DennisC <dennis_crowley@charter.net> wrote in news:da2b3669-d3f2-
4e35-980e-65c8bb2ab5ba@y43g2000hsy.googlegroups.com:

Let me ask another pertenant question at this point.....

How often do you travel nationwide that requires you to buy
nationwide minutes on Verizon, if you were given a choice, which
on Verizon your not?  Do you travel around all the time out of,
say, a 2 state area around your home?  I'm not talking about
driving up to the state capital or to the state next door to see
Grandma.  Do you REALLY need national coverage ALL the time?

The reason I'm saying this is Alltel STILL sells REGIONAL
coverage.  I'm on it!  My region consists of NC and SC and a good
portion of the states that border SC and NC from Newport News, VA
to nearly Jacksonville, FL on the coast and up into TN and GA
inland a good ways....car range is covered.  There is no roaming
inside my "region".  Up in the SC/NC mountains, Verizon and
Sprint CDMA are both roaming on Alltel to cover some holes up
there.  In Eastern SC, Alltel owns all the 800 Mhz B-system
licenses border-to-border.  Verizon had to buy some little mom
and pop out for big money to have native PCS crap in Myrtle
Beach, America's Vacationland.  VZW has no native 800 Mhz
coverage from Charleston to NC on the coast.

Alltel has much smoother coverage all across the South.  It buys
coverage from VZW and Sprint and other carriers out of the South,
so your national coverage is probably the same, or even better
than VZW.

700 min, free N/W, free M2M, free LD, all the usual toys is $39
on Alltel's regional plan.  That's half what VZW wants with
forced national coverage I'd never use.

Now, here's the kicker.  Alltel realizes you want to go on
vacation and have nationwide service...fine.  So, Alltel offers
regional users 100 minutes of extra national coverage for $10 for
your vacation or intermittent use.  You can even get them to add
it from way off by calling 611 if the other carrier forwards that
call to Alltel.  Otherwise, use a landline to call 1-800-ALLTEL1
to order it if you don't have webpage coverage.

This way, you only end up paying for nationwide service when you
NEED nationwide service.....not EVERY MONTH while you're at home!

.....and don't worry about your lost free vzw-to-vzw calls to vzw
friends.  Just buy My Circle from Alltel.  Flat rate unlimited
calls to 10 numbers on ANY system, not just
Alltel's....landlines, cellphones, anywhere in the country.  No
airtime usage on My Circle.  If I add it to my coverage it's
STILL cheaper than a month on VZW nationwide at 700 minutes.

Oops.  Almost forgot.  After you're a customer for a while, and
pay the bill on time, Alltel will give you another 100 free
anytime minutes every month in a surprise letter...for no
apparent reason than to say thanks for paying on time.  So, I get
800 minutes for $40/mo plus $25/mo for no-holds-barred unlimited
EVDO data for my Nokia N800 internet tablet over BT DUN, not $60
for email and webpages ONLY!  If $25 is too much, you may buy
Alltel 1X speed for only $10/mo more than your plan!  $10 for
110Kbps internet is a helluva bargain.  Alltel EVDO even works in
the SC boondocks, now....(c;

Larry

That has not been my experience with Alltel phones.  I had a Nokia
6255i that DID support MP3 ringtones, and when it finally died, I
tried a large number of the Alltel phones to see which ones could use
arbitrary MP3 tones.  My research is accurate as of last January, but
many of the same phones are still out there.

The ones I found that COULD do it were:

  Moto RAZR and KRZR: KRZR could accept OBEX, use it as a tone, and
  even save the tone to the card.  The RAZR required using an
  external memory card drive on my computer to make it work.

  Nokia 2865i, 6255i (both discontinued).

  Smartphones (Palm Treo, WM devices, Blackberrys).

Notably, the following phones COULD NOT do it when I tried:

  Samsung u520, Samsung u420, Kyocera Strobe

I tried doing this with both Bluetooth OBEX transfers and by inserting
microSD cards containing MP3s into the phone's slots.

I currently use the 2865i.  

-alan