Coverage in Prescott/Prescott Valley, AZ

Alltel is supposed to be huge in AZ, especially Pheonix. None of the others can beat their plans if you get MyCircle.

They also have expanded the EVDO high speed internet here is the new data map , AML=1xrtt, ABB=EVDO...



They got the PPC 6700, BB 7130e, Treo 650, BB 7250. By the end of the year they will have the Treo 700 and Moto Q. If you don't want to go smartphone they have the KRZR, RAZR, E815, LG 355, some solid Nokia bar phones.

Data plans for smartphones is 29.99 a month unlimited roaming on the green is free. 25 if you tether your phone for your laptop. Outside of Alltel's huge expansion into EVDO, you can roam on Sprint EVDO, VZW 1x. There is also rumor of VZW and Alltel also signing a EVDO roaming agreement. Not sure how much that is rumor and how much it is true....

Many of the "soon to be evdo" are already online. Prescott will be covered by January 31st, 2007 or sooner in EVDO.

 

I wish I had Ev-Do.....:crying:

 

Okay. You would roam free on Verizon and Sprint in Indiana, but you can't purchase service there because no licenses are available for the area. Why aren't you just keeping what you have until you move? Then get the service there...

 

I think this is good advice. Don't resign a contract with your current provider, then get Alltel when you come to Prescott. I would recommend Alltel over anyone else for Prescott.

 

If you have to move to a different carrier before you move to Arizona and ALLTEL is not an option, then go with Verizon.

 

Have you tried your Cingular service while down in AZ?
Per their maps they do provide coverage in Prescott AZ, though I couldn't tell you for sure how their coverage is.
When you go down there next, try the phone in numerous locations where you would use/need it and see if it's an option to keep them as a carrier.
If they work for you, you can still use your M2M with other family members vs using a different carrier. If they don't give you the coverage you need once you try it, then check with Verizon, Alltel or T-Mobile.

 

From everything I've heard Cingular and Tmobile both offer excellent service in AZ (I'm planning a move to Phoenix next summer) and from what I also understand Cingular has UMTS rolled out over the major markets there. You're done with contract on Cingular stay on it month to month and decide once you move there. I know up here in Northern Indiana Cingular isn't great, but for that matter the rest are just as bad (I haven't seen full signal on a verizon phone except in South Bend) at least my phone lies to me and says I have full service.

 

I've actually not been in that area recently, and generally when I'm driving I prefer not to be on the phone, however, I'm in Syracuse just south/southeast of Elkhart and Michiwaka, this area is horrible, Cingular/Centennial are the only providers that I know of that work inside the fire station and City Hall here, I've not had the oppertunity to test the new Sprint tower that was errected here a few months ago, but I had Sprint in Warsaw back when I lived here and was working in Syracuse and reception was non existant in Syracuse so.

 

That's horrible that you can't get a provider with any better coverage in Northern Indiana. With its proximity to Chicago, Indianapolis, and South Bend it sounds like the population is definitely there to justify a huge financial commitment from somebody. I guess the lack of competition just isn't pushing Cingular to patch in their holes in the area.

Most people that visit the forum do claim Alltel has great coverage in the rural areas of AZ as well as the larger cities. It sounds like most people from the area that have posted here, along with a relative I have in AZ, recommend Alltel in the area as being a great option. But most people with Cingular that visit the forums also claim that their coverage is very good around central AZ. Alltel has EVDO and Cingular has 3G all around the area. I do think Alltel generally provides much better coverage in rural areas and much better prices than Cingular so they're probably worth a look, especially if you're thinking about a change. Depending on how much traveling you do and if you'll be doing any driving in the more rural areas, I definitely think it would be worth it to pick up an Alltel prepaid phone just in case an emergency ever arises. But there's only one way to know if Cingular will cover you in the places that you'll be traveling in AZ and that's to try it. It sounds like they do very good there and they might cover all the places you plan on being so you could stay on that family plan and keep your Indiana number. I do think Cingular is worth a try if you want to stick with them, but if your family is planning to move on to another provider, a MyCircle plan with Alltel might be worth looking at for great coverage for the region that will save you a lot compared to a Cingular plan. You might even think about trying Alltel out for a 2 week trial period before resigning with Cingular to see who gives you the best coverage in the areas you'll be if that's an option. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

This may help as well
http://www.cingular.com/coverageviewer/?zip=86303

 

The problem with this area, is that none of the carriers are specifically good until you get into south bend itself or hit east Chicago/gary, the area I'm in is south of south bend by about an hour or so, it's a lot of farm land. Alltel has no service offering whatsoever in Indiana :|

 

Shawn, I was in AZ. last Feb. and I had no problems with my Cingular service. It did get a little soft up in the mountains of Flagstaff,other than that I was very happy with my service.

 

Services rendered in Prescott Valley, AZ

Here is the straight stuff......

Out here in the desert and mountain canyons, Verizon, with its CDMA coverage, way outperforms the competition.

Think it may have to do with the lower wavelength of the CDMA carrier signal,
and maybe with the oldschool, omnidirectional coverage of the old antennas.
Like tv signals, the lower the wavelength, the longer the carry.

the cingular/tmobile stuff is great in the cities, 'specially if you are using a lot of the new features, and texting a lot. You will get horrible coverage out in the deserts and mountains though.

Want to see a review of the area, look at the Lake Powell review posted in the western forums here.

Just got a new nokia without an external nub antenna, and it is unusable except in my store, where I have a landline !!!
My old Nokia 2126 used to work in the basement of a block building in a canyon here in town.
Should have checked for a sim card, and I wouldn't have bought it. If only I had known.

You should also be aware that you should get a comfortable phonepad for texting, and if necesarry a large format text option. Out west here, a lot of the time you can only get enough signal to text with-especially indoors.

Prescott/P.V. area is VERY Rural outside the core area. the mountains surrounding the town on all sides have lots of antennas, but you end up with lots of directional antennas that only cover major corridors.

you will be putting lots of miles on vehicles here. Get an smaller SUV, but with ground clearence. You need height-not 4WD.

We are on the other side of the mountain from Prescott, the artist community of Jerome, with an antenna farm just around the corner, and most folks with Cingular have to drive around town, or down the hill to a line of sight with the towers, to get any service.

Recommend a stubby antenna type of Nokia or Motorola-and I think they are discontinuing both of those in cdma styles. You may want to pick up an old one on ebay or from someone else upgrading to a new HTC Libra.

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=1892 :wink:

Good luck-and ignore the ad hype-it is all long distance out here.

 

Likewise, the snow balls that were dropping the other day made me feel like I was getting bombared. Alltel is awesome, they lack coverage in NYC, LA, and a few other major markets where they are required to roam on verizon or Sprint.

 

Re: Services rendered in Prescott Valley, AZ

Just to break it down a little more, the CDMA carriers in the area are Alltel and Verizon which broadcast in the 800 MHz band while Cingular broadcasts in the 1900 MHz band. But this isn't the case on a national basis, it just depends on who holds the 800 MHz band licenses in any given location. But in Prescott, it should give a CDMA provider such as Alltel or Verizon a distinct advantage in the more rural places surrounding Prescott because they hold the licenses.

Alltel and Verizon both free roam off of each other so if a signal isn't available from your native provider, you could use the other signal. This roaming is free. But in most of AZ isn't it true that Verizon doesn't roam on Alltel? I think I remember hearing this in another forum a while back, can anybody confirm this? If this is true Alltel coverage, which I hear is great would also be backed up by Verizon coverage while the reverse may not be true. Alltel would definitely be the most price-effective option between the two though and if you get down there and go through a 2 week trial, a good place to start.

 

You'd be crazy not to go with Alltel. I have an Aunt who just moved from Prescott to Raleigh, NC. She has had Alltel for almost 10 years and really recommends them....and so do I! With my circle, whover the rest of your family ends up using for a carrier will be a free call! To me, that makes it worth it. And the 850mhz, CDMA service can't be beat!

 

Most of the local cell shops around here do GSM, so most people have horrible service. probably do a online setup. I use mostly text message, and Tracfone prepaid. expensive, but much cheaper than a contract.
Always can send text unless in a canyon,(or a wilderness area !)

But when I lost my number in a rollover, went from a 963 to a 451/274 prefix, my reception has dropped by half. don't know why, but I am assuming the semiauto handoff is now set to roam and bounce, instead of home area.

Still dealing weekly with the Tracfone reps in India, but they are clueless.

Alltell sounds like the way, and there are some great phones coming for cdma
http://www.inphonic.com/specialoffer.aspx?cid=33724_4a54c737079444cd8ac73f8ee3dd9bc2 (not affiliated-just jealous) and that HTC LIbra.

Happy signal Hunting !

 

Let us know how that works out for you. ALLTEL covers some very rural areas in the Western U.S. often areas no other carrier wants to touch. You won't be sorry, at least coverage wise, and when you go home or to a city/area ALLTEL doesn't natively cover, you will roam for free on either Sprint or Verizon.

 

Hey, newbie to this forum here...

I'm up in Flagstaff, AZ and I heard Verizon was going to have EVDO in January here. So how about Sprint and Alltel? I think I'm most interested in Sprint (because of the cheap, unlimited SERO plan).

Also, I've always had GSM, but I'm finally going to switch to CDMA. Up here, should I be getting a tri-band phone for analog roaming? GSM (Cingular) is pretty limited here, in my experience. Drive to the edge of town and it cuts out completely.

Thanks!

 

Welcome to Wirelss Advisor evilmrt. We hope you are able to get all the information you're looking for here at WA.

If you look at the second post in this thread, Strunke posted the Alltel national data map. Flagstaff is an area that Alltel is releasing EV-DO by January 2007. A number of places are launching before then but I don't know the exact date. Alltel's 850 MHz band coverage in the area should give you enhanced coverage on the outskirts of town and in the more rural places. From what others have said, Alltel does a much better job than anybody else in the more rural parts of Arizona.

Here is the link to view Sprint EV-DO coverage:
http://www.sprint.com/business/products/products/evdoEnterZip.jsp

Flagstaff is 1x with Sprint.

edit: I purposefully avoided the Analog question because I don't know if there are any analog only areas in your area. But for the most part and speaking in general terms, analog technology is being phased out in the near future and I think a trial period with a CDMA digital only phone will prove to you that you will have better reception AND you will be able to have an EV-DO capable handset. I'm thinking that it's only areas in the rural west like Montana and the Dakotas where analog is a real advantage.

 

If you switch to CDMA in that area I would switch to ALLTEL. Also, any phone with EVDO capability will not have AMPS...so you have a choice to make of which is more important to you.

 

Welcome to the Alltel family! You should love it!

 

I use MPT, motorola phone tools to backup and alter contacts and to use the phone as a wireless modem. It can be found pretty cheaply on ebay with a data cord for the phone. Just update the software when you get it.