Cell Phone Coverage at Lake Powell

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Grant Stevens - USBR

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I know this has been discussed here before, a search turned up very little so I will create a new thread.

I have 2 doctors joining us on the house boat this year, and having the ability to receive calls is important to them.

Im very familiar with Sprint and Verizon, but they both have tmobile and att respectively.

Can anyone share their experience with tmobile and att? Most interested in Dungeon Canyon/ Dangling rope area. Please post area of lake and carrier for both voice and data. I will start it off with Sprint and Verizon.


Location: Dungeon Canyon (On beach back in canyon)

Sprint:
Voice: Not available
Text: spotty, eventually would send, text only, no pic
Data: Not available

Verizon:
Voice: Not available
Text: spotty, eventually would send, text only, no pic
Data: Not available

Dungeon Canyon, mid channel line of site to Navaho:
Sprint: (sprint roams on verizon but data is throttled to very slow speed)
Voice: acceptable
Text: ok
Data: very slow, not usable for most

Verizon:
Voice: good
Text: good
Data: good LTE signal
 
That is such a tough question to answer. I have T-mobile, and last September, with my older Samsung S5, I had decent coverage around Bullfrog, Halls, Moqui, Hansen Creek, Cedar, Iceberg, Annie's, Lake. More good than bad. It's hard to quantify, because you turn a corner and no more signal. I had more coverage than I expected, for what little that is worth.
 
There is a good spot for att in the main channel just up from weatherill and down from dangling rope where the summit of Navajo mtn is visible. I can get the exact coordinates for you off my boat gps when I return home Friday if you want?
 
We use a Delorme (now owned by Garmin) InReach satellite text device that will work anywhere a satellite signal is available. We have the basic plan and pay, if I recall correctly, well under $20 per month and we only activate and pay for the months we use the device at Powell, typically just spring and fall. We only get 5 messages and weather reports per month with this plan but overages are less than $1 per message or weather report.

Our girls gifted us the InReach because they became increasingly worried when mom and dad disappeared into the backwaters of Lake Powell for 10 days at a stretch. We considered this reversal of roles well earned poetic justice. InReach also has an SOS feature -- you push a button and Garmin alerts local authorities of your situation and location.
 
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I have an iPhone 7 and AT&T.

The furthest I’ve ever had service for voice was out in the main part of Padre Bay. Any further north than that for me, and signal was lost.
 
Thanks everyone, this was all very good information. It looks like coverage is similar for all the carrier's, best chance is in the main channel or other area with line of site to Navaho.

I'll advise them to have their office send a text message, that has the best chance of getting through. We can then motor out to the main channel to hopefully be able to place a call.

Best result, they get to disconnect for a while, and enjoy their vacation without worrying about their practice back home... :)
 
As far as text messages. If its iPhone to iPhone your phone will want to use imessage which is internet based apple program. If its iPhone to a droid device it will be old fashion text. You can tell on iphones what type of message it is by the color of the text, blue imessage and green is regular text. Make sure you turn off imessage in settings on your iPhone if you want the best chance for texts to go thru.
 
This is much further north than you are planning but just for FYI around the Mouth of Cedar canyon Verizon has some coverage NOT AT&T. Years ago with an old flip phone I called SLC boat dealer for fix on broken boat with Verizon from that area.. Last week I was down there with a friend and he told me he had several bars on his Phone out in the main channel at mouth of Cedar Canyon (Verizon). Also in San Juan arm with sight lines to Navajo Mountain, Verizon will work, my friend called his wife from camp every night. My AT&T had nothing....
Mildog out
PS most of the time I am glad I don't get coverage LOL
 
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I remember many trips without cell phones or marine radio. I'm still alive. But, since I have them, I wouldn't go anywhere without them. I also didn't wear seat belts for my first 30 years of life. But I feel like I'm already dead if I don't wear one now. Times and people change. I searched down some genuine Oregon trail track way out in hard four wheel drive country. As I sat looking at those tracks and imagining the heat the dust, the death the break downs etc. those brave folks went through it made me a little embarrassed to get back into the air conditioned jeep and reach into a cooler and get a cold drink and sandwich before going down the bad road as a speed 10 times they could manage. We have it really good.
 
I installed a new/replacement 4G/LTE Wilson cell signal booster last winter. I can tell you that this new booster does work. This year I have now anchored in two locations that normally require a boat ride out to open water from camp to be able to make/receive a cell call or receive/send an email. With this new booster I've had good to very good cell phone and data service in both of these locations right from the boat - good enough to conduct work as needed, and even a conference call now and then. I've only used it with Verizon service, so I can't comment on if it gathers enough of other providers signals to allow better service - it is capable of doing so.

For us, this booster working opens up many new anchoring options that we would not go to in the past just because of the lack of cell service. Granted, this option does not help small boat cell signal issues, but for those of your with bigger boats/houseboats, I can confirm that adding this new booster worked for us.

The locations I can strongly confirm we now have good cell use and data coverage that we didn't have before is the back of Dungeon Canyon and the big sandy beach tucked around the corner of the first cove in Padre Canyon. It worked well enough in both locations to use streaming music services without interruption. It also works great at APM where cell signal is not good at all.
 
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Pegasus said:
I installed a new/replacement 4G/LTE Wilson cell signal booster last winter. I can tell you that this new booster does work. This year I have now anchored in two locations that normally require a boat ride out to open water from camp to be able to make/receive a cell call or receive/send an email. With this new booster I've had good to very good cell phone and data service in both of these locations right from the boat - good enough to conduct work as needed, and even a conference call now and then. I've only used it with Verizon service, so I can't comment on if it gathers enough of other providers signals to allow better service - it is capable of doing so.

For us, this booster working opens up many new anchoring options for us that we would not go to in the past just because of the lack of cell service. Granted, this option does not help small boat cell signal issues, but for those of your with bigger boats/houseboats, I can confirm that adding this new booster worked for us.

The locations we now have good cell use and data coverage that we didn't have before is the back of Dungeon Canyon and the big sandy beach tucked around the corner of the first cove in Padre Canyon. It worked well enough in both locations to use streaming music services without interruption.
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Good information Pegasus!

Can you provide a link to the model you purchased? I just looked at their website and there are many choices?
 
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