Tracfone Coverage

Update: Street-level Information Now Available

You can now see your Tracfone coverage down to the street level. This info was difficult to get before because which major network you were on depended on which handset you used. Therefore, the website simply showed a generic national coverage map. For more detail, you had to figure out which network your handset used and then go to that network's site such as Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile.

Now they've upgraded the site so that you can choose the handset you have or are interested in getting and then see what kind of coverage you will have with that handset!

Unfortunately, they don't make this info available (when I last checked) for their new smartphones. For these you just have to find out what network they're on and then check how good the coverage for that network is in your area.

This is much improved from the earlier situation where you had to rely on anecdotal reports such as the ones below.

Coverage Stories

I wondered idly about extent of my Tracfone coverage as we sat behind an SUV with the license plate "MTNLUVR". My family and visiting relatives were on vacation and driving through the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, North Carolina. It wasn't autumn yet, so there were very few cars on the road.

I had placed my Tracfone on the nook of the door handle of my Honda Odyssey, and as we rolled upward and onward, I saw that I still had a strong signal. I thought, well, this is a popular tourist location so I suppose there would be coverage. After all, the grass on the side of the road get mowed, something you don't notice until it's pointed out to you from someone visiting the USA.

Tracfone Coverage on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Elev. 2720 ft.

We came to our first scenic outlook overlooking the Haw Valley. We got out and stretched our legs. The children eventually came outside though they were a little apprehensive because of the height. I was apprehensive because of the railings. Still, I managed to notice that my Tracfone was still getting a strong signal.

Elevation 3175 ft.

Next stop at 3175 feet elevation.

Here the cell phone's signal was starting to fade, but it was still usable, indicating pretty good tracfone coverage!

The final stop was at around 4000 feet elevation, and here, finally, the tracfone coverage ended.

We drove for a little bit longer, then as the light was fading, turned back around and drove to downtown Asheville. This was the weekend that the college students were back so it was a happening town.

A band was playing, people were dancing and a good time was had by all.

Updates

What follows are some personal experiences in somewhat "remote" areas.

Poconos in December

Another Tracfone coverage update, this time from the Poconos. We drove up one Sunny morning from the New Jersey border on our first day trip to the Poconos.

We stopped for lunch. Then headed on up to one of the state parks. Unfortunately I hadn't really prepared for going snow tubing so we just ended up driving through some of the State Parks until we found a frozen lake where someone in the distance was ice-fishing. Got cold awfully fast up.

The Tracfone still had a couple of bars of signal strength.

2006

Here's a quick update showing the importance of good tracfone coverage when you are traveling . . . and lost at one o'clock in the morning!

I was driving up to New Jersey with my family to attend my brother's engagement party. I knew we weren't going to be able to leave until the evening, so I booked a hotel around 350 miles away, which would leave us with about a three hour drive the next day.

We got to our highway exit at about one o'clock in the morning. I followed the (very clear) directions I had printed out from the web and instead of arriving at a Holiday Inn Express, wound up on a dead end street cutting through two rows of the cleanest, most neatly kept trailer homes I'd ever seen!

Clearing my head, I pulled out my Tracfone to see if it had a signal. It did, thanks to great tracfone coverage.

I called up the hotel, found out that I should have taken the exit before, and that the hotel was just off the highway. The call took about one minute, and within fifteen minutes, I had turned around, got back on the highway, taken the right exit and had pulled up to the entrance of the hotel.

P.S. The hotel, too, was one of the cleanest I've seen.

Why not tell us . . .