Best rural coverage NE and IA?

You also have to Consider
Best Signal inside your House.
Which only you can Check, then you can
start from there.
Try their 1 month period.

 

Hey welcome to Wireless Advisor! Generally in more rural areas ALLTEL is the coverage king. I spoke to a friend living outside Des Moines with ALLTEL and he has been very satisfied with his service. An important thing to note with all 3 of the carriers listed is that say you go to an area where ALLTEL doesnt give you coverage, and Verizon does, you can roam on Verizons network. The same will happen with US Cellular. Keep in mind youll have to have a nationwide plan with the company you choose in order to take advantage of that.

Like jones said, you have got a trial period (14-30 days depending on company) that you can use the service where you live/work. I would try ALLTEL. Let us know your experience and what you end up going with.

 

Hi!! I came to these forums searching for the answer to practically the same question!! Too funny!!!
I currently have US Cellular (no longer on contract) but am moving to western Iowa, in the little square where they don't have local service, so I'm looking to see what my options are. I was hoping to keep my plan, I really love the free incoming and N/W at 7, but they've got the 50% usage rule, so I am shopping around. But US Cellular did have great reception in rural Iowa.
Which areas, specifically in Iowa are you interested in?
My dilemma seems that most plans combine western IA with NE, but I would like a plan that covers all of Iowa, and it seems like the only way that is possible is to get a national plan (although I don't leave the state).

But anyway, I have been leaning towards Alltel. I just hope that their coverage is as good as the maps reveal. I have heard enough bad things about Verizon, I would really prefer not to go that direction, unless I knew their coverage was absolutely better.

Don't these companies roam off each others' towers? Maybe there really isn't that big of a difference in coverage among them if that is the case?

Let me know what you decide!!

 

I'm in agreement with clock3687, for these rural areas Alltel is a great option and you have a trial period where you can return the phone/service if you're not satisfied.

As for the roaming off of each other, the answer is yes and no. Alltel, US Cellular, and Verizon will all roam off of each other. But an Alltel phone will search for an Alltel signal first, USCC will search for USCC first, etc. Your phone will not switch over to another network until it completely loses your 'native' signal. Often times you might be in places will your signal will be too strong to switch over, but too weak to make a call. So it is still a good idea to try to go with the provider that has a well built network in your area.

As for who does have the best coverage there, it's not an area I'm personally familiar with. I do know that everybody that has used Alltel in those areas and posted on this website previously have been very happy with it. As Clock mentioned, Alltel is usually a very good provider even in the rural areas which is why they're taken to be the rural coverage king especially in that part of the country. In the rural areas of Virginia that I travel I know several counties that Alltel has 3-4 times as many cell sites as the only other competitor Verizon. I have looked over the coverage maps with for all 3 and I will say that I would avoid Verizon for several reasons. The first is the price, if you compare plans, you'll notice that Verizon offers fewer minutes for the price. Especially once you get up into the higher-priced plans and family plans, Alltel offers more features like Nights at 7 and My Circle while Verizon's offerings remain very streamlined. The second is the coverage, Verizon appears to have very little native coverage in Eastern Nebraska and is a PCS provider (frequency around 1900 MHz) while Alltel is a Cellular provider (frequency around 850 MHz). In the rural areas, this is important because the Alltel signal will be strong as you get further from the tower. As clock also mentioned, since there is free roaming on National plans, if you're ever in an area that Alltel doesn't cover, then roaming will be free off of Verizon or USCC.

One other quick note, as for the phone, the Motorola E815 is your best bet for the best reception in rural areas. It's not designed for coolness, it's a little bigger and bulkier than most other phones. It's not a real eye-grabber, but it's best at being a phone that holds onto a signal very well with a pull-out antenna and it makes calls sound better.

 

Thanks for the detailed response it was very helpful!
I was disappointed looking at Verizon's plans, like you said, very streamlined.
I just hope that Alltel will roam on the Verizon tower that is down the street from where we're moving!!!
I will definitely have to take a few "road trips" on Alltel's 15 day trial period-- and I will have to check out the E815 as well, I prefer a working phone over a "cool" phone anyday!

 

This is true for all the major carriers except Sprint. Sprint allows in-network roaming everywhere it provides native coverage. This can not be said of any other carrier. Sprint phones released in the last couple of years have a "force roaming" option in the roaming settings menu that allows users the option to manually select a network other than Sprint.
If the signal with Sprint is to weak to be of use one simply chooses "force roaming" to see if a stronger network is available.

 

Most any phone from any CDMA provider can be force roamed with the proper knowledge such as utilizing NAM2 or changing Home SIDs. Depending on how in-depth you read the forums, even the PRL can be edited overcome SIDs marked as NEG in most circumstances though I don't get that detailed into it. I often utilize NAM2 to test the signal though I try to keep all my calls on a native tower when possible. Sprint just makes the process easier by placing it in the settings on the normal phone menu.

I was primarily just referring to the common cell users that are never going to force roam by any means and want the best signal possible without having to worry about anything like that, especially on a daily basis. It seems like there's a misconception in the minds of some, that when they hear about 'roaming partners' they assume their phone will automatically scan for the best signal possible between any of those providers when that's obviously not the case.

 

You obviously are very well versed in cell phone operations. I'm glad you took the time to clear up the common misconception of how a PRL works. However, as you acknowledge, most cell users (and by most I would guess 99%) would not be willing, or interested, in going to the lengths you describe to alter the SIDs in their PRL to obtain a better signal. It should also be noted that Verizon and Alltel would consider this a violation of their service contract and it would void your phone's warranty.
I was also referring to the common cell user which is why I offered up the far simpler solution that Sprint offers of using the "roaming only" setting. Most people are unaware of this feature that is unique to Sprint service. If coverage is a priority it really expands coverage options and capabilities, especially when you consider that Sprint has the most extensive roaming agreements in the domestic wireless business.

 

You are right that Sprint makes it the easiest and actually officially allows it so you can freely force a roaming partner- something no other network does. And yes, Sprint's coverage, with roaming, is greater than any other U.S. network, which is great.

 

Point taken, I would actually like to see the ease with which Sprint allows you to force roam put pressure on their competitors to also offer that option, and the only way that will happen is if people become more aware of that feature and state it as a reason why they choose their given service provider.

But even with Sprint, and I don't know if this is very common on a national level, but locally I know a few people that recently signed with them, and they all have their phones automatically set to 'Sprint Only' unless they go in and change it themselves. But it's like there's a stigma that they shouldn't because they might incur roaming charges and even some phones warn of charges. It's sort of like ... Sprint offers the feature for the informed cell user, but offers it in such a way that many people won't utilize roaming at all.

But even with these shortcomings which may be limited to my area, you are right, for the average person it is definitely a step in the right dirction with their ease of force roaming combined with the fact that their open-mindedness of free roaming partners gives them the largest network.

 

I agree Sprint needs to update the software in their phones so that it doesn't appear like roaming is something you shouldn't be doing. My phone still has a prompt like that when you change the roaming settings. I hear the newer phones have a different way of showing roaming with a little triangle on the screen instead of showing "digital roam" on the screen. I know some Sprint users who still don't know that they have free roaming. I try to tell them but it's like they don't believe me.