AT&T wireless to ALLTEL?

As required by the feds some of Cingulars licenses and customers have been "divested". Alltel bought some(all?) of them. So you are no longer an AT&T customer, you are now an Alltel customer. You wanted to switch carriers anyway right? Oops maybe the feds should have asked the customer first.

 

With AT&T Wireless was merging with Cingular there were a few markets that Cingular was not allowed to have. This reason is if both networks combine they would have too much market controll in that area. Oklahoma City and The market north of Oklahoma City (Grant, OK) had to be divested. The were other markets that the FCC and the Deparment of Justice said no to as well. The market in Litchfield County Connecticut; Alobusha, Mississippi; Owensboro and Fulton, KY; and some other rural counties in Texas. Cingular gave Alltel 20 MHz and network, but I don't think any customers in Wichita, Kansas. Metro PCS got some PCS airwaves as well, but no customers. All partnerships between Alltel and Cingular/AT&T are no more (like in Kansas City). When Verizon Wireless wanted to be what they are today they had to get rid of all crossover networks. They were not allowed to keep any crossover networks. They gave some to AT&T and the rest to Alltel in 2000.

Your contract date stays the same and you are now an Alltel customer. In the fall Alltel will have CDMA in your area. Alltel will be giving good deals on new CDMA phones and will be taking down GSM in your area. There are rumors that you might be able to become Cingular if you keep your GSM when they decide to take down the GSM network. Go ahead and look at Alltel's plans. Once CDMA is up in your area you can buy Alltel's phones and plans if you wish. Compare them to Cingular and see what you think.

 

It seems no one in any of the area's Alltel is taking over have been notified yet, they had to finish the deal by 4-26, and it seems a shame Alltel hasn't notified anyone in any way at all.

There may be some hope though, If there are any Adverse changes to your plan you may be able to get out without paying an ETF, so Read the T&C of the AWE contract & when you get notified by Alltel, read their T&C's and plans You may be able to get them on something as lack of M2M.

I heard at least in CT. They will be transfering all the GSM towers to CDMA in September & all customers will be required to get new phones, I am sure the same will happen in OKC as well.

 

Why not just stick with them until they turn off the GSM? They might let you out of your contract if you do not get a CDMA phone. Considering they will already have all of the equipment in place, I really don't see them turning off GSM service. They do not have a shortage of spectrum. TDMA will probably be taken offline long before GSM. Though I'll never understand the great attraction to GSM...

Having had both GSM and CDMA service, the only advantage I have found GSM to have is that you can roam in Europe. Considering I only travel to Europe about every 5 years or so, I'll just stick with CDMA. Plus, when it comes to dealing with customer service, Alltel kicks Cingular's butt in my opinion.

 

I haven't heard about OK yet, but some people in CT. have spoken with Alltel reps & CS and were told in September they would be offering free phones to the diversified customers, since they are shutting off GSM & will have CDMA online, plus they can roam on Verizon's network. It is real sad that no one is saying anything publicly to those in these areas.

 

You are not getting slammed the feds sorry if it came out that way.
The feds did this so Cingular does not controll the market like a monoploy.

Alltel will do alot to keep you as a customer and get new contract with them free phones more anytime minutes who knows what else they could do. You will get more national coverage with Alltel.
You will probably notice most people in your area had AT&T or Cingular. I am sure there were some Sprint, T-mobile, and Nextel (maybe a couple of them with US Cellular).

By the way many AT&T Wireless customers in Logan asked me what happened to AT&T Wireless by bill says I am a Cingular Wireless customers and I explained what happened. So many AT&T customers in Ok City will find out when they get their wireless bill, they are now with Alltel.

 

That's because most people dinn't read the prior bills, or anything that came in the mail talking about what was going to happen, then when it did they were shocked. I have heard people around here confused about what happened & I know we got a bunch of stuff in the mail about it.

I don't think the people in the Alltel diversified area's have recieved anything yet, where some area's other companies did notify them. It's almost the same as what happened to the people in VA finding out they all of the sudden became Cingular customers.

 

I would shoot myself in the foot if I were forced to go back to ALLTEL....

 

It also means they haven't watched any TV in over a year! I remember when the merger announcement came out in February last year it was all over the news in CNN, MSNBC, etc. and made the headlines in Yahoo, MSN, etc. And what about all those TV ads during the last 6 months? I honestly can't understand how someone missed this when during the last months of last year Cingular sent out MILLIONS of exclusive letters (not inside the bills) specifically announcing the merger. Anyone remember the famous wedding invitation? Even one of my brothers who doesn't even live in the US knows about this!

 

Eddie, don't do that!

Hey, you dropped Cingular? When? Work giving you a nice discount

 

Alltel will probably keep some of the GSM coverage for roaming, much like CellularONE-Western Wireless but I don't know if you would be allowed to stay on a GSM plan with a GSM handset.

 

Alltel now has a minimum of information on there web site about what they will be doing, it's a start at least for anyone in the divestified area's. They are switching to all CDMA with this.
http://www.alltel.com/new_customer/cingular/

 

LOL, it's just that ALLTEL's network is old and bad. I'm going to go right back once the contract is over, I don't know what I got myself into... No discount and i quit today.

 

In the Cingular divested markets Alltel might take down the GSM network because of lack of roaming revenue. Who will roam on there network?? It will be Cingular or T-Mobile that GSM customers will roam on so little to no roaming revenue for Alltel.

 

so what if you don't move to cdma? do you still have to pay the 175? also does anyone know if their moto bluetooth phones are looked like verizon does (as far as phonebook and cal features?)


all I know is that I'm pissed and thats that

 

From what I understand, that after April 11th, 2005, AT&T Wireless subscribers were allowed to break their contract and have the ETF waived because it's illegal to buy a contract or something like that. My friend Gideon, (GideonH) here did some research online and it did come up, now he's just waiting to see if he gets billed that.

 

Your contract date stays the same. So if your contract ends before Dec 8, 2005 you will be fine. Alltel wants everybody to be CDMA in December. I don't know when the final date will be in each market, but if they decided to take down a digital techonolgy and you are no longer compatible with their network they will terminate your service and if you are under contract they will have you pay early termination fee. So in the fall if you want to stay GSM call Alltel and see what you can do. They may wave part of your early termination fee, so you can go to Cingular or T-Mobile.

 

If there's No More Coverage they should
allow you to Go.

 

I live in western KY and am a new Alltel customer now. My company has a business contract with AT&T (and I think Verizon). I have been enjoying the benefits of that contract and wonder if I will continue to reap the contract benefits now that I am an Alltel customer. I have not been able to find anything related to this question on their site. Does anyone know how something like this will play out?

 

ya'll should give Alltel a chance here......I have been pretty happy with Alltel since trying all the others in our area......and Cingular was one of them.

 

Hello all,

First of all, take this how you will, but I am an Alltel employee, and proud of it.

I signed up on this site just to try and provide some sanity to former ATT wireless customers switching to Alltel in Oklahoma/texas/KY/MS/CT.

Alltel call center reps have been given the go ahead to bring over Oklahoma/texas customers at their request. We have been able to port KY, and MS customers for some time, and CT customers will be in late september.

You may switch over, we have some great equipment deals for each individual customer. You would get 15 days to try out the service and the phones. If you are not happy, then you may cancel without ETF. You can do this either by porting your # to someone else, or simply requesting disconnection through the channel you purchased from.

If for some reason you are not interested in Alltel at all, please contact us so that we can discuss the proper procedure to disconnect.

Your current bills may now say Alltel, but unless you contact us, you are not on an Alltel plan, and you are not in Alltel's billing system. December is the projected final date in which customers will need to decide to try out service, or switch.


side point:
a few reasons to choose Alltel.
-Network
we'll give you 15 days to find out if you like our service. if not, you only pay for the days that you used. CDMA is a good technology, it has a good build-out. You'll read a ton of stories about cingular adding lots of sites... its cuz they need them. We specialize in providing service to rural areas. No cell network is perfect everywhere, all the time. So if you drop a call on the Alltel network, you'll get a credit for 1 minute of service for that dropped call.

-Customer service
We'll treat you with friendliness and respect. We'll work with you in any way that we can if problems do come up. When you call alltel at 1-800-255-8351, you will be talking to someone in the united states, and you will be talking to a direct Alltel employee. We do not farm out our customer service. If you call cingular, you will talk to West corporation, or some other company who works on their behalf. When you call us, you're talking to someone who has an interest in your business.

-Features
get a most often called number out of your local area.. aka.. Call home for free, or maybe the office.. or maybe a girlfriend/boyfriend. Change your plan without changing your contract. Get a nationwide walkie talkie service w/ call waiting, and a real time availability feature. Add 100 Roaming minutes in advance for $10.

-Former ATT customers have guaranteed credit approval

If anyone has questions they can call 1-800-255-8351 and follow the sales options.


_Alltel1

 

Very nice information Alltel1, thanks for posting the information for those in the affected area's & it sounds like AllTel in being very fair & resonable to the customers in these diversified area's.