for a while now.
>

Good to hear about that the village is covered now. Yes that pine tree
tower on Hwy 330 near the ranger station has both Sprint and Verizon on
it. It was installed in February 2004. Sprint also has a new tower
in Running Springs in the Fredalba area. It's the first time any
carrier has been allowed to build a tower there in the residential area.

There are a number of locations in northern California where I switch
my VZW phone to SPCS to make calls. Sprint does have great coverage in
a number of places around and in the SF Bay Area where VZW has coverage
holes.
I'm assuming the opposite is also true, since no one carrier has
perfect coverage everywhere.

Apparently even with the ability to force Sprint or the PCS channel on
my VZW phone, there is one huge SoCal SID (forgot which number) that
covers LA out to desert and into Arizona where attempted Sprint roaming
by Verizon users results in the call being forwarded to the American
Roaming Network

There appears no alternative around this kind of total block.

VZW roamers or those handsets with VZW ESNs apparently have been
permanantly nuked from ever roaming on Sprint's network, within this
one SID.

Darn! But it must save VZW lots of money when their S. Cal users can't
roam on the SPCS network. Too bad it's such a huge geographical area
that's not avaiable.

I heard the San Diego area is not effected. Not sure if it's San Diego
VZW users or just within the SD SID. ?

-
David

Sprint's SID for both LA and San Diego is the same (4145).

David L wrote:
> There are a number of locations in northern California where I switch
> my VZW phone to SPCS to make calls. Sprint does have great coverage in
> a number of places around and in the SF Bay Area where VZW has coverage
> holes.

In northern CA, SprintPCS SID 4183 is still in the VZW PRL, and indeed
my VZW phone automatically switches over to it when I am in a VZW
service hole (specifically, a literal hole, the second sub-basement
level of a parking garage; must be a SprintPCS site real near).

David L wrote:
> Apparently even with the ability to force Sprint or the PCS channel on
> my VZW phone, there is one huge SoCal SID (forgot which number) that
> covers LA out to desert and into Arizona where attempted Sprint roaming
> by Verizon users results in the call being forwarded to the American
> Roaming Network
>
> There appears no alternative around this kind of total block.

VZW wants to avoid people roaming on VZW while in the LA and San Diego
area, which they cover, but unfortunately, Sprint uses the same SID
(4145) for that whole area of southern California and part of Arizona.

CharlesH wrote:
> David L wrote:
>
>> Apparently even with the ability to force Sprint or the PCS channel on
>> my VZW phone, there is one huge SoCal SID (forgot which number) that
>> covers LA out to desert and into Arizona where attempted Sprint roaming
>> by Verizon users results in the call being forwarded to the American
>> Roaming Network
>>
>> There appears no alternative around this kind of total block.
>
> VZW wants to avoid people roaming on VZW while in the LA and San Diego
> area, which they cover, but unfortunately, Sprint uses the same SID
> (4145) for that whole area of southern California and part of Arizona.

TYPO... "VZW wants to avoid people roaming on SprintPCS"

David L wrote:

> Apparently even with the ability to force Sprint or the PCS channel on
> my VZW phone, there is one huge SoCal SID (forgot which number) that
> covers LA out to desert and into Arizona where attempted Sprint roaming
> by Verizon users results in the call being forwarded to the American
> Roaming Network

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, summer 2003 with my wife's Sprint
phone and my Verizon phone, took I-40 instead of the normal route from
Cleveland while moving to Apple Valley because we visited family at Fort
Campbell. Citizens Mohave Wireless was what we got between Kingman and
Barstow, but once you get into California you should be able to pick up
Verizon. (Why I couldn't, especially with a Kyocera 2325 which normally has
no RF issues, is a mystery to me.)

The Verizon Los Angeles super-SID is SID #2. Not sure what Sprint's is.

But now, Citizens has either been purchased by or is partnered with Verizon
and is CDMA (they were TDMA). Back in '03 we didn't pay roaming because they
were Extended Network, but the analog coverage was somewhat annoying.

> Darn! But it must save VZW lots of money when their S. Cal users can't
> roam on the SPCS network. Too bad it's such a huge geographical area
> that's not avaiable.

Same in my hometown. Verizon's footprint is supposed to cover everything
that Sprint covers, and in most parts of Cleveland you're fine on either
carrier, but head out into Ashtabula County and Verizon's coverage is a joke
(or at least it was before I moved out here). But Ashtabula County is and
always has been part of the cellular carriers' Cleveland network, so roaming
on Sprint won't happen. Verizon used to have Sprint's Cleveland SID in the
PRLs. But that stopped happening around --- if I remember right -- summer of
2002.


--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

CharlesH wrote:

> In northern CA, SprintPCS SID 4183 is still in the VZW PRL, and indeed
> my VZW phone automatically switches over to it when I am in a VZW
> service hole (specifically, a literal hole, the second sub-basement
> level of a parking garage; must be a SprintPCS site real near).

NoCal is different. Verizon has some coverage holes up there that they don't
down here.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Steve Sobol wrote:
> David L wrote:
>
>> Apparently even with the ability to force Sprint or the PCS channel
>> on my VZW phone, there is one huge SoCal SID (forgot which number)
>> that
>> covers LA out to desert and into Arizona where attempted Sprint
>> roaming by Verizon users results in the call being forwarded to the
>> American
>> Roaming Network
>
> Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, summer 2003 with my wife's
> Sprint phone and my Verizon phone, took I-40 instead of the normal
> route from Cleveland while moving to Apple Valley because we visited
> family at Fort Campbell. Citizens Mohave Wireless was what we got
> between Kingman and Barstow, but once you get into California you
> should be able to pick up Verizon.

For the record, SPCS now covers I-40 quite well between Kingman and
Barstow (even in Ludlow!). Citizens Mohave Wireless (now Mohave
Wireless) is pretty much on their last leg (ever since the big boys
moved into the area, and they lost their affiliation with the landline
telco).


--
Mike

Tinman wrote:

> For the record, SPCS now covers I-40 quite well between Kingman and
> Barstow (even in Ludlow!). Citizens Mohave Wireless (now Mohave
> Wireless) is pretty much on their last leg (ever since the big boys
> moved into the area, and they lost their affiliation with the landline
> telco).

My problem wasn't with Sprint at the time. It was with Verizon. We didn't
really use my wife's Sprint phone while we were moving.

I *believe* Verizon ended up purchasing part or all of Citizens. If Bill
Radio is hanging around, he could probably confirm this.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"