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Alltel works great up here, but only due to CDMA roaming. While they have a license to cover up here, they haven't yet... from my house, on 191, I'm using Sprint. Took a trip to the Blue Ridge Pkwy. yesterday, and was on Verizon the whole time... when you're going 45 MPH in a GMC Yukon, the coverage is in and out, but stopped at the overlooks or on the trails, it's very usable in 911 situations... and who goes out on the trails to chat or change cable service??? If you want to find out who you are roaming on with any network, dial *228 and listen. By the way, the reason that CDMA is better than GSM (Alltel, Sprint, VZW VS. AT&T / SunCom) is because CDMA has been deployed for about 8 years longer than the latter in America and you're probably double as likely to have roaming coverage in rural areas with CDMA.

Great reception when other carriers can't get a signal, mine is the highest or next to it. The only way to go is US Cellular!

AT&T added their 3g network to Hendersonville and it is amazing! Some dead zones aren't dead zones anymore, call quality is improved, and data is 3x faster than Verizon (in my tests)

Coming from Verizon (the monopoly carrier around here) I was expecting a HUGE drop in coverage quality. While service did go down in some places (Crab Creek Rd), call quality increased 10 fold as well as lees dropped calls. If you live somewhere with AT&T signal, they're the better choice simply because of call quality itself. According to a recent press release, 3g is expected sometime by the end of the year for both Henderson and Buncombe counties. This is great news!

This area used to be a 'fringe area', with the school in the valley surrounded by hills signal was weak although it was still usable. Went there today and had 4 EV bars and 3 1x bars. Verizon must have tweaked the signal. Indoor coverage was better as well. I would loose service in my sons class but not longer do. Maybe its the phone, but in general coverage seems to be rocking it around here with Verizon lately. Props!

Everyone here is ragging on Verizon, but in truth, if your Verizon phone has no service, nobody does. True, there are dead zones and call quality is a little iffy at times but at least you have service in all sorts of places that your friends with AT&T won't. It's a different story in Raleigh however, but in the mountains Verizon is the best choice. USC might be okay considering you can roam on Verizon, but their network isn't as reliable here. The majority of the population in Hendersonville has Verizon so you get the benefits on IN calling. I've had all major 3 (ATT, VZ, Sprint) and Verizon is the only choice in Hendersonville. I would love it if they built a tower right at the entrance of Pisgah so the signal would travel. DuPont has usable signal is the majority of the places however

On par with the best reception you can ask for. However the phone selection is from the late 90's.

Against a common misconception that AT&T in the mountains sucks, I find it on par with Verizon and US Cellular and at times better. AT&T seems to keep a more stable signal and has higher call quality which leads to less dropped calls and network busy signals than with Verizon. This could be capacity issues as well considering the majority of people have Verizon. There are a few dead zones (mainly in backwoods rural places in the middle of no where) but suprisingly I could call and text from the top of mount mitchell as well as hiking up mount pisgah. As with all carriers coverage on the parkway is spotty. If you travel to anywhere else in North Carolina, AT&T is the only way to go. They are FAR superior to Verizon in both Raleigh and Charlotte

Initially I was nervous about switching to AT&T from Verizon but now I am glad I did. Coverage with Verizon was ok at best and call quality wasn't the greatest which suprised me because the majority of the people here have Verizon. Verizon has coverage in a few places on the parkway AT&T doesn't but for the most part they are equal. AT&T has FAR better call quality than Verizon. Verizon has their 3g network in Hendersonville, AT&T not yet. They just added Greenville though and Asheville is next. Other than that no reception issues. I really do have more bars in most places than I did with Verizon as well as less dropped calls and better call quality.

With Verizon, almost everywhere I go, I can get a usable signal, even in DuPont State Forest... you'd be surprised; if you're outside and only have one bar, it really goes a long way. The only "no service" spot I've found is mills river campground (small dirt road straight down the side of the mountian on the Parkway), and the tunnels on the Parkway. There's a couple places in the boonies out here Verizon doesn't pick up, US Cellular lets me roam with em, and all of VZWs plans are National so I dont care!