Verizon AC Coverage in eastern UP?

[TSPOS]

Does anyone know if there will be any future expansion of Verizon's America's Choice Network in Michigan's Upper Peninsula? I go to school in Ann Arbor and love Verizon down here, but I live in Sault Ste. Marie in the summer where coverage is a problem. I know that in the latest PRL, there is new Expanded Network coverage for the west side of the UP, but I was wondering if anyone knew how long it will be until the east side is included.

Since most of the towers are owned by Alltel, I would assume that spreading coverage eastward wouldn't be too difficult. Anyways, if anyone has any info, please let me know.

ts

[Gamer03]

I don't exactly when the eastern UP will be covered, but my guess is that it will be soon, maybe even sometime this year.

I am also waiting for it to be covered.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

BTW, welcome to WA.

[ronss]

The area in the NE corner of the LP and the eastern 1/2 of the UP correspond exactly to the coverage area of RFB Cellular, which does business in the name of Cellular One (check out the coverage map at www.cell1mich.com).

Even though that area is covered by Alltel, RFB Cellular is a higher priority than Alltel because of an old, long standing agreement between RFB Cellularl and Verizon back when Verizon itself was known as Cellular One (yes, even before the days of Airtouch). The agreement requires Verizon to keep RFB Cellular ahead of every other company except for Verizon itself unless and until such time as another company offers comparable service in a geographic area that is equal to or greater than the geographic area covered by RFB. That company--finally--appears to now be Alltel, and Verizon is now in the stages of trying to get out from underneath that old agreement with RFB. Until they do, however, we are forced to use RFB's service (for which there is no "favorable" fee agreement, and we therefore pay roaming charges), and cannot use Alltel's system (for which there is a "favorable" fee agreement, thereby putting it as part of America's Choice).

Hang in there; it's probably coming soon, and VZW will finally get rid of all the calls from us Michigan customers complaining about the lack of AC coverage up north!

[TSPOS]

thanks, ronss for clearing things up.

we yoopers will just have to wait...

[BG1811]

Hey, Ronss, please keep us informed. You seem to have a better handle on this than any previous report. Thanks for the info.

[CDMA]

ronss,

I believe that you are correct but there is one inconsistancy about the long standing roaming agreement with RFB cellular.

I can't remember the exact timeframe, but somewhere between 1998-2000 Verizon did not have RFB as the prefered carrier for that area. It was CenturyTel (now Alltel).

At the time I had actually called Verizon and complained about it because RFB had introduced CDMA digital to the Cheboygan area, and since Verizon had CenturyTel as the prefered carrier, I was only able to use their anolog service because CenturyTel had TDMA coverage.

I warned my boss who also spends time in the Cheboygan area NOT TO UPGRADE his older Verizon PRL, (probably Verizon's first PRL) because his phone was prefering RFB's digital network and mine was not.

The bottom line, there was a recent 1-2 year period where RFB was not the primary carrier. During this time when I was complaining to Verizon, I came to this site and found the justalurker web site to view Verizon's current PRL, and indeed CenturyTel was the prefered carrier over RFB for that area.

Later Verizon changed the prefered carrier back to RFB. As it turned out, after the change to RFB, I was no longer able to pick up a good signal out of town at my place. My phone became useless there, so I was forced to switch to Alltel, who now has CDMA digital coverage.

At the time, I thought that Verizon changed back to RFB because CenturyTel did not have good service in downtown Cheboygan, and on US-23 heading south from town. Problems that Alltel later solved.

Anyway, Verizon seems to have a problem with this area. At least with their timing of roaming agreements. In other words, now is the time to prefer Alltel, not 3-4 years ago.

[agentHibby]

by: ronss
Even though that area is covered by Alltel, RFB Cellular is a higher priority than Alltel because of an old, long standing agreement between RFB Cellularl and Verizon back when Verizon itself was known as Cellular One (yes, even before the days of Airtouch).

Just wanting to know which predecessor were you referring to southwestco, or New PAR, or something else under the name Cellular One that went Airtouch to Verizon.

[jayatmtu]

Well by setting Alltel SID 244 as my home SID and setting my phone to HOME ONLY I was able to use Alltel even in the areas where that darn RFB Cellular is. The minutes were billed as extended network.

[jayatmtu]

Also, I have an edited PRL 50152 with the RFB Cellular SID's marked as negative if anyone wants it. It works pretty well for me, but USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I use an LG VX4400 phone.

21 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 5 0x40 Reserved
65 65535 Preferred Same (1) More (1) 1 0x40 Reserved
1563 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
1567 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
15 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
21 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
51 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
73 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
133 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
163 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
1559 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 3 0x40 Reserved
244 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 4 0x45 Reserved
130 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 0 0x45 Reserved
1350 65535 Preferred Same (1) More (1) 0 0x45 Reserved
256 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
260 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
216 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
1338 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
1332 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
448 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
244 65535 Preferred Same (1) More (1) 2 0x45 Reserved
4148 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 27 0x45 Reserved
4418 65535 Preferred Same (1) More (1) 28 0x45 Reserved
374 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
386 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
1336 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x45 Reserved
1280 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x44 Reserved
1290 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 2 0x44 Reserved
1284 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 0 0x44 Reserved
1574 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 0 0x45 Reserved
4126 65535 Preferred Same (1) Same (0) 34 0x45 Reserved
1337 65535 Negative Same (1) Omitted 1 0x44 Reserved
1333 65535 Negative Same (1) Omitted 1 0x44 Reserved

[CDMA]

Cool. You proved that it is possible to use a Verizon phone in that area without being charged for roaming, but they just don't have it set up that way. So the customer pays!!!

[jayatmtu]

Yeah...it's kind of weird that they have a roaming carrier above a preferred one..so much for
"We never stop working for you!"

[BG1811]

On a newsgroup, alt.cellular.verizon, there was a posting that new signs are appearing in Michigan that say something like "Good North with Verizon". Anybody got any news on this? I copied this excerpt from that newsgroup.

[BG1811]

I copied this from the newgroup alt.cellular.verizon. Maybe this is the answer we're looking for.

A few months ago I spoke directly with Greg Haller, VZW, VP here in the
midwest. I posed the exact same question to him, namely: "Why does VZW have
RFB Cellular higher in the PRL when Alltel is available in the same
geographical location?" He stated that years ago--back before VZW was VZW
(or even Airtouch for that matter)--they had contracted with RFB Cellular to
allow VZW's customers to use RFB's system, in exchange for which VZW agreed
to place RFB higher in the PRL than any other carrier except for VZW itself.
The only escape from this contractual obligation was if/when another carrier
offered identical coverage in a geographical area that is equal to or
greater than the coverage offered by RFB. Mr. Haller explained that that
now, finally, has occurred with Alltel increasing its digital coverage (he
explained that VZW literally had personnel up north measuring the
geographical coverage area so as to be able to invoke this "escape clause"
in the contract with RFB).

What Mr. Haller said makes sense--he said that he would like nothing more
than to be able to offer extended network coverage in the RFB area (he
acknowledged the many phone calls they get from us MI customers), and he
predicted that it would be some time in the first part of 2004. I, for one,
have no reason to doubt his explanation, and hopefully, we will see the
Alltel coverage in the RFB service area added to America's Choice.

[jayatmtu]

Good intel...thanks!

[JSD]

I live in the Eastern Upper Penninsula and ALLTel has nowhere near the ammount of digital coverage that RFB wireless does. In Sault Ste Marie, the biggest city in the Eastern UP, RFB is the only cell phone carrier with Digital coverage. Alltel has been promising digital coverage for months now and digital coverage has yet to appear. If you live in the Eastern UP RFB/Cell One has by far the best coverage.