Thinking About Switching To Alltel...BUT!!!!

First off welcome to the site good to have you here. Second Alltel, Verizon, Sprint, run off what we call CDMA and Tmobile, ATT run off of GSM. Nokia has pretty much put the can on the CDMA market I think Verizon is the only one right now with any type of Nokia. So no they are most likely going to not carry any Nokias for a while which is to bad.

 

I forgot to add this, this is a good link to a great story describing more about this
Nokia CEO says CDMA is 'financially untenable' | InfoWorld | News | 2006-07-20 | By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

 

If you want a Nokia phone you should stay with GSM. Nokia has pretty much stopped making CDMA phones. Most of the world uses GSM and Nokia makes great GSM phones, so they have moved away from CDMA.

Depending on where the phone's internal antenna is located, you might be covering it when you hold the phone. Overall, flip phones shouldn't have any worse reception than bar phones. If reception really matters, but a mag mount antenna and plug that into your phone.

Alltel offers some decent phones. Be open minded, ask the Alltel users what phones get the best reception, and I think you can find a device that you will be happy with. If having a Nokia is the most important thing, stay with a GSM carrier.

 

Honestly I would not let a phone decide whether you should go or not. There are plently of other great phones brands out there that can perform just as well IMO. But if you are really stuck then do what the President says and stay with GSM.

 

With CDMA you don't really buy an unlocked phone. If another Alltel user replaces their phone you can buy it and activate it with Alltel. That is not a hassle at all. When buying a used phone always make sure the ESN is clean. Buying a new phone is also possible. It is not really unlocked because the device is meant for Alltel or Sprint or Verizon. Unlocked GSM phones can be used on any GSM network.

You can find new and used Alltel phones on eBay. If you sign a contract with Alltel you can get a discounted phone so sell that on eBay and buy your 3587. The 3587/3587i is on eBay and it is dirt cheap. Like RJB said, don't be afraid to take a look at other manufacturers because Nokia isn't the only company putting out a good product.

 

Yes I wouldn't let not having nokias keep you from alltel. To be honest Nokia's were not that great on CDMA as they are on GSM, especially the flip phones, but that's just IMO.

Qualcomm was charging Nokia too much make phones so they quit. CDMA, unlike GSM (as far as I know), is a patented technology which requires royalties to use.

You can buy a Nokia 2865i, that was the last real nokia alltel had, basic bar phone. You could also buy an unbranded or Alltel 3587i if you wanted. They won't mind activating it for you, it may require some extra programming steps though. That is a very good very basic phone that is also very cheap....

The Motorola E815 gets great reception (on par or better then the 3587), KRZR is also close. The RAZR is very good just a little below the previous two, the LG 8600 and LG Wave (ax 380) is near the razr as well. The Samsung Hue, and U520 are next up after those....

You can still buy some of these off lets talk . com (alltel's authorized agent, that also runs alltel.com). Even though they have been taken out of most corporate stores to make room for the new smartphones, RAZR 2, and Rokr (still in the works for a while now most likely)........

 

The newer CDMA Nokias like the 2865i aren't even made by Nokia. They're really just Pantech's with a Nokia logo. Nokia has fully vacated the CDMA market except for Pantech just paying them to use the logo. I have a family member with the 2865i and it does get good reception, but it really doesn't resemble a Nokia except for the Candy Bar design. The User Interface really doesn't even resemble a traditional Nokia that several of my friends use to have.

But I do agree with others, if you've got to have a Nokia, stay GSM. But if you're willing to give alltel a try, and in North Carolina where CDMA dominates the cellular band, you'd probably get overall a lot better reception with any phone. I'd go with a Moto, LG, or Samsung. As Motos have traditonally had the best reception on CDMA anyway and my E815 slightly out-performs the 2865i on signal anyway and my current LG ax-380 seems to do just as well if not slightly better also. Newer LGs and Samsungs have made some steps up. The Samsung Wafer has the Candy Bar design also.

 

Where do you live in NC? I live in Charlotte and travel aroun NC alot. Alltel kicks but in coverage in the Carolinas.

 

I was just up in North Wilkesboro & Boone on Sep 1.
North on I-77, Alltel loses native coverage north of exit 65, just before the Yadkin County line.
West on I-40, Alltel loses native coverage leaving Burke County, going into McDowell county between exits 90 & 94.
Alltel doesn't cover the Wilkesboro area, so you'll roam on Carolina West.

Anyway, Alltel is great in Statesville, Hickory, Lenoir, Morganton, Charlotte and surrounding cities.

I used an i3587 for a week and it worked well.

 

Lets put it this way. I delivered medical suplies in 11 counties around Charlotte for 4 years. II have never had no service and I have been to some backwoods places. Wilksboro is roaming on Carolina West wireless. They seem pretty good. I have only been there a few times though. I have never driven 421.... Salisbury is awesome. I travel US 64 from Salisbury to Statesville...no problem. Winston-Salem and G'boro are good. My wife use to work up there at Forsyth Hospital. You should be good. There are places where only Alltel has service and Verizon and Sprint rely on Alltel. Go to Sprint or Verizon's coverage map and type in some rural towns....chances are it is Alltel service in those places.

 

I say good riddance to Nokia phones. I don't think Nokia has had an innovative thought in their collective brain in years...

 

On the CDMA side, I would say yes, as now Nokia CDMA phones are really Pantech phones in disguise, but their GSM phones are amazing.

 

I agree. My Nokia's have always done me right, from my 3586i, to my current 6265i. I've also had good luck with LG (a 4400, a 6100, and a 355). My wife's V3m seems to get really good reception, but then, Tulsa is blanketed by uscc, so it's sometimes difficult to tell the superior from an OK performer. Except for my wife's V3m, I've used all in some very rural areas, including roaming on Alltel in southwest MO.

I would *love* it, if Nokia would make a good CDMA S60/Symbian phone, especially something like the E61 or the N95. I think that if Nokia had put half of the effort into innovative CDMA phones that they put into their GSM line, they'd have not felt the need to abandon CDMA. They were never anything but at the top on reception and ease-of-use. But by the time the put out the 6265i (a very good phone, which blows the RAZR away), it was too little, too late. Hopefully they'll rethink they're position in the future and come back to us, perhaps after they settle their differences with Qualcomm.

 

It really doesn't make financial sense anymore since only a few countries use CDMA and the rest of the world uses GSM... plus, CDMA is on it's way out so I think now is as good a time as any for Nokia to stop making CDMA handsets.

 

CDMA is on its way out? Huh?

 

W-CDMA/UMTS & CDMA2000 are the future. 2G is dying.

 

I've never had GSM service, so I wouldn't know. I was a Sprint customer for 5 years, then I dropped them for T-Mobile, but then I dropped T-Mobile almost immediately for Alltel and haven't looked back.

 

No, CDMA's numbers aren't as big as GSM's, but there nowhere near the endangered list.

CDG : Technology : Quick Market Statistics (figures below are as of 9/6/07)
CDG : Worldwide : 1Q 2007 Subscribers Statistics

Figures from the CDG, the CDMA Development Group.
Total active CDMA networks: 279 in 102 countries

CDMA subscribers as of Q1-2006: 318,360,000
CDMA subscribers as of Q1-2007: 387,100,000
CDMA growth over past year: 21.59%

EV-DO subscribers as of Q1-2006: 30,050,000
EV-DO subscribers as of Q1-2007: 65,040,000
EV-DO growth over last year: 116.44%

GSM World - GSM Technology

Figures from the GSM Association
GSM/3GSM subscribers as of Q2-2006: 2,004,612,089
GSM/3GSM subscribers as of Q2-2007: 2,514,018,525
GSM/3GSM growth over last year: 25.41%

3GSM (W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) subscribers as of Q2-2006: 70,502,165
3GSM (W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) subscribers as of Q2-2007: 136,227,822
3GSM (W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) growth over last year: 93.23%

With that amount of growth (I provided the GSM figures for fairness), I'd hardly call that finished. Especially the EV-DO growth - more than doubled over the last year.

So, where do we go from here? Who knows. Eventually, either the two technologies will merge to take advantage of the inherent advantages of each, or both will be supplanted by a new technology superior to both. The only question is when. CDMA does hold some advantages, otherwise, why does 3GSM use it as the air interface? I think if American CDMA carriers would adopt R-UIM (which is superior to SIM technology, as it is usable in both CDMA and GSM phones), I think that CDMA would really take off here. Not that the near 50% market share in the U.S. is shabby.

 

Interesting figures. Thanks for posting them.