Are You Sure You're Covered?

Be aware that your wireless Internet cellular phone may not work everywhere you go

Joe St Sauver
joe@oregon.uoregon.edu

If you travel frequently and plan to take along a WAP-enabled wireless Internet cellular phone, it's important to check the coverage area where those phones will work. Data service areas will not necessarily be the same as voice cellular service areas.

If you have a state cell phone with ATT PocketNetª service, you will want to check the coverage maps at

http://mirror.attws.com/images/maps/oregon_ip.gif (Oregon)

and

http://mirror.attws.com/images/maps/national_ip.gif (national)

What you learn may surprise you.

For example, if you travel to Corvallis, you won't be able to access the wireless Internet from your ATT PocketNetª phone--our friends at Oregon State and the other good citizens of Corvallis don't have PocketNet coverage. Likewise, while PocketNet coverage apparently exists in some smaller Oregon cities such as Medford and Florence, there's no coverage in Bend.

Nationally, you might be surprised to find that PocketNetª service is not available in Atlanta or New Orleans, nor, according to the PocketNetª coverage map, is service available anywhere in Wisconsin, Montana, North or South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama or or Mississippi.

If you don't travel to those states, or if you don't need access to the wireless Internet when you do, that's fine. However, if your travel includes one or more of those areas and you expect to use your PocketNetª service while you're there, you'd better reconsider those plans. Your phone may work fine for voice calls wherever you happen to go, but its wireless Internet coverage is less assured.