Future of Verizon/Alltel Combined Company?

Re: Future of Verizon?

I think you need to clarify that... Alltel has one of the best rural networks in the country... Try getting native Alltel coverage in DC, NYC, LA, etc... Their native coverage serves very few major cities.

-Jay

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

It doesn't matter where you have the network. It is still one of the best quality ones. When the "national" carriers come in to an Alltel area their network is often second rate compared to Alltel's. Just the way it is.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Alltel is NOT nationwide. Roaming allows their phones to work in the MANY major metro areas they don't have native service.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Hopefully the top 3 Alltel features will stay:

My Circle, Anytime Plan Changes & Automatic Dropped Call Credit.
(and everything available while roaming).

If I'm under contract, or with active service, these features will be honored,
otherwise it's a violation of terms on the carrier's side.
After all, I'm paying good money for these...

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

One of the big issues I keep hearing is whether My Circle is in your contract or not. Supposedly, Alltel had it set up so they could revoke My Circle if they needed to. Any substance to that? Is My Circle listed on your rate plan or is it just a bonus?

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

.

AFAIK, it's a plan feature, in addition to your plan, and can not be revoked
as long as you don't abuse it & pay you bill.

My Account on Alltel's website is where this is all managed,
but another feature I like on my account is to look at my last month's call records,
it will tell me what SID, city I may be roaming in, how often I call certain numbers, and how long,
and give me a graph of the numbers I call the most (called "all calls by frequency")

Here is an example:

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Both of you need to read the terms and conditions to your Service Agreement. It states that Alltel can modify them at any time so long as they explain the change to you. I suggest you read the find print carefully.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

The bottom line is, if Vzw decides to abrupyly cut My Circle, there will be 13 million customers pissed off and ready to change carriers asap. I doubt Vzw will do that.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I'm talking about changes they can make without having to let you out of the contract ETF-free.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

yelp, and i'm one of them

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Yes My Circle is not like we are giving you 500 minutes this month for this price in the contract. So legally. They can and likely will remove it because they are a greedy non consumer friendly corporation compared to Alltel.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Actually they can make any changes they want as long as they notify you AND offer something to offset the lost feature. Read the agreement.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

You keep telling me to read the agreement, but I don't have Alltel.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

All mobile contracts are pretty standard... All carriers leave a passage in the contract that allows them to amend the agreement if they so desire.

-Jay

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I believe thats the kind of thing they did with My Circle for Connecticut customers.
They offset the feature by giving you more anytime minutes.
But I don't think thats worth it, unless they're giving 10,000 anytime minutes,
because I'm on the phone at least that much every month, thanks to the Circle.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Kyle, 10,000 mnutes is 333 minutes a day. Noone uses there phone that much. No, we have hit 5,000 a few times but that was on 2 lines.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I know better than to say "no one" uses that many minutes, but wow. Including M2M, I rarely break 400.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Well, lets see my current minutes of use (starts over on 6-16-2008)
As of yesterday evening:

217 Anytime Minutes
596 Night & Weekend Minutes
8,871 Mobile to Mobile / My Circle

0 Text Messages
0 Picture/Video messages.

............

Also, My mother on our other Alltel account uses about 5,000-7,000 minutes/month
Here's her minutes of use (starts over on 6-16-2008)
As of yesterday evening:

363 Anytime Minutes
1230 Night & Weekend Minutes
4,361 Mobile to Mobile / My Circle

0 Text/Pic/Video messages

So yea, they can't offset it good enough

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Verizon could kill My Circle but will they? Probably not, at least for current Alltel customers. I hightly doubt they will offer My Circle after the merger is complete or to their own customers but I think removing it from people who have it now, at least without allowing those customers out of their contracts, would be a disaster.

Between Alltel's rural coverage and Verizon's metro coverage the new #1 wireless company is going to be hard to beat. It is my hope that when the combined company moves to the next generation technology, they use a SIM or RUIM card but I don't know if this will happen.

Alltel has the largest physical network in the US. Now, granted, a lot of the areas they cover have more cows than people but still, that's pretty impressive.

When you think about this merger, it was more or less inevitable after Alltel failed to purchase even one license in the FCC auction.

After that I knew a big move for Alltel was near. There were really only three ways it could have gone. They could have merged with USCC, bought Sprint or sold out to Verizon. A merger with AT&T or T-Mobile would have been very unlikley, given the different technologies.

A buyout of Sprint, while possible, was also a bit of a long shot but more likely, I thought, than AT&T or T-Mobile. I'm glad that Alltel did not merge with Sprint as I suspect that would have exacerbated both companies' problems.

I guess what I'm saying is that it would be nice if Verizon took My Circle and other innovations Alltel introduced or popularized and included them in their own offerings but Alltel's #5 position is exactly what allowed them the freedom to innovate like that. I doubt Verizon will continue that tradition as they really don't have to.

They'll be the biggest company, they'll have the most subscribers, they'll have the largest coverage area and they'll be able to offer the coolest phones first and at the lowest prices.

Sprint and T-Mobile are, sadly, almost irrelevant at this point and USCC barely registers. The battle, much like Coke and Pepsi, Ford and Chevy will be between the two monsters. People still buy RC Cola and Dodge but how many?

Really there's only one question that needs to be asked: Can you hear me now?

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Shouldn't the title of this be "Future of Alltel?"

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Sort of, I guess. I updated the title to convey the theme of the thread more clearly.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

You're talking on the phone RIGHT NOW aren't you?

 

maybe i missed it but i have seen anything about celltop

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I probably had a nice 5-6 hours on the phone today

Alltel's system always says "this may not include minutes used in the past 48 hours,"
but on the weekdays it seems they're usually within 24-36 hours.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I agree with every point of your post, Moto, especially the part I am quoting in this reply.

As upset at Verizon as many Alltel customers here seem to be, express your displeasure to Alltel's head brass. They're the ones who sold out, who failed to purchase any spectrum from the last two auctions, and who missed opportunities to truly make Alltel national, not super regional the way they have remained.

Yes they are a good company. As Moto said, their small to moderate size allowed My Circle and other features to exist. Be glad there are roaming agreements, because without them there would me many Alltel customers without service in major metro areas in this country. I'm sure, if need be, Verizon and Sprint could survive just fine without roaming agreements with Alltel.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I couldn't agree more. I feel like we got sold out. There were so many opportunities to make Alltel a better, larger company and increase competition but they were never taken advantage of.

I thought Alltel would live to fight on. They had been independent for so long I figured they knew what they were doing. I thought the point of selling to the equity firms was to get capital for spectrum, then go public again once the new, larger network was up and running to make back the initial investments by TPG and Sachs Goldman and then some. If that wasn't the plan, I can't understand why Alltel went private in the first place.

The only thing I can figure is that the mortgage crisis somehow affected the amount of capital available to Alltel for the purchase of spectrum and that's why they weren't able to buy any. I honestly believed that Alltel was going to come out of that auction with the puzzle piece major metro areas they currently lacked and in four or five years really take on VZW and AT&T. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that didn't happen and how even more disappointed I am that they're selling to VZW and decreasing the number of major carriers in the US Telecom landscape.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

alltel was owned by an investment group....was this really such a suprise??? the whole reason they even owned alltel was to resell...it was inevitable.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

With AT&T my calls usually post on my OLAM within an hour, 2 at the most.

-Jay

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

All the investment group did was delay Alltel's sale to Verizon. This could have happened last year. I don't know if things would have been any different for Alltel in the long run.