Sprint or Nextel in west michigan?

[Leese]

We currently have Nextel service, and have not had many problems with the service. Sprint service is a little cheaper dueto not having th direct connect. The few friends that I know who have Sprint have break up issues and less service than we do (I think). I'm wondering what others experience with these two.

[Bsilvertab]

Where in West Michigan are you? My short answer is neither, but I need to know your locatation first.

[ace41690]

Sprints network is generally less built out than nextels in michigan. So you probably wont have as much service. They are quickly adding Sprint equipment to nextel sites however.

[djjim]

Not to troll...but the best choice is prob. Alltel or CellOne.

[zdoyle35]

I have to agree i have family up there and they have nextel and they are waiting for there contract to be up so they can switch to alltel, and when you have alltel you get sprint and verizon towers so you get 3 carriers in one

[strunke]

Live in Kalamazoo travel west michigan and pretty much almost all of Michigan's major roads about 6 times a year. I would go with alltel over any other carrier here. They have the best network and the best price. Sprint is also Ipcs affiliate in Grand Rapids....stay away from Ipcs. If you really don't want anyone other then sprint and nextel don't move to sprint unless you have a corporate market not an affiliate like ipcs.

[Leese]

Thanks everyone for the advice. We are in Grand Rapids. I was able to get a demo phone from Sprint the other day to check it out, and the guy mentioned being part of the iPCS network and said they hated that. What does that really mean? (sorry if that is a dumb question).

I have also heard that alltel is good here in this area. We just (unfortunatly) added another line to our family plan (now 5) so we added 2 more years to Nextel or Sprint. So unless we want to pay $1000, we will ride out the 21 months with them. If we stay on the Nextel side, I just hope it doesn't get worse like people are saying it will.

[strunke]

Originally Posted by Leese

Thanks everyone for the advice. We are in Grand Rapids. I was able to get a demo phone from Sprint the other day to check it out, and the guy mentioned being part of the iPCS network and said they hated that. What does that really mean? (sorry if that is a dumb question).

I have also heard that alltel is good here in this area. We just (unfortunatly) added another line to our family plan (now 5) so we added 2 more years to Nextel or Sprint. So unless we want to pay $1000, we will ride out the 21 months with them. If we stay on the Nextel side, I just hope it doesn't get worse like people are saying it will.

I would stick with nextel. Give it another 3-6 months. If it gets even worse. Then I would go for sprint cdma. Since you can do this anytime you'd like i believe within sprint....

Ipcs is an affiliate of sprint, that runs the network and stores, etc. for Sprint under their name. But they are allowed to make changes to the plans (like no free roaming). The instore cs is usually bad with a ipcs affiliate, while with corporate stores you are much more likely to be able to get someone helpful. They also do nut run the network or build it out as well as a sprint corporate market would. If you really really want to switch I would consider going to Kalamazoo to do it and getting a 269 number. Because that way, at least your plan would corporate (kalamazoo is a corporate market for sprint) and you wouldn't have to deal with as many "gotchas" in the contract like the roaming thing. You would still be running on IPCS sprint's network in Grand Rapids but still be able to take things directly to sprint if their is a problem. Now I would say that within the city of Grand Rapids the overall coverage should be pretty decent, Ipcs has evdo there as well. But the big question mark is dropped calls, sometimes voice quality, and not a thorough build out of the network for the outlying areas of Grand Rapids.

You may want to pick up a Virgin Mobile phone and test out Sprint's network where you live and work. That way you will know what kind of coverage they get, and be able to test the voice quality. I would just get a pay per minute one if you do. But keep in mind that Virgin mobile phones run on Sprint's network and sprint's only, so free-roaming coverage on Alltel and other carriers would not apply as it would if you were to have a real sprint postpaid plan. If your Virgin mobile phone ever says "no service" then there is a good chance your post paid phone will free-roam onto alltel or verizon possibly, so don't worry too much about it of it does.

There is also a chance that Sprint will buyout the IPCS affiliate and problem solved (well eventually anyway). But that hasn't happened yet...

[RJB]

What about any GSM companies there like ATT or T Mobile do they have any good coverage just want to throw all options out there.

[strunke]

Originally Posted by RJB

What about any GSM companies there like ATT or T Mobile do they have any good coverage just want to throw all options out there.

Eh, the only gsm company that covers that area well is Centennial Wireless. And there customer service is not very good. There rate plans are okay. None of the GSM companies have a good data network there. Voice coverage for att and t-mo is very average......