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ALLTEL Cellular One in Montana is the unfortunate choice of a name for the old Chinook Wireless. There was a Cellular One in Montana before, and there is no relationship between the two, but there is still a perception of what Cellular One once was, for better or worse. This Cellular One has aligned itself with a few other small "Cellular One's" elsewhere in the country with no benefit to Montana customers. You are still dealing with local people and except for the name, it's the same network as the old Chinook which includes a usable network that operates on PCS frequencies which limits coverage to in-town and along main roads. They offer all the digital goodies. The have many choices of plans and some of them are quite reasonable, and they support Lifeline plans. They use GSM technology which offers phones not available elsewhere in the state. Pros: Local folks, they offer a variety of plans including various options of National plans and Unlimited with a 'balance' of roaming and local minutes, a 'rollover'-type option, good customer service. Cons: Their coverage is weak away from main roads and outside of populated areas, with no GSM roaming agreement with Alltel there are huge areas with no coverage across the west. Chinook's Final Local Coverage Map CHINOOK WIRELESS MID RIVERS CELLULAR NEMONT CELLULAR |
SAGEBRUSH CELLULAR
Sagebrush has been absorbed into the Nemont Telephone Cooperative.
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
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 one 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.
Click here for additional Verizon Pros & Cons
Get Online Discounts from Verizon Wireless
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