Coverage in SW Michigan

[dclark65]

I travel to SW Michigan, around the Sawyer area. I have Sprint and seldom can I make a connection. Any suggestions on which cell companies have good service in that area?

[jrip]

Originally Posted by dclark65 I travel to SW Michigan, around the Sawyer area. I have Sprint and seldom can I make a connection. Any suggestions on which cell companies have good service in that area?

Alltel or add the F/C America option then it wont make a difference. With Sprints F/C option you will have the same coverage in Michigan as any Verizon or Alltel customer. Only you will pay less for the same minutes (plan) and coverage. And actually you will have coverage in many places that Verizon phones wont. BTW I live in West Michigan, so I have some experience here.

[CaptainLoose]

Not exactly "all the same coverage as Alltel or Verzion"...there's "coverage'' and there's "digital coverage"...FC America coverage is often analog and not very effective. I'd look at Verizon's digital coverage map or Alltel's digital coverage (if you can find it) before choosing.

[jrip]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-5500/US/1.0) NetFront/3.0 MMP/2.0)

Originally Posted by CaptainLoose Not exactly "all the same coverage as Alltel or Verzion"...there's "coverage'' and there's "digital coverage"...FC America coverage is often analog and not very effective. I'd look at Verizon's digital coverage map or Alltel's digital coverage (if you can find it) before choosing.

Verizon Does Not Offer Native Digital Service In Sw Michigan. Nothing South Of Ottawa County And There Verizon Sucks.For Cdma Your Choices Are Sprint Or Alltel. And They Share Each Others Network Along With Verizon.

[proud2bamerican8]

Originally Posted by jrip Alltel or add the F/C America option then it wont make a difference. With Sprints F/C option you will have the same coverage in Michigan as any Verizon or Alltel customer. Only you will pay less for the same minutes (plan) and coverage. And actually you will have coverage in many places that Verizon phones wont. BTW I live in West Michigan, so I have some experience here.

Keep in mind the F/C America option with Sprint will NOT allow you to roam endlessly at no charge. If you are from a Sprint PCS area, your roaming can be up to 50% of your actual usage per month (this is not the same as 50% of your plans minutes). If you are from a Sprint Affiliate area, your roaming may be capped at 50 or 100 minutes per month.

Get the real lowdown before you pay $5 /mo for Free & Clear America and assume all is good. You gotta know your limits so you don't get stuck with a big roaming bill.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by jrip Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-5500/US/1.0) NetFront/3.0 MMP/2.0) Verizon Does Not Offer Native Digital Service In Sw Michigan. Nothing South Of Ottawa County And There Verizon Sucks.For Cdma Your Choices Are Sprint Or Alltel. And They Share Each Others Network Along With Verizon.

I'm sure VZW has Free Roam in those areas, though.
Also keep in mind that on top of everything that was said about Sprint roaming, PCS to PCS calling does not apply off the Sprint netowrk.

[jrip]

Originally Posted by proud2bamerican8 Keep in mind the F/C America option with Sprint will NOT allow you to roam endlessly at no charge. If you are from a Sprint PCS area, your roaming can be up to 50% of your actual usage per month (this is not the same as 50% of your plans minutes). If you are from a Sprint Affiliate area, your roaming may be capped at 50 or 100 minutes per month. Get the real lowdown before you pay $5 /mo for Free & Clear America and assume all is good. You gotta know your limits so you don't get stuck with a big roaming bill.

Alltel, Verizon, and Sprint all only allow up to 50% of your minutes to be used off network. Sprint simply copied Alltel and Verizon for their F/C America network limitations. The only difference is that Alltel and Verizon will never cancel anything or charge you for exessive roaming. Since that is the only thing they have to offer their customers. Unless of course you count an extremely large and spotty, patched together network with more holes in it than a swiss cheese factory. Oh yeah thats the part the VZW guys have the most pride in.

[Andy]

To the best of my knowledge, Verizon has no such roaming rule...

[agentHibby]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 To the best of my knowledge, Verizon has no such roaming rule...

If you roam on a non roaming partner (someone that is pay roam on Americas Choice) that you don't pay for roam on, like National Single Rate or Local Digital (Outside of the Midwest. For some reason you don't get any carrier in the region for Local digital in the Midwest.)
This is where the 50% will apply. What I understand it does not apply to Americas Choice or Local Digital in the MidWest since you pay for roaming on a non roaming partners.

[DemoMan]

Originally Posted by jrip Alltel, Verizon, and Sprint all only allow up to 50% of your minutes to be used off network. Sprint simply copied Alltel and Verizon for their F/C America network limitations. The only difference is that Alltel and Verizon will never cancel anything or charge you for exessive roaming. Since that is the only thing they have to offer their customers. Unless of course you count an extremely large and spotty, patched together network with more holes in it than a swiss cheese factory. Oh yeah thats the part the VZW guys have the most pride in.

Alltel has no such rule about off network usage. I've spent months away from home, 100% off network and nothing was ever said. I always understood that Verizon had a similar policy. The advantage that Alltel offers (as well as Verizon somewhat w/ "In") is that night and weekend and mobile-to-mobile/mobile-to-home minutes apply anywhere in the National Freedom network.

Bradley

[Andy]

Originally Posted by agentHibby If you roam on a non roaming partner (someone that is pay roam on Americas Choice) that you don't pay for roam on, like National Single Rate or Local Digital (Outside of the Midwest. For some reason you don't get any carrier in the region for Local digital in the Midwest.) This is where the 50% will apply. What I understand it does not apply to Americas Choice or Local Digital in the MidWest since you pay for roaming on a non roaming partners.

I've never heard of either, National Single Rate, nor AC plans having such a roaming rule, Agent Hibby...This is a first.

[kjmattson]

Alltel is pretty much flawless here.

[jrip]

Read the fine print from both it says the same thing. I was just reading VZW's today. My parents have Verizon and get junk mail from VZW a couple of times a week. Just like ragu...it's in there. But as the VWZ rep, and Alltel rep explained they will never enforce it, BUT they have the right to if they decide to. My parents chose VZW because their phones were supposed to work "everyhere". Kinda funny whenever she had to make a call while we were in baldwin,for a graduation party, she had to use my SPRINT phone. Or my uncles ALLTEL phone. her verizon phone was supposed to work there. We used it as a paper weight. We both(sprint&alltel) had digital service 4 bars.

[jayatmtu]

Originally Posted by jrip Alltel, Verizon, and Sprint all only allow up to 50% of your minutes to be used off network. Sprint simply copied Alltel and Verizon for their F/C America network limitations. The only difference is that Alltel and Verizon will never cancel anything or charge you for exessive roaming. Since that is the only thing they have to offer their customers. Unless of course you count an extremely large and spotty, patched together network with more holes in it than a swiss cheese factory. Oh yeah thats the part the VZW guys have the most pride in.

Alltel doesn't have that requirement either...and there is no fine print in the Alltel or Verizon literature saying that.

[jrip]

Funny I was just reading it last night. Talking with my mother about it. Her best friend is the rep who sold her the phone. And she even explained it in detail.

[jayatmtu]

Originally Posted by jrip Funny I was just reading it last night. Talking with my mother about it. Her best friend is the rep who sold her the phone. And she even explained it in detail.

Then please post the link to their website where it shows us that.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by jrip Read the fine print from both it says the same thing. I was just reading VZW's today. My parents have Verizon and get junk mail from VZW a couple of times a week. Just like ragu...it's in there. But as the VWZ rep, and Alltel rep explained they will never enforce it, BUT they have the right to if they decide to. My parents chose VZW because their phones were supposed to work "everyhere". Kinda funny whenever she had to make a call while we were in baldwin,for a graduation party, she had to use my SPRINT phone. Or my uncles ALLTEL phone. her verizon phone was supposed to work there. We used it as a paper weight. We both(sprint&alltel) had digital service 4 bars.

Alltel is free roam on VZW in most areas, especially if it's a rather large area where VZW doesn't have service. Maybe PRLs were old.