Alltel unlimited aircard

[Jason Bolt]

I still have mine and have been told by Verizon customer service that it will stay unlimited as long as it is active. I guess it's a requirement of their takeover. I just changed our cell phones to Sprint. Thinking of dumping the Alltel/Verizon card in favor of other options since I don't stream anyway. Verizon had told me before that I could transfer this card to someone else as long as it stayed active.

My question: Is this such a big deal where somebody would really want this plan? Just trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it.

 

[Jason Foster]

I still have mine and have been told by Verizon customer service that it will stay unlimited as long as it is active. I guess it's a requirement of their takeover. I just changed our cell phones to Sprint. Thinking of dumping the Alltel/Verizon card in favor of other options since I don't stream anyway. Verizon had told me before that I could transfer this card to someone else as long as it stayed active.

My question: Is this such a big deal where somebody would really want this plan? Just trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it.

Granted I'm not that familiar with Alltel and don't know a ton of the coverage, but yes, and unlimited plan can be VERY ATTRACTIVE to some users. It is the single most reason I have stuck with my Sprint SERO plan...as it is also unlimited. I had it transferred to my company from my friend who put it under his name for the first year. I find the unlimited account great because I OFTEN go over my limit by 1 to 2 gigabytes. I'm sure my time in the plains will see overage, and very likely this winter. Actually, last winter during the February snowmaggedon storms here in DC, my overage was 5 gigabytes...equal to a whole other account. Of course 30 straight hours of streaming (during just one storm) will do that!! LOL.

IMO, I could see not only selling the stuff, but get a premium for an unlimited account if there isn't currently another way to doing it. If I decided to sell access for transfer of my account, I'd be asking for a premium.

 

[Jesse Risley]

Yes, I'll second what Jason said. If nothing else, the fact that it is unlimited would be justification enough for me to keep the plan open. Unlimited data plans seem to be few and far between, at least as far as data cards are concerned (i.e., Spring, Verizon, AT&T). You almost have to purchase a plan from a reseller in order to find anything unlimited, unless you are using a smartphone with no data cap as a wifi supplier.

There were two times last season where I was chasing actively enough that I went over my 5 GB cap limit, and the overage charges can be quite expensive, even at something like $0.05/MB, if you end up using an extra 1 GB or so of data above and beyond your limit.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I still have unlimited Alltel (Verizon now) and will have a hard choice once Verizon gets the iPhone. Right now I hook my cell up to a cradlepoint and run an ipod touch off of it. Will I get an iPhone and just chase with that? (The browsing capabilities of an iPhone, paired with the Radarscope, make it quite a powerful chase tool). Or should I get an iPad and run that off of the cradlepoint? Either one mounts right to the dash and I'm pretty sure the iPad has built-in GPS, so both would work well as a little MFC (MCC?) display while driving. I like the iPad idea, but am not sure if it's worth shelling out that much money for a ginormous iPod.

Thing is, ever since I stopped using my cellphone as my primary internet connection (finally broke down and got cable internet), I've never come close to the 5GB cap. I'll be curious to see how much data I suck down during chase-time this year.

 

[Randy Bowers]

I was surprised to hear in Verizon's new announcement for their 4g/LTE that they do not have an unlimited plan and the data caps are very low. For $49.99 you get 5 GB, and for $79.99 you get 10 GB. You would expect that Verizon's entirely new and faster network would be robust enough that they could improve the data use restrictions. The good news is that there is an option for those who go over, albeit an expensive one. Overage charges of $10 per GB will be incurred. I'll be keeping my grandfathered unlimited 3g Verizon plan. It's gold, at least in my opinion.

http://news.vzw.com/LTE/Overview.html

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Heh, just checked the specs on the iPad, and only the 3G version has GPS. So nix that idea; I wouldn't pay hundreds extra just to get the GPS and an AT&T 3G I'd never need or use.

 

[Mark Blue]

I think it would be worth keeping Jason especially since Alltel and Sprint had roaming agreements that Verizon still maintains as part of their taking ownership of Alltel. There are a lot of chasers who swear by the Alltel coverage in the plains and from what I remember reading (in this very section) when I was in the market to buy a data card, Alltel and Sprint were the choices of most chasers or at least that was my impression from the various posts I read. I ended up getting the Sprint 3G unlimited plan in April 2007 and to this day my account still reads "unlimited" on my usage page. Folks over at the EVDO Forums chime in quite frequently that if you were grand fathered in on an unlimited data plan Sprint won't hassle you much if you occasionally go over the 5 GB cap. If you abuse it they can hold your feet to the fire and end your contract, but they tend to get after the users who truly signed up for a plan with a 5 GB cap and tend to leave the grand fathered account owners alone for the most part.

One thing I remember very well - and Ryan you can probably attest to it - is the experience Mike H. had when Verizon took over Alltel. He had the unlimited $25 tethering plan that worked like a dream on Alltel, but when Verizon took over his connection went to heck in a hand basket shortly thereafter. I asked him about it on several occasions and he was never able to reach a resolution to the problem with Verizon tech support. It was pretty much a complete mystery from what he told me and as far as I know Verizon pretty much threw in the towel on trying to find a solution. I'm not sure if others who had Alltel plans when Verizon bought them out had a similar experience, but it would be nice to know that it wasn't just one person.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

One thing I remember very well - and Ryan you can probably attest to it - is the experience Mike H. had when Verizon took over Alltel. He had the unlimited $25 tethering plan that worked like a dream on Alltel, but when Verizon took over his connection went to heck in a hand basket shortly thereafter. I asked him about it on several occasions and he was never able to reach a resolution to the problem with Verizon tech support. It was pretty much a complete mystery from what he told me and as far as I know Verizon pretty much threw in the towel on trying to find a solution. I'm not sure if others who had Alltel plans when Verizon bought them out had a similar experience, but it would be nice to know that it wasn't just one person.

Yeah, I remember that happening, too. I think me and Mike commiserated a bit on that one. In the end, I got a new phone (a smartphone) and all of those problems went away. It seemed to have something to do with using my Razr; for whatever reason, the network no longer performed well on the Razr. Once I moved to a PPC6800, it worked great again. Alltel and Verizon both had no idea what the problem was; they sent people out to check the nearby tower and everything.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

FYI in southern NM alltel still exists here. Since I have a data card I just sign up for the months I need it, and their plans are still unlimited. I assume some day they'll be bought by another company.