On the road
Internet in the countryside and the mountains: what to expect
Where nobody lives there are no masts, and no plan fixes that. What to have ready and which habits are worth more than coverage.
Irene Salazar 5 min Photo by Ben Schr on Unsplash It is worth saying plainly: in an uninhabited valley there is no coverage and there will not be, however many plans you compare. What separates them is where the gap starts, not whether it exists.
What determines coverage in the countryside
- Which local network your plan uses, since their rural maps do not overlap.
- The terrain: a narrow valley can have no signal two kilometres from a village that does.
- The season, since in mountain resorts the network is reinforced in high season.
- And altitude: sometimes there is more signal on a ridge than at the bottom of the valley.
What you must have ready
- The map of the area downloaded, covering the whole route and not just the destination.
- The track or the itinerary saved in an app that works offline.
- Your accommodation and phone numbers saved in your contacts, not just in your email.
- A power bank, since hunting for signal drains the battery twice as fast.
- And aeroplane mode switched on for stretches where you know there is nothing.
Point five looks counterintuitive and is the one that saves the most battery: a phone searching for a network without finding one uses considerably more than a disconnected one.
GPS works without data
That is the best news in this piece: the GPS signal comes from satellites and works in aeroplane mode. With the map downloaded, the blue dot keeps moving where there is no coverage at all.
How to prepare the maps is in how much data Google Maps uses.
The habit worth more than coverage
Telling somebody the plan for the day: which way you are going, when you expect to be back and what to do if you do not check in. It is free, it takes a minute and it is the only thing that works when the phone does not.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get internet in rural areas?
It depends which local network your plan uses, since their rural maps do not overlap. Where nobody lives there are no masts.
Does GPS work without coverage?
Yes. The signal comes from satellites and works even in aeroplane mode, provided you have the map downloaded.
How do I save battery in the mountains?
With aeroplane mode on stretches without signal: a phone searching for a network uses considerably more than a disconnected one.
What do I do if I end up without coverage on a route?
That is precisely why it pays to have told somebody the plan for the day beforehand. And remember that emergency calls go through on any operator's coverage.
