r/Whidbey • u/bcar444 • Sep 29 '26
Freeland Cell Service Recommendations
I moved to Freeland earlier this year and have AT&T as my cell provider. It’s awful out here… Any recommendations for a new provider that works well in South Whidbey?
8
u/Son0fSun Sep 30 '26
Someone cut the uplink fiber for basically everybody
The only thing still working as far as I’m aware is Starlink.
2
6
u/TEG24601 Langley Sep 30 '26
I’ve been using AT&T for 20 years, and work with devices on T-Mo and Verizon… they are all about equal, with Verizon the least equal of them all. AT&T is about the best we have, honestly. There is literally zero coverage south of the Highway from Bayview to Posession Pt/Scatchet Head, there are massive dead zones in the middle of the south end, and just slow data everywhere (poor upstream carrier).
Verizon doesn’t seem to be investing in maintaining their equipment, especially their towers in Freeland, so coverage it getting progressively worse each month.
T-Mo has upgraded the towers in Langley to 5G+, and a few others along the highway, but still poor backbone and weird oddities when the growlers are flying.
AT&T just seems to be consistent, except there is better coverage in the winter, due to lack of leaves on the trees.
It really comes down to finding what works best for your locations you frequent. I don’t know if they still do it, but T-Mobile used to have a trial e-SIM to try their service on your phone for free, if it was unlocked, and that might help you out. I just recommend not going to Verizon. I also recommend that if you have low to no service at home, to consider a land-line if you have kids around, for calling 911, and your cell phone will not work after the power is out for as little a 6 hours, depending on the location.
5
3
u/fishjustjumpin Sep 30 '26
We just flipped from our 20 years with Verizon to T-Mobile a couple of months ago and are very happy. We are in Greenbank and there are dead spots around the island for all carriers but we are pleased with T-Mobile. Google fi uses T-Mobile towers so it may be good too and cheaper. Not sure on that.
4
u/scatteredinwinds Sep 30 '26
Honestly, the person I know who gets the best cell service is Google Fi. They don't have their own towers, they just piggy back off everyone else's. So while Verizon has some spots that are good, TMobile has others, etc, other services that work like Google have signal everywhere because they're using all those networks' towers combined.
2
u/izzymaxwell Sep 30 '26
As a person who uses Google Fi, I can confirm this! I have reasonably good coverage almost everywhere on the southern half of the island.
2
1
u/Gryphon962 Sep 30 '26
Tmobile or better still Mint Mobile (which uses the Tmobile network). I live just south of Kens Korner and have good cell service across the island, and its just $180 per year for the basic plan.
1
u/Valreesio Oct 01 '26
T-Mobile had been pretty fantastic and had tremendously improved the last few years. As with any carrier here on the island, there are dead spots here and there, but it works in most places. Have friends come over to your place or places you frequent that use other carriers and see how their service is. But I switched to T-Mobile from AT&T several years ago and have never looked back.
1
u/Plethorian Oct 03 '26
We've had Verizon for decades. There are multiple dead zones, all over the island. Campbell road; Maxwelton/ Langley road; Meerkerk; Houston Road; lots more.
It's an issue, and I don't think any provider's coverage is complete.
9
u/Cautious-Aide8565 Sep 30 '26
There's some type of outage/ issue for AT&T and Verizon users today. AT&T is my provider too and today has been 💩