Alltel coverage in Southern Lousiana?

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Isaiah Beard - 23 Nov 2004 19:43 GMT

Looks like I'll be traveling very soon to Southern Louisiana. At
present I know that Sprint PCS (the carrier I'm with) covers New
Orleans, Lafayette, and Houma rather well, but LaRose, LA is dead. Not
even Verizon seems to have native coverage here (someone correct me if
I'm wrong).

Last time I was down there, the roaming carrier my phone defaulted to
was Cingular in analog mode, and having the Free & Clear America roaming
option on my plan, this worked out fine for me.

This time however, I'm using a different Sprint phone, a Treo 650. It
doesn't have an analog option and will only roam on CDMA carriers.

Near as I can tell, the other CDMA carrier in that area is Alltel. Has
anyone used Alltel in LaRose? Their coverage maps show the whole state
as solidly covered, but I have my reservations, so if anyone has had
success using them there, I'd appreciate knowing.

Also, do any Sprint users know if we can roam on Alltel? Clearly they
don't seem to be the preferred carrier, and I'm wondering if I'm going
to have problems even if they're the only carrier my phone will connect to.

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Goldiejan - 28 Nov 2004 04:00 GMT

Occassionaly, Sprint does roam on the Alltell network.

Goldiejan

> Looks like I'll be traveling very soon to Southern Louisiana. At
> present I know that Sprint PCS (the carrier I'm with) covers New
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
> Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

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Frank Harris - 29 Nov 2004 02:34 GMT

Isaiah -

I was in New Orleans in May, 2004. On Saturday 5/8/2004, we went on a
swamp tour with Dr. Wagner's Honey Island Swamp Tours. The map is at
http://www.honeyislandswamp.com/swampmap.html.
I had SPCS service most of the time, as we were close to I-10 and the
land is flat. But when we headed south along the Pearl River and the
phone (A620 at the time, probably PRL 10023) lost the SPCS signal, it
switched to SID 57 (Alltel).

If you haven't already looked, Verizon's Coverage Locator is at
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController?requesttype=NEWREQUEST
LaRose, LA shows as not covered by anyone that VZW roams on there. I
know much of the America's Choice network includes Alltel, but I don't
know about in Louisiana.

I tried entering the LaRose Zip code, 70373, into the 'View Coverage
Map' field on Alltel's website and it returned 'couldn;t find your address'.

LaRose looks to be way out there. What's in LaRose, anyway, if you can
tell us?

> Looks like I'll be traveling very soon to Southern Louisiana. At
> present I know that Sprint PCS (the carrier I'm with) covers New
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> don't seem to be the preferred carrier, and I'm wondering if I'm going
> to have problems even if they're the only carrier my phone will connect to.

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Frank Harris in San Francisco with an A680

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Isaiah Beard - 29 Nov 2004 16:28 GMT

> LaRose, LA shows as not covered by anyone that VZW roams on there. I
> know much of the America's Choice network includes Alltel, but I don't
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Map' field on Alltel's website and it returned 'couldn;t find your
> address'.

Yup, just came back from there. As it turns out, Alltel coverage in
LaRose is spotty at best, and you can forget about indoor coverage. The
moment you hit LA state Highway 1 though, coverage is solid, and you
even pick up Sprint once you get further into civilization.

> LaRose looks to be way out there. What's in LaRose, anyway, if you can
> tell us?

Crazy relatives, that's what. :)

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