Alltel does not have licenses for MSP. They do have licenses for many of the surrounding counties. You'd have to have a billing address in one of the blue counties shown on this map to get service from Alltel. http://www.alltel.com/corporate/media/news_information/mediakits/mnfacts.html Alltel is in the process of buying Midwest Wireless. For that deal to get approved by the US Justice Department, Alltel will have to divest their existing licenses in counties where Midwest Wireless also has licenses. Don't sign up with Alltel if you live in one of those counties, because you'll eventually be sold to another carrier. I know -- it's confusing... royc
Also, to make things more confusing. Alltel owns licenses for some parts of Minneapolis apparently. I remember playing around on the Alltel website a while back and Alltel will sell service to some Minneapolis zip codes but not to others. I don't know if they provide coverage to certain parts of the city or just allow their customers to free roam on another carrier throughout the city though. The Minneapolis market is very confusing and complicated.
I kind of doubt Alltel will ever aquire any new spectrum to allow them to build out Mpls or St. Paul. They are primarily a rural carrier and most of their new license aquisitions come through buying out smaller rural carriers. However, Alltel's spectrum buts up right close to and includes some metro counties. If you are able to purchase an Alltel plan it may be a good deal. You would probably roam off of Verizon in the core metro areas and then have superior coverage off of Alltel in rural areas. Something to think about... But like another poster stated, wait until the Midwest Wireless aquisition is finished before buying an Alltel plan.
in areas that midwest and alltel overlap, the customers who are "alltel" will stay alltel. the ones who are midwest will be sold off. we never sell off our exsisting customers under the alltel name.
Thats doesn't appear to be the case here. According to FCC application by Alltel, they plan on divesting their current network in Southern MN (A-Band) including cell sites, stores, employees and customers...all to go into a trust until a suitable buyer comes along for it. Alltel plans on keeping the the Midwest Wireless network, including cell sites, switches, and customers. This would only make sense for Alltel, as the Midwest Wireless network in Southern MN has a better built out network and many more customers. Something to note...The Alltel spectrum in MN is currently marketed under the brand name CellularOne, not Alltel. You can see in the FCC link below that Alltel is planning on divesting itself of the markets it currently owns and operates in southern MN. http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518425108
