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Virginia Cellular Reviews

Mountain Wireless presents an opinionated review of wireless and cellular phone services in Virginia. 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.
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AT&T
AT&T is what was once Cingular, part of which once was AT&T Wireless. Try not be confused. Today's AT&T has a large network, but in the west, has a lot less spectrum available than in the rest of the country. They continue to expand, but outside of urban areas and off interstate highways they depend on other carriers to provide coverage. Fortunately, the 'roaming' coverage is as good as being on the AT&T network, and most of the coverage is included within your plan minutes. With GSM, AT&T will roam more readily, internationally.

Much of the AT&T network in the interior west is made up of the old AT&T Wireless network which was not among the best. They still suffer from some coverage 'holes', but they are updating these areas. Notable is their "Corridor" project which provides excellent service along several stretches of interstate highways. AT&T's current plans include only the GSM network, thus have some areas of the country with no service due to a lack of GSM coverage, or the inability to access existing analog networks, even for 911 service. In several markets where AT&T operates at 1900 MHz only, we have been very disappointed. The biggest surprise is where Cingular combined with the old AT&T Wireless. We would have expected coverage to improve dramatically, but that is not the case. Not all AT&T 1900 MHz-only markets are equal, though. In Arizona AT&T is generally as good as the others, but in northern Ohio it is disappointing, to the point of being unusable, although they have covered the major roads adequately in those areas. This map shows AT&T 1900 MHz-only areas. AT&T offers a variety of plans including unlimited minutes and services.

Pros: AT&T has a very large network and covers much of the nation, usage is transparent whether on- or off-network, good digital and data services, good national plans, "Rollover" for those who can use it, "Unlimited" calling plan available, a good selection of phones. In some areas, like California, there have been big improvements in coverage. Excellent international roaming capabilities. Cons: AT&T plans aren't as generous as some, customers can only access GSM networks which is not quite as universally available as CDMA, customer service is sometimes below average.
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CINGULAR WIRELESS
Cingular is now known as AT&T.

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.
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SUNCOM WIRELESS
Even though Suncom has been purchased by T-Mobile, they still operate as if they are a separate company. They have good coverage, very reasonable plan prices, regional, national and unlimited plans and sophisticated features. T-Mobile claims they will support Suncom's existing plans, some are very competitive. Overall, service has improved for Suncom customers, but grab one of the great Suncom plans while you can. T-Mobile could decide to change these plans at any time.

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 many 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.
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US CELLULAR
This is a good company that offers good coverage, good plans and lots of features, and a good selection of CDMA phones. Unlimited incoming calls are available, it's an extra feature on Regional and Family plans. In Chicago they use 1900 MHz frequencies which have more dead spots. Pros: Their price plans are competitive, and they offer National and Regional plans, "Unlimited" calling plan available, good customer service, National plans appear to be all-inclusive and roaming has good coverage, mostly with Verizon Wireless. Cons: Mobile to Mobile minutes are extra except on Family plans, and Night & Weekend minutes are extra on Regional plans.

VERIZON WIRELESS
Verizon's 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 the carriers 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 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. Pros: Verizon has reasonably-priced plans, "Unlimited" calling plans available, extensive coverage, wide-ranging National plans, excellent customer service, all-digital service, and 'customer-friendly' policies. 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 oddities, 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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