Alltel Coverage Question

As of now eastern kentucky and southern west virginia don't seem to be covered as well as most states by Alltel. They have roaming partners but it isn't free roaming like with Verizon or Sprint. I cannot vouch for it personally though. Just looking at the national freedom map. If you get the total freedom plan there is never roaming charges and you basically have service every where you can have service with CDMA.

If you have total freedom all of those features are included as long as they say so in the plan, I know there are some plans that don't have that, just make sure you get one that does. Mobile and unlimited N/W is done on their computers, if it says you have no roaming then it should allow those features.

Alltel should be superior to Cingular in West Virginia overall, eastern Kentucky however has less native alltel coverage then Cingular, so with the total freedom plan it depends on the coverage of the local provider there. But it looks as though that local provider has the area covered fairly well. I believe the Ashland area has native Alltel. Some data services may not be available, but again that just depends on the local provider. As far as N/W, M2M it all should work fine. The only thing about the total freedom plans is that they give you less minutes then the normal National Freedom Plan, but you would end up roaming a lot so it would be worth it.

Hopefully someone that lives in the area has some experience.

It looks like in the more rural areas there will also be some analog service.

Also, Alltel recently signed a roaming agreement with Sprint, which is supposed to go into affect in 2007 I think, looking at the coverage map, sprint also has a little bit of native coverage near Forest Hills, KY.

The best thing to do is take full advantage of the trial period and get a Tri-mode phone, Kyocera Kandid KX16, Nokia 6235i, LG AX5000, Kyocera SoHo KX1, LG AX4270, Kyocera KX12, Motorola V262, LG AX4750, Kyocera Slider Remix KX5, or my favorite the Motorola V710, they don't sell those new anymore though. Their replacement was the Moto e815, but that is digital only, no analog.

 

I can't tell you about coverage in those areas, since I have never travelled there with my Alltel service. I can tell you that you can use your 15-day trial period to find out if service is better there and if not, stick with Cingular, or whatever.

With Alltel, on the Total Freedom (TF) plan, you can use your phone anywhere you can get signal in the US without roaming or long distance charges. However, with the TF plan, as opposed to the National Freedom plan (NF) you get less anytime minutes and only 1,000 night/weekend and 1,000 mobile-to-mobile minutes. Mobile-to-mobile can be used on the extended network, as well as the home network.

For example, the $49.99 NF plan has 1,000 anytime minutes and unlimited nights, weekends and mobile-to-mobile and the $49.99 TF plan has 350 anytime minutes and 1,000 nights/weekends and 1,000 mobile-to-mobile. The NF plan can be used in about 95% of the continental US without being billed for roaming.

The NF plan is network based, what that means is if your phone displays a 'home' or flashing 'roam' indicator, you know that you are not going to be billed for roaming but if you have a solid 'roam' indicator, then you will be billed for roaming. This only happens in about 5% of the US, however. There is a possibility that with the NF plan you can get roaming charges but you get more minutes for less money so it keeps you from going over.

Whether the TF or NF plan is better for you, I can't say for sure without seeing your calling patterns and which networks you will be using in the areas you will travel but I just thought I'd let you know some of the differences between the two plans.

 

The features that may not work well in KY would me text, mobile web and picture messaging. As far as everything else like calling you will be fine. Also remember total freedom does not give you unlimited m2m or night/weekend only 1000 minutes of each. If you spend more time in WV and less time in KY you may want to go national and add 100 total freedom minutes to your plan for 10.00/ month

 

Can you give me a ZIP to where you live and I can tell you what SIDs are in the area that are on our PRL

 

Ok looks like mostly you will be using Sprint SID 4390 in those areas. Closer to work, you will be hitting us but the rest of the time Sprint. That sid (4390) is part of our PRL so you would see a blinking Roam indicator and would be part of national coverage. If you go with total freedom, you can use my circle however, since my circle counts the calls as mobile to mobile, you only have 1000 minutes. Basically my circle lets you pick 10 numbers that will act like mobile to mobile calls. you will not need to add your wife to this. also, the night and weekend and moible to mobile minutes are not shared, each line will get its own 1000 of each. the only thing shared will be the anytime minutes

 

Ok looks like mostly you will be using Sprint SID 4390 in those areas. Closer to work, you will be hitting us but the rest of the time Sprint. That sid (4390) is part of our PRL so you would see a blinking Roam indicator and would be part of national coverage. If you go with total freedom, you can use my circle however, since my circle counts the calls as mobile to mobile, you only have 1000 minutes. Basically my circle lets you pick 10 numbers that will act like mobile to mobile calls. you will not need to add your wife to this. also, the night and weekend and moible to mobile minutes are not shared, each line will get its own 1000 of each. the only thing shared will be the anytime minutes

 

25661 area you will be hitting bts site 377 alltel wireless, its less than 3 miles from you.

41527 sprint wireless. your phone may fall back to apl in some dead zones for sprint there but sprint has higher priority in the phone's prl. apl wireless is non pref roaming so you would be charged on nat freedom. The others you gave me are in the same RSA area so they should prefer sprint. Your roam indicator on the phone will tell you. If it blinks then you would be hitting sprint. if it is steady you would be hitting apl or other non-preferred.

There is no total freedom with unl n/w or m2m. it is too expensive for us to offer that. most people on total freedom will be using a carrier we have no agreement with so we get no reduced rates.

Tha National map is not meant to be accurate. Nat Freedom is a system based plan not a geographical plan. There are areas that can show to be coverd and would be charged roaming on that plan and vice versa. The only sure way to know is the phone's roaming indicator. I am looking at an internal grid of our network and a roaming guide to determine who services that area as well as our PRL that is loaded in your phone and providing you the information based on that data.

 

You can lock your phone to home only. I would let it scan on its own first. It will lock onto all something in its PRL first before unpreferred. Even if it finds a weak alltel or sprint singnal it will hold that

 

The 440 is decent but sometimes lags a little on its ability to give you a quality converstaion on weak signals. T2T is good provided you are using Alltel, Verizon or US Cellualr. It will work on other networks but will use your anytime minutes if it is roaming on anything but the above mentioned. T2T will not work when you are using sprint. Also, National will give you unlimited m2m anyway and if you are still worried about hitting APL wireless on occasion, start out adding 100 shared total minutes to your national plan and then watch your roam indicator for a month. If it always blinks or does not show up, drop the extra 100 minutes.

 

question, as our area will soon be served by Alltel, I do have some questions, as I am very seriously thinking about switching to alltel when you guys get here next month. 1. What will our local area be defined by? for refrence for all questions my zip is 62839. I would like to know what major cities will be covered by the regional plan compaired to the nationwide plan. Some zips of big time importance. 61931, where my sister lives who is on verizon, so the my circle is important here. 62854, most of family lives here, the st. louis area, the Evansville, IN area and the Terre Haute, IN area. as we make several trips to this area a lot. 2. what about this walkie-talkie service, is it actually nationwide or is it just in your home region? and last but not least, are your phones tri-mode or all digital? Thanks a lot,

A future alltel customer (hopefully)

 

Hello, your first question could probably only be ansered by an Alltel insider who knows what they are going to do for sure, which I do not. But here is the link to their coverage plans and national coverage map:
http://www.alltel.com/personal/wireless/plans/index.html
Your local area will probably at least include all of Southern Illinois at least which is now First Cellular and that might extend northward. However, there are also national plans available if that's not enough. Keep checking this site and entering your zip code for the greater freedom plan, it's not coming up yet but soon you should see your Greater Freedom plan which gives a map of their local calling area if you decide not to go with a national plan.
For your second question, I don't know anything about the walkie-talkie service because I don't use it or T2T.
For the final question, alltel carriers tri-mode and digital only phones. The digital only phones such as the Moto Razr and E815 are probably the most stylish phones they have. The reception is also great on these phones, possibly eliminating your need for a tri-mode phone. There are numerous tri-mode phones also.

Just a couple other points about Alltel, if they are coming to your area, you will indeed have the option of going with a MyCircle plan. You will probably be pleased with their coverage although I am unsure as to the quality of the network they are taking over. However, if you do notice coverage holes at first, Alltel will work to get those filled in over time if they hold true to their reputation. Alltel customers also free roam off of Verizon, Sprint, and others and their plans are much better priced. With MyCircle you can rack up minutes without paying for a more expensive plan with more minutes. So you've got all the benefits, and national coverage of the huge mobile corporations, while still going with a company that's quite a bit smaller and pays more attention to rural areas off the interstate. So you should get coverage in those cities you mentioned as well as the more rural areas. Hope this was a help but they generally do very well.

 

well the network that first cellular had was really good, as they have towers in every town in out area, so at least around my house we should have great reception. thanks for the advice, I've heard a lot of good about alltel from people not only on this site, but other sites as well.

But I do have 1 other question, what do you mean by this "free roam" that you talk about?

 

In Indiana you will be roaming for free on either Verizon if available, or Sprint. Same for the other areas, all though I don't know how far up in IL that they have their own towers.

"Free Roam" is carriers that Alltel has agreements with in which you do not pay anything extra for roaming on another carriers towers. The biggest carriers that Alltel has free roam agreements with are Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and USCC.