Help Chosing Service - Moving to Arizona

[N4niner206]

Greetings all!

I am new to this forum, and new to cellular phone service (i know... hard to beleive). I am a pilot and have recently accepted a job in the Grand Canyon area of Arizona. Specifically, I will be living very close to the south rim of the Canyon. I am having a difficult time selecting a cellular service provider. I wondered if you all could help? I am relocating from Indiana. Here are some of the things Im wanting to use the service for...

1) Free nights and weekends to keep in touch with my family and friends back in the midwest
2) The ability to use my cell phone to connect my laptop to the internet in the evenings/weekends (if possible)
3) Im hoping to find whichever provider provides the best service coverage in that region... without roaming.

I am finding that coverage in this area seems rather limited, which I expected. The few companies that I have called were only able to tell me whether or not Grand CAnyon is in the calling area, but could not indicate the quality or availability of signal in that area. Everything I have read thus far seems to be indicating that Alltel would be a good choice? The cell phone will be my link to everything and everyone I'm leaving behind here while Im at Grand Canyon for the remainder of the year. Any help or assistance would be greatly appreciated. Please respond on this message board or to my AOL IM N4niner206 or by email at Cwilson11@mymail.indstate.edu. Thank you sooooo much!

- Cory

P.S. Anyone want to reccomend a connectivity kit to allow my laptop to connect to internet through cell? This would be appreciated as well :-)

[GoodmanR]

Hey Cory,

You are moving to a place with pretty limited cell service. It really is going to depend where near the south rim you are. In the canyon village, only Alltel provides native service, their data offerings are unimpressive, although you can definitely have your nights and weekends. If you plan on using the service most around there, Alltel would really be your only choice. Verizon dies about 5 miles or more from the village.

Here is a thread about it...
http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/wafor...grand%20canyon

[BillRadio]

Cory,
Yes, your only answer is Alltel unless you want these features to work more often away from home. Then Sprint PCS would also be acceptable in that with the right plan you'll be able to roam on Alltel while at home. Alltel is a good company, and is still expanding their AZ coverage.

Alltel can get you the stuff you need to get hooked up, if they offer 'net access there. Otherwise, you may have to do a search for secondary sources.

-Bill

[larry]

Originally posted by: GoodmanR
Hey Cory,

You are moving to a place with pretty limited cell service. It really is going to depend where near the south rim you are. In the canyon village, only Alltel provides native service, their data offerings are unimpressive, although you can definitely have your nights and weekends. If you plan on using the service most around there, Alltel would really be your only choice. Verizon dies about 5 miles or more from the village.

Here is a thread about it...
http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/wafor...grand%20canyon

I have heard conflicting reports about this. Some Sprint users have reported native Sprint service at the Grand Canyon Village area while other say that Alltel is the only provider there.

[GoodmanR]

Originally posted by: larry

I have heard conflicting reports about this. Some Sprint users have reported native Sprint service at the Grand Canyon Village area while other say that Alltel is the only provider there.

The people who claim they picked up Sprint though, I thought that was from a booming tower a good distance away? Which is fine so long as you can get the service reliably. I know Alltel is the only carrier with panels up in the part, and they were the only CDMA carrier I could find there.....Billradio, do you know what the deal is there with Sprint?

[Rasputin]

I thought Alltel was the only way to go on the south rim, I also thought you had very intermittant coverage via a boomer cell there.

[larry]

Originally posted by: GoodmanR

The people who claim they picked up Sprint though, I thought that was from a booming tower a good distance away? Which is fine so long as you can get the service reliably. I know Alltel is the only carrier with panels up in the part, and they were the only CDMA carrier I could find there.....Billradio, do you know what the deal is there with Sprint?

Rich (who's a long time member here) reports that Sprint has a tower just outside the park which serves the village area ok. I plan on going out there soon to check it out.

[Rich]

Yes, when I was there back in 2003 we did in fact get a Sprint signal at the Canyon village, and I think it did extend all the way down to the south rim.

[N4niner206]

Hey everyone!

WHat a great forum! Thanks for all the great information. I'll be primarily doing all of my calling out of the Grand Canyon Village and the nights and weekends are what Im in it for... using the evenings to talk to family and friends. That along with internet connectivity. So it sounds like everyone can agree at least that Alltel is a good carrier to get good native signal? And... Im new here... but let me make sure I understand... "Native" signal means non-roaming, correct? Anyway, I plan on talking to some of the employees at the company where I've been hired and see what they use also. Thanks a bunch! Any more comments are still appreciated.

Cory

[agentHibby]

Wonder why Verizon doen't cover that area better?

[Gideon H]

Verizon, expecially in Arizona, sucks. I swear they're the only carrier I've ever had drop my calls. I've been all around arizona and the only good carriers are Alltel, AT&T GSM (they just expanded), and Sprint PCS. For the south rim and a lot of rural arizona areas I heard and tried for myself and got pretty good analog coverage with Alltel. As for Verizon, I travelled all around arizona and other places in the country and I dont know why they call themselves the best carrier. plus it wasnt my phone, either [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img].

[agentHibby]

Verizon has lost many areas in AZ becuase of Commnet. That there shows how pitiful their network is [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

[larry]

Originally posted by: agentHibby
Wonder why Verizon doen't cover that area better?

Maybe they think it's part of Lake or Mendocino County. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[ILUVSOCAL]

Lol probably, their absent mindedness is spreading it seems [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Oh, be sure and ride the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams to the South Rim, it goes right into the park and stops at the lodge, really cool. If you take Amtrak, they have it all arranged when you get off at Williams, they take you over and put you and your luggage and stuff on the Grand Canyon Railway train

Grand Canyon Railway, THE way to get to the park!

[larry]

Thanks for the tip. I'll be taking a ride out there this summer.