Do I have to use a phone from Alltel?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Paul_in_NC - 20 Jun 2005 11:32 GMT

Hello.
I am new to this NG so please forgive me if I ask something that has been
asked many times before.
My question is: is it absolutely required that I purchase a phone from
Alltel? I currently use a Motorola T720c with Alltel and my two year
contract is up ( I am now on month-to-month). I like Alltel's service
because I rarely if ever drop a call when I'm traveling the country (this
may be due to Alltel allowing me to switch from digital service to analog
service and back again as conditions prevail). I have been wanting to get a
newer phone that has more features, but I am really dissapointed at the
meager selection that Alltel offers. It seems that the other major players
have a huge selection available to them and Alltel just has 11 phones
http://alltel.com/phones/ . The Motorola V710 is the best one there, but
even it doesn't really cut it compared to the higher end phones that are
available to other carriers. Anyone got any advice or information? I'd love
to be able to get a high end phone other than the ones Alltel offers,
because IMHO those that they do offer just don't thrill me.

Thank you.

Paul

paulwilliamsREMOVETHIS@THISTOO.nc.rr.com

Reply to this Message

Larry W4CSC - 20 Jun 2005 18:47 GMT

> My question is: is it absolutely required that I purchase a phone from
> Alltel?

Yes. I have a great CDMA phone someone just gave me when they dumped
Verizon for Nextel...top of the line VX-something..GPS, all the color toys
but a camera. Alltel refuses to put it on their system, like they did my
Verizon V60i back when I dumped Verizon for Alltel's better service a
little over a year ago.

Of course, they lied to me and told me they couldn't program the VX for
Alltel. I walked over to their programming cart someone had left unguarded
and offered to program it for them. Red faced with the lie, typical of
cellular phone employees bred in some special farm, they then simply and
flatly stated they would not put a non-Alltel-sold phone on Alltel.....

God I hate to be lied to. Just tell me the truth the FIRST TIME!

I'm in Charleston, SC, on 800 B system Alltel. West of I-95, Alltel is on
A upstate. By the way, I know from the Alltel PRL posted to the net the
phones ARE allowed to roam to VZW or Sprint PCS northwest of Columbia from
inside Georgia to Charlotte to fill in the holes up in the mountains with
no roaming charges. Here on the SC coast, the phones will NOT roam at all
to the other carriers if you happen to find a dead spot. There are lots
fewer dead spots on Alltel's acquisition of 360 Communications' B system
than on Verizon's acquisition of Cellular One on A system. Alltel simply
works better.

Tell me what you know about NC coverages, please! I have the NC/SC
regional coverage plan....PRL 1204. Any NC information greatly
appreciated.

Signature

Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and your outlined in
chalk.

Reply to this Message

GeorgeB - 24 Jun 2005 01:29 GMT

>Tell me what you know about NC coverages, please! I have the NC/SC
>regional coverage plan....PRL 1204. Any NC information greatly
>appreciated.

While I don't thnik it matters one iota in the Carolinas, your PRL is
more than a bit out of date.

I have customers in NC and VA and travel through NC a good bit. I
specifically get good coverage in Hendersonville, Asheville,
Charlotte, Mt Holly/Stanley, Greensboro/Winston/High Point, Raleigh,
Goldsboro, and Wilmington. I have good luck on all of 85 and 95.

I77 from about 40 miles south of VA to 5 miles south of VA is another
matter ... POOR and anaolg part of the way. I pick up an out-of-PRL
carrier for about 15 miles of that with excellent results, but if one
had NF, they'd be up the creek; I'm TF. I don't kow what LF does with
out-of-PRL systems. It is in NC, and LF is geography based, so if you
connect, it will be in the rate plan. The coverage on 77 below that
is pretty good, but with a hole or 2.

George

Reply to this Message

Larry W4CSC - 24 Jun 2005 03:13 GMT

> While I don't thnik it matters one iota in the Carolinas, your PRL is
> more than a bit out of date.

Wow...I got a crazy number, 6055 now. Thanks for the information. I'll
probably be roaming at home, now, on the Japanese PRL 6055 at
$8/second...(c;

Hope this PRL roams in Eastern SC. That other one didn't....at all. I
drove up SC Hwy 41 from Charleston/Mt Pleasant to Andrews to fix a church
organ, today. The whole trip except the last 8 miles might have well of
been on Mars. In Andrews, another curious problem occurred. Every time I
dialled 611, I got a message that all circuits were busy and to try again
later. It repeated for an hour! I finally decided it wasn't going to get
fixed, so tried 1-800-ALLTEL1 and it went right through, as did my new
voicemail system call. I reported it to the CSR on 800 Alltel1 and it was
fixed when I'd gotten the old Baldwin back online after its lightning hit
tore out its biggest rectifiers and the main fuse. It was a profitable
day, for both of us, apparently.

Well, again, thanks for the heads up on the PRL upgrade. We'll see what
happens in Japan...(c;

Soyanara....

Signature

Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.

Reply to this Message

GeorgeB - 24 Jun 2005 11:25 GMT

>> While I don't thnik it matters one iota in the Carolinas, your PRL is
>> more than a bit out of date.
>
>Wow...I got a crazy number, 6055 now. Thanks for the information. I'll
>probably be roaming at home, now, on the Japanese PRL 6055 at
>$8/second...(c;

Larry, have you seen the PRL site
http://mallard.rainyday.mb.ca/~dialtone/alltel/alltel.htm

Alltel seems to use month and year, with a modifier for fixes needed
within a month ... they had 0605 or 605, I forget (the site above
hasn't caught up with their PRL of the week yet <g>), then the current
one.

There is a forum site, http://www.howardforums.com/ specifically
http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=174 for Alltel which
has pretty up-to-date commentary on what's happening.

>Hope this PRL roams in Eastern SC. That other one didn't....at all.

From PRL 0505,

00069 NEG Verizon Wireless Raleigh-Durham, NC
00095 NEG Verizon Wireless Greensboro, NC
00299 NEG Verizon Wireless Burlington, NC
00349 NEG Verizon Wireless Fayetteville, NC
02115 NEG Verizon Wireless South Carolina 8 - Hampton
00189 NEG Verizon Wireless Columbia, Calhoun
00127 NEG Verizon Wireless Charleston, SC
00377 NEG Verizon Wireless Florence, Clarendon

but,

00139 FR Verizon Wireless
Charlotte, NC
Greenville, SC
Hickory, NC
Asheville, NC
Anderson, SC
North Carolina 1 - Cherokee
North Carolina 2 - Yancey
North Carolina 4 - Henderson
North Carolina 5 - Anson
North Carolina 15 - Cabarrus
South Carolina 1 - Oconee
South Carolina 2 - Laurens
South Carolina 3 - Cherokee
South Carolina 9 - Lancaster

That 00139 is physically spread out all over, and they must need parts
of it and include all of it. That said, in Greenivlle, I don't THINK
I've ever roamed on Verizon.

>drove up SC Hwy 41 from Charleston/Mt Pleasant to Andrews to fix a church
>organ, today. The whole trip except the last 8 miles might have well of
>been on Mars.

Hmm, I had good coverage at Nucor, but maybe that was still considered
Mt Pleasant or Charleston.

>Well, again, thanks for the heads up on the PRL upgrade. We'll see what
>happens in Japan...(c;

Switzerland and Denmark should be pretty good (non SC folks, this is
humor; we have those towns in SC), but I have never found Japan.

73s

Reply to this Message

nospam - 24 Jun 2005 13:13 GMT

> Switzerland and Denmark should be pretty good (non SC folks, this is
> humor; we have those towns in SC), but I have never found Japan.

Don't forget Norway and Sweden!

Reply to this Message

Larry W4CSC - 25 Jun 2005 02:25 GMT

> Don't forget Norway and Sweden!

Ya beat me to it...(c;

I'm not a native. Damned Yankee the Navy brought here and now they can't
get rid of me.

I'm always amazed at the number of educated natives who don't know where
Cross Anchor or Ware Shoals or Islandton or even Hampton is! Local
geography isn't a big teaching issue on SC schools. I had to help a
tourist in a restaurant find Rutledge Ave off the Crosstown Expressway
because the 30-something waitress she asked, who'd lived here all her life,
had not a clue as to how to get there from North Charleston, 5 miles away.

Sad...really sad.

Well, don't forget North isn't in North Carolina...It's in South
Carolina...(c; So isn't Parker's Ferry and Wadmalaw Island, where Gullah,
not Spanish, is still spoken...thankfully.

Signature

Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.

Reply to this Message

Larry W4CSC - 25 Jun 2005 01:55 GMT

> http://mallard.rainyday.mb.ca/~dialtone/alltel/alltel.htm

Thank you for the pointer. I had a similar list from Lurker but this
website is better.

This is my point in SC/NC coverage....
00139 D/A FR Verizon Wireless
CMA061A Charlotte, NC
CMA067A Greenville, SC
CMA166A Hickory, NC
CMA183A Asheville, NC
CMA227A Anderson, SC
CMA565A North Carolina 1 - Cherokee
CMA566A North Carolina 2 - Yancey
CMA568A North Carolina 4 - Henderson
CMA569A North Carolina 5 - Anson
CMA579A North Carolina 15 - Cabarrus
CMA625A South Carolina 1 - Oconee
CMA626A South Carolina 2 - Laurens
CMA627A South Carolina 3 - Cherokee
CMA633A South Carolina 9 - Lancaster
They allow roaming in dead zones in the UPSTATE of SC (00139) on Verizon.

00069 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA071A Raleigh-Durham, NC
00095 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA047A Greensboro, NC
00299 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA280A Burlington, NC
00349 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA149A Fayetteville, NC
02115 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA632A South Carolina 8 - Hampton
00189 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA095A Columbia, SC
CMA631A South Carolina 7 - Calhoun
00127 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA090A Charleston, SC
00377 D/A NEG Verizon Wireless
CMA264A Florence, SC
CMA630A South Carolina 6 - Clarendon

But they PROHIBIT roaming at all on Verizon east of 00169...Columbia,
Florence, Charleston and the rest of the coast but curiously allow roaming
to Verizon in Savannah and Augusta, GA along the border...??

01015 [D] FR Verizon Wireless
CMA108A Augusta, GA-SC
CMA138A Macon, GA
CMA153A Columbus, GA-AL
CMA155A Savannah, GA
CMA261A Albany, GA
CMA314A Alabama 8 - Lee
CMA376A Georgia 6 - Spalding
CMA377A Georgia 7 - Hancock
CMA378A Georgia 8 - Warren
CMA379A Georgia 9 - Marion
CMA380A Georgia 10 - Bleckley
CMA382A Georgia 12 - Liberty
CMA383A Georgia 13 - Early
Wonder why only Digital is allowed. Verizon has lots of AMPS coverage in
the country in Eastern GA. I've used it on Verizon.

I found a huge hole, yesterday, in Alltel's blue map. Across the Cooper
River on I-526 then left up Daniel Island to Cainhoy, SC, on the Wando
River, there's coverage. 3 miles up SC Hwy 41 north of Cainhoy, the signal
drops off to 1 bar, the phone starts the analog-digital-analog switching
into the dead zone. Coverage is zero through the Francis Marion National
Forest on this major N-S state highway until you start to pick up a signal,
again, in Andrews, SC, about 60 miles north of Charleston. No coverage,
whatsoever, sitting in the huge windows of my stepvan with the phone in a
cradle about 6' off the road. I kept dialing 611 to see how it was hearing
my V60i. Amazingly, the cell could decode my touchtones and voice prompts
on 611 but I could not hear a good digital or analog signal back into the
truck. It would have been worthless for communications.

Not sure how far West of Georgetown this hole extends, but Jamestown, where
US 17A intersects and runs with 41 for a few miles is in the center of the
dead zone hole, so US 17A coverage is also dead for miles.

Signature

Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.

Reply to this Message

Larry W4CSC - 25 Jun 2005 02:20 GMT

> Hmm, I had good coverage at Nucor, but maybe that was still considered
> Mt Pleasant or Charleston.

Nucor is close to the cells across the river in Goose Creek. But 41
doesn't seem to be through the dense forest.

Signature

Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.

Reply to this Message