CellularOne(Dobson Cellular Wausau, Wi)

[tbrusky]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]
I have a few questions. Ive been with CellularOne out of Wausau,Wisconsin, and I tell you there service is ok, yea you get voicemail, voicemail indicator to tell you have voicemail, callerID, call waiting, that all fine and nice but there coverage sucks for local home area. I was driving to St. Point this week and about 1 1/2 miles before St. Point I was roaming already thats not even 18 miles from my house, that just pissed me off. Its so dumb. But hell coverage north is awesome. All the way as far north to wisconsin you can go is local all of UP michigan is local, 60% of Minnesota is local. but when you get to Greenbay your roaming again, thats about as much sense as going to St. Point with Roaming isssues. I dont who ever made this coverage area up is either brain dead or dosnt care about getting better coverage for there CellularOne customers. The only reason I use cellularOne is because Im a tracfone Customer and what number they give me to program my nokia 5165 is the carrier I got, and I found out 2 days after Tracfone told me I should wait 24-48 hours and my phone will be activated I found out that CellularOne is my carrier, dont get me wrong Nationwide coverage on Tracfone is great. All states including Hawaii, Alaska, Purto Rico, Virgin Islands are also nationwide. I just dont get this local covergae area that CellularOne has put together. And there arent many carriers around by me who is willing to be partners with Tracfone. Tracfone is the middleman the hassle free worrie about contract, deposit thats where Tracfone comes in. They have top carriers thet signed a contract so all Tracfone customers can get wireless service anywhere, anyone want to take a shot at this and let me know, if I can find a better carrier from tracfone footprint coverage?

[Jack]

I don't know alot about the tracfones but maybe this will help.

1st if Tracfone is offering a nationwide coverage. It would not matter if your roaming light is on. You pay the same amount nationwide.

Also if you tell us how many minutes you are using on your tracfone we can analyze you situation and be able to help you further

Let me know if I can help you

Jack

[tbrusky]

Jack
When Im in my home coverage area I use 1 unit for every minute, and 2 units for every minute, they have all digital from the nokia 5125,5165,5180i. Tracfone is a prepaid, buy them at over 60,000 location nationwide buy go home and have the phone working in less than 8 hours sometimes even less. No contracts, no credit check,. Best of all no bills. But if you think this is a good deal and the best that there is well I guess have to stick with it.

[Jack]

1. What are the other carriers that are in your area.
2. How much do you spend on cards per month

With these questions answered I can further help you

Jack

[tbrusky]

Jack
I did some research for a few hours today and came with a few here.
CellularOne(TDMA Network), Cellcom(CDMA Network), US Cellular(AMPS TDMA Network), Nextel(IDEN Network), Verizon(CDMA Network), Sprint PCS(CDMA Network), Einstein PCS(GSM Network),Century Tel(TDMA Network). CellularOne covers my part of the area but bad to the south, Cellcom covers good area but bad East, very bad, US Cellular covers all part of the south but no coverage to the north at all, Nextel is a joke part of my area and no area for 30 miles south or east or north, Verizon not in my area about 45 miles away but i would be in roaming, Sprint PCS has coverage but would have features good east but sucks north, south and west, Einstein PCS, my area good 20 miles each way no coverage, Century Tel spots here and there have Lower Michigan coveraged all of UP michigan covered, lower part of wisconsin and west all covered no central wisconsin of where I live. Then there Cingular well closest is Madison and that 132 miles away i dont even know if they will try to get it up to me where i live there are 38,000 people. Tracfone has deals with major carriers but i tell you, sometime cant even make a call until the 3x or 4x, by then im pissed of and dont want to call. It really sucks I though CellularOne was great, sounds to me there number #1 crap on my list of cellular carriers, I dont go though cards to much I buy a 60 day usually i have over 700 units which i can do alot of calling, but i want more than voicemail callerID, call waiting, SMS service would be great but cant find a good carrier in my area which is area code 54455, or 54401 all 10 miles apart.

Hope this helps you out Jack.

Hey tbrusky,

I am a Cellular One (Dobson) customer out of Iron Mountain, MI. I don't have Tracfone. Just the standard Cellular One service. They change the damn plans almost daily but my plan is $34.99/month ($38.99) which includes 900 peak and 2100 off peak minutes. The options over here on the extreme N.E. end of Wisconsin and S.C. Upper Peninsula are fairly limited. We have got Centurytel (recently bought out by Alltel which will roll out new plans in August apparently), Cellcom, and Cellular One. Centurytel has a kick-___ coverage area which includes the entire Upper Peninsula and all but the S.E. lower peninsula of Michigan and practically the entire state of Wisconsin excluding the Madison/Milwaukee areas and the extreme Western counties. With Centurytel you pay dearly for minutes though. I still have a Nokia 252 analog (no digital offered at the time and still not I don't believe) plan with them that includes 200 minutes for $19.99/month. Cellcom is a Green Bay-based company and I don't even have their coverage map anymore but I had an analog plan with them as well awhile back which included 100 minutes for $19.99/month but I had nightmare billing problems with them because they do not own or even lease the U.P. of Michigan towers. Even the one in Iron Mountain--where they have an actual OFFICE LOCATION. They use the Centurytel tower and that=problems. I couldn't use my phone for any more than 70 minutes per month because if I used it close to the end of my billing cycle the minutes wouldn't show up until the following month and I would go over. I went a few rounds with Cellcom customer service in Green Bay and they kept telling me I was 'locally roaming' in my hometown of Iron Mountain -- and yes, they do have an office here, but because they rely on Centurytel to turn over the billing I never really had access to my full 100 minutes each month because of this. Finally I said screw it and I turned to Centurytel.

Centurytel has good analog coverage and that great coverage area but the 200 minutes wasn't enough for me--even though I still have my account with them because of the expanded calling area. Escanaba and Green Bay are common destinations for me and with Cellular One I am roaming and paying 60 cents a minute from those cities.

Sounds like I have the same home coverage area as you do trbusky. Northern Wisconsin N. of a line from about 15 miles North of Green Bay over to north of Stevens Point and pretty much straight across to the Minnesota border with the exclusion of St. Croix County. I only have the Western 1/2 of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan up to and including Menominee and Marquette Counties but NOT Delta County (Escanaba) which is only about 50 miles to the East of me. I also have most of the Northern part of Minnesota (where I NEVER travel) except for the N.W. Corner of the state. They also offer a reduced roaming rate of 35 cents per minute (instead of 60 cents from 50 miles to my E. in Escanaba and 100 miles to my S. in Green Bay & the rest of the country) for the S.E. corner of Minnesota including the Twin Cities. I also have free nationwide long distance.

The entire home service area is digital (TDMA?) but to be honest this area of the country is too rural and is NOT ready for the shorter range of digital. Dead spots are just ridiculous when towers are located 20-40 miles apart and then upgraded for digital.....or whatever it was that Dobson did. Instead of building additional towers they just upgraded existing analog towers from the way I understand it.

I've only traveled 2 or 3 times. The very popular E-W route of US-2 to Escanaba and beyond and the even more traveled N-S route to Green Bay. US-2 from Iron Mountain to Escanaba was very bad. Since I have a lot of minutes to spare I tested it. No, I didn't call someone and ask them "can you hear me now?" :-) I just called my answering machine and left messages every 5 miles or so. Service is fine from Iron Mountain to just around Vulcan, MI. After that its useless until Spalding. That translates into about 19.25 miles of dead air on a major U.S. roadway that goes all the way west to Washington State. From Spalding to Escanaba its basically fine. I went into roaming mode about 7 miles West of Escanaba. Why so vast of a dead spot? Well, they have a tower in Iron Mountain and then the next along US-2 isn't until Harris. That's 38.25 miles!!!!!!! The closest tower off of US-2 along the way is about 20 miles S. of Powers in Stephenson, MI on US-41 so if you stop in Powers where US-2 and US-41 intersect and get out and stand on the roof of your vehicle you just MAY be able to get a call out. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] I asked why no tower in Powers since it would be a logical spot with the convergence of two highways and they said "we have been working on that for years" Well....get it in gear people!!!

Another comment about roaming in Escanaba on their system which is Cellular One of N.E. Michigan. GOOD LUCK! I was able to make an outgoing call but incoming calls did not work and my voicemail indicator didn't notify me I had a message waiting until I got back to the Dobson home area and the Harris tower. Also, when I received my detailed billing instead of telling me I made a roamer call from Escanaba it told me I made it from Watertown, WI. A mere 250 miles to the Southwest!!!?? Well, at least the amount was correct!

Now, the trip from Iron Mountain to Green Bay on US-141/41. I was a passenger this time and bored so I did the same thing. Every 5 miles or so.

Dead spots were as follows:

5 miles south of Niagara to Pembine
5 miles north of Amberg to 5 miles south of Amberg
5 miles south of Crivitz to Beaver

I switched to roaming about 7-8 miles south of Dobson's last tower along US41/141 in Abrams. This is about 15 miles North of Green Bay.

Phone operation and roaming in Green Bay was fine. Not only did I receive and complete a call but caller ID and voicemail notification and indicator also functioned. And oh yes, a very handy time and date indicator on my display! All courtesy of U.S. Cellular I believe?????????

Call origination towers on my detail billing the following month corresponded with the information given to me by Dobson customer service as far as tower locations (they will tell you....but only if you ASK them).

Pembine (or more accurately I believe its in Beecher which would explain my dead spot up until practically the village limits of Pembine!)
Goodman (NOT on US141)
Wausaukee
Crivitz
(West of) Peshtigo, Oconto Falls, and Abrams. NONE of which are technically on US141 but apparently were close enough to give me enough reception for satisfactory calls in towns directly on the highway such as Pound, Coleman, Lena, and Stiles.

All in all much more of a success story than my travel to Escanaba was.

Finally, the worst and most rural of my 3 trips.

US-2 Iron Mountain to Florence
70 Florence to Tipler
70/139 Tipler to Iron River, MI
70/139 Iron River, MI to Hwy. 55 near Alvin
Hwy. 55 near Alvin to Crandon
Hwy. 8 Crandon To Armstrong Creek/Hwy. 101
Hwy. 101 Armstrong Creek To Fence
Co. Rds. "C" & "N" from Fence thru Aurora and back to Iron Mountain

WHERE did the phone work?? Well....practically nowhere.

From Iron Mountain to 5 or so miles past Florence on Hwy 70.
5 or 6 miles around Iron River, MI
5 or 6 miles on either side of Crandon (Hwy 55 & Hwy 8)
Briefly around Armstrong Creek
On the county highways from about 10 miles past Fence (near
Homestead) thru Aurora and then back into Iron Mountain.

This was a 200+ mile circle trip and the phone would've probably been able
to complete or receive a call ummmmm, well, maybe 50 of those miles at the
very most. Courtesy of the following 6 towers. Some of which spaced very far
apart:

Iron Mountain, MI
Commonwealth, WI (Florence)
Iron River, MI
Crandon, WI
Wabeno, WI
Goodman, WI

OK, so yes, I have too much time on my hands!!! I've made this same trip with the
analog phone and it had its problems too but worked MUCH better overall.

That's about as much detail as I can give for the plan and service that I am on and the
travels that I have made.

Too much information? Probably so. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Yea, At least Im not the only one who has coverage and bad reception problems. If Dodson would get there head out of there butts and get to work instead of updating the analong towers to digital I know they have to but come on, get the ____ together should of had those towers all digital already. Verizon and Alltel is pretty dam close with the digital hell Verizon was the first to get the 3G technology first. And Dodson thinks they are a great wireless company not to me it doesnt when you have to go 19 south on I-39 near Stevens Point and hit roaming they got a problems, FCC regulations yea what ever Dodson merge or buyout. Its also pretty sad when I get close to GreenBay and Im on US CELLULAR network CellularOne get the whip going here. If Dodson doesnt get it together Verizon or US Cellular will do something it sounds like it. I would take crappy customer service just to get better coverage and Im not paying a arm and a leg either, But I dont know if anyone hered of TRACFONE once again. Its the number #1 prepaid wireless big shot they pieced together the best carriers for there customers which is I and the other 20+ million subscribers. TRCFONE tells me they cant do anything about the coverage talk to CellularOne or Dodson wireless so I do and we are working on new areas it takes time, yea well you guys are sitting on the ____ter US CELLULAR Verizon is getting more towers faster than icecream can melt on a hot day. Its just a alot of crap that I and alot of other CellularOne customers have to deal with dead spots or crappy coverage. Has anyone seen CellularOne stock price crap all the way to .89 cents on Wednesday. Symbol is DCEL. It doesnt look like they will be on the nasdaq to much longer either. Well anyone who has any good suggestion I like to hear them I do chech this once every 2 weeks. SO post some good news we all like to hear thats important to US, not what CellularOne wants. If they would sit down and listen to what we want they would be a better carrier and just arent that good. For example to go to Washington Island, WI you can either take Highway 57 or 42 and you will end up to Gills ROck cant go any farther until you take the ferry well when you get on the isalnd its so bad I think the nearest tower is Escanda, MI but not sure lets see a tower on that island who all go on vaction and when you are waiting for a phone call and you cant even get them and those phone calls are money calls you miss them your out alot of money. Well later for now.
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

[Airb330]

Verizon's prepay is better, it's called FREEUP, you won't be charged extra for roaming as long as you are on Verizon's network (pretty much the whole country), but if there is no Verizon in your area, that sucks. Tracfone is 2x as expensive as FREEUP, plus the roaming is over 1.00 usually on tracfone (2 airtime units)

[tbrusky]

I got rid of that prepaid phone, and got myself a 1 year contract through Sprint NO problems at all, never had a easier cell carriewr than Sprint always helpfull and never get dropped calls with CellularOne now, It was bad, Alot I would say 98% I couldnt call anyone til about the 4-5 readial with Sprint Im on the 1st call and man is it clear, so clear im right on you when i calling you. Well Ive been hearing some wild things latley and just want to know if they are True about CellularOne in gerneral. Verizon has been buying out some of there networks I do believe 4 states already and if they are doing what I think they want they will not stop until they get what they want, ALL of Cellularone that means BY BY BY CellularOne, I wish it would happen soon, they are already going to be delisted sometime this month by the SEC there stock is at a low of .39 today and the rule is if a nasdaq stocks stays below $3 for a period of of 30 days they will be or maybe not be delisted buts its true on the delisted part no more Class A stocks for CellularONE. SO what is to come on CellularOne. Get out of the way and let Verizon come in and take over your drowing company. That way verizon and get areas where Cellularone was and get what people want, not what people wanted 5-10 years ago, still on old technology, TDMA is a thing of the past like Analog is. TDMA is good on one thing good for battery life thats about it. Cant do much with TDMA you cant have 10-20 people on the same channel calling whoever. On CDMA you can. you can carry on 10-20 conversations on the say channel without hearing the person no cross chopping either, CDMA you will never have to worrie about that at all. SO any truth on CellularOne out the door on cellular wireless.

No problems with sprint? Sprint charges their customers 3 bucks to call customer service with billing questions or billing errors on their part. They will not even pull up your acct until you agree to their charges. They also CHARGE you 5 bucks if you make a payment in their store! That is one messed up deal!

CellularONE from Dobson dont do either. Totally free

Verizon....heh...Anyone use their phone after 9pm? Not most. 9pm is when verizons offpeak time starts. How lame! CellularONE from dobson is 7pm-7am! Right after dinner and before everyone is in bed for the night! Just a few thoughts to keep in mind!

CellularONE has been around for awhile, therefor having lots of analog towers. But they are almost all completed in the transition of changing their towers to Digital! It will benefit the comsumer and the company as a whole, everyone is to benefit!

I have been a long term Dobson CellularOne customer and I would agree with you. I do feel however that Dobson needs to upgrade to GSM very soon as all their competitors already either have CDMA2000 (AllTel, as well as Sprint); there is also T-Mobile however there coverage is very poor outside Eau Claire and nothing North ans the same for Nextel. I would really prefer to get a new phone and be able to take advantage of some of the email and other internet stuff that is out there. I feel that is Dobson's biggest downfall. They are using fairly old technology and since they dropped WebMagic service there is no internet stuff at all! They are also very poor with regards to informing there current customers of new rate plans. Unless you call them, you would never know what is out there.

[salesman]

I had Cellular One for a year before moving to the Twin Cities and never had many problems with them. Customer service was great and they fixed any billing issues with ease. If you know the coverage and minute plan there should'nt be any complaining. If you get stuck into it becuase you had a tracphone thats a different story.

Verizon is snatching up markets in the southern WI area. Their Q4 map shows that the whole southern half (including Wausau I believe) is covered. Now whether or not you'll be able to sign up in that area is another question. Since we're an indirect dealer in the Minneapolis market I'm not sure what they're doing around there.

[hotrod]

Verizon is not picking up markets in southern WI. They have just made arrangements with USCC as a primary roamer and Sprint as a secondary roamer. With USCC going to CDMA on Nov 4th and ATT going to GSM eventually, and AllTel already at CDMA, Dobson will be out on their own with TDMA service. Cellcom has just about changed all their towers to CDMA already and have a TDMA overlay for USCC roaming in their market. I would look for Dobson to be selling off northern WI in the near future as they are loosing money.

ho would be in the market to buy them out if they have TDMA yet and no one else does? They still roam with Cingular which picks up around the Wisconsin Dells area and over in Twin Cities would be AT&T. I would assume that AT&T would continue with TDMA as well as GSM whenever that occurs. AT&T also jointly own American Cellular Network with Dobson Communication. I have also heard the rumor that Dobson is going GSM in the third quarter of next year. Any truth to this? I can certainly see where they would lose moey during the transition as they have the oldest system in the area. I do beleive they have the best coverage in Northern Wisconsin though.

[hotrod]

sorry about the empty post.. i will agree with you that CellOne has better coverage on the highways in Norther WI. Cellcom has them beat of the beaten track though, but how often are you out in the woods. USCC is using Cellcom now for northern WI roaming and it really sucks as I cannot drive accross on 29 from GB to Wausau without dropping a call at least a couple of times. Their towers are just not spaced at the correct intervals. I can manually switch my phone over to CellOne however I lose caller ID, Voice mail notification. But otherwise the charge is the same on my bill.

I spend quit a bit of time up in the woods. My cabin is up on Highway 70 between Park Falls and Minaqua. I do not plan on changing carriers as no one has any coverage up there. I would like to see a new phone with all the new bells and whistles however. It would really be conveinant to be able to check email while I am on the road. The whole issue of cellular coverage in Wisconsin frustrates me! I would like to see nationwide GSM with data services all across the country, free off peak time across the country after 7:00pm and no roaming or long distance. I guess it will take several years to see this happen.

[hotrod]

You are not asking for much are you. Cellcom is a local smaller company and are usually last in bringing out the new things.

I wish a national carrier would buy out CellularOne liek Cingular or Verizon and continue to upgrade this area. It would be great to take advantage of all the new phone features like Wireless Internet.

unfortunately if you look at the Wausau and north area on its own it probably is not a money maker. number of towers vs population and all that. Luckily for both you and I when a cell company buys a another cell company a lot of areas go with the sale even though company A might not want the given property and gets it as a package deal. Just a guess, but I would look at USCC to go after that property in the next year, just a guess.

[EuRo]

Dobson Communications to Follow GSM/GPRS Upgrade Path

[tbrusky]

I just got off the phone with Sprint and had to ask them this, because of Dodson Communications(cellularone) new network. The GSM/GPRS networks. I roam on some of Cellularone networks even though when Im in the country I roam on Cellularone network but when I get into town about 10miles away im back on Sprintpcs network again, question is will I still be roaming or what going to happen. A Sprint Rep told me, that as soon as Cellularone signs a contract with Sprint. Those towers will be sprints then and I wont be roaming anymore. Can someone tell me if this right of what the Sprint Rep told might happen.

[hotrod]

If the Sprint rep at the Wausau store told you that they would be using Cell One's towers at no additional cost, this would be unlike anywhere else in the US. Sprint charges for roaming off of their network towers at what used to be .39 plus LD. You used to be able to buy blocks of roaming but I always found it was no cheaper than just roaming. If you or anyone you know are looking for a used phone to use on Sprint, I have a Sanyo 5150, Data Cable & software, Desk pod, Extra HD battery that I used for about 9 months for sale cheap. I live in Appleton.

[jonraeth]

From what I have heard is that CellularOne will not have GSM/GPRS til at least 3rd quarter 2003. That was from one rep. I also heard from another rep, possibly 3-4 years down the road. My guess would be maybe another year with the amount of competition here in Eau Claire. If they do not take steps fairly soon they will really start to lose customers once AllTel, Nextel, Sprint, and T-Mobile add more towers. CellularOne also has no Data services in this area where the other 3 do. They need to do somthing to remain competitive. Also I see AllTel is selling Nationwide Coverage which I would think would take buisness away from CellularOne.

[hotrod]

I actually had Cell One at one time a few years ago out of Wausau when the A side didn't have many towers in God's country. That has pretty much changed now in that Cell One has the highways covered better than CellCom. ATT here in Appleton has some really good plans that I can see, but they are such jerks here in town to deal with that I gave up with them also. Had Sprint for 12 months and because of the roaming thing costing so much money I left that as it would cost to much to go off their network. Had Cellulink/CenturyTel/Alltel in the begining when the cost was .22 per minute for high end usage. I am now on USCC (work) for one phone and Verizon for nationwide stuff. Verizon and SPrint where the only two companies that would give me nights and weekends anywhere in the country. Everyone else required me to be in the home area to take advantage of free minutes.

[tbrusky]

Ive had Sprint since Aug. I love it. I have to say this its 100x better than CellularOne. DOnt get me wrong Cellularone is ok. I had calls when I was on Cellularone networks and I could hear echos, whats that all about. They say thats normal. And since I switched to Sprint no echos at all not even once, its nice. and data too. I also have 50 roaming a months to save my butt just in case, im in a romaing area. and you cant beat the 29.99 deal. 300anytime from 6:59am-8:59pm Unlimited Night & Weekends. Its nice Sprint is looking out for you. But CellularOne who knows who they looking out for. SO, can anyone answer my 1st questions about the GSM/GPRS networks being layed and whats going to happen with the roaming deal with SPrint, Is this what happens when you switch networks to signs those over to someone else and they keep them now. Tell me!

[martysullivan]

On December 19th 2002, I received a letter from Cellularone reneging on their TalkUSA 1500 program. They force you into a 100 minute program, which for a nation wide user is ridiculous and probably a back out unadvertised plan. It is obvious they are cherry picking customers and invoking their "right" to back out of the program which attracted me several years ago. Coverage in the eastern wausau area (Schofield) is terrible and likewise in wisconsin around Stevens point and south west of Madison (US 151) is bad. The sooner a major gets coverage up here the better.

I have shifted to Verizon and made a national trip with the two phones to LA and LasVegas. The Verizon was clear and strong in most cases, while the Cellular One (AT&T) was marginal to adequate. The V60i is a terrific phone and I have been pleased with the service except in the Schofield area, which is a roamer.

I loose verizon extended at Lake DuBay, midway between Wausau and Stevens Point. At times in the Wausau area I will get an extended service signal or otherwise roam. Does anyone have any information on who provides the extended service for Verizon in the Wausau area?

Thanks for the great discussion about coverage.

[hotrod]

The Wausau market is covered by SprintPCS for extended coverage for Verizon. Rumor has it that Verizon is negotiating with CellCom for northern WI coverage but hasn't changed yet. As you know Sprint is really limited in WI and only has coverage around Wausau and to the east it will be gone before you get to Hatley on 29. It will however go all the way up 51 to 8 and over to Rhinelander. When you go south at about DuBay you will lose coverage as every Sprint does, simply because there is a small lapse in coverage at that point. You can once you to past that point loke in on Analog roam which will give USCellular if you want. Alltel is considered roaming at .69 per minute even if you just call 611 to see who you are roaming on. If you have any other questions on WI coverage let me know as I travel that area a lot and live in Appleton. I currently am running with one USCellular phone and one Verizon phone.