So how is Alltel?

From what I have heard, ALLTEL customer service is very good and people are quite happy with them. They usually also have good service within their native coverage area and good roaming agreements outside their native service area.

One thing to consider about whether to move everyone to ALLTEL or maybe add them to your Verizon Wireless account is coverage. How does First Cellular's coverage stack up to Verizon coverage in your area?
ALLTEL rateplans are actually quite attractive if you compare them to Verizon and Cingular. They also offer early nights for a great price, and their pricing plans usually include a tad more minutes than Cingular and Verizon plans. If you have a family share plan with them you can also chose a number to call for free(can be a landline or whatever number you chose). They also have local plans in case you don't travel a lot that blow Verizon and Cingular out of the water.
Hope this helps,
Andy

 

Hello, I have Alltel and think it's great. Slightly better plans nationaly, phenomenal plans in you go with greater freedom and don't travel often. Even if you do travel often you can just switch the plans ahead of time before you travel and back again once you are home (Anytime plan changes without extending contract). As far as high speed/broadband data coverage goes Alltel is behind Verizon. But for talking I have found that Alltel is the most reliable. I have no complaints about their customer service. Although I haven't had any major issues to contend with in which I would have to talk to them. They are about 100% better then Sprint's drones that's for sure. Also I noticed you have the V710, you might be able to keep the same phone if you have Verizon delete the esn from their system and have Alltel add it to theirs.

 

I drive for a living and have had Verizon, Nextel and Cingular. Alltel is by far the best! I will never switch! You get alot more for your money too! Don't be brainwashed by the big 3, bigger is not always better! There is no one out there that can beat my current rate plan.

 

I have alltel and also sell it. As far as plans go, I don't think it gets much better. When it comes to phones, they have some nice one's buy by far not the best. You can get them cheaper with almost any other carrier if they are available. Now onto customer service. I've found that it can take a LONG time to even get through to someone with the 800#, but once you do get ahold of someone they normally are very good.

 

Alltel generally has good coverage and they have some really good rate plans. Rate plan wise they definately beat Cingular and Verizon. Customer service however is Alltel's weak point. Alltel CS has very limited hours and while the reps are very nice sometimes they are totally clueless. It's a tough call for many between Verizon and Alltel. Verizon has slighty better coverage and better customer service. However Alltel's rate plans are much better and I like how they don't extend your contract if you change rate plans.

If you want the best coverage and customer service hands down stick with Verizon Wireless. If you however can deal with having a bit less coverage and limited customer service hours than go to Alltel for the better rate plans.

 

There are very few areas where the coverage is worse with Alltel though, the only big one that I know of is Thumb Cellular here in Michigan, Verizon has a free roaming agreement with them and Alltel does not. So the coverage is the same but the cost is more. Where this person lives the coverage will be very good for Alltel. In fact it will be the same or better then what his other family members have. The main thing across the country is that there are a few areas where Verizon has more roaming partners. Verizon has better coverage in most major market's i.e. Detroit. I have heard that Verizon's CS is the best though.

But I guess it really just depends on where you live and use the phone that is the most important.

 

My grandmother and mom have Alltel and I have noticed the coverage is very similar but my Verizon phone works in a couple of spots where theirs will not. I however have never seen my phone not work and theirs did. Yes Alltel and Verizon have roaming agreements with each other and many will argue cause of that fact the coverage is exactly the same which is NOT true. The coverage between Verizon and Alltel is very similar but it's not exactly the same. Wireless phones are designed to hold on to the native carriers signal as long as possible before switching over to a roaming partner. Unfortunely many times the signal they hold on to the native carrier is so weak though the signal isn't useable.

This is what happens with my grandmother and mother's phone sometimes. They pick up a Alltel signal but it's very weak and basically not useable. This prevents the phone from switching over to the useable signal on Verizon. I on the other hand am picking up a stronger signal on Verizon though so my phone is able to work.

 

Yes that's true. I am just used to Verizon's network not being nearly as good as Alltel's in my area.

 

Verizon is almost perfect in Tennessee. It's amazing how well they have my area covered and from what I have heard they are also excellent in other parts of Tennessee as well.

 

I love Alltel and have been with them for around 10 years. I can only say good things about them, but on the other hand. I cannot talk bad about the others. I just have not had them, but I think you would be happy with Alltel.

 

It all depends on where you live and frequent. I had to dump Verizon due to lack of coverage where I frequent. My Alltel has far outperformed Verizon including in my hometown of Charlotte and rural New England where most my family and friends live. Verizon is available in rural New England but since it is in a rural area, they spaced their towers more to give minimal coverage. My Vzw phone would lock onto a Vzw tower far away and give me a barely useable signal where my Alltel phone would pick up USCC towers which has superior service in the area. This was the case at my best friends house who literally has an Interstate in his back yard. Noone has Vzw in the area because of too many deadspots. I also have "No service" from Verizon at my home inside the city limits of Charlotte, NC off of a major highway(Highway 49 and Arrowood Rd) only 4 miles from the skyscrapers of downtown. I think that is in inexcusable for Vzw. Rural area are one thing, but in a city of nearly 1 million?? I have nearly full service with Alltel at my home. On the other hand, I have many friends who are happy with Vzw in Charlotte. Bottom line, you have to try the service and see if it works where you frequent. I have had superb service from Alltel.

 

You must have used a defective phone. I find it hard to believe Verizon has no signal in that area the way you describe it. Besides if Alltel works at your house and Verizon has no signal at all the phone should easily switch over to Alltel. One time the local tower that serves me from Verizon went offline for about twenty minutes. Well my phone switched over to Alltel and worked just fine when the Verizon site was down. Roughly twenty minutes later from when I lost a Verizon signal and picked up Alltel my phone went back to Verizon.

 

No, not a defective phone. I would have an unuseable 1 bar signal and yes it would switch to Alltel's tower. Back and forth constantly. It was a headache and I would miss a lot of calls and drop some. My friends who have Verizon have the same problem at my home. Even today, I have my NAM2 programmed to Vzw Sid 139 and nothing has changed. I could get a Vzw plan and program my NAM2 to Alltel, but why when I get more minutes for less money with Alltel? If I had a need for Vzw "In" minutes I would..but I don't.

 

Odd that Verizon is so weak at your house but I've seen some odd spots here with Sprint. My mom lives right off the interstate in a very populated part of Kingsport yet Sprint won't work in her house at all. Cingular is also kinda iffy at her house but at least it somewhat works inside. Verizon, SunCom, Alltel, and Nextel though have full signal. In my opinion there is no excuse for Sprint PCS and Cingular to have poor coverage in her area.

At my house Sprint is also very weak but it somewhat works depending on what phone model you have at least. I'm not sure how well Nextel works at my house but I know Cingular, SunCom, Alltel, and Verizon works just fine here. At either location Sprint really shouldn't be so poor.

 

Hey djjim. Could you tell me or show me where I can find out how to change around my NAM2? I have been wanting to test out the other network out here but don't know as much about it and haven't had much luck searching for it online...thanks for anything!

 

I also live near Charlotte and whenever I would travel in Charlotte I would have trouble getting a signal with Verizon. I'm on Alltel service now and never have trouble getting a signal.

 

Thank God! I thought I was the only one that noticed!

 

Check your pm! You have mail!

 

What Alltel plan are you looking at that has free roaming only 'near major cities'?

But then again thinking abut it, maybe where you are, the roaming areas nearby are only major cities.

I have travelled a great deal and the only area I have had issues of having to pay when I roam is going through KY.

 

Thanks djjim for email can't what to try it out!

But yeah the Greater Freedom plan which gives you more minutes but a smaller area says that you get free roaming near major cities, but there isn't any indication of which cities those are, it's kind of confusing...

 

Here is a link to the National Freedom coverage map.

http://www.alltel.com/personal/wireless/plans/nf_coverage_map.html

 

I'm not sure where you read about that no roaming near major cities, but it is wrong. If you are on national there is still a chance of roaming, but very little. If you on greater freedom there is no roaming as long as you are in your local coverage area. The total freedom has no roaming, but do they still offer that, I was told they were getting rid of it and we don't even offer it at my store. There is a $10 a month feature that will give you 100 minutes to travel with roam free though.

 

Alltel is CDMA. They maintain some GSM networks for roaming traffic. Many will argue this, but IMHO CDMA is a better technology. I'd stay away from GSM. I noticed you still haven't signed on to Alltel. Have you heard of "Circle" yet?

 

I guess I am one of them. I don't think anyone can making a sweeping statement that either one is better than the other. To me what is better is what technology works for them. I have both GSM & CDMA, and find that I need both to cover every place that I need.

For some people like me, who travel internationally and also like to get a new cell phone every 3 months I would say GSM is definitely better. At the same time there is little GSM coverage where my SO works.

Just my 2 cents

 

That didn't take long! LMAO!
I don't want to get into this argument because it is off topic and been battled over and over. All I know that here in Charlotte Cingular's network is 1900Mhz and there seems to be a lot of garbled and dropped calls..That could be because they are 1900Mhz or just poorly built here...May have nothing to do with GSM. It all depends on where you live and the quality of the network where you live I suppose.

 

well I have heard that Alltel/ first cellular will be selling at Harr's Ace in Flora. I am seriously considering switching to alltel. I currently have VZW, which if anyone knows about the US 50 corridor, east of I-57 to the wabash river, it is in a non-vzw area. I can do an ez-move to another zip code in this area and get out of my contract for free. Any first cellular/alltel customers in the flora area, how is it. Have you tried it in say Salem or Effingham? Is it pretty good? better than first cellular is out in some parts of the country? I will probeley go to the Olney or the fairfield office and get it if I do, but just checking it out.