Black River Falls. I just ordered a moto 120 from Alltel for my mother who lives up there. Has anyone had any experience with Alltel up there? It's kinda hard for me to test it from here and she's hardly the techno type. I'm having it sent here so I can set up the phone book and what-not then ship it up to her. I was just up there last weekend with my Verizon T720 buut don't know whos system it was using. It seemed to switch between two different ones as one minute the triange would be solid(extended network) with a real good signal and the next minute the triangle would be flashing(still extended) with a so-so signal. It seems USCC, Alltel, and Sprint operate CDMA up there ASFAIK. Thanks for any input
I'm not positive, but I would say that you were roaming off USCC up there. They have a much stronger network than Sprint in WI. And judging by all the similarities between USCC and Alltel, I would say that USCC is much higher on the PRL than Sprint. Plus, I used to work at USCC and before they started the conversion to CDMA one of the VP's toured the WI stores with a VP from Alltel. I'm not positive but it wouldn't suprise me if those two companies become one someday.
Jimi77, What makes you think the two companies might become one someday? I feel the same way. If you look, the AT&T-US Cellular deal sells off all of their overlapping properties except for NC, SC a small area of VA and MO. I think that it would be easy to sell the NC, SC, VA and possibly even the MO properties to Verizon. I could be totally wrong about things though. As for Ben67's question, I assume that Sprint is higher on the Alltel PRL b/c they are part of a roaming agreement between Alltel, Sprint and Verizon. If no Sprint service is available, I'd say USCC would be next in priority. Brad
Thanks for the info. What I am really wondering is how good is Alltel service up there. They said they have a tower in BRF but coverage could be "spotty" in some areas. She(my mom) doesn't travel around much but when she does it's mostly to the Doc in Tomah or LaCrosse and to my sisters home in Coloma. I'm also reconsidering the choice if the 120e. Maybe the v60i would be a better choice. The big deal is it needs to be easy to use for older folks with less than perfect vision and be reliable. I'm paying for the service and the phone so the extra $30 for the v60 is no big deal if it's easy to use. Thanks
Honestly, I'd send it back and get the V60i because it is the same operating system on the phone. The 120 has some major issues though....the OS locks up and you have to take the battery off to fix it.....it has several problems from what I hear....I'd never get one myself. Brad
As someone who has "less than perfect vision" who has also had the 120, I recommend not giving it to your mom. She'll have to use the zoom to see the screens and then have to scroll like crazy to read anything. One of the main things about the 120 I didn't like was the size of the screen. It's to small. Do your mom a favor and don't send her the 120.
BRF should be Alltel. They are a much bigger presence in central - northern WI than USCC is. USCC is more of the SE portion of WI spanning up to the Dells... Easy way to tell what system you're on in extended is to dial 611 or #646 or the like when in extended and see who you get for customer support.
I'm going up there(Wi) tommorow I'll be able to test it then. Alltel had already shipped me the 120 before I changed my mind. So I got it set up and it seems ok. My mom will not be doing anything other than making calls with it(no text messaging or the like). So as long as she can see the phonebook it'll be fine. I went by the VZW store Sat to have them set up the "browser" on my 720. I asked to see a V60 as they didn't have any on display. The guy showed me his own V60. Display wasn't much better on that(than the 120) and that "antenna" seemed more prone to breaking than anything. Ben67
Update. Well I got up here to Black River Falls and discovered they don't have CDMA "switched on" yet here(analog or TDMA). I called Alltel and they said they hope to have CDMA up here in June or July. I asked if I could use a TDMA phone till then they said "yeah you can do that but you"ll probably have to take it(if you have one)to the local store to see if they can program it." Of course I have two extra TDMA(ATT) phones at home in GA but that don't help here. We went down to the local Alltel store to see if they could update the PRL on the 120 and see if they had a TDMA unit my mom could get till they get the CDMA up here(they have it just north, west, and east of here). They were only selling CDMA phones. Figured it must be hard to sell phones that are stuck on analog. The analog signal is usable but has more static than I could stand. Hope they get it(CDMA) going sooner than later. Ben67
