Best service for Indiana & Ohio

I would have to say Verizon. I go to a nearby city of Lafayette(about 30 mins east) where my dad lives and its in the middle of nowhere and I still get service out there. I'm up there at least 3 times a year and don't have any problems. A friend of mine lives in OH and just recently signed up with Verizon. I haven't heard how its going but he says they have the best coverage in OH hands down.

As for a phone, depends on what you're looking for. In IN I'd say you'll want to have a phone that has analog, my phone uses analog out in the boonies at times up there. I have the VX4400 (color) and I think it's OK. It has a decent battery life and really is the best color phone Verizon offers (besides the Samsung A530-but it doesnt have analog). Also the A310 seems to be nice. If you're going for cheap, Kyocera makes a good phone, I had one before and I kinda miss it. I'm guessing you're son is going to Perdue, I'm in college as well and the 4400 is probably what he'd want.

Take a look @ the new America's Choice coverage map, it is in this forum, unless you're going for a local plan. But if your son is traveling at all, go for the America's Choice plan.

 

It might be cheaper for you to get a family plan from Alltel and get on their National Freedom plan. You would be able to share anytime minutes and have unlimited night and weekend mins on either the Verizon or Alltel networks (or any of the areas covered by roaming partners on their rate plan map.)

If you do go with Alltel, I recommend the V60 for him. They should have an updated T720 soon and it would be great, but until the newer one comes out, you could have some bugs.

Alltel has a 15 day trial. Since you already use their service, it might be worth a shot and save you some money.

 

Verizon is the only way to go anywhere in Ohio. No one else has any coverage far outside Cleveland, Columbus etc... except for a few pockets. If oyu dont go for Verizon, youll be roaming on their network any paying the fees. If you ever go outside of the city, go for VZW. I use it in Gambier, and get full digital signal. Gambier is in the middle of F-ing nowhere. I travel the area extensively and have only had to use analog once, and never had to roam!

 

Verizon is GREAT in the middle of nowhere. However, in downtown Columbus, my phone works about 50% of the time. In the last week alone, I got 18 calls resulting in voice mail messages w/no ring. 18 calls!!! Two of those VM's told me that it was their second attempt, and the number rang busy the first time. I think we've got some capacity issues around here.

However, right now i'm up in Cleveland. Everything works flawlessly. From my house in the southern burbs, I can't get the phone to shake 5 bars no matter what I do. Cleveland seems to be a very well built market.

 

(My first post to the forms!) I'm sorry, but I might disagree that Verizon is the best in Ohio. After being a very loyal Verizon customer for 3 years (beforehand switching from AT&T, Sprint PCS, and back in the day, circa early 1990s Cellular One), I was very pleased with Verizon, their coverage in general and actually their customer service. However living in Kent, OH, I found an odd dead zone around the college bar district on Franklin Street - a real problem since this is ONE area you really do want cell coverage. In addition, NW Ohio coverage around Tiffin/Bascom was meager and SE Ohio around New Philly was absent causing you to roam at a lovely $.59 / min even though I had American's Choice plan. I finally decided to give Alltel a try after a bunch of folks had wonderful coverage and surprisingly to me, I would argue that Alltel's coverage in those areas I've mentioned certainly surpasses Verizon. Nowadays, while I hate to be a cheerleader for any cell company, I think Alltel has sold me on their Ohio coverage. BUT - I haven't travelled outside of Ohio yet to really put their coverage to the test, but at least in my limited Ohio experimentation, I would suggest looking towards Alltel.

Just my two cents though!

 

I would say that alltel or verizon is a good way to go. THey both work off eachothers network. In Ohio if you travel in the New Philadelphia, Youngstown area Then your better coverage is with Alltel since there is NO NATIVE verizon coverage

Jack

 

I'll second the Alltel suggestions. I've got a co-worker on Alltel, and there are several key places we go where his phone works and mine doesn't. My guess is that Alltel is using their own network in downtown Columbus/Cleveland/Cincy/etc, and then using Verizon to fill in the gaps out in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like a win-win situation to me, as I've noticed my downtown coverage to be less than stellar.

 

What phone does your co-worker use? I wasn't even aware that Alltel had any network within the city of Columbus...according to their website they don't sell service here until you get into the 740 area code in the outlying areas.

 

Vtecex: I have been all over columbus and have not had a problem using my alltel phone.

"My guess is that Alltel is using their own network in downtown Columbus/Cleveland/Cincy/etc" I wonder if we could find this information out?

Jack

 

It shouldn't be too hard...someone with Alltel service just needs to find out what SID their phone is using in Columbus.

 

I had always assumed that when I was in Columbus that I was on verizon. The next person that goes into columbus that has alltel service let us know

Jack

 

And if you don't know how to find out what SID your phone is using you could always dial some bogus 5 digit phone number and hit send...you will get an error message and it will in all likelihood tell you which carrier you are using.

 

You could always dial 611 and that would get you to the customer care of the network that you are on

Jack

 

I used to think so as well, but apparently you can call 611 and have your call directed to your carrier's CS rather than the carrier you are actually on. It depends upon types of agreements in place I guess.

 

When my roaming indicator starts blinking, I can dial *2 and talk to Claire

I'll try and gain access to an Alltel phone when I get back to Columbus. I'll be up in Cleveland here for awhile yet, which is great, because I get 5 bars of flawless service everywhere I go.

 

That's funny, I used to do that too with my Verizon phone. If I was bored I would dial up Claire and ask "her" for my minutes used or my account balance just go get a laugh when she couldn't retrieve my account information.

 

Vtec01Ex

Verizon and Alltel have the best coverage in cleveland. See if you can grab a phone to check it out.

Jack

 

Yeah Jack, you said it. This is why I signed up for Verizon in the first place - Cleveland coverage.

i just checked out Alltel's site... the local plans look pretty competitive, but the America's Choice equivalent looks less appealing. And for all I know, my coverage might not change with Alltel in Columbus ;-)

 

Actually they are pretty close and some of the price points they actually beat verizon.

Jack