While the giant outdoor hot springs pool, hiking trails out the front door and overall summer camp-like feel at Chena Hot Springs Resort make me so excited to be a part of the planning process for the upcoming conference, one of the things that requires some adjustment on my part is the cell phone and internet situation. And all attendees should be prepared as well.
Currently, the only cell phone company that gets service up at Chena Hot Springs is Verizon Wireless. All other cell phone companies will likely get zero service. While I cannot speak from personal experience for any company besides T-Mobile, during our visit this past August I did not just get bad service at the Resort, I got no service at all. Going outside didn’t help, walking towards the road didn’t help. I got my messages and texts about halfway through the drive back down to Fairbanks. And was told that was typical for other carriers as well.
And for those of you that do have Verizon service, even this service is relatively new and is voice service only. Robin had her Verizon smartphone and was able to make phone calls without incident, but did not receive emails to her phone while at the Resort.
For some, this situation may provide the perfect opportunity to shut off technology for a couple of days. But for anyone who thinks they may experience unbearable cell phone withdrawal, a prepaid, Verizon cell phone is a great option. To ensure service at the Resort, you should make sure the prepaid phone and the minutes are Verizon specific, but both the phone and the minutes should be available at a Verizon store or other local retailers such as Walmart and Target. Typically basic phones can be found for as little as $20 and then varying minute bundles are available depending on how much talking you intend to do. You could even forward your current phone to your prepaid phone and would barely miss a beat! But no matter what kind of pre-paid phone you buy, you still will not be able to use data at the Resort. Internet is a different situation…
Internet service too is limited at the Resort and unfortunately even less reliable than the cell service as the satellite delivery makes it susceptible to weather interference. There is no internet available in the guest rooms, but the Activity Center will serve as our working press room as wireless is available in this area. Even here, the satellite service is no match for the high-bandwidth fiber-optics many of us have been accustomed too, so internet service will likely be slow and we will have to try to limit the number of people online at any given time. We would recommend all attendees try to limit their internet needs. Large file downloads or video streaming will likely be unsuccessful, though I was able to get caught up on my return emails in relatively decent time during our visit.
There is one internet alternative also made possible by the Verizon cell tower: Verizon Mobile Broadband USB Modems. For those of you that already use or own one of these Verizon internet thumb drives, again you are in luck. For those with monthly service plans, the service will be available at Chena just as you use it regularly. For those that own one of the Verizon modems, but do not currently have service enabled, pre-pay data is available through Verizon for varying amounts of data to allow you to access the internet at the Resort. If you do not already have a Verizon USB modem, you could also use the pre-pay option similar to the phone, but as is typical with pay-as-you-go service, you are required to pay full price for the hardware and in this case, the full price of a Verizon USB modem is $250. If you plan to use the USB modem beyond just our conference or could find a used device somewhere for cheaper, this may be an option, but it also is unlikely to be feasible for most.
Now I tell you all of this not to discourage you from attending, but merely to manage expectations. Our staff will be planning accordingly and will be doing all we can to help make the situation as workable as possible. We will bring walkie talkies for our staff to keep us in quick communication throughout the event and we will also have our office phone forwarded to a prepaid Verizon cell phone so we can continue to receive calls made to our office while on-site. We will also work with Verizon to see if any special accommodations can be made to provide less expensive USB modems and emergency phones for attendees and speakers to use. Finally, we will be using out of office messages on our email accounts to alert people of our limited email access while at the Resort and provide means to reach us by phone with any urgent messages. This way we can be flexible as to how much we access the internet and try to avoid peak times and leave those available for attendees. My Facebook news feed will just have to wait until after conference!
Should you have any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding cell or internet service at our 2012 conference, you contact me at jpollett@owaa.org or 406-728-7434. We look forward to seeing you up there!
Next up…travel and transportation tips.
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