Cell Phone coverage areas

[Charles Moore]

I'm moving back to Puna in 2 weeks and would like to know the current cell phone coverage. I haven't been there for 10 years so I hope things have improved. Could you please indicate what cell phone/service you are using and the locations where you can get a good signal. Thanks.

[robguz]

Depends on where in Puna. Any of the Kalapana coastal areas in general have little to no coverage. I've heard that Cingular is usable in the most areas. I have Sprint and the coverage is terrible. Coming from Kehena I am lucky if I can get any coverage in Pahoa. Heading towards Hilo, I can usually get coverage on the highway near HPP. You'd think these companies would realize how much this area is growing and improve things.

[ika]

when we first got to puna we had verizon and it was hit or miss.we have land in opihikao and verizon did not work,staying at a friends ohana in hawaiian beaches we would get a very week signal.we changed to cingular we get signal in opihikao and hawaiian beaches.cingular is still hit or miss along the coast of lowwer puna.verizon did not charge us a disconnect fee because we proved to them of our address and could not get signal.some phones seem to work better then others,i was told that phones with exturnal antenas can have a booster added for better signal

[Nate SC]

I had Cingular and it worked all the way to the back of Orchidland and most other places on the Island. The Kalapna area had no reception and it seemed to die right after Leilani Estates.

[Charles Moore]

I get a good signal in Mountain view and to my surprise in Fern Forest (Glenwood) as well. Driving around Royal Hawaiian Estates and Ohia Estates shows a signal in places but no signal in others. I'm using a five year old cell phone with T-mobile. I haven't had a chance to test the signal in lower Puna yet.

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by robguz

Depends on where in Puna. Any of the Kalapana coastal areas in general have little to no coverage. I've heard that Cingular is usable in the most areas. I have Sprint and the coverage is terrible. Coming from Kehena I am lucky if I can get any coverage in Pahoa. Heading towards Hilo, I can usually get coverage on the highway near HPP. You'd think these companies would realize how much this area is growing and improve things.

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Robguz - Looks like Sprint has improved there Puna Service and Big Island service in General.

Just read the Following

During 2007, Sprint added 25 new cell sites throughout Hawaii and 10 of these sites were added on the Big Island

Puna specifically was mentioned [8D]

This Site also covers info and shows a coverage map.

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Don't Click here

[Bob Orts]

I think come Monday, we'll start seeing some positive changes in coverage across all carriers. I'm not sure how many AMPS sites are still operating on the Big Island, but there must be several since OnStar has issued complete island blackout for all pre 2005 vehicles. So we know those sites will be shutting down. Of course as AMPS goes away, they become available for upgrade making a whole lot of digital coverage available.

Here on the mainland, you'll be surprised how many calls we've gotten in the last week from people who finally got around to reading the notice that their cell service is terminating and are now freaking out about lost of communications. As an FYI, I do have the carriers report to the FCC on termination dates so if you have an old AMPS based cell phone or communications device, I can give you the date of shut-off. A warning has also been issued to remind people that even though they may have a digital communications device, if it uses the digital control channel of the AMPS cell network, that's ending Monday as well.

[Ed Smay]

I have had pretty good luck with my service in Orchidland.
I have sprint.

"From knowledge comes understanding"

[csgray]

Friends don't let friends sign up with Nextel. We lived in 7 different places all across Puna, and Nextel didn't work at a single one!

Carol

[tptplyr1]

Having just moved to HPP I have found out from several cell phone stores that one of the things to avoid are Samsung phones. It doesn't matter what carrier, but the Samsung phones just don't seem to work well in the "fringe" areas of coverage. Cingular or AtT&T seems to have the best coverage overall. We found out personally as we had bought Samsung phones on Oahu and had to exchange them when we got to HPP. The difference was night and day for us. I have nothing against Samsung, and in fact had used their phones on Oahu but this is what was told to me by the cellular stores both in Hilo and Kona. I was also informed that AT&T is supposed to add a tower in the HPP area within a month or two. Again, I have no connection to AT&T and in fact had used Nextel on Oahu for the last 7 years or so. Just info that was brought to my attention since I have moved.

dean