# How is T-Mobile cell service on the Pennsylvanian?



## Max (Jan 2, 2020)

I'm considering a trip on the Pennsylvanian from NYC to Pittsburgh this summer, and I might try to telecommute to my job while on the train. But in order to do this, I will need to be able to maintain a decent cellular connection.

The past couple of summers I've ridden the Capitol Limited from Cleveland to D.C., and I noticed that I had little or no cell service on my T-Mobile phone for a portion of the journey, while passing thru the mountains in Pennsylvania and WV. 

I'm wondering if the cell service is more reliable on the Pennsylvanian. Does anyone know?


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## Lonestar648 (Jan 28, 2020)

Verizon has the only wide area coverage my team will trust. T-Mobile is urban based, so taking the Cap or the Pennsy through the mountains where even the best service struggles at times, T-Mobile goes dark for long stretches. Coverage NYC to Harrisburg is pretty solid, but now you are climbing into the mountains, though Altoona has good coverage before Horseshoe curve. The closer you get to Greensburg, the better the coverage will be. Hope this helps. Just an FYI. My team and I have traveled all of the lower 48 and Canada, we tried ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and always used VZ, coverage outweighs cost for us. We have been known to take the coverage maps and mark them up with the real coverage and hand them back to the cell sales people who cringe trying to sell to any of our teams.


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 28, 2020)

My Verizon Jump Pack often loses connection within a couple minutes of my TMO iPhone and ATT iPad. Something about physics and geography I guess. I keep hearing that Verizon is the panacea of rural wireless but that has not been my experience. Now with "all speed no range" 5G coming I'm expecting even worse coverage than before.


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## Abe26 (Feb 6, 2020)

T-mobile is bad on the Pennsylvanian, Verizon is much better


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## desertflyer (Feb 6, 2020)

The truth is that these cell networks have been very dynamic over the last couple of years. Verizon shutting down their CDMA network in favor of LTE/5G and T-mobile adding LTE Bands 12/71 recently. For example, if you took the Southwest Chief across Kansas 2 years ago you'd think T-mobile has no coverage there, but in 2020 T-mobile has some of the best coverage across the state if your device supports bands 12/71. It's a complicated and dynamic topic, where no two users will have exactly the same experience.


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