Verizon buying Cal North Wireless

Thanks for the update, I was wondering how long it would be before they would pick them up. I hope Golden State is the next to be picked up.

 

Verizon owns part of both Golden State and Cal North Wireless
will Verizon be getting a larger chunk of the partnership or just get the license??

I have not seen anything about this where did you get this info DanPFW?

:idea: If Verizon Wireless can continue to get service back from their affliates they will be better off. :thumb:

 

FCC did recieve a file for transfer a controll of the license to the Cellco Partnership on Mar 2, 2005. :highclap: :smokin:

 

I hope Lyrix Wireless is the next to be picked up. :lol: :hyper:

 

I was in Mountain Cellular territory last week. Sprint has a roaming agreement with VZW, but not the former Mountain Cellular (they roam on Cingular Blue in that area).

When you dial 611, they answer "Mountain Cellular, now a part of Verizon Wireless." And unfortunately, 611 is all that works if you're a Sprint user. Calls are routed to the American Roaming Network. Hopefully this will change soon.

On the northern California coast, Sprint has roaming agreements in place with both USCC and Cal North Wireless. I expect that Sprint will continue to prefer USCC (who has a better network anyway), but this might shift depending on the revenue picture.

 

VZW's website won't let you get service in Mountain Cellular markets yet (March 11)
I would don't think it will be Verizon Wireless 100% until they upgrade the base stations to 1XRTT.
Once Verizon bought out Price Communications, Verizon still operated as Cellular One in that area until CDMA was up running.

I think this will be true with Cal North, Valley Comunications and all others once the deal is close Verizon will not completly operate as Verizon Wireless until the network is 1XRTT ready.

 

What's the network right now?

 

Mountain and Cal-North are both CDMA (as is Golden State); I don't think any of them have 1X yet, and if they do it's almost certain to be voice-only. Valley is IS-136 TDMA.

Now if only Commnet will get CDMA running in their little islands in eastern Kern County, if they haven't already...

-SC

 

Well I guess IS-95 voice only is better than buying a TDMA network-like Valley. So does this mean that after VZW owns Valley Telecom's Network, they will overlay that network with CDMA and discontinue providing TDMA coverage(which means all former Valley customers have to be transferred to CDMA really fast, correct?).
Thanks,
Andy

 

Once CDMA is up Verizon will give about 1 year until they shut down TDMA.
So it is not real fast but if some will have to upgrade handsets quicker. Verizon usally does good with TDMA or AMPS tradeins.

 

Sounds good, do you know if the networks they are buying, like Cal North Wireless and Valley have good coverage, so that all VZW needs to do is change equipment, or do many sites need to be added for coverage?

 

Coverage isn't bad in CalNorth Cellular territory, but it still isn't all digital and it doesn't approach the quality of coverage VZW offers here in the Pacific Northwest. In Mountain Cellular territory, coverage is good in the urban areas, but there is a lot of missing highway coverage. VZW may add sites eventually, but I'd be surprised if they considered this a requirement for conversion.

 

Good info, thanks TProphet. I've never been to that neck of the woods so I wouldn't know, but it's interesting.