Moving to Manhattan, KS

:welcome:

First, let me say, "Welcome to the Wireless Advisor forums."

Second, let me say, "Welcome to my hometown, I think you'll like it here."

I have T-Mobile here in Manhattan and have no real complaints other than, like you, I barely get signal where I work. However, I work on the outskirts of town where T-Mobile signal is pretty weak.

I also have service with Alltel, which works very well in Manhattan and in the fringe areas around town.

I used to have service with CellularONE until Alltel bought them. The Kansas market was divested and US Cellular bought it. The old CellularONE network was great here but I don't know how it will be once USCC fully takes over (which should be soon... by August, probably.) So all I can say is that it used to be really good but I can't vouch for it now.

Sprint has service here and a lot of people use them but as far as I know they're like T-Mobile, pretty much having service only within the city limits and not much outside of Manhattan proper. Though, they are slowly starting to expand outward, slightly, or so I have read.

Westlink Communications is another carrier here. They're GSM, like T-Mobile, but I don't know anything else about them.

Recently, Cingular put up panels in this area and I can get them when I'm at work but not in Manhattan, so I think they're in the Ogden/Junction City/Ft. Riley area (west of Manhattan.) I'm not sure if they plan to actually offer service here or if they're just doing it to cut down on the roaming revenue paid to Alltel for the GSM roaming in this area.

Really, for service in Manhattan, it all depends on what you want to use your phone for...

If you want to be able to use it while you're at work and in the basement of K-State's library, you'll need to choose the carrier, if any, who has service there.

If you want to be able to use your phone without roaming charges in places like Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City, you'll probably want to stay with T-Mobile or switch to Sprint. Or, you could get a National plan with Alltel, as they do not offer native coverage east of Manhattan.

Good luck with your move and with figuring out which provider you're going with!

 

Sprint may work well for you - there is highspeed EVDO coverage just down the road, and starting on July 1 there will be data and voice roaming on Alltel. Almost all of the Sprint plans have no additional charge for roaming now, and that will include the data roaming (in the US). - sheureka

 

Well yes and no, it would work but not well. VirginMobile cannot roam at all, it is on Sprint's network or it isn't on anything. It will work, but bad outside of the city and in buildings as described above. If you decide to go prepaid the best choice for that location would probably be U Prepaid from Alltel. Because it works on alltel towers and vzw towers, it may even work on sprint towers once the agreement is in place(not sure about that one). Otherwise if going contract Alltel, Sprint, T-Mobile are the choices. I live in an area similar where both are kind of spotty indoors (much more so t-mobile), and I couldn't stand either one, so I switched to Alltel. If coverage is spotty even with sprint you will run into trouble having very poor signal in a building and not being able to place a call but still having like 1 bar....while even if you can roam onto a stronger alltel signal you won't be able to becaues your phone will be holding onto the weak sprint signal as much as it can. This can be solved by going into the program menu of your phone and switching the NAM when you are in this situation, but that is a lot of trouble to go to.

 

Alltel has BlackBerrys 7250 and 7130e, and operates on cellular B-band. USCC has the same two models, also, and operates on cellular A-band. I'll let you check on their audio suitability.

If you can get T-Mobile to charge you only when they find you a local Manhattan number, check more often as end of contact approaches. You never know when someone else could disconnect a line.

COtech

 

It sounds like you've had a time with T-Mobile tech support. Like COtech mentioned, keep checking with them to see if a local # comes available, but I've got a skeptical side that makes me think they're just telling you that because your account was marked as high usage so they might be trying to get rid of you. But it's also possible they're telling the truth.

Not sure how well Nextel covers your area, but I've not heard good things about their coverage in many places in KS. What really hurts Nextel in a more rural state like KS, is they don't have any roaming partners so their coverage is very spotty in many areas around the nation.

I would strongly consider a national Alltel plan in that area because of the coverage. What good are minutes and a blackberry if you can't use it? It sounds from what I'ved read on this thread, that unlike T-Mobile and Sprint, you will receive better coverage and it will extend beyond the city limits. And Alltel plan would also allow you to free roam on Sprint and Verizon and that includes data roaming with Sprint. Not sure about phones to go with because I basically just got mine for voice and not data but COtech sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

 

check out cingular, i think thier the best here where i am. might be good there too, i dunno.:browani:

 

I looked at Cingular's coverage map, and it looked fine for the city. There's roaming coverage further out. Inquiring of zipcode 66502 shows no service, so TheDreamer wouldn't be able to get a local number in this PCS Cingular market.

COtech

 

oh well, cait win them all, i hope he finds someone to cover him.

 

ALLTEL's coverage around the area is supposed to be great...now the question is whether or not ALLTEL has a phone that suits thedreamer. ALLTEL's pricing is also much better than that of Cingular or Verizon as a matter of fact.

 

:lol: yeah, they send out those spam e-mails a lot whether or not they provide service to your area.

 

Well if you are looking for a cheap phone service you could use at home I would take a look at VOIP. I use Sunrocket VOIP and have Comcast High Speed Internet. My Sunrocket VOIP comes to something like $16 per month and includes unlimited everything...all that for less the price than a basic local only landline phone line.

 

If USCC bought out the old Cell One network based on what Motohooligan said you should have great coverage with them. Especially on campus if they have repeaters there. They will only improve coverage as time passes. Their only problem is their blackberries may be behind the times though compared to what you are wanting.

Good Luck!

 

Yes, I'm sure CDMA would offer vastly superior coverage for the region and surrounding areas. I just think the Dreamer doesn't like their choice of phones, for Alltel or USCC. The only reason I'm thinking Alltel will give better coverage than USCC around the K-State campus is because Alltel has 4 towers in Manhattan right off of Highway 24 as opposed to USCC's 1 according to cellreception.com/towers. It's true that USCC might have more up and provide excellent coverage as well, but with the fact that Alltel has one on what looks like each side of campus and that they are a corporate sponsor of K-State athletics makes me think Alltel has went all out for reception specifically in Manhattan. He might even be able to pick up that signal in the K-State library basement! :browani:

 

So they say, 785/317 is the T-Mobile NPA/NXX for Manhattan. They pulled this with me when I added my brother's line in January, they should be able to get some opened up for you if you bug them enough. IMHO, though, you shouldn't have to bug them.

You might try the manager of the kiosk in Manhattan Town Center, she seemed to know what she was doing... at least the woman who managed it in January did.