Alltel does not provide service in the Southeast part of Montana. Go over the hill to Wyoming, and there is great service.

Intermittent poor to no reception leading to dropped calls.

We occasionally have 1 bar with Verizon, using a Yagi directional antenna. We had good coverage with my Nokia 5120 (trimodal) and Cingular (now ATT) until feb 18 when they canceled my service. There is now no cell coverage in Ft. Smith thanks to the FCC and the greed of the cell carriers causing them to only service high density (profitable) areas. This is a safety issue - break down in the winter and you may die! THANKS FCC. Call your congressman.

No cross over service for AT&T pay as you go customers - shame on you AT&T - I should be able to spend my balance where ever I choose. It is 2008 not 1988 - get your switching agreements sorted and your act together. Why is it si can go to any country in Europe with my UK vodafone plan and call of any network (at a price I will agree) but I cannot evev switch state in the US and still use the same SIM card / service provider. In fact AT& T stink.

when are you putting in the tower / you have picked a couple spots- you are selling phones to people in this aera telling them that the tower will be in by 12-01-2007? when - where - what now?

We stayed in West Yellowstone, and as long as we were within (approx.) a ten mile radius, we had a signal. Once we ventured away from "civilization", the signal quickly degrades. We only checked signal strength in areas where we figured that we could receive a signal, but in general, don't plan on being able to use the phone inside the park.

actually montana can be a touchy place for anyone... any service, but weirdly enough chinook is one of the touchiest things i've ever seen, it's ALL or nothing, I either have 5 bars or zero, they're working the kinks out but mostly it's just because they're the only GSM service in montana... they're not even an option on the carrier choice, but i'm not complaining, it gives me what I want, texting and calling, for cheap, if I wanted excellent service I wouldnt live in montana :P

In 2006 reception was fairly good but spotty. This year there is none at all.

West of town I don't know of any phones that get very good reception! Looking for a good carrier that will work in west Kalispell / Kila area. Enough people live out this way, you'd think they'd get more towers up!

We have very limited coverage in our area. We need towers to really utilize our cell phones. If we are lucky, we can get coverage in certain areas from towers located in Big Arm, Plains, St. Ignatius, and possibly Ronan. We feel like our cell phones are almost a waste of money except when we travel to areas that do have coverage.