Cellular South

[cphirman]

Hello,
I was just wondering if there were any Cellular South users here and what you think about them? In particular I'm wondering about how coverage is for those on the new CDMA system. Thanks.

[chodges]

Depends on where you are. If you are in the Delta, Oxford, Starkville/Columbus, Brookhaven/Hattiesburg, or Gulf Coast markets, its pretty good. Their PCS coverage everywhere else in the state is still just PCS coverage... just along the highways/doesn't penetrate walls very well. I haven't found anything spectacular about their CDMA system in comparison to their TDMA. The big negative about their CDMA plans is they won't roam on Cingular or anyone else as far as I know in Mississippi unlike their TDMA phones. You are either connected to Cell South or no service. There's alot of places where the phone won't work, such as Kosciusko or along Highway 25 between Jackson and Louisville.

[cphirman]

Thanks for the info. I'm mostly going to be using it around Oxford and up to Memphis on occasions. I'm just running up too much on my Cingular phone and am going to just use that for travelling out of state and C-South's unlimited plan would be great for me around home.

[COtech]

Cellular South (Telepak) will eventually have a CDMA roaming partner in Mississippi--Alltel will get those CenturyTel Wireless TDMA sites changed over. No one's spoken of this, not like the Michigan complaints about Saginaw and the Thumb region. Any signs seen?

John in Memphis

[chodges]

I've asked that question to the ALLTEL agent department in Jackson. No talk of it yet. However right now Cellular South is the preferred roaming partner for ALLTEL in south Mississippi (SID 1394). My hopes are they work out some kind of agreement like the Cell South and Cingular roaming arrangement in Mississippi. However the big problem with them working together is that they compete head to head on 800mhz in the Columbus/Starkville market (MS RSA #6) and some of the Delta: Yazoo City/Greenville (MS RSA #5) (ALLTEL=A carrier, Cell South=B). It may be because of this that they never work out a friendly roaming agreement (enough to add Cellular South to ALLTEL's National Freedom network, for example).

[COtech]

You're quite right, and I was too simplistic. I was planning to edit my last message.....Hey, where does my Cingular roaming coverage go in central Mississippi? I suppose Alltel will leave a few channels TDMA until the CenturyTel handsets are exchanged. Same for CellularSouth? Cingular has just a little 1900 MHz TDMA on US61 and US82 (Cleveland to Greenville to Greenwood, and Starkville to Columbus; if I remember correctly).

John

[jimbo]

COTech---I don't know about Alltel, but Cellular South is going to continue to support their TDMA network for a while. They are actually still selling TDMA phones for their National plans. Check out their press release.

[chodges]

The CenturyTel TDMA network will still be on for years to come. It's good roaming revenue for ALLTEL. Even though they are requiring CDMA headsets for their national plans, ALLTEL still sells TDMA handsets for Local Freedom in the rural CenturyTel markets. I don't see them turning off TDMA for quite a while in Mississippi. There's not that many CenturyTel TDMA customers so spectrum is not an issue. I don't expect them to continue CenturyTel's TDMA buildout though. Only maintain and keep running the TDMA sites.

Mississippi Cingular phones (B band) stay on either Cellular South or Cingular which covers all of Mississippi's B Band. I don't know about A-band Cingular markets. Cingular has in the past year built-out their TDMA network along the US 82 corridor. PCS extends from the river to Greenwood, 800mhz in Carroll and Montgomery counties (I-55) and they've added PCS towers to Eupora and West Starkville... there's continual Cingular coverage along US 82 with the exception of Stewart.

I know Cellular South roams on ALLTEL in rural Arkansas when away from AT&T/SunCom and CenturyTel in rural Louisiana/southern Arkansas.

It will be interesting to see what new roaming arrangements and rate plans come out of this mess. With Cellular South going to CDMA and Cingular going to GSM, Cellular South is going to have to do something if they want to have continual digital coverage throughout the state with their CDMA phones like their TDMAs.