Most carriers are co-located on the same towers so coverage is basically the same across carriers.

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GoogleFi has been a game changer for us.

I second this, I switched to from Verizon to US cellular when i lived on pemaquid, Verizon had terrible coverage on any of the midcoast peninsulas then. It’s been great!

I've been using Tracfone for decades. They used to use all four carriers' towers but were bought by Verizon recently.

No stinkin' complicated contracts, though! I only pay $45 every few months.

OP is looking at coverage in southern Maine. Not midcoast.

i use straight talk cuz it’s cheap and works fine for me

Thats objectively not true.

For one. There's two languages cell phones "speak" CDMA or GSM. ATT and Verizon use these different wavelengths. To put it very simply think the difference between gasoline and diesel. Yes they fundamentally do the same thing but they're different.

Next. Each carrier operates bands. They're required by the fcc to sell and maintain a set amount of them. Think channels on a walkie talkie. ATT is channel 1 and T mobile is channel 2. They don't accidentally broadcast over eachother unless roaming agreements are met. And even then main customers have higher priority on the network. These channels all are broadcast at different wavelengths and spectrums. I can tell you from years of experience that US Cellular for example owns and maintains many of their own towers. Some carriers do some don't.

What you're likely thinking of. Contracts between carriers and pre paid carriers. If I'm Verizon I have all of this extra "space" on my network. I can avoid heat with the fcc by leasing this to pre paid carriers to let them have lower priority, lower speed service that may receive less high quality voice.

Why don't you notice that? Because you're probably not at a ball game or something over crowded every day where the tower needs to decide to boot you off.

So what does matter ? Coverage. Each carrier has a unique relay establishing a foot print between the towers that establishes your service. For example us cellular works really well in rural Maine but maybe not so well in styles they're not licensed in like Massachusetts. So maybe you'll find data is slow and won't work. So maybe ATT is better. Or maybe you're up and down the highway, and T Mobile is better.

It's easy to think the strategies they all deploy are identical and just pick the lowest cost carrier but I'd recommend finding out specifically how they work in your area. Otherwise you could be stuck with subpar service.

Or don't. I'm just some dick online. You're a whole ass adult. Do what you want.

I love Mint mobile. I'm in the Belgrade Lakes area, but I've used it in Portland and points south with no problems. They use the TMobile towers.

> There's two languages cell phones "speak" CDMA or GSM. ATT and Verizon use these different wavelengths. To put it very simply think the difference between gasoline and diesel. Yes they fundamentally do the same thing but they're different.

Hello! How are things going for you back in 2009? Weathering the Great Recession okay?

What you said was essentially correct—before LTE became widespread in the United States. Apple was the one of the last major handset manufacturers to put LTE on its devices, which it did starting with the iPhone 5 in 2012. The pre-LTE CDMA/GSM radios that the carriers have on their towers are being shut down as quickly as the carriers can get these legacy devices off their network. These days, if you're not getting either LTE or 5G (at any frequency band) but are instead only getting either EV-DO, HSPA+, or any of the pre-LTE technologies, you're at the very fringes, and as soon as the carriers are able to shut down that radio you're getting nothing. The differences among the carriers is no longer CDMA vs. GSM. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and USCC all use both LTE and 5G.

Are there differences in coverage among the four major carriers that operate in Maine? There sure are. Are they related to differences between GSM and CDMA? They are not. They are related to different carriers owning different sets of spectrum in different areas and these different frequency bands having different propagation characteristics. T-Mobile's LTE in the 600MHz band is going to provide different coverage from their LTE in the PCS band.

>What you're likely thinking of. Contracts between carriers and pre paid carriers.

No, he's likely thinking about all of the towers that have radios for multiple providers at a variety of frequencies at different heights. It costs a lot of money to build and maintain a tower, so it makes sense that AT&T, USCC, and T-Mobile are going to want to rent space for their own radios on a Verizon tower—and vice versa. This is an entirely separate arrangement from MVNOs.

>If I'm Verizon I have all of this extra "space" on my network. I can avoid heat with the fcc by leasing this to pre paid carriers to let them have lower priority, lower speed service that may receive less high quality voice.

Carriers do sell excess capacity to MVNOs, but they don't do it to "avoid heat with the FCC." They do it to make more money from excess capacity that would otherwise not make them any money.

TMobile has made a massive push in Maine. I get better coverage in Washington County than I did with Us cellular.

I had T-Mobile and currently have Verizon. T-Mobile gave me better service around southern Maine (Saco-Biddo, Portland, Westbrook). T-Mobile was also better for me when I go up to Bangor or Eastport for work.

My wife had Straight Talk for a while and she almost always had better service than I did with either carrier. Especially when we were out towards Cornish and Fryeburg areas. I'd probably recommend Straight Talk or T-Mobile. Verizon sucks, and their customer service is equally shitty.

I heard Cingular is pretty good.

I have Verizon. I can be somewhere will full service LTE and I still can’t stream a song or load maps.

There is no cell provider with 100% coverage in the state. Not even 100% coverage in the populated areas. If you are unhappy you might want to ask people who live or work near you what they have.

I have no option about this "same towers" claim but I will say my spouse and I have different carriers and it's extremely common for one of us to have service and the other to have none. (AT&T vs Verizon). I wouldn't say one is better necessarily but they are very different.

Mint Mobile (uses T-mobile). I pay $20 a month for unlimited talk/text and 10GB of data. Can’t be beat. I live in Portland and have flawless service.

I’m in Western Maine, and I’m very happy with Total Wireless, which was recently bought out by Verizon. Service is second tier, but it still works everywhere Verizon would, and my bill together with my son’s is still cheaper than my old Verizon bill was alone.

On price alone I would recommend anyone other than Verizon.

We switched from AT&T to T-mobile to save a good amount on our family plan. In York County they both work fine, but in the rural area where we used to live you had to go with AT&T to get service.

I prefer Star Cellular, myself.

Verizon sucks in Maine. sounds odd but I had Straight Talk before and had great signal mid coast and western maine