Brand New Alltel/CellOne Incentives

alright, as an autorized cellone dealer, i got some nice info to share

how would you like to be be able to use alltel/cellone AND verizon, and even SPRINT towers nationwide? specifically for rural customers and most of the midwest, this is freaking huge. from montana down to new mexico, all the way east to missisip and 'bama, north to wisconsin and michigan (including all the states inbetween), the new 'national freedom' plan does just that! $50 a month, 1000 minutes, unlimited nights, weekends, mobile to mobile, free long distance, touch to talk if you wish...it all starts on monday, oct.17

i know that where i live -south dakota- this is gunna be HUGE; to be able to use cellone AND verizon towers (and the handful of sprint towers in the state also). i can't really forsee verizon being successful in sodak anymore, the only real thing they have over alltel/cellone right now is the amount of incredible phones. however, 95% of our patrons really don't care about how nice a phone is (ie. camera, video, bluetooth, etc.). the largest requirement is reception; just how it compares to the other phones.

besides the new plans, alltel/cellone has some other cool little things that will be very nice additions to any contract. some of the things that are coming out are like, for an extra $7 a month, you can have night calling start at 7pm (7 for 7); getting a minute credited to your account for each dropped call you have in your network, have 1 or 2 land land numbers added as part of your free calling network (promoted as 'unlimited home calling'), changing your rate plan at anytime without extending your contract length, among other incentives.

don't count the new alltel/cellone out. they are the best up-and-coming star on the block and hopefully when march-april rolls around, the transition will be completed.

 

first of all, ya alltel and more specifically cellone went directly to the rural areas where the other 'national' carriers passed up for the time being. acutally cingular and i BELIEVE sprint roam off of cellone towers in these areas.

question 1) the only real option for a carrier in south dakota is cellone or verizon. verizon has roughly 70-something towers and cellone at around 140. basically when verizon moved in, they put towers in all the larger towns and then they put towers in the other smaller towns where cellone neglected to put a tower. that basically makes it an 'either one or the other' type of desicion for the consumer, because depending on where you live and work, one company will have a tower there and the other won't. in a worse case senario, if you get stuck in a ditch during a blizzard and you have brand x but in that area the brand y had a tower, that'd put you SOL (disregarding E911 of course).

of course in sioux falls (sodak's largest city) you have a few other dealers like a sprint i beleive and like, qwest or something, nothing really threatening or worthwhile, but they still amazingly get enough customers to keep a dealer there. sprint does have 3 massive towers in sioux falls so thats always a plus.

question 2) if you wanna be technical, the agreement to use verizon and sprint towers considers them 'home' towers. you won't have any roaming in this new national freedom plan. so if you do travel around and encounter an area where only sprint has a tower for example, you can make a call to anywhere in the US and it'll be a considered a home call. thats why i was so excited when i heard this becuase like i explained above, you would now be able to use verizon towers and not be charged anything extra.

question 3) yes, alltel has/had roaming agreements with verizon and sprint. question 2 pretty much sums this question up also.

i realize that unless you live in the states that these new plans cover, this thread is pretty much a non-topic. BUT, if you live the area that i mentioned with the crap reception, this is pretty huge. those are the people that this thread is kind of directed to anyways. mos def deserves a nod at least.

also before i forgot, i got an email in our stores inbox detailing a no-no that verizon did that we're hoping will benefit us alot. basically, they added a new fee per line of service of 40 cents. while it might not catch an eye, if someone on verizon wants to leave and, oh i don't know, join another cellular provider, the termination fee is now waved. i realize every providers probably have done this before (and will do it again), but doing it at this time with our new plan on the way could lead into a huge month, month and a half for ports

 

from what i'm understanding, we're cutting the US into 1/3s. the 1/3 i'm more or less talking about in this thread is in the middle. montana on south to new mexico, east to mississippi and then north to wisconsin. if you live on the east coast, where alltel actually has a larger number of towers, i'm sure the regional plan'll use verizon and sprint towers. i'll tell you the truth, i don't know...that'd definetly be something to take up with a local alltel dealer (if you have one).

however, the national plans (aka total freedom plans) should be using verizon and sprint towers as part of the home network. i kinda already talked about it, but what that means is all cellone/alltel, verizon, and sprint towers are considered your 'home' towers. if you for some reason use cingular towers or something, its considered an off network call.

 

err, ya...cellone just calls them 'national plans', alltel its 'total freedom'...the plan that i talk about is a regional plan, aka 'national freedom' plan

 

well, if theres any verizon cuztomer that can verify this for me that'd be great...but verizon customers should have gotten a little insert with their bill explaining the rate increase. basically its a verizon charge, NOT a federal tax. if you read the user contract, it states that verizon (this applies to all carriers) has the option of changing your fees and charges at anytime BUT that they will send you a notice informing you about it. since they're changing the original contract that you signed up for, they're breaking the contract you two have together. because of this 'break of contract' it allows the customer to cancel serivice without having a termination fee.

think about for a sec tho...if you signed up with a provider and the contract you put your name on says that they can change the fees and charges at any time, but then not allow you to leave the contract without a termination fee, they could hypothetically raise the fees 10 fold and in order to leave you'd then need to pay the $200 or whatever it is to cancel service with verizon.

ya that's an extreme scenario and would never happen, but i can see how some people might feel if all of a sudden they're getting a new charge on their bill and aren't allowed to cancel service. its more of a legal shield if any customer gets extremely angry.