The death of Alltel, now what?

[Jared Farrer]

Jared: Alltel as a company no longer exists. Stores are closed, the website is down *edit* (actually, the website is still up, but I get redirected to Verizon because of my ZIP code) -- they're gone. All Altel users were either transitioned to Verizon or, in the case of a number of "divested" areas, transferred to another, smaller caretaking provider until it is sold on to another market.

Here's a map of the areas to be divested (all non-verizon areas are divested) and what provider they're likely to be transitioned to:

They have been real helpful keeping me informed then! I guess I go to ATN or whatever. My bill goes to Alltel. They still call me? I think they still exist for the moment until contracts are up. But they talk like I will be renewing with them. Its kinda confusing. But I was under the impression verzion bought them exclusively? Maybe not. When contracts are up I think most people will choose Verzion. From the map it almost looks like you guys would be divested to at&t.

Not sure but I have been hitting more places with evdo, and alltel calls me to ask for money. But that doesnt mean squat, really it could be there call centers are yet to be switched over. But the check goes out to alltel however that works.

Not sure whats going on. The part of the map I am on is white? So I may be really messed up. LOL

 

[Jared Farrer]

After doing a little research I found some stuff. Ok, 13 million alltel customers, 10 million were bought by verzion. They were going to get them all but the powers that be thought that would be a monoply. Ok so now at&t and a company called atni (?) are in bidiing wars over the remaining 3 million? So Verzion in some cities are still in the process of switching some alltel towers over to verzion. Which means that you guys could have been kicked off of the the towers that were all alltel. The whole thing sounds like a mess. But in my area the verzion towers are now excisable. Which means I weant from crappy 1x data (alltel) to evdo reva (verzion) which could be the opposite in your cases.

Again who knows. But I would wait a little it could get better. Mine did! Dont jump to fast!

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

They have been real helpful keeping me informed then! I guess I go to ATN or whatever. My bill goes to Alltel. They still call me? I think they still exist for the moment until contracts are up. But they talk like I will be renewing with them. Its kinda confusing. But I was under the impression verzion bought them exclusively? Maybe not. When contracts are up I think most people will choose Verzion. From the map it almost looks like you guys would be divested to at&t.

Not sure but I have been hitting more places with evdo, and alltel calls me to ask for money. But that doesnt mean squat, really it could be there call centers are yet to be switched over. But the check goes out to alltel however that works.

Not sure whats going on. The part of the map I am on is white? So I may be really messed up. LOL

Weird! Poking around a bit, it appears that you're not even supposed to be able to get an Alltel phone and service if you live in Indiana; they don't appear to have any stores there. Maybe the reason you haven't been divested is because you don't even live in a market they technically service? Beats me, but I'd hold on to your Alltel for as long as you can. They're a great deal and I already miss them.

 

[Jared Farrer]

Weird! Poking around a bit, it appears that you're not even supposed to be able to get an Alltel phone and service if you live in Indiana; they don't appear to have any stores there. Maybe the reason you haven't been divested is because you don't even live in a market they technically service? Beats me, but I'd hold on to your Alltel for as long as you can. They're a great deal and I already miss them.

Right thats the plan, but it sounds like in Jan I will be forced into whatever else. But I think once all the towers are fixed and switched over things might improve for Verzion.

I will tell you the truth, I technically have a phone from southern IL. I live in Indiana, which is an at&t state well that and now Verzion. I have a southern IL number so your right. I shouldnt have service here.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I've paid about 4 bills to Verizon now. I did have a lot of issues during the switch over and for a month or two after that. Mainly... people would call me and my phone would not ring, or I would call them and theirs would not ring.
I don't do a lot of downloading large files and what have you but for a while there, it seems like every other time I would get on I would loose connection and it would have to reconnect... sometimes 2 or three times an hour. But for now that has mostly cleared up. Still happens occasionally.

Just the other day a representative with Verizon called me and asked me if I was having any problems... she said it was do to the switch over and that some of that would clear up if I get a new phone. Not so sure about that part, but she said I could get a new phone and keep the same plan and pricing. I'll be doing that shortly since the other day I broke the front glass out of my razor and have wore out the rf port.

 

[Mikel Shively]

I did not chase in 2009 (except for my backyard Kirksville, MO tornado day), So I disconnected my data plan. My cell phone is pay as you go (I have vonage at home, and do not make many cell phone calls period) I am now trying to gear up for 2010.

I really don't know whether I should just break down and buy WX WORX or to try Sprint or Verizon. I had Alltel in the past, so I don't know a whole lot about either company, but Im not sure If I like what I'm hearing. I guess I just dont know what way to go.

 

[Jason Bolt]

I've had major problems since the switch over. It's pretty obvious personnel is an issue. I had one retail rep completely screw up my plan, had another activate a new phone and simply add $45.95/month worth of features I never asked for and was never told about. Spent 90 minutes on the phone w/ Verizon customer service to fix the problems and when things were almost fixed got hung up on. Called back and in 90 minutes, the rep hadn't typed one single not into the system so I got to start completely over with a rep that had a totally different idea on how to fix things. It has really sucked.

My wife and I have had the same phantom call problem as Joshua. I was excited that with Verizon I would be able to send pictures messages (a feature Alltel purposely deactivated) but it works probably 10% of the time. We also really got screwed on our plan on the switchover. We were basically bullied into a Verizon plan w/ less minutes to keep the same price. Funny how the big FCC was going to make sure the customer didn't get screwed in this merger. We did.

Probably the only good thing is that even though we moved out two lines to Verizon, I was able to keep my aircard on an Alltel plan by itself. Same exact price as Verizon, but unlimited data.

Will be giving this a few months to see how it works out, then checking out AT&T.

 

[Tony Cook]

Verizon automatically reavticates data plan after 90 days

I am another former Alltel person who got switched to Verizon in the merge. Everything has gone smoothly for me so far, with one exception.

I turned my data plan off back in July for the end of the season, July 19th to be exact. This is the standard $60/month aircard plan. Last week, decided to chase on Thursday, Oct 27, day of the Shreveport-area tornadoes. The chase was a wash, literally- never got within 50 miles of a tornado-warned storm. Chasing floods in East Texas is not my idea of fun.

Anyway, I called to turn my data plan back on that morning, and was told that it was already on. Apparently, if you "suspend" the plan, they re-activate it automatically after 90 days, with no notification to you. It actually worked out okay, since it had only reactiviated a few days prior. Still, I got charged $16 for the 8 days it was on before I figured it out.

You can call at the end of 90 days and suspend it again, btw. But if you don't, beware! They may re-activate it and start billing you for it. The one good thing about the reactivation is that there was no fee for it.

TonyC

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I haven't had any problems with Verizon yet. It has actually been better in some ways. I was sucked into Verizon back in June/July. I had 2 lines at the time. My dad's line has the tethering plan turned on year round (he wont let me turn it off) and I just take his phone with me for data. When I chased July 13 (Valentine, NE day), I dont remember having a single data problem. We drove from Valentine, to Buffalo, SD and back without ever losing coverage. It was the same for KS and NE (even the void from Valentine to North Platte wasn't a void).

I added a line in August in which I had to sign a new contract, but everything has been the same. I have even used my phone (with no data plan) and didnt get charge for data. It still use my minutes just as it did with Alltel. I didnt think Verizon did that. I had to change to this plan -FRIENDS & FAMILY10 NATLFREEDOM 900. It shows I have a promo - UNLIMITED N&W FEB 2005 2Y. Whatever that is. The rep at the store made it sound like I am on a hybrid of Alltel and Verizon plans, but I have no idea. I have since chased a few times including August 17 and 18 here in the TX Panhandle with no problems, except a data void along the NM/TX stateline from Logan, NM northward.

I didnt want to give up that Alltel plan, but I have no complaints against the plan I have now. Only thing that bugs me is their website, but even it has been getting better. The 5 gig cap shouldnt be a major issue even if your streaming as long as you keep and eye on your data usage.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

As an aside to Mike Hollingshead: I'd recommend you call Verizon (from a phone other than the phone you tether with) and tell them about the problem. I did so today and they've started a trouble ticket, which is their process for putting a tech on the issue to investigate the problem. I suspect the more people who phone in with the same problem, the harder they're going to look into the issue.

 

[Mark Blue]

I've often wondered what will happen to Sprint users like myself next chase season. What I mean by that is Sprint and Alltel had a killer roaming agreement so my data coverage has been getting better and better as each year goes by. Now that Verizon bought Alltel I wonder if those roaming agreements are still in place or if they will be null and void?

Strangely enough there are still Alltel commercials running on TV here in Denver and Denver isn't even in an area where a person can sign up for Alltel. Why in the world are they still running television commercials if they are closing up shop? Just doesn't make sense to me.

On a more positive note - I'm looking forward to the day when 4G coverage is available for consumption. I hear it's being rolled out in a lot of new places like Amarillo, Portland, and Baltimore. I just hope Sprint can weather the storm and avoid being bought out like Alltel did.

 

[Steve Worthington]

I had a problem but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed. For some reason my card was shut off, "not suspend" and I was charged a reconnect fee. I called and asked WTF is going on here? It seems that someone screwed up and I paid for it...lol
They are not going to refund my money but the info I got was worth the 50.00. I found out that as long as I never shut the data card off they cant take away my unlimited data plan. Like what was said a few post above, you can "suspend" your data card for 3 months at a time with out killing your unlimited data plan. They wont make you change over to Verizon unless you shut off your data card.
Now the really big question is "How long will they keep letting us do this"
I have a feeling that after 12 months things might change?

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

The Alltel tech called back and thought it was a PRL issue (my phone erroneously pulls non-data PRL codes.) After updating the PRL manually (I'll go to Alltel to flash the phone today to make sure it starts pulling the right codes on its own) and after hard resetting the phone, it's back to being stable. So it may have been a combination PRL and Windows Mobile issue.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

I'm looking into a new plan with Verizon, previously under Alltel, and am wondering if anyone has ideas as far as tethering under Verizon? If you have a data plan and your phone is capable of tethering, then there is no additional charges? And also does anyone know where you can find a list of tethering capable phones under Verizon? Thanks

 

[D. Hayes]

Try not to switch plans if you're still on a Alltel smart plan. They didn't force me to and I'm glad. There's a 5Gb cap a month for tethered data regardless of your plan because they don't offer a true unlimited plan like Alltel did.

Now they have unlimited data for the phones and that's only normal data transfer for the phone itself (not tethered). I know most people don't come close but I use my laptop away from home and I'm sure I would bust the 5gb cap.

You can get a blackberry and use the tetherberry app. Get an android phone and use PDAnet app. Both of those will violate the terms of service on a Verizon's plan but that's life. Nearly all their phones should be able to tether using Verizon's own program. Just call them up and talk to a sales rep.

I just bought a the Motorola Droid from Verizon and I love it. I heard Wal-Mart has the best price and Best Buy will price match them.

Far as you question concerning additional charges... under a Verizon plan you'd have to pay like an extra $30 a month on top of a smartphone plan. On a dumb phone it's $60 plus your normal bill. I'm just speaking from what I remember so call up and check.