Analog NOT Gone, and Yosemite Coverage Report

I was in Yosemite this past weekend, and I noticed quite a few changes
in coverage, for both CDMA and GSM. We came in on CA 140 through Merced,
and Mariposa. In Merced I had analog service, on "Extended Roaming" so
presumably this was Golden State Cellular, but I had CDMA service on
Verizon, which was rather strange. Probably the AMPS signal was coming
from east of Merced where Golden State Cellular is the carrier. I had
GSM on AT&T.

In Midpines, there was no GSM coverage, but there was both CDMA and AMPS
service at the restaurant we stopped at, Yosemite Bug. Continuing toward
the park, there was CDMA and AMPS service all the times I checked, up
to the entrance. However at the road construction area inside the park
on 140, while waiting for the one-way traffic control signal, I had no
CDMA or AMPS, but I did have a good GSM signal.

Where we stayed, in cabin at the Yosemite West development, there was
both CDMA and AMPS coverage, but no GSM. We XC skied 10.5 miles out to
Glacier Point, where there was GSM, CDMA, and AMPS service coming from
Yosemite valley directly below us a couple of thousand feet or so. The
next day we skied out to Dewey Point and Crocker Point, and along the
way there was only CDMA and AMPS coverage, but at the points themselves
there was also GSM, presumably coming up from Yosemite Valley.

There were seven of us on the trip. Six people had Verizon, and one had
Virgin Mobile (and I had my SpeakOut phone which is on AT&T's network).
There was no Virgin Mobile coverage because Virgin Mobile doesn't allow
roaming off the Sprint network, and the only CDMA in the park is on
Golden State Cellular.

Anyway, this confirms that the rural carriers are keeping AMPS active
for the time being. However I was impressed with how much CDMA coverage
has increased, because in the past years there was often _only_ AMPS
service in the places in Yosemite I frequented, but now there were no
cases (at least where I tried the phones) that there were was AMPS but
no CDMA. GSM continues to lag CDMA in coverage by quite a bit, though
there are occasionally places where CDMA has no coverage, but GSM works.