Moving from U.P. to Green Bay. Suggestions?

[DisplacedYooper]

How do I make this short? I'm not good at that.

I currently have Cellular One/Dobson and have been fairly satisfied. I will be moving soon from just West of Iron Mountain, MI (UP) to Green Bay. My family will still be in the Iron Mountain area so the 100-mile trip along Hwy 141/41 will be a common route for me. Dobson coverage switches over to "Extended Area" just North of Green Bay. Probably about 10-15 miles North of Green Bay. Its 35 cents a minute reduced roaming. I know Cellular One inside-out on this route. They have decent coverage with a few dead spots. Towers used along the trip include Iron Mountain, Pembine (Beecher), Wausaukee (Middle Inlet), Crivitz, Peshtigo, OCCASIONALLY Oconto Falls & Abrams. Typical dead(er) spots are about halfway between the Iron Mountain & Beecher towers (20.5 miles) and Beecher to Middle Inlet (21.67 miles) towers. The 33.5 mile drive from Crivitz to Abrams isn't bad but since the Peshtigo and Oconto Falls towers are several miles off of 141 (about 7-10 miles I think) there can be a few spots where coverage is less than perfect. There is only 6 or 7 miles between the "Wausaukee" tower (about 2 miles North of Middle Inlet) and the Crivitz tower which is on the East side of the highway just south of town so S. of Wausaukee to S. of Crivitz offers the best signal by far.

Anyway, enough about Cellular One/Dobson.

I need to find a new provider that offers coverage in the Green Bay area but also includes the Western U.P. Most providers (U.S. Cellular, Verizon, etc.) have Green Bay as their Northern border and only offer plans that will give coverage to the south. While I MAY also be traveling South to Madison or Milwaukee and a plan that covered that area would be nice too.....what I REALLY need is someone that offers coverage from Green Bay/Appleton Northward. The ultimate coverage area in my case would be the Eastern 1/2 of Wisconsin and the Western 1/2 of the U.P. of Michigan.

What are my options? The only company I know for sure offers at least some plans that have U.P. coverage is Cellcom. I'm not sure about Alltel. Not long ago I saw their local coverage area and there was a very large hole over Northeastern Wisconsin but I've heard mixed reports that this hole has now been filled in through an agreement with....possibly Cellcom?

Is Cellcom the only option in this case? or would Alltel work as well?

I'd also like this option, which may seem a little odd......I'm not sure if I want a cellular number that would be local to Green Bay or local to Iron Mountain. You see I don't expect a lot of calls to the phone to be originating from Green Bay and it might be better if I had something that would be local to Iron Mountain area land phones so that the family could call me for free while at the same time I could call them from the cell phone with no roaming charges. IF Alltel *has* filled in that gap I think an Iron Mountain number would be my only option.......because I don't think Alltel has offices in Green Bay or offers Green Bay numbers. Correct me if I'm wrong? This may not necessarily be a BAD thing if I decide to go the route of getting a cell number which would be local to the Iron Mountain area. With Cellcom on the other hand I believe that I could get a number local to either area......but the calling area would be slightly different and the 'mobile to mobile' area would be changed--which doesn't matter that much to me.

Any suggestions?

Also. I have had Cellcom through their Iron Mountain office in the past but switched because Cellular One was clobbering them with the number of minutes offered. I don't really remember how good coverage was along Hwy 41/141 to Iron Mountain. Where are their towers? What about Alltel? If they are now covering NE Wisconsin are they using the same towers as Cellcom does? Using the berkana.com utility to search for towers I see under "WISCONSIN RSA 4 LIMITED PARTNERSHIP DBA=CELLCOM" they seem to have towers in generally the same areas. Pembine, N. of Wausaukee, Crivitz, Oconto & Oconto Falls. Are any of these towers CDMA or are they analog only yet and only the towers in the cities digital?

Any information would be appreciated. My options seem very limited since I need coverage IN Green Bay and NORTH of Green Bay (instead of south).

Thanks.

[CDMA]

Dobson CellularOne offers a national plan that covers both areas. Check out (www.cellularone.com)

[DisplacedYooper]

I think you meant www.celloneusa.com but I already looked at Dobson's national plan and their regional plan which isn't publicized on the website and they stink. $34.99 for 360 minutes. That's the plan. $9.99 for 3,000 night & weekend minutes but only when you are in your home area and Green Bay is not within Dobson's home area so that would be a useless option. So I'd just basically be getting 360 minutes for $35. Right now I get 1200 anytime minutes + unlimited nights and weekends after 7PM for the same price so $45 for 360 minutes and having to drive 15 miles north of town to use my 3,000 anytime minutes would be really inconvenient.

There has to be a better option.

Thanks anyway.

[JoeDirte]

I live in Wausau and have Alltel and this is what I've figured out so far:

It seems that Alltel is actually Cellcom in Northern WI. If I call 611 I always get Cellcom. It's not so much an extended area but more like the partnership between Virgin Mobile and Sprint. Cellcom has outstanding coverage in northern WI (in my experience) but their plans are skimpy and expensive. If you sign up with Alltel you get to use Cellcom's coverage at Alltels rates - which are much beter.

[DisplacedYooper]

Hmm. Thanks for the information. That may mean that the scattered rumors that I have heard that Alltel has filled in that NE Wisconsin hole via an agreement with Cellcom may be true then. I know that most of the Cellcom towers (and many of the U.P Alltel as well) are analog, but analog isn't always such a bad thing. Especially when you are simply trying to place a call! I mean the bells and whistles of digital are awesome but the only option I would miss if I had to resort to analog would be the text messaging. I've always preferred scratchy calls to 'blocky' calls that keep breaking up and I think with the tower placement in N. Wisconsin not getting any better in rural areas (about 20 miles apart) its more suited to analog for now.

Maybe I should check in with the local Iron Mountain Walmart to see if they have coverage from Green Bay to Iron Mountain now. It may have changed. That way I could also keep an Iron Mountain number and I would be a local call away for people from back home. I'll have to think about it.

There is one other option I have to weigh. I had Cellcom twice in the past. In 1996 and then again in early 2000. I had no problem getting the account in '96 but in '99 I declared bankruptcy but thanks to a local dealer she spoke with the Cellcom credit dept. in Depere or Peshtigo and they OK'ed a reactivation in 2000 based on my prior payment history. When I went to switch to Cellular One/Dobson in November 2001 they told me I needed a $1000 deposit. I laughed....but my mother was with me at the time and the lady suggested running her credit. Well I didn't expect much better from that because her credit is awful. Only difference is she doesn't have a bankruptcy. The credit cleared and that is how I got the Cell One account. The bill comes in my name and to my address, my name is listed as the user for both phone numbers (including the companion plan which my mother uses) but the account is actually under her name. My credit was fine except for the bankruptcy and that's what triggered the $1000 deposit. Same might happen with Alltel. Especially considering I have no payment history with them.......That's another bridge I will cross when I get to it. I recently got a copy of my TransUnion report and score and I had a 742 of a possible 950. Not a bad number but then I looked further down the page and it said that my credit was better than only 34.9% of the population and it was considered to be "between fair and good". I would prefer good at the minimum but its hard to bounce back after a bankruptcy. Especially when you have problems with TransUnion getting the information RIGHT on the report!

At this point I"m just trying to figure out what my options are for E. Wisconsin & W. U.P. coverage and so far it looks like Cellcom and possibly Alltel might be it. Nobody else has said anything so does that mean that nobody else knows of other companies (U.S. Cellular, AT&T, Verizon, etc) which would go into the U.P. from Green Bay??

Thanks again.

[celltecx]

I know USCC won't go up into UP we do have a regional for all of Wisconsin but that probably wont help you much. Just digging around Cellcom is the only one that I see that fits you. I tired to look up Green Bay on Alltel's site but nothing came up. So I'm not sure if they provide coverage there or not. I thought they did but /shurg its 10:30 pm and I'm no longer thinking hehe.

[DisplacedYooper]

From what I know, Alltel doesn't SELL service in Green Bay but they do offer it in Iron Mountain and it MAY now extend to and past Green Bay. Alltel covers the entire UP & most of the LP as well and they also had a good chunk of Wisconsin in many of their plans but there was a large area (basically entire NE Wisconsin) that they didn't cover. The area map that they had just went AROUND all of the Wisconsin border counties and south of Green Bay. That missing area almost exactly corresponds to the counties in Wisconsin that Cellcom has in many of their plans. Check out the maps @ http://www.cellcom.com/images/statewide_browncty.gif (dark blue) and then go to Alltel and enter in the Iron Mountain zip (49801) in the local freedom section to view the coverage map. The uncovered Alltel area is almost identical to the dark blue area @ Cellcom. Even the county jutting westward between Price & Clark Co. where Medford is located which makes the 'piece of the puzzle' look almost exactly the same. So Cellcom must've denied access to Alltel to use their owned towers at one time anyway.

However, and I just noticed this, if you choose the National Freedom option @ alltel.com and enlarge the coverage map it now includes I think the entire state of WI except maybe a couple of counties near the MN border. This is a different map than what they were using a few months ago when that same hole that you see under Local Freedom showed up. Maybe its a sign of things to come? I keep saying this but I'm really going to have to go over to Walmart today and check things out. I'm sure if they just added NE Wisconsin even the Walmart reps will have been told to promote it by now.....I would think that missing that corner of WI would have put them at a MAJOR disadvantage to Dobson in places like Iron Mountain & Menominee where if you go 5 miles into Wisconsin you could accidentally be charged roaming if you happened to lock onto a Cellcom tower in Florence or Marinette County instead.

Will have to check it out.

[celltecx]

Normally if someone doesn't cover an area as their normal "home" area you will not get their national plan because you will outside their market 100% of the time which would cost them alot of cash.

So I doubt you will be able to sign up with Alltel then.

[Gamer03]

DisplacedYooper

The only problem, is that according to their website, they don't have any stores in Green Bay.

Verizon's store locator is here:

Here is Verizon's store locator!

You could get Verizon National SingleRate, but you don't get Night and Weekend minutes, plus the plans are rather expensive.

Here are the National SingleRate plans

Hope this helps.


Gamer

[DisplacedYooper]

celltecx,

You make a good point about using Alltel outside of their normal 'home' area almost exclusively. I've heard of other people that have gotten burned in that situation. They were in Chicago and got a plan from Verizon I believe and it was a group plan and the other 2 phones were with people that lived in Detroit and N. Wisconsin and they told her if more than 50% of her airtime was used by the people in Detroit or Wisconsin they would be charged roaming. This is something that the 'national' plans usually fail to mention in their advertising. Its NATIONAL but only if you are using the phone primarily where you purchase it and get a phone number assigned from.

Do I have that about right?? I think its a major problem that they leave out that little detail. So you are saying that if I signed up for Alltel in Iron Mountain and then I was in Green Bay using it 90% -- and Green Bay is part of their 'local' plan BUT the towers are owned by Cellcom they would probably have a problem with that? Is that what you are saying? Yet another thing I'll have to check into. Green Bay might in fact be a NON ROAMING area now but they probably don't expect you to use the phone almost all of the time in areas where they don't actually OWN the towers.

Gamer03,

Verizon looks rather expensive too. I can't believe I can't find the right plan for Green Bay northward. If I wanted Green Bay and south I would have 4 or 5 options but if I want to go North I think I only have the choice of going with Cellcom!

[DisplacedYooper]

Just got off the phone with Alltel.

The guy was closing @ 4PM and kind of in a hurry but he told me that yes, they did add NE Wisconsin to their local Iron Mountain, MI calling plan. He claims that I could sign up with him no problem and get an Iron Mountain number. I asked about using the phone primarily and Green Bay and he said "no problem" and I said "even though you don't OWN the towers in Green Bay" and he said "as long as you are within your home area. Milwaukee, Detroit, Green Bay....you can use it as much as you want there". I find that hard to believe so I will double and triple check of course. If Alltel has taken over the Cellcom towers in NE Wisconsin I can understand but I very highly doubt that they have gotten their towers in Green Bay as well.......unless they have bought out Cellcom completely??? As far as Milwaukee and Detroit?? I don't see Alltel stores there either so exactly WHO are they getting their towers from in those areas? It certainly isn't Cellcom and since they don't OWN the towers themselves I find it hard to believe that they would allow you to make all of your calls form those towers.

He told me that the only thing would be I would have an Iron Mountain number and anybody calling me from Green Bay would be placing a long distance call. This info he had correct....but I'm not so sure about the other part of it.

Cellcom plans aren't the greatest in minutes or pricing but something tells me they are still the best option. I dont know about this Alltel info I just received or how accurate it is...

[sbormann]

I thought I read an article where alltel was "managing" cellcom's markets.. I can't find the link though...

[CDMA]

Alltel roams on Verizon in Detroit for free. I have Alltel with a northern Michigan number and make and receive most of my calls in the Detroit area where I live. I use many night and weekend minutes and everything works in both areas, including mibile web.

Alltel is still upgrading to digital in some areas so you might have to use anolog for a while. Most of the upgrades in lower Michigan are done.

They actually have great deals. I have the local plan and get 1000 daytime and unlimited night and weekend calling for $50.00. I added nationwide long distance to my plan for an additional $5.00 and it is good for either kind of minutes. Its nice having such a large calling area, and Verizon is great in Detroit so no complaints there.

[celltecx]

Yup, you are right on the money about the 50% rule [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] If you are using the phone more that 50% outside the normal "home area" not any extended area they will not allow you to continue a regional plan / nationwide plan.

That why with USCC if you live in a place like Shawno for example, we will not sell you service since it is most likely you will use it more than 50% outside the network.

Best bet call Alltel's Customer Service, and make sure they verify what was told to you.

Question,

How often will you be in UP? You could get a USCC regonal plan that covers northern wi but you will get a 69c per min roaming in UP. Is the total coverage worth giving up the minutes/wisconsin coverage for an area you go to sometimes? If that is the case. If you are up there all the time then nm hehe, but if it is 3 or 4 times a year then the roaming fees may be something to just deal with when you head up there.

[DisplacedYooper]

I'm guessing a couple of times a month probably. If I want to be really specific I could say that part of that time I won't actually be IN the UP unless I"m visiting other relatives that live in Iron Mountain. My mother lives in Florence, CO WI. 9 miles South of Florence or so. I know some companies like Cellcom/US Cellular/Verizon? have their OWN towers in places such as Goodman or Long Lake. Long Lake would never pick up a signal where my mother lives and Goodman is a possibility but unlikely. Dobson uses a tower owned/managed by ACC which is located in Commonwealth and that one has a good chance of being used if I could guarantee the phone wouldnt' choose Iron Mountain instead. I know where the tower is. It isn't far away. I could use that tower if I was at my mother's house. Pembine is a stretch and I know that many of the NE Wisconsin carriers have towers in or near Pembine. Its very likely I would go to roaming at my mother's house because you can physically SEE the towers on top of the hill in Iron Mountain when you go outside so locking onto something that may happen to be in Commonwealth, Goodman, Pembine, or Beecher (known tower locations--I just don't know WHO uses some of them) wouldn't be likely. I could probably sign up for MOST of the N. Wisconsin plans offered by the various companies in Green Bay and I'd be able to use it for 90% of the drive home until those last 10 miles or so where the Goodman or Pembine tower won't work anymore. The phones I have now are tri-mode TDMA/AMPS/1900PCS phones which I got from Dobson/Cell One. I had a Nokia 252 analog and before that a motorola bag phone. Both of those older phones allowed a "HOME AREA" option to assure I wouldn't get any roaming charges but these new phones have no such option. Everything is 'automatic' and I have no way to pick what I want. No option to pick home only. No option to pick analog only or digital only. Just plain NO OPTIONS. All they told me at Cell One is "If it says 'Cellular One' you are OK. If it says 'Extended Area' you will be roaming @ 35 cents (in certain closeby areas--but not nationally) and will be able to use text messaging and receive voice mail notifications, etc. if it says 'roam' you will be able to make and receive calls and possibly get voice mail notification but text messaging will not work. send or receive". For the most part they have been right on the money with their guesses. I spoke to many of the higher-ups @ their Duluth office to get the information though. They have preferred roaming with AT&T & Cingular and that is where I get extended area notification. If its in Minneapolis, Green Bay, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, etc. I get 35 cents a minute. If not I get the standard 69 cents roaming but I will be able to send & receive text messages on the AT&t or Cingular Network.

I took the phone on a road trip to Colorado this past summer and using AT&T's coverage map I have to say that they were pretty accurate. The phone went into roam exactly where it was supposed to. "Cellular One" until 15 miles North of Green Bay. "Extended Area" from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Beloit. "Roam" from just after the IL border on I-39/I-88 to about 50 miles East of Davenport, IA. Then "Extended Area" again through a good chunk of Iowa on I-80 until about 50 miles West of Des Moines. Then "Roam" until just before Omaha. Then AT&t took over again and I got "Extended Area" from Omaha through just West of Lincoln. Then it was "Roam" allllll the way through Nebraska and NE Colorado until about 57 miles NE of Denver on I-76. Colorado itself was a little odd. If you look at the AT&T coverage map you can see that they mainly offer coverage near Denver, down to Colorado Springs and over on I-70 for awhile but if you are in Pueblo or Canon City or too far west of Denver you go back to roaming. I got curious while I was in the Woodland Park area NW of Colorado Spring so I dialed a bogus number and was greeted by James Earl Jones identifying himself as Verizon and telling me I could only make a call with a credit card. well...whatever. It was odd. I did't realize I would ever be roaming on Verizon when Dobson has an AT&T/Cingular agreement?. Driving up Mt. Evans West of Denver it kept going back between and forth between "Extended Area" and "Roam" but about half the time I was able to send text messages back home. Unfortunately once I got to the summit it was solidly locked on "ROAM" and analog roam too so text messaging was no longer possible. Half mile down from the summit I was back to extended area digital. Those mountains can really scatter the signals.

That's about as informative as my phone gets. Not very much information and NOT very flexible in choosing which carrier you use or if you want analog or digital. Maybe not all phones are created equal? Nokia 252 & Motorola bag phone were both analog models so obviously they did not give the option of 800MHz CDMA or TDMA or 1900MHz PCS but they at least DID let you choose "A carrier" "B carrier" or "Home Only" if I remember right. More flexible than these Mitsubishi models from Dobson are! I had a Nokia loaner from them once too. 5165 maybe? Also no info and very little flexibility. Just a lot more ringtones....

One time on the way home from the Mackinac Bridge somewhere around the Epoufette - Naubinway on US-2 my phone switched from Roam (RFB 'cell one' is not a preferred Dobson carrier so I go to roam before Escanaba travelling east) to "Cellular One". I knew what had happened. Dobson has a market in the NW LP of Michigan but I was still curious. I placed a call for one minute. When I got the bill I was charged the full 69 cents roaming whether I got an apparent "Cellular One" signal or not. The tower listed on my bill was Harbor Springs, MI.

I'll have to check out every brochure, coverage map, and rate plans once I get to Green Bay.

Celltecx,

you work for USCC right?? Therefore you must know just about all companies that sell service in Green Bay. What are the options?? ALL options. Even limited option providers like Einstein & Sprint PCS which I know have VERY limited coverage off of the major highways.

Verizon?
Cellcom
Einstein
Sprint PCS
T-Mobile?
US Cellular
AT&T?
Suncom?
Nextel?

I see all of these names thrown around but I just don't know anymore. What happened to the days when there was the "A" and the "B" carrier and that was it? Now we have PCS and a lot of options. Too many to keep track of!

Thanks for any info.

[JoeDirte]

They all have the 50% rule but Verizon never enforced it on me. I had a Verizon phone when I lived in Appleton and later moved to Wausau (no VZ coverage.) For nine months I used the phone here 95% of the time on Sprint and never had any hassles from Verizon. A word of warning - Verizon gets no VM notification on Sprint and only about half of incoming calls actually make it. That's why I like Alltel/Cellcom - all of my features work on Cellcom's network.

[JoeDirte]

By the way - read the fine print in the 50% rule. From experience with AT&T and VZ I know their contracts won't charge you roaming if you're over the threshold. Their only recourse is to cancel the contract - you're only out whatever you paid for the phone.

[DisplacedYooper]

Yes, too bad they make you get a new phone with *every* activation even if you have an appropriate model that will work. Why do celullar companies do that?

Also......when you have a phone that breaks, or ahemm, run over with a car (NOT me by the way) you can get another phone at many sales locations for $49 but they make you pay $99 or they will give it you one for free with a 1-year contract extension. I paid the damn $99 as they would not activate a phone that I acquired through another retailer. It had to be THEIR phone. I'm talking Dobson/Cell One here. Just out of curiosity do ALL CellularCo's have that policy? Is it just so they can lock you into a contract extension if you don't pay their inflated price to get the phone? The contract extension would've cost me more than the phone price difference in less than a month--so I just gave them the damn $99 for the SAME phone I could've gotten anywhere else for 1/2 that price.

[celltecx]

Yes, I work for USCC but I am a tech not sales or customer service hehe. So when you start asking me about other services all I can do is grin cause I really dont have a clue. I'll take a stab at them if anyone needs to correct me if I am wrong.

Verizon pretty much the same as USCC except we have more towers here in Wisconsin. CDMA service simple.

Cellcom Not sure if they are still TDMA or moving on but they have been good roaming partners.

Einstein PCS service ie prolly wont work up north. Always centralized around big citys and thats it.

Sprint PCS Again PCS Works great in good coverage ares but the rest is a spider web along highways. Possible they still charge 3 dollars per Customer Service calls hehe.

T-Mobile? GSM, Very limited service still.

US Cellular Solid coverage in the home area. Building out in all coverage areas. But home coverage stops above Greenbay. You will be on someone else. And I guess the biggest brag on them HOME Customer Service. Not some outsourced stuff.

AT&T GSM/TDMA provider. Not a very big network mostly spiderwebed from city to city.

Suncom? They have been reassimulated with the borg ( at&t ) hehe sorry no punches at at&t just thought that was a funny comparison.

Nextel? Big city coverage, at this point the best PTT that anyone provides from what I have seen and read.




You are right about having a ton of providers in one area. I think there can be up to 8 carriers in one area with the licenses not including resellers.

CDMA is a very flexible phone. You again have the option of auto or home only. Some phones even let you chose from auto A or auto B. TDMA didn't do that once it started using OTA system to run how phones roamed. All the CDMA phones we sell are Analog/800/1900 since we have it all in this central area.

Now on that 50% rule. What's probably not written in the books is that the 50% rule is not over 1 month of service but usually over 3 months of service. So ya you can cheet sometimes and get away with it, because it will average out over the next 2 months when you are at home. But once reports show you are using more than 50% over a three month time frame, that's when you will get a call from someone saying we can no longer provide you with the service you need..... It's harsh but it would kill any company to allow it.

Now back to the service you need. Well USCC would cover up to florence. with a regional plan, where you mom is but now you have to be careful of boarder line roaming. You could be at your mom's house pulling a UP tower. This will cause you roaming charges and then its hard to prove you weren't actually in UP. I'd rather not see you with this headache.

My suggestions Cellcom... while its not the best plan, you get the area you need and they do have a regional for the rest of WI. Would love to see ya with USCC because I know we rock in Greenbay but again I worry about the quality of service you will get up north.

[DisplacedYooper]

Celltecx,

I appreciate the honesty RE: best plans for far North coverage. I think Cellcom will be the best choice. Not very generous on the minutes but the statewide plan covers everything I would need and is the same regardless of whether I sign up in Iron Mountain or Green Bay. The "route" plan covers everything I need too but only if I establish the account in Iron Mountain. If I sign up in Green Bay it only covers to the MI border.

I wonder if Cellcom ever runs any specials like the big companies do? "Double anytime minutes for life", etc. That's the deal I got with Dobson. That's why I have 1200 anytime minutes for $34.99 instead of 600 which I think is an awesome deal. With 2 phones sharing the anytime minutes during primetime + the primary phone getting the unlimited off peak minutes from 7PM-7AM & on weekends I've never even come close to using the 1200 anytime minutes.

[agentHibby]

Just remember their can be more than 8 because NEXTEL is not Cellular nor PCS
They are SMR (Specialized Mobile Radio) so their could be 9 or more carries for wireless phones in a market.

[AgentSmith]

This may or may not help, but I'll toss it out anyways...

Sounds like the areas that you need covered are outside of almost everyone's home area. I would recommend Alltel, (Normally I'd recommend Verizon *lol*) but like you said, North of Green Bay is a lot of carrier's breaking point. I know Alltel should service the U.P. as well as the Northern part of Wisconsin.

A little trick to get around the whole 'home' area ordeal is that. Technically, the whole 51% rule is legitimate, but it is not a very customer friendly thing to do by canceling their service outright. I have yet to hear it happen, although I'm sure it has mind you, you can try this. If you know anyone (say a relative, friend, co-worker) who has an address within the 'home' market, it will be considered an home activation. The problem is finding a rep who will do it. Usually at retail stores, it's a little harder to bypass the system, so I'd recommend trying a kiosk. They sell the same service, yet the reps out there are harder up for activations, they usually bend the rule