Alltel?

Alltel is great here in Michigan. I have heard good things about them in Florida as well along with other areas of the country, I never really go to analog. Then only place where it is a problem is the sparsely populated forests of the Upper Penninsula. Even there there is quite a lot of digital, being in Florida I don't think you will need a tri-mode phone. Alltel has great free roaming agreements with Verizon Wireless, Sprint, USCC, and others. I believe they have native EVDO in Tampa, and later this year they will be able to roam on all of Sprints EVDO areas. There is also rumors, true or not, that they will purchase Metro PCS in Florida, which will give more native coverage on the Atlantic coast, where they currently roam for free on Verizon Wireless...

Here is a website that I found that rates all the carriers...
http://www.mountainwireless.com/ratings.shtml

 

I do believe that you will be very happy with Alltel. The coverage has been excellent everywhere that I have been. I also have military in my family so this summary includes most interstates and some cities and rural areas of VA, TN, NC, SC, and GA. Not been everywere in each state but the service has been just fine everywhere that I have been. I am truly much happier with alltel than others I've been with. I have the E815 which is a digital only phone and I have never seen the dreaded words "no service" on my display. I don't think you'll have a problem with a digital only phone in your area either.

 

I've seen the dreaded words some places in eastern NC, but I deal with it by having a backup PRL in the phone for another carrier. Alltel's network in my part of NC has never been stellar though.

Other than that, customer service wise and value wise, hands down Alltel can't be beat. You get Verizon's coverage for not nearly the cost, plus you get unlimited My Circle.

 

I had Alltel on prepaid (before AlltelU) a couple of years ago in Tallahassee; I was quite impressed with the coverage in my area; even my VZW buds were asking me to use my phone I never had a dead spot in my area. The only reason I left them was because they didnt do roaming off the Alltel network at that time for prepaid service. I did analog roam a couple of times but I was located in the middle of nowhere (and it was brief). I am with VZW and I am surrounded by Alltel coverage in rural areas. I have roamed digitally on alltel most of the time; I rarely hit analog on them. I havent had any probs roaming with an all digital phone yet ... The Alltel people I know all own tri-mode devices only because of cost, but they are happy with their coverage and service.

 

I have had Alltel service for a few months now and am 100% satisfied. I switched from T-Mobile because the coverage was horrible. I couldn't use the phone at my house and there were lots of dead spots. Of course whenever I went off the interstate in rural areas my phone quickly switches to Emg Only or No Service. Alltel's coverage is great and I hardly ever have a dropped call. I have only seen my phone go into Analog once on its own and it quickly switched back to Digital right down the road. Alltel's roaming agreements are great as well. You can go to just about any city and roam for free on VZW or soon maybe Sprint if there isn't Alltel coverage in the area.

Bests,
Bradley

 

My parents live in Sarasota and have Alltel, they are happy with them and their coverage in the West Coast of FL, as well as when they have driven up to NJ, they haven't had any problems with them.

 

You should be very happy with ALLTEL in FL. They are said to have it very well built out and if you travel to areas ALLTEL does not have licenses in you can roam for free on other carriers and ALLTEL's pricing is awesome.

 

I live in southeastern NC. Our service is OK, but not great. There are still plenty of dead spots and dropped calls in this area of the state. Furthermore, Alltel's plans are _________s behind Cingular, Verizon and Sprint. Unfortunately, those carriers are primary to Horry County, SC and Wilmington, NC locales. I've been a 360/Alltel customer for 11 years now, so I guess it's not that bad.

 

How can you say that Alltel's plans are _________s behind Cingular, Verizon and Sprint? I will grant that Sprint tends to be cheaper but at most price points you get more anytime minutes with Alltel as compared to Verizon or Cingular. All the companies provide unlimited mobile to mobile and unlimited nights/weekends on alll the national plans. Also Alltel has MyCircle which allows you to designate free anytime calling on up to 10 numbers. Each customer has to decide what works best for him/her but to say that Alltel's plans are _________s behind is inaccurate.

 

if you are in a area where uscc covers then uscc is better in the rual areas.i had alltel for ten years but now have uscc and it beets alltel any day.

 

I will agree the above statement is correct in some markets, but not all. ENC is a soso market for Alltel, but other Alltel markets are exceptionally well built out including Charlotte, Florida, Raleigh, Greensboro and most of South Carolina just to name a few. I have found a few threads indicating tthat Alltel is building quite a few towers in ENC. I wish I knew where?!?!

 

in your area alltel is ok.i had alltel for ten years until two yeare ago i went with uscc so i could use my phone at my house.i would say on the east side of I95 uscc is best.in the larger cities i am sure that alltel is ok as other carriers are.most carriers have their best coverage in the larger area so that they came get more customers.uscc has very good service in the rual areas.

 

I don't agree with that. While no doubt USCC has a great network in many areas I would say that wherever USCC and ALLTEL cover USCC has better coverage. ALLTEL may not be the best in all areas they usually do very, very well in the areas they cover.

 

Do you mean Alltel would? or wouldn't? Come on Andy pick sides! :wink:

Haha, USCC does a good job but overall Alltel does better in covering their areas, parts of NC may be different but the rest typically is not. I would also like to mention, 2 years is a long time in the cell phone world. Carriers could have vastly improved over that time.

 

Sorry, didn't pay attention to that one. Here's what I wanted to say:

I don't agree with that. While no doubt USCC has a great network in many areas I wouldn't say that wherever USCC and ALLTEL cover USCC has better coverage. ALLTEL may not be the best in all areas they usually do very, very well in the areas they cover.

 

you can ask any one in the east that has had both alltel and uscc and see what answer you get. have you ever tryed to use alltel in the rual eastern part of the state?

 

I'd rather have to use my car phone to make a call in Engelhard than miss all my calls in Greenville because USCC's network is so overloaded. Been there, done that... I've been a customer of both, and actually I carry a phone from each network now because of work. I know who has the better network here, and it's not USCC.

 

I actually selected alltel over uscc because after talking to several friends, all said that the alltel coverage was superior in my area.

 

I wasn't talking about one state in particular. Of course one carrier will have better coverage than the other in some areas, but overall I don't agree with a general Statement of USCC having better coverage than ALLTEL.

 

lets try this again.i am not talking about greenville i am talking about the rual areas as scott was talking about engelhard and such places.i am talking about non cities limits of the east rual very rual areas.

 

I think he understands what you mean. I don't think USCC beats the Alltel in all rural areas. I have traveled to many real rural areas and had incredible service. Once again, I agree with you on ENC, but not on the rural vs. metro commett.

 

I have been an Alltel customer for 13 years and am now looking for a new company. Although the coverage has not been bad, my worst problem has been customer service. I have gotten so many different stories on my current problem that I'm fed up. Customer service should be considered when choosing a company also.

 

@ Jerry 12

I was well aware of what you meant by your statement. Alltel beats USCC in the rural areas that I travel in. Even in the very rural areas and the very very rural areas. But I know that both companies do a good job in the areas that they cover, much better than the big 4 in the areas I travel. But just because USCC threw up a tower by your house and you got lucky doesn't mean that USCC covers all rural areas better than Alltel. Alltel still beats USCC in many areas and I'm sure the opposite is true for other places.

@ Maya

I can understand why someone would want to switch over customer service issues. But be careful when you switch for this reason. Everybody has a different story to tell for customer service from every company. In my experiences, Alltel customer service was much better than Verizon and most people say that Sprint's is pretty horrible. A lot of times it just depends on the rep you get on the phone or in the store and has nothing to do with the company. It hate to hear you had a bad experience or two, or even 10, but think it through before you change. It would be even worse to have bad customer service ... and bad coverage to go along with it. Depending on what your problem is, someone on these forums might be able to help or recommend a new phone. An AlltelWireless Tech drops by the Alltel forum on a regular basis and is a great help for most people. edit: I see that was your first post and if you don't know how to get to the Alltel forum: click on WirelessAdvisor.com Forums at the top of this page and scroll down until you get to the Alltel forum.

 

Like UFO said, before you move your service. Check out the Alltel forum. There is a few over there that work for Alltel and I'm sure they can fix what problems you have. Just come on over and tell us whats wrong.