Cell coverage

[harvey lee]

I'm looking at changing my cell phone from Midwest wireless or ALLTEL to something with better coverage. What companies are you using and how is the service for signal in your surrounding area?

Thanks for the help.

[hawkeye43]

Don't go to unicell, we are porting out of them to alltel because of bad covarage. At least with alltel the phone rings when we get a call and a voice mail won't come in 3 days after it was sent. I starting to think life before cell phones wasn't so bad.

[fishn4kids]

My wife and I use Verizon. Really like their coverage. Free nation wide calling. No complaints with them.

Duane

[zepman]

I have had Alltel (Midwest Wireless) for the last five years and have been extremely happy with their coverage and service. I'm a sales rep and travel frequently to all of our bordering states and everywhere inbetween and have only found a few "dead spots" in the 5+ years with them. I know many,many people who have went with other companies and signed the 1-2 yr. contract and couldn't even call their next door neighbor. I would recommend them highly.

[Scott K]

I switched to cingular/at&t 1 1/2 years ago, from midwest wireless, I wished I could go back right away, but now they have improved some , to the point I dont know if I am going to switch back, when my contract is up.

[jig-em]

I've had Midwest Wireless, now Alltel and also have been pleased with the service. I go to Lake of the Woods frequently and no one in our party can get good reception except for me. Don't get me wrong, there are spots even in our area that have poor contact, but for the most part I've been pleased.

jig-em

[harvey lee]

Altel has told me that when you get into the west metro one will have a poor signal in many areas due to the fact that the agreement that was in place with Verizon and Midwest is not any more as those two dont work together in that area. Nice.

Only way to end my contract is to send them a check for $400. Good scam, cut the coverage and you are stuck with what they offer even if your phone signal in some area is nothing.

[luckycrank]

i have heard of alltell switching billing dates without customer approval i have t mobile and the coverage is fair to good in most cases

[smnduck]

Not intending to sound negative. Just my past experiance over the last 2 weeks. I thought MWW was great to work with. Now Attel has taken over and little changes are growing into bigger things. Not feeling the love like the commercial says. They will not support the phone I got from MWW. Nice uh. Same great customer service, I don't think so. The store in Mankato now only sells phones. No customer sales person to talk to when say your messages come in 3 days after they are sent. The mankato area definitly lost out with the deal.

[ec30_06]

Tom, it has been my experience that T-mobile and sprint are very good in your area. (and on the river)

[Muddog]

I have T-Mobil. It is good in this area. Go west of New Ulm and you might as have a brick, because it will work just as well.

[Team Otter]

I have Alltel. No issues.

[harvey lee]

Otter, have you been in the west metro area around Eden prairie and Chanhassan? Or from hwy 19 east to 35W?

[katofishingguy]

My wife's best friend has Midwest/Alltel she has also had problems with recieving voicemail as much as three days later since Alltel took over.

[2 DA GILLS]

I have had MWW for several years and thought it was great. I have not noticed any issues so far with Alltel, but it sounds like I may encounter some. Like others have stated with MWW I was always able to get a signal where the rest of my hunting or fishing party could not. I may have to be referencing back to this post soon to see what other companies have good coverage in the area.

[Team Otter]

I've been from Le Sueur to Northfield and from Le Sueur through Shakopee and back over through Chaska with no problems.

[zepman]

Harvey,

I have been in those areas with little to no problems. The only areas I've found to have touchy coverage is around Henderson/Belle Plain areas and they tell me that's because of the cell is getting connected to another tower around there.

[harvey lee]

Thats strange as I have alot of signal problem with both of my phones and both my sons also. 3 of the 4 are different types also.

[Scott K]

When I had mww I drove from henderson to new prague every day, not very good reception going along 19. If you drive a mile or two either way of 19 its ok.

[Bigeye30"]

Well I can say that I've tried out three different companies in the area and would have to say that MWW or now alltel is the best in this area. However I do believe they are again on the auction block and Verizon is taking a very close look at them, I have had Sprint in the past and will stay as far away from them as possible, not only poor reception but by far the worst service, I currently have Unicel only for the reason that they bought out Alltel's portion of the original Cell One. I travel around the Metro and Southern MN areas daily and will say that since Unicel took over coverage has gone done and I am getting more dropped calls, I carry two phones, one is a digital PDA internet phone and the other is a Analog phone with a metro number, in all actuality I get better service with my analog phone than the PDA phone which costs me a few hundred more. Another thing that I would recommend is to stay away from the new TREO phone, Myself along with four other friends have had nothing but problems with them. Personally I like the blackberry or go with a motorola for phone choices, nothing worse than giving a company 250 a month so you can say can you hear me, can you hear me, let me call ya back when I get better reception. Just my 2cents

[fishingboy2008]

lets just say this...all phones have been crappie for me till i got an alltel one. and even that dont get the service i want in my house buts its better then b 4.....NEVER GO WITH T- MOBILE!!!!

[hawkeye43]

unicel is going to be bought by verizon, not alltel and mww. I was told that at the unicel store

[tipup]

I have had MWW since 2001, and I have had no problems until recently when alltel bought them out, like others have said, I get three day old voice mail, phone wont ring, or people tell me it just goes to voice mail. I asked the stor in town about it and they said that I need to turn my phone of for a few seconds evry few days, as I leave my phone on 24/7. It seems to have done the trick. As far as coverage I think in 6 years with them I have found one spot that was bad, but not so bad I could not get a call or give a call, just a little broken up. I would say for a Southern MN cell they are the best!!

[wishing for walleyes]

I have had MWW since at leasr 2,000.Very few problems with reception.Sometimes there is a dead area to far from the towers and will drop a call.Not very often that happens.I have three buddy lines as well and never hear complaints from my daughters about bad reception.

[Bigeye30"]

Quote:

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unicel is going to be bought by verizon, not alltel and mww. I was told that at the unicel store

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Great so they will be switching my billing again for the third time in a year, somethings just make a person wonder. Thanks for the info I'll be waiting for letter in the mail again, last time I had to get two new phones, one was free the other was a hundred bucks, any word when this will go into effect.

[LMITOUT]

Verizon purchased Rural Communications which is UNICEL a while back. They have said that they will be converting or absorbing UNICEL's area into Verizon eventually so more areas will be able to purchase Verizon plans, such as Hutchinson which has UNICEL currently.

We recently switched to Sprint at work and the people that live out of town that carry a work phone can't get coverage unless they switch the phone to roaming. The Sprint rep told us that the Sprint phones will attempt to stay with a Sprint tower as hard as they can, even if they can barely get a whiff of it and you're standing right beside another company's tower. This way they can avoid paying the other company the usage fee. What that means is poor service and a lot of dropped calls. When you switch the phone over to roam, then you'll pick up those other towers but if you use more than roughly 50% of your minutes while roaming Sprint may drop your account. Nice, eh?

One guy complained that he barely had service in his basement right in town. The Sprint guy said that his place (in Mankato) doesn't have real good coverage either so he has to switch his phone over to Roam and that "you just get used to it".

MWW has been strong for me and I don't have to do any switching to roam or otherwise. So far Alltel hasn't messed with me and my bill was the same as it was in previous months with MWW. It worked well when I travel to ND, but haven't been there since the switchover so I'll have to see how it works in a few months when I head back.

[love2fish4ever]

I think that as the consumer & a customer there should be a "reverse contract" that they could sign, if they REALLY want our business. One that ensures that financial adjustments will be made when the products or services aren't up to par, because how often are we getting more than our money's worth, or suddenly more coverage than we are supposed to get,or with cable, do you suddenly get free movies or more channels? Never. What ever happened to keeping customers happy, like little perks to smooth over bad experiences, as any salesperson knows in most businesses that happens alot. "Hey, sorry for the inconvenience, here's a little off you're bill or or some other perk as a gesture of how much we appreciate you're business". Seems that in the cell phone business they know they got you, because they have learned that the hunger is out there & many people just can't live without them, & as long as they got contracts to hold you, they really don't care, cause what are you going to do? Go to someone else who is probably better in one respect, but worse in another. It's the cell phone shuffle, no dfferent than cable companies. Again I say "reverse contract". dissatisfation only works when it's done in masses, when they're business starts lacking that's when they start listening & things get better for the consumer.

Just my opinion L2f

[smnduck]

And the judges score 9.9 out of ten. You hit the cell phone nail on the head.

[rushing]

I was always more than happy with MWW and I had some issues with a bill from MWW but after Altel took over got had to wait at the store for an hour before talking to someone. Once I did they were very cool even dealing with me when I was super MAD. I also told them I was getting some crappy reception and he did some technical magic to my phone and I haven't had a problem since. The no reception problems I have had is on the river west of New Ulm but its kinda way out in the boonies and up near Jordan but the guy at Altel said they were switching towers or something up there that day.

[Matt C]

I have excellent coverage with Verizon.