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South Dakota Cellular Reviews
Mountain Wireless presents an opinionated review of wireless
and cellular phone services in South Dakota.
This is information gained from personal
experience, user interviews, press releases,
advertising material, newsgroups and wireless
web sites.For Ratings of these carriers, Click Here.
ALLTEL
Alltel has agreed to be purchased by Verizon Wireless. This transaction is not expected to be
completed until 2009. While we feel this
is not a good deal for the cellular consumer,
there is no reason to avoid signing up with
Alltel for now. Most plans will be honored
and the changeover will be relatively painless.
We are following developments on the Mountain Wireless Blog. In the meantime, Alltel covers more real
estate in the US than any other carrier.
Most of that territory is rural and in those
areas they are often the best carrier available.
Both in the rural and areas and the large
cities they serve they have very good coverage,
good customer service and utilize a fairly
advanced network. You can take your Alltel
phone into most urban areas and still get
excellent coverage and reliable data service.
To achieve this goal, Alltel phones will
roam on Sprint more often than other carriers.
Sprint has good broadband services, but after
the ownership change you will be roaming
on Verizon's huge network, which covers more
territory that Sprint. Alltel offers "Local"
and "No-Roaming-Charges-Anywhere"
plans, and is the only large carrier that
offers a "North American" plan
which includes roaming calls from Mexico
and Canada. Expect this to go away under
Verizon, but may be 'grandfathered.' With
Alltel's domination of rural coverage, they
are the king of roaming carriers, serving
roamers from most of the other carriers,
primarily in the western half of the US.
They offer CDMA service to their own customers
and roamers, and GSM service for roamers,
but not in all areas. They have been aggressive
in pricing their plans and features, and
also offer a basic, Unlimited plan. Pros: Good coverage, very good prices, a
variety of plans, good customer service,
good broadband services including while roaming.
Cons: Roaming may be a problem when favoring
Sprint, fewer phone choices, Alltel isn't
aggressively adding new towers.
Get Online Discounts on Alltel Phones
COMMNET WIRELESS
Commnet has been building cell sites in locations
that have been overlooked by other carriers.
You can't sign up for service with them.
Their sole existence relies on roaming by
other carriers' customers. Some carriers
include Commnet in their Roaming Lists, others
allow roaming if their phones access Commnet's
sites, and some forbid roaming on them. So
if the closest, or only, cell site near you
is owned by Commnet, you need to find out
if you can sign up with a different carrier,
making sure their service will allow roaming
on that Commnet site. They are also known
by other names, and their sites offer a different
combination of CDMA and GSM technology. Commnet
has been searching out areas with little
or no coverage and is credited for adding
new coverage there. In most cases, you'll
have no idea you're using a Commnet site.
Commnet Coverage Maps
NEXTEL
Nextel is a part Sprint and in some offerings,
Sprint hides Nextel's features. The combo
has allowed the two networks to start sharing
cell sites to improve coverage. Nextel's
spectrum is made up from a bunch of 2-way
radio channels, and they suffer from marginal
audio in some markets. Their coverage is
more robust in certain areas than others.
They cover urban areas and some interstates,
but there is little roaming elsewhere in
the state. They have an efficient '2-way'
radio feature which is handy for a business
or a family. Some of their plans aren't very
competitive, but they do offer free incoming
calls. They use 850 MHz so they have a strong
signal in most areas. There are rumors that
Sprint wants to sell off the Nextel network,
which may or may not include Nextel customers.
Pros: The Direct Connect is a handy 'walkie-talkie'
service, they are still improving coverage,
good digital features. Cons: Some markets
have poor audio, they also have coverage
limits and very limited roaming, most of
their phones are big and lack variety, Sprint
has not treated Nextel customers as well
as those using the Sprint network.
SPRINT
Sprint has a national, feature-rich digital
network. Their coverage is a little "fragile",
but where it's good, it's very good. You
can roam over more territory than any other
single carrier. Sprint has a good selection
of phones. Their plans include roaming over
most of the country, and work about 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 PCS merged with Nextel which has created some beneficial network
configurations, including sharing of cell
sites. Sprint roaming often prefers the Alltel network which, where available, gives Sprint
customers excellent data throughput. Many
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%. Pros: Sprint gives you good value for your
money, but is not necessarily the cheapest.
Sprint covers every urban area in the U.S.,
maintains local service stores, very good
roaming capabilities, their digital and data
network work very well, good selection of
phones. Sprint has excellent roaming agreements,
while some other carriers are restricting
theirs. 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.
Click here for more Sprint Pros & Cons Get Online Discounts on Sprint Phones
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