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Im looking at buying a 3g phone, mainly for the odd web browse while im out. I live in rural west wales (uk)and I was suprised to find the the nearest town (aberystwyth) has 3g coverage by all networks except tmobile.
What i'd like to know is although it looks like HSDPA is currently not enabled by any network in this area (going off the coverage maps) who would be the best bet for rolling it out first?
At the moment im leaning going towards orange as they have slightly better coverage then the rest, 02 being second, voda 3rd and suprisingly 3 last.
Its a shame its so hard to find out network rollout plans!
Okay so i'm in an area where T-mobile only has edge coverage and I'm hating my life right now without 3G, but AT&T has 3G coverage here, so why won't it let me roam on to the faster network? I can pull it up under network services but it just won't let me actually roam on to the network. Is this an issue of the phone simply not having the VPN's and such? Cuz if T-mobile won't charge me for roaming I damn well wanna use it! I'm using Cyanogen's Mod and the Hero 1.3.5 theme. All I want for my birthday is 3G!!!
They use different frequency's for the 3G signal.. thats why unlocked G1's can't use att 3g even if they have a AT&T sim
Hmm... seems strange the G1 would still be able to see the network being that it's using a different signal. Is there any way around this? Cuz they just stationed me in Quantico, VA for the rest of the summer and I'm ready to shoot myself on this Edge crap! And sadly 2 months is just too short of a time to actually get internet installed lol
hum.. I doubt it will help any but thier are som VPN settings floating around the board here that haykuro made. most ROMS come with it, I doubt it'll help though.
if that doesn't help take 2 Motrin and drink plenty of water. /end navy joke
Haha, yeah I'm a corpsman, we're working down here at the Marine Corps officer candidate school, so my mantra has been "Take Motrin, hydrate, and change your socks." These past couple weeks. Yet they somehow still mess those things up lol.
USNCorpsman said:
Okay so i'm in an area where T-mobile only has edge coverage and I'm hating my life right now without 3G, but AT&T has 3G coverage here, so why won't it let me roam on to the faster network? I can pull it up under network services but it just won't let me actually roam on to the network. Is this an issue of the phone simply not having the VPN's and such? Cuz if T-mobile won't charge me for roaming I damn well wanna use it! I'm using Cyanogen's Mod and the Hero 1.3.5 theme. All I want for my birthday is 3G!!!
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Im sorry to say but you cant use 3G on AT&T. Tmobile didnt want to wait for any bands in the 1700mhz or 1900mhz band to become available, so there 3G runs in the 2100/1700mhz band and that is the only band the G1 can use to get 3G. You can see AT&T service but that is voice, not 3G. AT&T 3G runs over the 1700/1900mhz band. here is a artical about this.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/10/unlocked_androi.html
stupid t-mobile ruined my summer!
wrong part of the forum to complain about your t-mobile signal.
mods needs to move this.
USNCorpsman said:
stupid t-mobile ruined my summer!
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well at least you have edge and wifi. better then no signal at all
johnnylicious said:
wrong part of the forum to complain about your t-mobile signal.
mods needs to move this.
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Wasn't complaining just wondering if there was a tech reason it wasn't working with these builds and if there was a way around it
thread moved
please post in the correct thread please
thank you
You must be barely outside of their coverage area. The map shows 3g coverage on both sides of where you are. The schedule that is floating around says they are supposed to expand coverage to Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, and Virginia Beach this summer so you might get lucky and get it before you leave.
Quantico's huge, T-Mobile has no 3G service there, and WiFi is out as NMCI doesn't permit wireless APs.
You're stuck with EDGE on T-Mobile, or EDGE on AT&T if you roam, but you won't get a speed increase if you use it, just a roaming charge. The problem is the frequency, as others have mentioned. AT&T uses 850/1900 where as T-Mobile uses 1700/2100. There's no known way (yet *crosses fingers) to use a T-Mobile G1 with AT&T's 3G service, so sadly, you're going to be stuck for 2 months out there with what you have.
I have my Dream working on AT&T's 3G service, and it works quite well, but it's not a G1. I specifically bought a Rogers Canadian HTC Dream (which is band-compatible with AT&T) for this purpose. So if you're *that* desperate for 3G service, you could spring for a Rogers Dream or Magic phone, but they aren't cheap. Additionally, they don't run custom ROMs yet (we just got root on the Rogers Dream this morning, and the Rogers Magic was only last week). So... There is no perfect solution for you yet if you want 3G and root. I've been living on my ADP1 with EDGE for 5 months now, and it isn't *that* bad, I guess.
On the more "bleeding edge" frontier, there's speculation that if one were to flash the Rogers dream radio to the T-Mobile G1, that it would do 3G on AT&T instead of T-Mo, but nobody's been able to get it done yet. A few people say it's the same chipset, it'll work, a few others say it won't, but till somebody tries it, we'll never know for sure. Either way, it's not currently possible as we don't have a Rogers Dream radio image.
So, there's your options I'm afraid. And something else to consider - even though AT&T says they have 3G, check with somebody else who has their service to see if they're actually getting it first. Quantico is a huge base, and there's no cell towers on it to my knowledge. So it's possible that nobody is getting 3G signal there, on either network.
I'm not with tmobile, but I love my new phone. I would switch over tomorrow if I had any idea when I could expect to have 3g anywhere near me. granted with at&t I won't have 3g anyway, with the N1, but that's the point. there's no reason for me to switch and break my contract, when it won't help my cause at all. I don't know if it's because tmobile has no Idea when they'll get to us here in York, PA. or if they just don't tell people because they know if they're not getting faster service soon enough, they just won't make the switch. It has to be killing the sales of the N1 when people on at&t that don't live in a tmobile 3g area see that they'll be giving up their 3g access. that said I will say that I've been using my phone all day on edge and when available WiFi, and it hasn't been too painful, but when you have hardware like this, you want it to be fully functioning, and bad a*%. come on TM get us what we need. I do realize that part of the problem is the government not getting off their frequencies, but this has to change so that what google is trying to do, by offering this phone with no strings, or locks I should say, can actually work. Go google, and tmobile for the effort, I love my N1. I would just love it more with fully functioning 3G.
P.S.
if you're with me and wanna help tmobile get it's baught and payed for air waves from uncle sam, so that we can all benefit. follow this link, http://www.t-mobile-takeaction.com/
customer, or not and let's make this thing happen.
it all depends on sales man... if everyone in york is on att or verizon then tmobile may not give too ****s about service in york pa because the open market there is extremely small, the only way to do business there would be to get people to switch over and with the typical cell phone user that is not likely because of the benefits of mobile to mobile. i wouldnt want to switch if EVERYONE in my town had the same company, thats free calling all the time...
the first areas to target for expansion of service are large populous areas and high traffic areas such as along highways... the only thing york has going for it is the interstate running through it, other than that push for people to switch to tmobile or you are out of luck lol
The spectrum that T-Mobile purchased is still in use by some government agencies. There are places where 3G is fully set up and ready to go, they're just waiting on the spectrum to be abandoned.
If 3G has been installed in a city near you and you still do not have coverage, you probably will not GET coverage for years. They are still in the "adding cities" phase, and not really gradually expanding their network yet.
If there is no 3G in your nearby city, hope and pray you are covered when 3G comes.
If you live in the country, you are SOL with Tmo 3G.
Tmo 3G sucks ! I get 3G in living room and EDGE in bathroom ! Went skiing and my friend with ATT was streaming music on 3G and I had GPRS roaming.....
.....and all this while Sprint rolling 4G already
kolyan said:
Tmo 3G sucks ! I get 3G in living room and EDGE in bathroom !
.....and all this while Spring rolling 4G already
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better than no 3g at all. at&t no chance of 3g on N1, atleast not yet...
Being a current spring user, but leaving spring for TMO, as soon as N1 lands, I'm a little hurt, and will cry my man tears (properly cried on the inside, as man tears are) the next time I hear spring referred to as spring
is this going to get to be a meme on xda's little corner of the intertubes?
Though I think the Fascinate looks better and has a camera flash, the Vibrant seems to look better on paper: More on-board memory, HSDPA offers "potentially" fasters data speeds, Tmo can do voice and data at the same time while Verizon can't, no Bing or VZ apps on the Vibrant, and I can buy the phone out of contract at a reduced rate.
The only thing that makes me hesitate (besides the less-appealing design), is Tmo's coverage vs. Verizon. I'm primarily in L.A. / I.E. and do some occasional traveling, and have no experience with Tmo service. Should I be concerned or just make the jump?
i can't speak for 3G coverage on Tmo vs Verizon but can on voice call svc
Tmo seems to have partnered with every small carrier around the country - every year i make about 5-6 visits to clients or suppliers around the country with two other folks from partner companies - one is on AT&T and one on Verizon - and every time we're in a rural area, their svc drops out before my Tmo's does
Last Dec we were heading south out of derby, VT ((on the canadian border) and about 35 miles south you're heading into foothills - my bud with verizon lost his svc, and had to use my phone for about 20 minutes (my tmo was showing 1 bar signal) - he finished his call and about 5 minutes were were i the hills with no signal
when we started coming out of the foothills (they were really mountains but we were gaining elevation with numerous small rock outcroppings around us), anyway, when we started coming out, my Tmo was first to have svc again
they always notice my Tmo's svc is better than their's
and there's no roaming chgs with Tmo here in US or at least i've never had any
have had similiar experiences traveling thru rural S. Carolina, Georgia, Tenn, W VA, Kentucky and western TX and thru New Mexico
nice info above.. but yes.. T-Mobile is GSM/W-CDMA/UMTS/HSPA+ so u can talk-n-surf over 3G (21HSPA+).. also, our speeds dominates all US carriers (even Sprints 4G/WiMax).. T-Mobile will upgrade its HSPA+ data again in 2011 from 21mbps to 42mbps.. i live in Seattle and we have 21HSPA+, but real world results will be between 5-10mbps (also depending on your device limitation).. also, T-Mobile gives u more bang for your buck.. but yes, they do have a smaller foorprint (mainly in more rural areas).. no problem for me since i stay in cities, and not in the boonies.
Even tho Verizon ADDED flash, it gimped its I.M. to 2GB (also no FFC--only Sprint has FFC).. T-Mobile even packed the Vibrant with a few goodies like the movie Avatar.
The Los Angeles and Inland Empire area have good 3G coverage from what I hear. HSPA+ is growing too. 3G coverage when traveling won't be like Verizon so I would check to see if 3G coverage overall is good enough for you.
sec1has said:
Though I think the Fascinate looks better and has a camera flash, the Vibrant seems to look better on paper: More on-board memory, HSDPA offers "potentially" fasters data speeds, Tmo can do voice and data at the same time while Verizon can't, no Bing or VZ apps on the Vibrant, and I can buy the phone out of contract at a reduced rate.
The only thing that makes me hesitate (besides the less-appealing design), is Tmo's coverage vs. Verizon. I'm primarily in L.A. / I.E. and do some occasional traveling, and have no experience with Tmo service. Should I be concerned or just make the jump?
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I live down in the high desert, and travel all the time between here and L.A. and San Diego, and have excellent coverage all over the I.E./L.A./San Diego area. So I don't think you have much to fear with transferring over to tmo
Looks like I'll be switching carriers.
sec1has said:
Looks like I'll be switching carriers.
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Cool Enjoy Calling People and Going Online at the same time with a faster 3G
sec1has said:
Looks like I'll be switching carriers.
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Before you do, find out from people using T-Mobile in the areas that you frequent how their reception is. I love T-Mobile. Their CS rocks and prices are very good, but I couldn't get reception at my desk in my office in Manhattan and had to switch. It's great that it works 35 miles from the Canadian border, but if it doesn't work where you need it, it doesn't work.
Drachen said:
Before you do, find out from people using T-Mobile in the areas that you frequent how their reception is. I love T-Mobile. Their CS rocks and prices are very good, but I couldn't get reception at my desk in my office in Manhattan and had to switch. It's great that it works 35 miles from the Canadian border, but if it doesn't work where you need it, it doesn't work.
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When was that and with what phone? T-Mobile is extremely good in Los Angeles, I don't think you know how good they are out there. There will be weak zones for any carrier but T-Mobile is great in Los Angeles. It's their core market. Also there are some sites planned later this year to go online. Not to mention when I took at look at compass.t-mobile.com, not only was NYC lit up with over 40 new towers (includes microcells), so was the Los Angeles area.. 20 new sites in one zip code earlier this year. So, things are always subject to change.
Drachen said:
Before you do, find out from people using T-Mobile in the areas that you frequent how their reception is. I love T-Mobile. Their CS rocks and prices are very good, but I couldn't get reception at my desk in my office in Manhattan and had to switch. It's great that it works 35 miles from the Canadian border, but if it doesn't work where you need it, it doesn't work.
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can't say anything about manhatten, but worked fine in queens when i visited the inlaws last thanksgiving
I live in the same areas you metioned L.A./I.E. and i have tmo the service is great in L.A. I had verizon and went to school in west la and the service was patchy but with tmo it was at minimum 2 bars all over same area with 3g. the only problem i find with tmo is going to events with a lot of people/cells phones, the phone has service/3g but i couldn't text, make a call, or use the internet. i have problems with this at dodger games and i had problems during the summer at coachella but i love tmo and will definitely be getting the vibrant!!
pinkgabe said:
I live in the same areas you metioned L.A./I.E. and i have tmo the service is great in L.A. I had verizon and went to school in west la and the service was patchy but with tmo it was at minimum 2 bars all over same area with 3g. the only problem i find with tmo is going to events with a lot of people/cells phones, the phone has service/3g but i couldn't text, make a call, or use the internet. i have problems with this at dodger games and i had problems during the summer at coachella but i love tmo and will definitely be getting the vibrant!!
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The Pre-HSPA+ network was pretty limited in terms of how many calls and data it could handle but HSPA+ should alleviate that until the site runs out of spectrum (slots for calls/data).
heygrl said:
Not to mention when I took at look at compass.t-mobile.com, not only was NYC lit up with over 40 new towers (includes microcells), so was the Los Angeles area.. 20 new sites in one zip code earlier this year. So, things are always subject to change.
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Not about to get into an argument about it, just going by my own experience. I used several HTC phones, a MDA, Touch Duo and Diamond. I found the reception great where I live near the Empire State Building, but really crappy in my office in Flatiron and under Grand Central. Even A/B tested with borrowed iPhone SIMs to make sure it was a carrier issue and not a phone issue. I switched to AT&T in Nov of 2008 and haven't had a problem since using a Fuze, Omnia 2 and Nexus One. (Meanwhile T-Mobile went from having only crap phones to a great lineup and AT&T went to becoming a one-trick iPony)
My point wasn't that T-Mobile sucks. I rather like the company, but the service didn't work for me in the places I tend to be a lot. My point was that you should try to actually confirm the reception yourself in the places you frequent rather than just going by others' experiences.
pinkgabe said:
I live in the same areas you metioned L.A./I.E. and i have tmo the service is great in L.A. I had verizon and went to school in west la and the service was patchy but with tmo it was at minimum 2 bars all over same area with 3g. the only problem i find with tmo is going to events with a lot of people/cells phones, the phone has service/3g but i couldn't text, make a call, or use the internet. i have problems with this at dodger games and i had problems during the summer at coachella but i love tmo and will definitely be getting the vibrant!!
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Drachen said:
Not about to get into an argument about it, just going by my own experience. I used several HTC phones, a MDA, Touch Duo and Diamond. I found the reception great where I live near the Empire State Building, but really crappy in my office in Flatiron and under Grand Central. Even A/B tested with borrowed iPhone SIMs to make sure it was a carrier issue and not a phone issue. I switched to AT&T in Nov of 2008 and haven't had a problem since using a Fuze, Omnia 2 and Nexus One. (Meanwhile T-Mobile went from having only crap phones to a great lineup and AT&T went to becoming a one-trick iPony)
My point wasn't that T-Mobile sucks. I rather like the company, but the service didn't work for me in the places I tend to be a lot. My point was that you should try to actually confirm the reception yourself in the places you frequent rather than just going by others' experiences.
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November 2008 is far too long ago. HTC/Apple (especially Samsung) phones also really don't offer good reception regardless of sim swapping. A phone with crap reception will be even crappier on PCS and less crappy on CLR (850). I already stated that I've seen over 40 pink "T"'s on compass.t-mobile.com in NYC earlier this year which ultimately means coverage has improved since 2008. ATM there are over 7 new sites showing and that's within the last 90 days.
That doesn't mean the coverage isn't weak, but the phone matters greatly and the ones you listed are all average or below average. I can go out to a warehouse and have my Samsung phone lose coverage, but not my Motorola? If I only had Samsung phones I'd probably think there was no coverage in that warehouse when there actually is coverage, my Samsung just didn't pick up the signal.
I will say this about T-Mobiles service, about 6 months ago the best signal I could get in my house was edge, now mind you the only carriers getting signal at all in my house were Verizon and T-Mobile. AT&T and Sprint could not get a signal whatsoever even at a window.
Well I woke up one morning and saw a full 5 bars of 3G and thought I was dreaming. Well low and behold now I have that all the time just about anywhere I go. For the record I only live about 10-15 minutes from Boston, so it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere lol.
Just waiting patiently for my HSPA+ now, which the Boston market is confirmed as getting it soon.
heygrl said:
November 2008 is far too long ago. HTC/Apple (especially Samsung) phones also really don't offer good reception regardless of sim swapping. A phone with crap reception will be even crappier on PCS and less crappy on CLR (850). I already stated that I've seen over 40 pink "T"'s on compass.t-mobile.com in NYC earlier this year which ultimately means coverage has improved since 2008. ATM there are over 7 new sites showing and that's within the last 90 days.
That doesn't mean the coverage isn't weak, but the phone matters greatly and the ones you listed are all average or below average. I can go out to a warehouse and have my Samsung phone lose coverage, but not my Motorola? If I only had Samsung phones I'd probably think there was no coverage in that warehouse when there actually is coverage, my Samsung just didn't pick up the signal.
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I think you're basically illustrating my point. All the reasons I switched are irrelevant to anyone that is not me in Nov of 2008. They were highly relevant to me in Nov of 2008, considering that I couldn't get service in a place I spend 1/3 of my life on weekdays. It didn't matter how good the reception would be once they finished the AWS rollout, how good it was in LA or 35 miles from the Canadian border or the fact that the phones I like have sub-par reception. The decision had to be made based on my own experience not someone else saying that it was good.
Drachen said:
I think you're basically illustrating my point. All the reasons I switched are irrelevant to anyone that is not me in Nov of 2008. They were highly relevant to me in Nov of 2008, considering that I couldn't get service in a place I spend 1/3 of my life on weekdays. It didn't matter how good the reception would be once they finished the AWS rollout, how good it was in LA or 35 miles from the Canadian border or the fact that the phones I like have sub-par reception. The decision had to be made based on my own experience not someone else saying that it was good.
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So why would you post here? Seriously though...
heygrl said:
So why would you post here? Seriously though...
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Because this is a phone forum and not a (no offense) network fanboy forum. The phone I want and the phone you want are basically the same and there's more activity here. A root update was posted in the Vibrant dev forum that answered a question on the Captivate forum. Our phone drops 3 days after yours and there's going to be a lot of experimentation going on and the results will benefit both of us.
That and I thought I had something to add to the conversation and couldn't keep my trap shut. Personal failing.
heygrl said:
So why would you post here? Seriously though...
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Drachen said:
Because this is a phone forum and not a (no offense) network fanboy forum. The phone I want and the phone you want are basically the same and there's more activity here. A root update was posted in the Vibrant dev forum that answered a question on the Captivate forum. Our phone drops 3 days after yours and there's going to be a lot of experimentation going on and the results will benefit both of us.
That and I thought I had something to add to the conversation and couldn't keep my trap shut. Personal failing.
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I doesn't really matter whose on what carrier. Each person is going to have different needs and different carriers will support those different needs. I think we can all agree this will be a kick ass phone and blows the iphone out of the water.
I thought engadget did a piece on data rates of carriers & ATT came out on top. Was this incorrect?
Well guys, I don't know how many of you (if any of you) live in the Florida Panhandle, but if you do, you would know that for years our area has been very much behind the rest of the nation in terms of upgrading to newer and faster wireless cellular networking standards. Well, we Panhandlers can now rejoice!! Our years of painful waiting have not been in vain.
On the GSM side...
T-Mobile
After years of dealing with the painfully slow Edge network, T-Mobile users in Pensacola got both 3g AND 4g coverage in limited areas this past week. I was not in town when it got switched on apparently (was in Louisiana where they already have 4g), but was pleasently surprised to see the HSPA+ indicator come on when I got back. It hasn't been turned on everywhere in town yet though, or at least not according to my phone. North, Northeast, and Central P-Cola are the areas I've tested thus far, all of which are served by one tower in the North Central section. Downtown area and Southeast side (East Hill/Heights) still running on Edge. No official announcement from T-Mobile about it though (which is weird, hope they're not just doing a large-scale beta test). Apparently 4g has been switched on a 100 miles east in Panama City as well, per the T-Mobile website. Also per the T-Mobile coverage locator, 2 new cell towers have just been added to the local Pensacola network (one in the northeastern suburb of Pace, and one on the southwestern beach town of Perdido Key), though I haven't been able to test if these are in fact 4g/3g towers yet.
AT&T
AT&T is still in the baby stages of rolling out their 4g system, with little information about when and if they are going to upgrade their infrastructure here in the Panhandle. But they have had 3g here in Pensacola for a while now, and it is decently quick. Much better than Edge, at any rate. I REALLY hope the T-Mobile buyout doesn't go through...I can't stand AT&T. But if it does, then AT&T will absorb all of T-Mobile's infrastructure, and therefore inherit whatever 4g systems T-Mobile has in place here in the Panhandle. This may, in fact be the reason why there is no news/rumors/anything about AT&T releasing their own 4g in the Panhandle - because they aren't planning to. Hmm...
On the CDMA side of things...
Sprint
Many unconfirmed reports have gone around that Sprint is testing their 4g network in and around small parts of Pensacola as well. I confirmed this (at least for myself) by testing out a friend's Evo 4g near the Cordova Mall area where there had been 4g spottings. Not very fast or strong, but we did pick up 4g. However, no one knows for sure when they will finish testing it and fully switch it on. But it's encouraging to see they're definitely working on rolling it out.
Verizon
Verizon just officially launched their 4g LTE in Pensacola and 50 miles to the west in Mobile, AL. Unlike T-Mobile, Verizon has made this event quite a public affair, with even the local news reporting on it: LINK. As Verizon is proudly displays their true data coverage map that breaks down the types of data networks by the different "g's" (unlike some other type of company i know *cough*AT&T*cough*), it is easy to see that their 4g coverage envelops all of Pensacola proper, with most of the surrounding suburbs/small towns getting 4g as well. There are a few 3g gaps here and there, but the overwhelming majority of all the urbanized areas now gets 4g service. It is by far the most expansive 4g network in the Pensacola area, and also covers most of Lower Alabama as well (Mobile, Daphne, Gulf Shores, Foley, Dauphin Island, Theodore, etc.). Panama City and most of the other Panhandle areas are not currently covered by Verizon 4g (save Tallahassle). However, according to THIS article, all other Panhandle areas will be covered by sometime in 2013. Not bad Verizon, not bad at all.
So, all in all, we now have 3 different cellular providers that offer (at least limited) 4g in Pensacola and other parts of the FL panhandle. All 4 providers now have at least 3g coverage in most urbanized areas. And at least two providers have documented plans to keep expanding their current 4g system deeper into the Panhandle.
I feel this video is appropriate for our current situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9y4iXAso4I
About time
I hope they run in by the base. I was at the Carmike the other day and BAM!!! 3G