On 8/23/2011 7:30 AM, Anonymous wrote:

> It's akin to people like Myriam Joire (editor at Engadget) who will
> take a phone that is otherwise a 9 out of 10 and grade it as a 3 out
> of 10 because it (1) doesn't have 900/1800 UMTS support [but does have
> 900/1800 GSM] support and (2) its camera isn't as good as a Nokia N8.

Actually it's totally different than that. Cell phone users have
consistently ranked coverage as one of the most important factors in
selecting a carrier. The top tier carriers have formed cross-roaming
agreements with smaller carriers in order to provide rural coverage.

In 2010, over 280 million people visited national parks. including 4
million to Yosemite, and 1.6 million to Glacier. Of course some of those
280 million people were counted multiple times because they visited
multiple parks. Probably only 75-100 million individuals. Ditto for
Yosemite where some of those 4 million visitors were double counted. But
still, it's a significant number of people, and AT&T felt it prudent to
install cells in the busiest part of the park, and Verizon and Sprint
felt it prudent to have a cross-roaming agreement with the rural CDMA
carrier, Golden State Cellular.

Besides coverage in the park itself, the adjacent areas to the park also
need to be considered. For example, if you drive to Yosemite from the
San Francisco Bay Area, you'll lose native coverage on Sprint, Verizon,
AT&T, and T-Mobile somewhere outside of Oakdale on CA 120. On Sprint and
Verizon you'll roam at no charge on Golden State Cellular (with spotty
coverage) until Yosemite. AT&T covers Yosemite Valley, but Golden State
Cellular covers some other parts of the park like down by Yosemite West.
With T-Mobile you have no coverage, they do not have a cross-roaming
agreement with AT&T for this area. With Platinumtel, Virgin, or any MVNO
that does not include roaming off of Verizon or Sprint you'll have no
coverage. With CDMA MVNOs that allow roaming, even if it's at extra
cost, you will have coverage. With AT&T's MVNO's you'll have coverage.