Dobson CellularOne

[jonraeth]

Is there other users that have CellularOne By Dobson in the Northern Wisconsin area? I have been a customer for 8+ years with them and have been quit pleased with the coverage as well as rates. I am very frustrated with there lack of selection of phones as well as there Wireless Internet service which they call WebMagic. They were only offering 2 phones for this service and as I understand it they had very few subscribers. I wouold love to have wireless internet coverage in this area and somoe of the new phones on the market. There customer service is extremly poor as they do not provide there customers with information of additional features as well as there new rate plans. I am wondering if there are others out there with the same frustrations? Would it be too much to ask to have some company buy them out? I really do not want to change my cellular phone number. Is there also a way to switch carriers and keep the same number? There are very few companys out here to switch too. CenturyTel was just bought out by Alltel. There coverage is good but they do not have regional or national rate plans as well as no wireless internet coverage. Nextel is here however they are too new and there coverage is very poor once off the interstate and there is nothing north of Eau Claire until you reach Duluth. Sprint just came in 6 months ago and their coverage is also very poor and there roaming rates would bankrupt me. Can you tell I am a very frustrated customer? Dobson does not even answer emails when they are sent! When I call there sales reps know nothing and refuse to find the answers. They say we will call you back when we know. Well apparently they still do not know! I do not understand how a company can stay in buisness with practices like this. They really need to advance there technologies and there customer service relations! Sounds like a good company to be bought out by another company? Has anyone heard any interest in buying Dobson? Enough of my frustrations for now.

[ComicalMoodyDan]

When ALLTEL fully integrates the former CenturyTel markets you will see regional and national plans as well as wireless internet features. My guess is this should be soon also.

[jonraeth]

This is really good to hear. Maybe some competition. Are they on a 3g track? How long? This should really give Dobson CellurOne a run for their money. There coverage is very good but there selection of phones and services (i.e. wireless internet) sucks.

[jonraeth]

Out of curiosity, do you know if AT&T offers wireless web on there TDMA network? Cingular? Cingular appears to unless it is GSM in Madison, WI. If so do you know what kind of setup they have? Any chance that CellularOne Dobson would adopt that technology being they are the 2 roaming partners for CellularOne?

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Yes, ALLTEL is working on 3G however I have no idea when it will be avaible and ALLTEL's current selection of phones also suck.

[Jack]

AT&T did offer their pocket net service on the TDMA side BUT is NO longer activating new customers for this service

Jack

[jonraeth]

Is AT&T going to offer a replacement to their pocketnet service? What about when they go GSM?

I had a cellularone service for 7 years and just this year i had enough of the bullsh--. So, i gave them my phone and that was it. Now I have SprintPCS, which i have to say they are new your right, but I can get anything on the phone and they told me by years end should be in good shape in wisconsin because they hear alot of problems on coverage. Beside what roaming? I went 300 miles with it and I was still in home area, Sprint doesnt want to merge with other carriers so there SprintPCS donrthave to worrier about roaming agrements. But they were late in the gate and making up for it. I think CellularOne is in big trouble alot of my friends told me they might be in a world of hurt and beside there Stock on the NASDAQ has fallen alot SYMBOL: DCEL. .69/share. Your also right on custmer relations sucks. I just had enough of CellularOne and Im done. SPrint just added 3 new cell tower last month in WIsconsin, you can find out all details on SprintPCS if you like about new cell sites per month.
http://www.sprintsitesusa.com/index.html

[jonraeth]

I do a lot of traveling in Northern WI and have heard that Sprint does not have towers north of Rice Lake. My cabin is in the Minoque area and I have coverage there with CellularOne. I agree they are in big trouble and if they do not advance quickly, I would assume they will be bankrupt. They kep going backwards instead of forward. They now have dumped there WebMagic service also. The only additional service they offer is MSMS. What happens if they go out of buisness? Will some one pick up this area and there towers? Any idea who?

[tbrusky]

I know for a fact on news wire on the internet Verizon bought 4 states away from Cellularone not sure when this happened but it was a done deal, I guessing because Verizon is a CDMA network they are just looking for the cellularOne cdma networks and do more buying. I had CellularOne anymore Im a Sprint PCS customer, Im really glad I mad the switch to Sprint PCS, but I would like Sprint to get the head out and start adding towers in the central and northern part of wisconsin I know it takes time to put them up and I know SPrint PCS started from ground up and can go just about anywhere to build a network. Thats what I like about SPrintPCS. I always wanted the Sprint Network but it never came available til about 6 months ago and mad the switch 2 weeks ago. Thought CellularOne would get better service and better all around. If theres a Sprint Rep who is out there any word on New towers of the Parts of Wisconsin i mentioned. Central and Norther wisconsin how about highway 29 whens that suppose to happen got part covered whats the point of having part covered. I have to drive on Highway 10 just to go to greenbay what kind of deal is that. Lets get those towers up soon. I keep on going back to the sprint store they said fall highway 29 will be online and ready for coverage. ANd others say maybe 2003. COme on whats the deal. Florida is covered and many other southern states arent to far off being totally covered. SO for talking on.

[jonraeth]

CellularOne here in Eau Claire Wisconsin is a TDMA signal. I am not sure that Verizon would be interested in that? I would really like to see a carrier buy them out that is interested in adding wireless web service and a better selection of phones. Customer service is very poor. I am definatly interested in Sprint, however there coverage right now is spotty at best where I travel. Alltel just bought out Century Tel and I would hope that would bring good things. CellularOne really needs to pull their head out of their butt and respond to customers needs. There technology is not advancing at all and they are terrible about communicating their intentions with customers. They are also terrible at informing customers of new phone plans! Time for them to grow up! Out of curiosity, would Verizon even consider a TDMA network? I know that they just moved into CellurOne Dobson's new regional headquarters (Duluth). I do not know if they have CDMA service or TDMA service. Wireless web service is what really interests me right now. CellularONe just discontinues there WebMagic service due to Giant Bear being bought out. The phones they had for their web service really sucked. They had a Erickson R somthing as well as the big honking Mitsubishi T255. Both of those phones really sucked and when I called to complain about webservice the service rep simply stated they were discontinuing it because of lack of interest. I wonder if it occured to them that the customers did not care for the phones they were offering at the time and were waiting for some "cooler phones".

http://www.rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=4603

Interesting article about CellularOne and Dobson. Does anyone know how long this will take before it is available in the Eau Claire, WI area? I assume it will be pretty much the same as M-mode from AT&T being the area is jointly owned by Dobson and AT&T. Anyone out here have any other opinions? I sure wish they would implemement this quickly as they have dropped their WebMagic service.

[Jack]

That is very good news

Jack

[cryogenic]

As far as I know, Dobson is TDMA most everywhere.... Verizon DID buy some of their areas out, namely my area (East TN), which included Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Newport, and Morristown (Sevier, Cocke, & Hamblen Counties, for the record). They actually switched the TDMA network over to CDMA, but I'm not sure if they cut off the TDMA altogether and made the subscribers switch phones or what. Verizon buying the WI markets from Dobson wouldn't be all that far-fetched, given that Verizon's WI coverage is pretty poor to say the least.

[wirelessoneder]

AT&T Wireless would have to agree to that also. The company in Wisconsin and Minnesota is actually a 50/50 partnership between AT&T and Dobson. But I think Dobson is in trouble as a whole and may be offering it to somebody.

Personally I don't think any of us will see any major movements between cell companies (mergers) until after the first of the year when the spectrum cap is lifted in some areas(rural markets will still have them to a certain degree).

[tbrusky]

wirelessoneder
Can you tell me more about what you see in the feature in the new year, Will #1-6 Cellular Companies be in great shape to get better coverage in areas. WIsconsin for one is not the best area for any cellular company. I would like to see CellularOne out of there, they are as Ive hered lately are heading to the junk yard. I know Verizon and Sprint were in talks but the FCC wont let those 2 get together to merge they are just two big of companies. If it did happen it would be a BIG power house cellular carrier where they can walk in one day and buy all the entire USA networks up like nothing, which isnt bad. less monthly bills. Also Sprint and Nextel in talks too not sure whats that all about either. I like to get a light on things with CellularOne(Dobson) all around please give feedback.

[mbstone99]

I have had the same problems with trying to find out information about their web service tonight. My wife and I called a total of 4 times to try to find information but to no avail. In this area (New Castle PA/Youngstown OH) Cellular One's retailers are offering the Nokia 6360 which is web ready but to my suprised don't offer any web services. The guy on the phone said only 89 people where subscribed in this area to what I guess was their old web service WebMagic so their discontinued it. Now what I was told was if I wanted to web browse on my phone I would have to find a wireless internet provider to be able to do this.. which is really retarded imho but I did so searching around and even checked yahoo and msn as they suggested but didn't have any luck. The only other companies that have wireless internet offered in this area is Nextel and T-Mobile which I am not going to switch to, it's just too much of a hassle. Does anyone know of they are going to eventually offer Wireless Internet again with them offering this new phone? I really like this new phone, the features and the fact that it is wireless internet capable. I definately want to upgrade to it when my contact comes up next summer but kind of hesitant on the same token due to the lack of them offering wireless internet.

Matthew

[Jack]

They offered web magic with a ericsson phone.

The sandusky cellular one market was just took over by verizon wireless.

Jack

[mbstone99]

Hmm they never really did promote the web magic all that much as far as I could tell. Maybe if they promoted it more and offer more phones that have wireless internet maybe it would of done better. I noticed that Cell One takes a long time before getting new phones offered and don't have a wide selection of phone. Does anyone know if Cell One is going to offer their wireless internet again now that they offering a the Nokia 6360?

Matthew

I have attempted to check into this issue several times and no one can give me a straight answer. I have been a customer for 8+ years and am very frustrated with them. No one seems to know anything. They have stated to me that they have no intention of bringing back web service. No one can even tell me if they are going GSM or when. All I continue to get is the run around and personally AllTel just came into the Eau Claire, WI area and they have better rate plans, Nationwide coverage (no roaming anywhere) and they have data services. Can anyone tell me anything about alltel? I would be curious as to what others think.

[Jack]

About Alltel- I have there service and have been happy with the company. Try them out they have a 30 day no questions asked return policy

Jack

[mbstone99]

Ya itis fustrating as hell, I have seen to gotten the run around with Cellular One too about the issue of the wireless internet, so I have no idea what is going on with them or why they would offer that phone in the first place with that feature. According to them I need to find a wireless internet provider so be able to browse the web but I haven't gotten a straight answer about what company offers this? Do anyone know of a company?

They have Alltel in this area as well.. Not really sure how good they service is but from the maps for around here they do have half decent coverage although the packages are a bit more expensive then Cellular Once from what I can tell.

Matthew

Any rumors on new towers to the Eau Claire, WI area. I've been in Sprint PCS for a little over a year (since day one for them in this area) and would love to see some coverage down to the southeast of Eau Claire down HWY12. Anyone know where to find a "tower map". I'm a tower junkie and would love any info anyone has!

[roamer1]

Dobson is definitely going GSM just ilke their biggest roaming partners AT&T and Cingular. "When" is likely to be late 2003 or early 2004 from things I've heard.

IIRC, the old WebMagic service was CDPD (same as AT&T PocketNet) -- and CDPD is, quite frankly, dead.

As for other options:

- ALLTEL (who just bought CenturyTel) will liikely have web service once they convert your area to CDMA (if that hasn't been done already.)
- T-Mobile covers Eau Claire (extension of the Minneapolis market) but coverage is limited (in particular, you can't use the web service in most of the rest of WI outside the Milwaukee area, as T-Mo's roaming partner Airadigm/Einstein PCS doesn't support data, last I heard anyway.)
- There's always Sprint PCS...

-SC

[Rogue]

We sell Dobson Cellular One in New Philadelphia OH. and they made us take anything off the shelves that mentioned anything to do with webmagic. They threatened to take away our agent license if anything was shown or mentioned about web magic.