Ten years ago, most cell phone providers in the Lower 48 states had no idea whether their service would work in Alaska. Five years ago, a paltry few Alaska residents outside Anchorage were counting on mobile devices. Today, though, you can visit the Great Land with your handheld and confidence. In a recent test, we tried out an AT&T BlackBerry Pearl 8110 in several locations with the following results:
Fairbanks: five bars of service, no dropped calls.
Anchorage (airport area only): five bars of reliable service
Nome: 3-5 bars of service on the ground, device also worked off-shore within site of land
Barrow (airport area only): reliable service
Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay: great service on the ground (5 bars); 1-3 bars of service off shore, with dropped calls.
While the vast oil fields around Prudhoe Bay-and severe winter weather-make cell phones a prudent safety measure, the pan-Alaska reliability still impressed.
