Mountain Wireless-Montana Cellular Reviews


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Montana Cellular Reviews
General Montana Observations: Verizon Wireless dominates the entire state with very good coverage and plans. Alltel has great coverage across the state but will taken over by AT&T. They are a good choice for at least the short term. Cellular One provides good service in parts of the state, and some cool GSM phones currently unavailable elsewhere, but they have a number of coverage limitations. The smallest carriers in the state have coverage and feature limitations but do offer Unlimited plans.

ALLTEL
Virtually all of the Alltel network in this state is to be purchased by AT&T. Parts of the Alltel network in other areas will be sold to AT&T, Verizon, and ATN, the parent company of Commnet Wireless, after government approval. There will be a transition period through 2010 during which Alltel customers will be notified of the changes to their account and service. Those Alltel customers who will transfer to Verizon Wireless are already being served by Verizon. For all others, current plans will be maintained, you can continue to use your Alltel phone as usual, and the changeover will be relatively painless. Eventually you will be offered a new AT&T phone and, most likely, be assigned a new AT&T plan. With a new phone you will be using the AT&T GSM network, some of which will be using different cell sites, which may affect coverage. While there is some uncertainty in a transition like this, previous changes to AT&T have gone smoothly. There is no harm in signing up as a new Alltel customer today, the changeover process will continue to at least the end of 2010 and your service may not change until 2011. Most of your coverage will be similar to Alltel's and you will eventually be able to use AT&T's entire network and features, including the iPhone. For now, you can use your Alltel phone across most of the country and get excellent coverage and reliable data service. Alltel phones currently prefer the Verizon network when roaming. Alltel still offers some attractive plans that will be available at least through the transition. Expect some of this to change under AT&T. Currently, new Alltel customers are required to only sign a 1-year contract.

Pros: Good coverage, very good prices, a variety of plans, good customer service, good broadband services including while roaming. Cons: The uncertainty of the transition to AT&T is a little unsettling, but for most customers, service will improve.
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CELLULAR ONE (Montana)
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
Chinook is now known as Cellular One (Montana).

MID RIVERS CELLULAR
Mid Rivers covers the east central part of Montana. They only offer a few phones, most of which are pricey, but do include some smart phones. They are part of a local telephone co-op, so they are pretty friendly and easy to deal with, and they offer bundle discounts for various services including wireless, landline, internet and cable TV. Their calling plans are a little overpriced, but they offer some roaming minutes, presumably National. They offer Lifeline plans. There are extra charges for each different feature like Caller ID, Voice Mail, and Long Distance.

NEMONT CELLULAR
The Nemont Telephone Cooperative has absorbed and renamed Sagebrush Cellular in the northeast Montana area. They have good coverage across their area, and have National, Local and Unlimited plans. Most plans are reasonably priced. They have added new CDMA digital sites, and may still have some analog sites. As part of the local telephone cooperative you should expect better than average customer service. They don't have a large selection of phones.

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.
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