[TriLUG] OT: cellphone companies in Raleigh area

Jaimie Livingston jaimie at trilug.org
Tue Jul 27 16:14:25 EDT 2004


I live in Fuquay, but work and travel in the more rural parts of NC. I
use, and really like AllTel. I don't have the described problem when I
travel from Raleigh to Atlantic Beach down 70E, when I travel to NE NC
(Edenton, Elizabeth City, Manteo, Outer Banks) down US64 or US264. I
have had some problems with signal strength in the northern piedmont
areas, particularly Person County near West Lake. I subscribe to the
AllTel National Freedom plan and use a TriBand AMPS 800/CDMA 800/CDMA
1900 phone (Kyocera 3225, and before that a Kyocera 2135). I went thru
several Nokia phones before settling on the Kyocera 3225. I would have
prefered a Kyocera 3245 with the retractable antenna, but could not get
one in this area (I don't know why).

The coverage in rural Eastern NC, particularly east of I95, is mostly
800Mhz Analog and CDMA 900Mhz, so a TriBand AMPS/CDMA phone is a must.
If you are going to stick close to metro areas, then a dual-band CDMA or
GPRS phone will work OK. I'd avoid PCS if at all possible. Don't expect
data services (like SMS, e-mail, or web browsing) to work outside of the
metro areas. Data services include picture mail and SMS.

US Cellular works great over most of NC, and also uses AMPS 800 for the
more rural parts of the state. I believe that US Cellular and AllTel
have a cooperative agreement for roaming customers. AT&T & Verizon are
OK in the metro areas, but don't cover a good portion of the state. In
the past, Sprint's service has been poor, unless to don't travel more
than a few miles from the Interstates or major metro areas.

I think folks who are selecting carriers for work in rural NC need to
pay attention not only to the carrier and plan offerings, but also to
the carriers roaming agreements and to the phone they select. Many of
the newer, hip phones and smart phones will cause nothing but
frustration if you frequently travel in rural areas, regardless of what
carrier you use.

Jaimie

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
Behalf Of Chris Bullock
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:09 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] OT: cellphone companies in Raleigh area


I would have to say stay away from Alltel, my mother lives in greenville
and on her commute from Greenville to Atlantic beach there is no
coverage between metro areas, meaning no signal from greenville to new
bern and then no signal from newbern to havelock.  I have US Cellular
and the service works great all over eastern NC and also the RTP area.
I know you will be traveling to New Bern, but I have stayed on a call
from Raleigh to Greenville with no lost signal, i admit it does get weak
in certain places but never loses entirely.  The problem with some of
the "newer" companies is that they will not support analog signal, I
know that US Cellualar and Alltel do offer these. 
The plans aren't as great with USCC but I dont need 50 state no roaming,
I just need a cell phone that works. --chris

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 13:50:22 -0400, Jim Wright <jwright at netcentrics.com>
wrote:
> As you will be traveling to New Bern, I believe that Alltel has some 
> of the best coverage in NC.  I also have heard bad things about them, 
> but I (and just about every member of my family) has been with them 
> for multiple years with little or no problems.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On 
> Behalf Of Mike Fieschko
> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 12:18 PM
> To: trilug
> Subject: [TriLUG] OT: cellphone companies in Raleigh area
> 
> Good afternoon,
> 
> Apologies if this off-topic post runs afoul of list rules.  (Didn't 
> get any rules with the sub confirmation back in June, and didn't see 
> any on the lug site.)
> 
> I'm moving from New Jersey to the Raleigh area.  Right now I have AT&T

> wireless telephone service.  What are listmembers' experiences, good 
> and bad, with wireless telephone companies in the area?  I need a 
> basic package, but no roaming (family in New Bern).
> 
> Off-list replies might annoy others less.
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