AT&T or Verizon?

[TboneD]

For my birthday this month my sweet wife gave me my first cellular cams, a couple of Tactacam Reveal X Gen 2.0's. It says on the box it's the easiest of any to set up so she picked the right one for me Lol. So if you're not sure where exactly you're gonna be using it, do y'all have any suggestions which to go with? I'm getting pretty good service in most of the areas I hunt here in Wilson county with AT&T but do any of y'all know if Verizon might be even better?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[UCStandSitter]

Verizon works best in hilly areas. GSM signals dont travel as well. That said if you have good ATT where you hunt, poh-tay-toe, poh-tah-toe

 

[TboneD]

Verizon works best in hilly areas. GSM signals dont travel as well. That said if you have good ATT where you hunt, poh-tay-toe, poh-tah-toe

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Tn Joe]

I have to use att on my place, Verizon cams wouldn't work properly.

 

[TboneD]

I have to use att on my place, Verizon cams wouldn't work properly.

Joe, thanks for the feedback.

 

[TheLBLman]

In many of my areas of Stewart Co., AT&T works, while Verizon does not.

Same is true for my regular cell phones, necessitating me to carry both AT&T & Verizon phones.

In my experiences, AT&T generally has better coverage in rural & remote areas,
while Verizon is better only in urban areas.

 

[TboneD]

In many of my areas of Stewart Co., AT&T works, while Verizon does not.

Same is true for my regular cell phones, necessitating me to carry both AT&T & Verizon phones.

In my experiences, AT&T generally has better coverage in rural & remote areas,
while Verizon is better only in urban areas.

Guess I shouldn't be surprised since it seems like my coverage with AT&T has improved a bit in the woods last couple of years. Thanks, man!

 

[Tn Joe]

I'll add that Verizon phone service works fine on my place but the cams want work properly

 

[backyardtndeer]

Rural area here, att is not that great. I set mine up with Verizon and have 3 out of 4 bars.

 

[TheLBLman]

Every area is different.
But Verizon has focused its towers more on urban areas. In parts of Stewart Co where AT&T erected the towers, Verizon simply refuses to pay rent to AT&T, so there is no Verizon service at all in places with good AT&T.

Truth is, anywhere there is either AT&T or Verizon service, if one doesn't work, it's because that one is not willing to pay the other for use of a particular tower.

 

[TboneD]

Every area is different.
But Verizon has focused its towers more on urban areas. In parts of Stewart Co where AT&T erected the towers, Verizon simply refuses to pay rent to AT&T, so there is no Verizon service at all in places with good AT&T.

Truth is, anywhere there is either AT&T or Verizon service, if one doesn't work, it's because that one is not willing to pay the other for use of a particular tower.

Thanks, man. I really appreciate the help.

 

[sgtwebb1]

On our lease in North Alabama--right at the souther tip of the mountains, VERY deep hollers--Verizon doesn't work at all, except on top of the hills, and there's literally cell towers right across the river from our property.

AT&T however, works even in the deepest hollers. Switched over to AT&T Tactacams this year, haven't missed a pic.

The Verizon coverage map shows plainly that our property-even the fields-are out of network, whereas AT&T clearly shows in network.

I'm way past due a phone 'upgrade', and we're changing to AT&T because of it.
Need coverage in the hills & hollers, not just near town.

 

[TboneD]

On our lease in North Alabama--right at the souther tip of the mountains, VERY deep hollers--Verizon doesn't work at all, except on top of the hills, and there's literally cell towers right across the river from our property.

AT&T however, works even in the deepest hollers. Switched over to AT&T Tactacams this year, haven't missed a pic.

The Verizon coverage map shows plainly that our property-even the fields-are out of network, whereas AT&T clearly shows in network.

I'm way past due a phone 'upgrade', and we're changing to AT&T because of it.
Need coverage in the hills & hollers, not just near town

With only one post suggesting Verizon my decision is made. Thanks man!

 

[sgtwebb1]

Coverage maps, zoom in to see your areas;

AT&T Maps - Wireless Coverage Map for Voice and Data Coverage from AT&T

www.att.com

Verizon Coverage Map: Nationwide 5G and 4G LTE Network Cell Phone Coverage | Verizon

Even our 4G beats their 5G. Use our interactive network coverage map to check Verizon 5G and 4G availability in your area. Find out just how far our nationwide cell phone coverage map spans.

www.verizon.com

 

[backyardtndeer]

On our lease in North Alabama--right at the souther tip of the mountains, VERY deep hollers--Verizon doesn't work at all, except on top of the hills, and there's literally cell towers right across the river from our property.

AT&T however, works even in the deepest hollers. Switched over to AT&T Tactacams this year, haven't missed a pic.

The Verizon coverage map shows plainly that our property-even the fields-are out of network, whereas AT&T clearly shows in network.

I'm way past due a phone 'upgrade', and we're changing to AT&T because of it.
Need coverage in the hills & hollers, not just near town.

Good luck with att, they were our only option for home phone and internet for years. Their customer service is absolutely horrible.

 

[deerhunter10]

I use Verizon. Some not good cell spots but if my phone has service my cameras get service.

 

[redblood]

I have 7 tactacams. I have some on verizon and some on att. Both work fine

 

[1984dog]

Cellular coverage is a crap shoot. I used to have ATT, but got where I had no phone service on the hunting property. Switched to Verizon and had great coverage for probably 6+ years. Purchased some verizon cellular trail cams and my service went to pot along with phone service. Wasted some money on Verizon cell cams. Switched phone service over to C-Spire and phone service is now good. Had a guest down and he had great service with ATT on cell phone. Slowly purchased 6 ATT cell cams and they work some of the time.

I am convinced that the cell phone carriers know where there customers are as phone service changes over long period of times. I am almost certain that ATT simply takes some time off at times (data service) as I have watched numerous times when I had deer or turkeys in front of me for long periods of time and the camera and did not get any cellular pictures. I placed a Browning (non-cellular) camera on the same tree - and guess what? My cellular cameras miss a LOT of deer. If I had to guess, I'd say my cellular cam only picks up about 70% of available images as I have data gaps that last hours at a time. I suspect that ATT simply turns off data service to some of their towers at random times.

If any of you guys think you may have the same problem, try putting a non-cellular camera on the same tree as your cellular camera and then compare images between the two. I think you will be surprised.

 

[TheLBLman]

If any of you guys think you may have the same problem, try putting a non-cellular camera on the same tree as your cellular camera and then compare images between the two. I think you will be surprised.

True.
But to make a fair comparison, your cell & non-cell cams should be similar.
If you place a Browning cell cam along with a Browning non-cell cam,
doubt you see much difference in the cell pics received and what's on the non-cell card.

Also, most cell cams will still transmit any pics they take, even if delayed by the cell service. If they don't come in today, they should show up tomorrow (or on the next scheduled upload).

Some cell cams are designed to only "upload" a single pic per triggering event.
In those cases, you miss seeing a lot of cell cam pics (until you pull the sd card, where they should be).
You can somewhat circumvent this by setting those cams to only take a single pic per triggering event, then have less "down" time (i.e. no delay, a 1-second, or 5-second delay) between triggering events. This way (1 pic per event) you will at least have all pics taken transmitted or uploaded.

In areas of poor cell service, many pics taken by any cell cam may not get "uploaded" (to the server enabling you to see them) immediately, and may be delayed by the cell service just being intermittently too low for the connections. But, those pics should still get uploaded, even if a day or two later.

 

[TboneD]

True.
But to make a fair comparison, your cell & non-cell cams should be similar.
If you place a Browning cell cam along with a Browning non-cell cam,
doubt you see much difference in the cell pics received and what's on the non-cell card.

Also, most cell cams will still transmit any pics they take, even if delayed by the cell service. If they don't come in today, they should show up tomorrow (or on the next scheduled upload).

Some cell cams are designed to only "upload" a single pic per triggering event.
In those cases, you miss seeing a lot of cell cam pics (until you pull the sd card, where they should be).
You can somewhat circumvent this by setting those cams to only take a single pic per triggering event, then have less "down" time (i.e. no delay, a 1-second, or 5-second delay) between triggering events. This way (1 pic per event) you will at least have all pics taken transmitted or uploaded.

In areas of poor cell service, many pics taken by any cell cam may not get "uploaded" (to the server enabling you to see them) immediately, and may be delayed by the cell service just being intermittently too low for the connections. But, those pics should still get uploaded, even if a day or two later.

Thanks for the info and tips!