Mountain Wireless-Wyoming Cellular Reviews

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Wyoming Cellular Reviews

Mountain Wireless presents an opinionated review of the wireless and cellular services in Wyoming. 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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EDGE WIRELESS
Edge is in the process of being purchased by AT&T. This is a small system that would work for you if you use your phone around OR, ID, N.CA, & WY. Pros: They are all digital, and aside from competitive local plans, they offer the same type of national plans as AT&T/Cingular. Cons: The are using PCS frequencies to cover large rural areas and don't have great coverage off the main roads.
Edge Wireless Coverage Map

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.

SILVER STAR PCS
This is a very small system set up by the local telephone (co-op?) company south of the Jackson Hole, WY area. This is a very mountainous and sparsely-populated area. They have a good selection of CDMA phones. They offer a wide range of plans that include just their own coverage area, just a few counties in east central Wyoming, the 2-state 'border' area, a multi-state region that includes the mountain states, California, and an eighth state of your choosing, or a National plan. We don't know much about this company, but systems like this eventually suffer from a lack of customers and may have maintenance and expansion challenges. Pros: They may have the best coverage in their small area where other providers have many dead spots, they offer most of the latest digital features, they have a large selection of plans, they should have good customer service, 'bundling' should be available. Cons: Their service area is tiny and at PCS frequencies they may have quite a few 'holes', their plans are overpriced.

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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SYRINGA WIRELESS
This small carrier is a combination of local PCS carriers and co-op telephone companies in SE Idaho and western WY. They offer Local, Regional and National plans, but they are a bit overpriced when any extra-minute features are added. Their Regional plans include 7 nearby states and one more of your choice. They have a $20 plan as well as Unlimited plans. Coverage is good but limited. They are very local so customer service is above average. The company is named after the Idaho state flower.

UBET WIRELESS
This division of the Uintah Basin Telephone Association covers a small part of the northeastern part of Utah around Vernal and surrounding areas of Wyoming and Colorado. Their cellular system has good coverage and offers free LD. Their PCS plans have more features and coverage. They have many plans including a $20 "Security" plan, National plans with no roaming charges, and an "Unlimited" plan. Pros: As a local coop, customer service is better than average, they offer a variety of plans including Unlimited. Cons: Extended and National plans are expensive, their web site offers no idea what selection of phones they offer.
UBET Coverage Map
Click Here for UBET's Extended Local Coverage Map.

UNION WIRELESS
Serving Wyoming and Northwest Colorado, Union has a good network in most areas. In some they are the only game in town. They are using GSM technology and are one of the few companies still offering "Telular" service, a wireless service connected to home wiring. They offer reasonable Regional plans, but their National plans are expensive. Bundles are available. Pros: It is a small company and has a personal touch, they are the only carrier available in some areas of Wyoming, they offer some digital features. They have reasonably-priced Regional plans. Cons: While their western WY coverage is very good, coverage in the eastern half of Wyoming is limited to in-town and interstate highways only.

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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