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Colorado Cellular Reviews General Colorado Observations: Verizon Wireless dominates the state with native service in the largest number of counties. For rural residents, Alltel is a great choice in the southern half of the state, Viaero in the northeast, and Union Wireless for the northwest. Sprint gives you good coverage and features in urban areas, and roaming on the best rural systems since most of state has CDMA service. AT&T and T-Mobile depend on Alltel for rural service and while coverage is OK, it is a notch below their CDMA coverage. Cricket's Unlimited is good for in-town use and now works at most ski areas, but not between.
AT&T
BLANCA TELEPHONE WIRELESS
CRICKET
NEXTEL |
NNTC WIRELESS
A small PCS carrier, part of the Nucla-Naturita
Telephone Company in western Colorado. "Home"
coverage is available on a few other rural
systems in CO, UT, OR, ID and WY. Roaming
coverage provides service elsewhere, their
primary roaming partners are Sprint and Alltel.
They have Local, Unlimited, National and
Business plans. Most features like Voice
Mail, Long Distance and Caller ID, are extra.
Their plans are overpriced. Their web site
comes and goes.
Click Here for NNTC's Extended Local Coverage
Map.
SPRINT
Sprint has a national, feature-rich digital
network. Their coverage is a little "fragile",
but where it's good, it's very good. Sprint
has a good selection of phones. Their plans
include the ability to roam in many systems
when away from their own coverage, as well
as any National plan. They offer an inexpensive
"basic" plan for only $30 per month.
They also offer a few Unlimited plans with
lots of features included. Sprint has added
service by taking over parts of some carriers'
networks, and "sharing" spectrum
with others. Sprint merged with Nextel which has created some beneficial network
configurations, including sharing of cell
sites. Sprint phones normally prefer the
network which, where available, gives Sprint
customers the best data throughput. Some
Sprint phones have the ability to force the
phone to "Roam Only", helping you
use the strongest network, however there
is a limit to how much roaming you can do,
generally 50%. Also, newer phones lack that
feature. Sprint does not offer their own
branded prepaid service but owns Boost Mobile
and Virgin Mobile prepaid. Pros: Sprint gives you good value for your
money, but is not necessarily the cheapest.
Sprint covers every urban area in the US,
maintains local stores, good roaming capabilities,
their digital and data features work very
well, they have a good selection of phones.
Sprint has good roaming agreements. Cons:
You might find a weak area right where you
want coverage, some of their plans are not
very competitive, customer service is a notch below average.
Get Online Discounts on Sprint Phones
More Sprint Pros & Cons
STRATA NETWORKS
The wireless division of the Uintah Basin
Telephone Association, now known as Strata
Networks, covers northeastern Utah around
Vernal and surrounding areas of Wyoming and
Colorado. They offer additional Local coverage in
an "Extended" area. Their own cellular
system has good coverage and offers free
Long Distance. They have many plans including
a $20 "Security" plan, National
plans with no roaming charges, and Local
and National "Unlimited" plans.
Some plans are very generous with some helpful
add-ons. They offer a good selection of phones
including smart phones and air cards. They
have a promotion to pay your Early Termination
Fee if you leave your current wireless provider
while still under contract.
Strata Network's Wireless Coverage Map
Strata Network's Extended Local Wireless Coverage Map.
TRACFONE
Tracfone isn't an actual cellular carrier
but is a major supplier of cellular phones
and service. They are the largest prepaid
wireless company and arrange for their phones
to use whichever wireless carrier is available
in a given geographic area. As a result,
Tracfone actually has more included roaming
coverage available than perhaps any other
single company. They offer price points that
start as low as $8.33 a month and offer all
the advantages of prepaid services. They
offer several promotions with bonus minutes,
and offer plans with 365-day expiration.
Their service is mostly limited to Voice
and Text but does support data use of their
web-capable phones. While their plans are
Prepaid, they offer the option of having
the fees deducted from your account automatically,
eliminating the need to renew on an exact
expiration date. TracFone offers Free international
calls to 60 countries by calling a special
number, and with their International Neighbors
features, can provide a local number in Mexico
or Canada for incoming calls from those countries
at Local rates for both callers. Tracfone
offers additional plan options through NET10, and Unlimited plans with
STRAIGHT TALK. Pros: Coverage and Local service, available
virtually everywhere in the US, good price
plans, no roaming or long distance charges,
Local numbers in all markets, included Long
Distance calling to 60 countries. Cons: You
must use their own branded phones, no smart phones, coverage is determined by the phone model
(CDMA or GSM) which may limit your roaming
coverage.
Get Online Deals on TracFone
T-MOBILE
T-Mobile works very well within their service
area. While they have a slight disadvantage
with their higher PCS frequency, they make
up for it with strategically-located sites.
T-Mobile doesn't serve many rural areas,
but provides coverage along most interstates.
They offer roaming in rural areas, and the
network is still growing, although often
they're just 'filling in'. They offer some
handy features like "My-Favs" which
includes Unlimited calling to your choice
of five numbers, regardless of network, "Kid
Connect" which helps you limit the amount
of charges your kids can rack up, and an
Unlimited "Hot Spot" plan using
your home wi-fi connection. They have plans
that include unlimited voice and messaging.
Pros: Generous included-minute plans, National
and Regional plans, "Unlimited" calling plan available, good urban coverage, good choice of phones,
good pre-paid plans, good roaming capabilities,
including internationally. Good customer
service. Cons: Some weak spots, limited data
bandwidth, high international roaming charges.
Get Online Discounts from T-Mobile
UBET WIRELESS
UBET Wireless and the UBTA-UBET Telephone
Cooperative have changed their name to Strata Networks.
UNION WIRELESS
Serving Wyoming and adjacent areas of Northwest
Colorado and northeast Utah, Union has very
good coverage in most areas. In some they
are the only game in town. They are adding
new cell sites at a rapid rate. They use
GSM technology and are one of the few companies
offering "Telular" service, a wireless
service connected to home wiring. They offer
reasonable plans starting at $30 with Unlimited
Text and Internet as reasonably-priced add-ons.
Unlimited plans are available as well as
a Calling Circle plan allowing free calls
to up to 10 numbers on any network. Bundles
are available. They have more roaming agreements
covering a bigger footprint than any one
of the large wireless carriers, with international
roaming agreements with providers in many
foreign countries.
Pros: It is a small company with generally
good coverage and better than average customer
service, they are the only carrier available
in some areas of Wyoming, they offer most
digital features in their monthly plans,
many of which are quite generous. Cons: While
their western WY and northwestern Colorado
coverage is very good, coverage in the eastern
half of Wyoming is limited to in-town and
along interstate highways, although they
are adding new sites in these areas.
Get Updated Info on Union Wireless on our
Blog
VERIZON WIRELESS
Verizon is the largest cellular carrier in
the US. They have taken over a large portion
of the Alltel network and are now dominant in rural America.
Cellular service in a few of Alltel's local markets are being sold to other companies, but no
Verizon coverage will be lost. Their claim
to fame is superior coverage, especially
in the west. They use PCS frequencies only
in a few areas, but they have constructed
those networks well. In the few places where they don't have their
own coverage, they have roaming agreements
with other carriers, normally ones with superior
coverage. Therefore, their "National"
plans, which include almost all of the country,
are about as close to "wall-to-wall"
as you can get. Their reasonably-priced plans
have no roaming or long distance charges,
and they also throw in Unlimited Night and
Weekend minutes as well as Unlimited calls
among Verizon Wireless users both on and
off their own network (there are a few exceptions).
They offer fairly competitive prices, and
often have promotions. They also offer plans
that include Unlimited Voice and other features
at various fixed price levels. Data service
is excellent with various price plans. Verizon
forces their phone manufacturers to offer
a "standardized" user interface,
limiting menu and font variations. This could
mean the screen appearance may not be to
your liking or the fonts may be too small.
Smart and data-type phones require a per-Mb
plan. They have the largest area of 3G coverage in the US.
Pros: Verizon has reasonably-priced plans,
"Unlimited" calling plans available,
extensive coverage, wide-ranging National
plans, excellent customer service and 'customer-friendly'
policies. With such a large coverage area
of their own little roaming is necessary,
but their roaming partners normally have
superior coverage. Cons: Some Verizon plans
are a little more expensive, Customer Service
closes at 11pm, but technical assistance
is available 24/7, there are some billing
transition concerns as they take over other
carriers, they don't offer as many "cute"
phones, they 'cripple' some User Interface
functions like larger fonts: make sure you
can read their submenus before buying. Some
of their data services are not available
while roaming.
Get Online Exclusive Discounts from Verizon Wireless
VIAERO WIRELESS
Viaero is a GSM carrier that uses 800 MHz
Cellular channels in eastern Colorado, and
1900 MHz PCS channels in Nebraska and Kansas.
Colorado coverage is excellent, the other
parts of the network are very good along
most roads and in towns, but slightly weaker
in some spots in between. You can request
to have them build a tower near you if you
can come up with enough neighbors' signatures.
They offer very reasonable on-network "Unlimited"
plans, including one intended for fixed location
(home) use. They have discounts for people
on various support programs. They're a good
substitute for a wireline in most areas.
They have a large number of reasonable plans
including several Unlimited and 'calling-circle'
plans. They now offer to pay the Early Termination
Fee if you leave another carrier before your
contract with them is completed. Pros: They offer lots of price points in
their plans, including Local and National
plans, good to excellent coverage, good customer
service, many local stores. Cons: The network
outside Colorado is a little more "fragile",
but it beats the competition, and you can
ask them to add a tower!
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