Cell coverage in Maine?
 

I'll be flying up to Maine on business and I've just realized my Sprint phone doesn't have reception north of Portland, ME really. I'll be mainly around the Bar Harbor area although I may make it all the way to Bangor. Anyone here have a pre-paid cell service that they'd recommend for that area? I was thinking if it's a GSM phone I could also haul it around internationally next time.

Tracfone has some coverage north of Portland, and to Bangor.

Unfortunently, you can't get coverage overseas. :( But at least, there is no activation fees, and you get 20 minutes (when you activate online)! :) And there is currently a promo that you (and the one refering you) both get 120 additional minutes! :D So you can get 140 minutes with them! :D

If interested, I will be glad to refer you - just PM me.

Geez, folks, were not that remote anymore. Really. I have a lot of salepeople visiting me with various cell phone services including Sprint and I'm all the way up here in the sticks of Northern Maine. Their phones work fine except for a few black out spots in very remote areas. By the way, you'll be happy to know that Maine has now updated utilities to include fresh running hot and cold water and flush toilets for you flatlander folks from "away". :)

The reason I posted is that I had a colleague who was just up in Bar Harbor and there was no sprint reception on his cell. I'm sure the flush toilets were nice though.

Indoor toilets? :D

I havent been there for a couple years but as I recall in the Bar Harbor/Ellsworth area TMobile worked fine. Cant remember about Bangor.

Coverage maps
 

TMO has an excellent coverage map on their site that is very accurate. You can consult it to determine if it meets your needs. I would also assume Cingular probably has similar coverage map on their website, as would others?

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i was all over the place between manchester, nh to portland, me to bath, up the coastal towns, to acadia (bar harbor) a few months ago. i also have sprint and knew i'd face network problems.
my solution was to activate their $5/mo roaming bundle on my account for the time being, and cancel that option when i left maine. i watched my phone switch over to analog just about everywhere north of portland, that wasn't on I-95.
you'll definitely lose web access on analog, and analog eats the battery a bit faster, but at least you'll be able to make calls.

Thanks for that tip. Unfortunately the Treo 650 only supports digital roaming on Sprint. :td:

To the other posters, thanks I'll look into T-mobile and Cingular.

I was in Bar Harbor and Acadia a few weeks ago with my sprint phone (sanyo 8200). I too have the $5/month free roaming plan, so i was just worried about getting some signal and not particularly a sprint signal.

North of Portland and driving to Bar Harbor it was all digital roaming. (No web access, but good call quality and battery life.) Bar Harbor and parts of Acadia were digital roaming. Other parts of Acadia and the south of the island were either really bad digial roaming or analog roaming. There were a few times on the south of the island where I couldn't get any signal good enough to make calls.

Sprint claims they have roaming coverage in Bar Harbor. I'm going to ask whether they mean digital or analog roaming since I specifically asked about a Treo 650. I'm not sure if the rep knows that the Treo only does digital roaming unfortunately.

based on studentff's comments i'll rephrase my roaming statement to be unspecific with regard to analog/digital. my phone doesn't distinguish between the two well under visual inspection.
could be worth asking this question on sprintusers or howardforums.

I'd add a dual-mode phone to my Sprint account and set up minute-sharing were it me. That way you can keep the Treo but have access to AMPS if need be and it won't cost a fortune. Prepaid analog roaming costs a FORTUNE. If you do want a prepaid option, I'd do Simple Freedom. They're an Alltel product but also use Verizon's network as 'home'. Analog roaming is .50/minute and you can recharge by phone or on the 'net. VERY convenient vs. Tracphone which handles it all on the handset.

I seem to remember forcing myself onto the Verizon network while on Monhegan (off the coast and not too far from Bar Harbor). I don't remember how I did it but got the tip from Howard Forums.

fduvall