Bye USCC, Hello VZW

[Gonz]

Hi Everybody,
Bee a while since I've been back here. I just today ported my number to VZW. It was amazing. USCC let my sister assume my contract, and I took hers (expired). I got to leave for free. I went to best buy, got a new Samsung A650. It is an amazing phone, although simple. I got the phone free after mail in rebates, a free $75 best buy gift certificate, and my first bill will have a $40 credit on it! I call that a deal. Coverage is just as good as USCC, and better in the recent case, as I've been using a cheap phone since selling my LG4400.

Nice to be back.
I won't be paying as much roaming now.
39.99/mo 400 Anytime Unl In-Calling & NW America's Choice

[Andy]

Good Luck with VZW!!!

[agentHibby]

not having national footprint plans are killing US Cellular these days

[sillybilly]

Originally Posted by agentHibby

not having national footprint plans are killing US Cellular these days

That and being 5 years behind every other wireless company in tech stuff!!!

[rgm313]

Originally Posted by agentHibby

not having national footprint plans are killing US Cellular these days

yes it is, I jumped ship after 3 1/2 years with USCC just for that reason. I really liked them as a company, but there's something about knowing you can use your phone (and N&W minutes) everywhere without running up roaming charges that really puts me at ease

[Trainboy]

Sorry, but I tried to jump ship to both Verizon and Alltel from USCC just for that reason, a national footprint. Didn't work. The area of Southern Wisconsin I live in was a fringe area for Verizon and the phone kept jumping back and forth from "home" to "extended" to "no service". Had a very difficult time getting out on the phone if even at all. Alltel was even worse, most of the time in the fringe overlapping areas I couldn't even make a call. Once I got completely into "extended, it worked ok. Took the phone (LG4400 and LG5450 respectively) back numerous times within the 15 days to both carriers and no amount of adjusting the settings or anything they did could change it. Dropped both of them and went back to USCC where I have a rock solid signal and no dropped calls anywhere I went. In Madison, Milwaukee, Janesville and all points in between, USCC's signal strength kicked VZW's butt. To me it is more important to have a phone that works right than a national plan.

[mwseifert]

Verizon's network in Wisconsin has problems because it runs on the 1900MHz PCS band, whereas USCC runs on the 800MHz digital cellular band. The 800MHz USCC has much better building penetration than the 1900MHz Verizon signal. That, and in most of Wisconsin, Verizon depends a LOT upon USCC towers to fill out their coverage map....more than they should. In other cities like Chicago, Verizon runs their network at 800MHz so the coverage is better than it is on Verizon's Wisconsin network.

The dubious 1900Mhz network that Verizon runs on in Wisconsin used to belong to the old wireless company PrimeCo. In Chicago, Verizon built their own 800MHz network, and instead, USCC bought out the PrimeCo network in Chicago. So I'd imagine USCC and Verizon reciprocate each other in reliability between the two locations. USCC has a better record of providing good coverage, albeit regional. One of the thing's I've never liked about Verizon's roaming agreements with USCC is that whenever I was using my Verizon phone roaming on a USCC tower, I'd be forced to dial 10 digits (even though I was a block from home), and my GetItNow data services wouldn't function either. I'd imagine this is a USCC limitation, because I recently drove out to California, and noticed that in other "Extended Networks" all of my features worked just fine. Ergo, Verizon's USCC "Extended Network"...bad.

I live in Madison and am currently in the process of switching over to Cingular. There are some rural areas in the state that currently lack Cingular's GSM coverage (places I don't go anyway, but they're still expanding into those areas as we speak). I think I've found, though, that Cingular provides the best of both worlds in Wisconsin. Cingular runs at 800Mhz like USCC, so the building penetration is excellent. It's a new network they've built in Madison and they seem to have done a very good job at providing uniform coverage throughout the city, unlike Verizon. And of course, Cingular has that all-important national footprint.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by mwseifert

I live in Madison and am currently in the process of switching over to Cingular. There are some rural areas in the state that currently lack Cingular's GSM coverage (places I don't go anyway, but they're still expanding into those areas as we speak). I think I've found, though, that Cingular provides the best of both worlds in Wisconsin. Cingular runs at 800Mhz like USCC, so the building penetration is excellent. It's a new network they've built in Madison and they seem to have done a very good job at providing uniform coverage throughout the city, unlike Verizon. And of course, Cingular has that all-important national footprint.

I live in Racine, WI and I just switched to Cingular last Sunday. I agree with everything that was said about VZW coverage in WI. I just ran into a spot of Hwy 45 between Wittenberg and Oshkosh that had no GSM coverage but everywhere else the Cingular coverage has been wonderful.

My biggest problem was actually fron my home and I would force my LG to the 850 Mhz. just to be able to carry on a conversation. I am glad that is behind me now.

With Cingular expanding eveyday, things are just going to better, until then I will still keep my second Verizon phone for travelling to the non GSM areas.

[Gonz]

Carrier need really depends on your specific needs. VZW is a great choice for me, as VZW has great coverage in school, USCC has no service due to tower placement. VZW's tower is on school property! Plus, all the places I go on an average day have good VZW coverage, and when I go off the beaten path, i always have USCC to back me up! I dont see how i could go wrong. I am just enjoying using my laptop with quick 2 net, USCC couldn't even let me dial in through their network (to a dial up acct of mine) with a radioshack cable (futuredial). Thats ridiculous. Old hat for VZW. Mobile web is nice too, although I hear USCC just finally got WAP in a brew program. I explored getting a 1x PCMCIA card from USCC, and the store didnt know where to start with me, and this is an old store with experienced employees. And all this crap about not releasing SPL lock codes is just plain BS. If you pay retail of 200+ for a phone, they owe you the SPL code. I couldnt even convince anyone anymore to give it to me. I returned the phone (nokia 6585), and wrote SPL LOCKED on the reason for return sheet. LOL

Oh, and GET RID OF JOAN CUSAK! (or however her name is spelled)
By far the most annoying spokesperson I have ever heard!
Tmobile did better with KZJ!

USCC is now a selfish, no good piece.
Why do you need stupid anytime minutes when you could have in-calling. In my first month, i tried, and up to this point, have only used 150 of my 400 anytime. (just got my data cable a few days back) Total, off peak, in calling, I have used over 1500.
Thank You VZW for National N&W
Thank You for IN-Calling
Thank you for your helpful cust serv reps
Thank you for a credit of $30 for everyone I reffer (USCC WOULD OWE ME BIGTIME FOR REFFERALS)
Thank you for not charging me $15 to swap phones ( I can do it myself!)

[agentHibby]

Verizon has coverage and USCC has lesser coverage in your area in WI. That is
All I can say is even a crappy PCS network has its good spots where a good cellular provider does not.

[Gonz]

The 10 square mile area where i live and go to school is covered better than USCC by VZW. This is correct. Verizon seems to be on every single tower from what I can tell, USCC is obviously not. Wales, WI (school) only has a PCS tower in town w/ att, verizon, sprint all @ 1900. Cell carriers are 3 miles each way east and west down WI-18 and one north on WI-83. Of course, at home, they are all the same, as I live less than 1 mile from 3 towers with all seven carriers, from what I can tell.

As I said, i'm happy, great coverage in th immediate area, and just as well off (actually better) than with USCC, cause I roam on them with VZW anyway. Best is that i still get IN-calling and NW on USCC while in extend in the boonies.

Funny thing I realized, 2G phones sound slightly better here on VZW than 1x 3G. Is this cause they don't allow VZW as much compression? VZW put in 3G in this immediate area about a year ago (a little over). Test mode while roaming with my USCC phone showed uscc as 1x, VZW as 2G. This was in summer 03. Shortly after, they swapped out.

PCS - Only freq that works in school!

Hibby, do you work for VZW?

[agentHibby]

No I don't although many people say I should. Since I have been with Airtouch back in 1997 had friends with US West Cellular (New Vector) I know alot about the network over the years. Texas and Florida's Primeco network was upgraded to be a robust PCS network from 2000-2002. (What I mean by robust is there coverage in a metro or a freeway is close to that of a cellular provider)Sounds like Lousiana has made some inprovements over the last year or two and is gettig better. Wisconsin and Mississippi have been the two areas that have had a cappy PCS network. Maybe next year we can declair Verizon's PCS network in Wisconsin is robust

[Gonz]

Bonus