Ten and a half years, and now it's over.

Due to their sorry selection of bar style phones (especially from
Kyocera), and the need for an extra LOS for my daughter, I have left
Verizon Wireless/Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile/Bell Atlantic Mobile.
Much to Lyin' Larry's revelry, I'm sure, I have gone with Alltel.

Instead of paying $89.99/mo for two lines so that I could have the
Kyocera 444 (which includes having their PTT feature forced upon me),
I'll be paying $79.97/mo for three LOS, which means my mother can drop
her $15/20min/month "retention" plan. Plus she gets a new Blade phone
(along with my daughter), which works very much like her VZW Kyocera
2325 does, so she doesn't have to learn a completely new phone.

I also got the KX440. Although it is a PTT phone, I was allowed to
have it on a non-PTT plan. When I called VZW CS to get my account
number (to facilitate porting my number to Alltel), the CS rep asked
if there was anything they could do to keep me. I asked her if they
could get with Kyocera and purchase a bar style, non-PTT within the
next 6 hours. She laughed for a second, then after realizing I was
serious, she said no, apologized and wished me a happy Thanksgiving.

Although I will no longer be a VZW customer, I'll still hang out here
(like Steve Sobol) to help those who have questions. And unlike Lyin'
Larry, I won't be here just to bash VZW or push alternative providers
on people when they only have simple questions. Granted, Alltel's
coverage here isn't as good as VZW's. But, VZW's coverage wasn't the
greatest out here 3 years ago. So I'll take that issue up with Alltel
and hopefully get a couple of antennas adjusted to improve the
coverage.

I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
helping out others who may this way come.

The Ghost of General Lee wrote:
> Due to their sorry selection of bar style phones (especially from
> Kyocera), and the need for an extra LOS for my daughter, I have left
> Verizon Wireless/Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile/Bell Atlantic Mobile.
> Much to Lyin' Larry's revelry, I'm sure, I have gone with Alltel.
>
> Instead of paying $89.99/mo for two lines so that I could have the
> Kyocera 444 (which includes having their PTT feature forced upon me),
> I'll be paying $79.97/mo for three LOS, which means my mother can drop
> her $15/20min/month "retention" plan. Plus she gets a new Blade phone
> (along with my daughter), which works very much like her VZW Kyocera
> 2325 does, so she doesn't have to learn a completely new phone.
>
> I also got the KX440. Although it is a PTT phone, I was allowed to
> have it on a non-PTT plan. When I called VZW CS to get my account
> number (to facilitate porting my number to Alltel), the CS rep asked
> if there was anything they could do to keep me. I asked her if they
> could get with Kyocera and purchase a bar style, non-PTT within the
> next 6 hours. She laughed for a second, then after realizing I was
> serious, she said no, apologized and wished me a happy Thanksgiving.
>
> Although I will no longer be a VZW customer, I'll still hang out here
> (like Steve Sobol) to help those who have questions. And unlike Lyin'
> Larry, I won't be here just to bash VZW or push alternative providers
> on people when they only have simple questions. Granted, Alltel's
> coverage here isn't as good as VZW's. But, VZW's coverage wasn't the
> greatest out here 3 years ago. So I'll take that issue up with Alltel
> and hopefully get a couple of antennas adjusted to improve the
> coverage.
>
> I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
> the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
> helping out others who may this way come.
>
It's too bad, in my opinion Verizon had quite a few decent phones.

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:44:00 -0500, Esoteric
<esotericremovetopreventspam@charterinternet.com > wrote:

>It's too bad, in my opinion Verizon had quite a few decent phones.

The KX444 was a nice phone, I just didn't want to pay an extra $480
over the life of the contract for the privilege of carrying it. I
refuse to carry a flip/slider phone. I was looking at the LG9800, but
the speakerphone only worked when the phone was open.

Besides, staying with a Kyo model means all of the features I've grown
accustomed to using with my 3035 will still be there. And if I'm not
mistaken, I can still use the same Kyo software I already have. I'll
just need a new data cable. I hope the KX440 and the Blade (KX424)
use the same cable.

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 17:21:11 -0500, The Ghost of General Lee
<ghost@general.lee> wrote:

>Due to ... I have left Verizon Wireless ....
> ..., I have gone with Alltel.

Welcome! I hope you are happy; I am with my Total Freedom.

> Granted, Alltel's coverage here isn't as good as VZW's.

That depends ... there are areas where I have much better coverage
than one of my coworkers ... one happens to be his house in
Powdersville <g>. Which plan did you pick, NF or GF?

>So I'll take that issue up with Alltel and hopefully get a couple
>of antennas adjusted to improve the coverage.

As I recall, you are in the Fountain Inn area; I visit Faurecia and
Southchase regularly, and have very good coverage there (along I385).
I drove from Faurecia to Donaldson 2 weeks ago, and had great coverage
the whole way ... 418 to Fork Shoals to Antioch Church ...

>I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
>the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
>helping out others who may this way come.

My daughter wants Verizon because "all my friends are on Verizon" and
the M2M is nice. I've offered to pay half ... it is the same as
Alltel for her needs. Adding a line on mine is not cost effective.

The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@general.lee> wrote in
news:7feco1pe14uid31mjljr2i3hhkh7cob291@4ax.com:

> Due to their sorry selection of bar style phones (especially from
> Kyocera), and the need for an extra LOS for my daughter, I have left
> Verizon Wireless/Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile/Bell Atlantic Mobile.
> Much to Lyin' Larry's revelry, I'm sure, I have gone with Alltel.

Christ! I nearly fell out of my chair!...(c; It's like watching the
Hindenburg crash and burn. Oh, the horror of it all....(c;
>
>
> Although I will no longer be a VZW customer, I'll still hang out here
> (like Steve Sobol) to help those who have questions. And unlike Lyin'
> Larry, I won't be here just to bash VZW or push alternative providers
> on people when they only have simple questions. Granted, Alltel's
> coverage here isn't as good as VZW's. But, VZW's coverage wasn't the
> greatest out here 3 years ago. So I'll take that issue up with Alltel
> and hopefully get a couple of antennas adjusted to improve the
> coverage.

Whoa! Aren't you in upstate SC? Are you west of Columbia? If so, your
coverage just INCREASED! Alltel allows roaming to Verizon and Sprint PCS
in the upstate, west of the Columbia system, over past Charlotte in their
PRL...no extra charge...(c; Keep an eye on your roaming indicators. You
might be using a Verizon or Sprint tower in the upstate.

>
> I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
> the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
> helping out others who may this way come.
>
>

Welcome to Alltel, Gen., but lose the childish personal attacks. You're
smarter than that.

Which plan did you get, regional or nationwide? The regional is a better
deal if you only travel out of NC/SC occasionally. Lots more
minutes/dollar at home and you can buy 100 minutes nationwide for $10 only
when you travel. It's just a better deal than 300 minutes of nationwide
you hardly ever use.

After a couple of months, you'll get a letter from Alltel thanking you for
being such a great customer (if you pay your bill on time) and rewarding
you with another 100 minutes/month forever. I'm paying $39 for 800 minutes
regional, with unlimited N/W, unlimited M2M and free LD, even to
Alaska/Hawaii and Puerto Rico. They dropped the regional plan to 1000
minutes N/W and M2M a while back at this price point.

Oh, you'll just have to get used to having some place to sit while they
work on your phones....and being told the truth by the nice folks out
front. Took me a while to get used to it, too....(c;

--
Lyin' Larry

GeorgeB <nospam@att.net> wrote in
news:mklco1p2qa2otskl088ea1rjjm44tutgde@4ax.com:

> Welcome! I hope you are happy; I am with my Total Freedom.
>

Oh, oh.....This thread is gonna be trouble...(c;

--
Lyin' Larry

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 20:28:35 -0500, Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

>The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@general.lee> wrote in
>news:7feco1pe14uid31mjljr2i3hhkh7cob291@4ax.com :
>
>> Due to their sorry selection of bar style phones (especially from
>> Kyocera), and the need for an extra LOS for my daughter, I have left
>> Verizon Wireless/Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile/Bell Atlantic Mobile.
>> Much to Lyin' Larry's revelry, I'm sure, I have gone with Alltel.
>
>Christ! I nearly fell out of my chair!...(c; It's like watching the
>Hindenburg crash and burn. Oh, the horror of it all....(c;

Somehow, I think you'll get over the shock.

>>
>> Although I will no longer be a VZW customer, I'll still hang out here
>> (like Steve Sobol) to help those who have questions. And unlike Lyin'
>> Larry, I won't be here just to bash VZW or push alternative providers
>> on people when they only have simple questions. Granted, Alltel's
>> coverage here isn't as good as VZW's. But, VZW's coverage wasn't the
>> greatest out here 3 years ago. So I'll take that issue up with Alltel
>> and hopefully get a couple of antennas adjusted to improve the
>> coverage.
>
>Whoa! Aren't you in upstate SC? Are you west of Columbia? If so, your
>coverage just INCREASED! Alltel allows roaming to Verizon and Sprint PCS
>in the upstate, west of the Columbia system, over past Charlotte in their
>PRL...no extra charge...(c; Keep an eye on your roaming indicators. You
>might be using a Verizon or Sprint tower in the upstate.

No, it decreased. My VZW phone had better coverage here at home. The
VZW tower is 1.2 miles to my west (on top of a hill), the Alltel tower
is 1.3 miles to my east, with no benefit of a hill. I have noticed
the roam indicator flicker a couple of times, but never on during a
call. It seems as if the phone can find any Alltel signal at all, it
goes with their own system, even though VZW's or SPCS's may be
stronger.

And as point of interest, during the time period last night waiting
for the porting to take place, I could call out on either phone, and
*both* showed my VZW number on my CID at home.

>>
>> I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
>> the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
>> helping out others who may this way come.
>>
>>
>
>Welcome to Alltel, Gen., but lose the childish personal attacks. You're
>smarter than that.

Lose the lying and senseless VZW bashing here. My comments to you
have not been personal in nature, but directed at specific stupid and
incorrect comments you've made here. If you are going to post things
as fact, either make damn sure you know what you're talking about or
research it before you post.

>Which plan did you get, regional or nationwide? The regional is a better
>deal if you only travel out of NC/SC occasionally. Lots more
>minutes/dollar at home and you can buy 100 minutes nationwide for $10 only
>when you travel. It's just a better deal than 300 minutes of nationwide
>you hardly ever use.

National. I had just put my mother on a plane to DC with her new
phone. And we travel to AL, GA, TN, and VA occasionally and I still
plan on a return trip to Florida. The peace of mind of a national
plan was well worth the price.

>After a couple of months, you'll get a letter from Alltel thanking you for
>being such a great customer (if you pay your bill on time) and rewarding
>you with another 100 minutes/month forever. I'm paying $39 for 800 minutes
>regional, with unlimited N/W, unlimited M2M and free LD, even to
>Alaska/Hawaii and Puerto Rico. They dropped the regional plan to 1000
>minutes N/W and M2M a while back at this price point.

With 10 1/2 years of excellent payment history at BAM/BANM/VZW, I
don't see it changing with Alltel. If I do get the 100 minutes, fine.
If not, that's fine, too. It's 100 minutes I'll never use anyways.
My daughter's phone is getting lock restricted to the contact list.
My aim is to not raise yet another cell phone junkie kid. And my
mother only calls me when some "emergency" arises.

>Oh, you'll just have to get used to having some place to sit while they
>work on your phones....and being told the truth by the nice folks out
>front. Took me a while to get used to it, too....(c;

Strangely, there were no seats in the Alltel store. Maybe VZW stole
them all.

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 19:24:41 -0500, GeorgeB <nospam@att.net> wrote:

>On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 17:21:11 -0500, The Ghost of General Lee
><ghost@general.lee> wrote:
>
>>Due to ... I have left Verizon Wireless ....
>> ..., I have gone with Alltel.
>
>Welcome! I hope you are happy; I am with my Total Freedom.
>
>> Granted, Alltel's coverage here isn't as good as VZW's.
>
>That depends ... there are areas where I have much better coverage
>than one of my coworkers ... one happens to be his house in
>Powdersville <g>. Which plan did you pick, NF or GF?

NF 900.

>>So I'll take that issue up with Alltel and hopefully get a couple
>>of antennas adjusted to improve the coverage.
>
>As I recall, you are in the Fountain Inn area; I visit Faurecia and
>Southchase regularly, and have very good coverage there (along I385).
>I drove from Faurecia to Donaldson 2 weeks ago, and had great coverage
>the whole way ... 418 to Fork Shoals to Antioch Church ...

Yeah, but take 418 east into Laurens county (Durbin Road area) and
you'll see a lot more service holes. The Alltel tower is off SC418
behind the Kemet plant in Ft. Inn. VZW's tower is behind the Bi-Lo in
Ft. Inn. And that tower at 418 and Fork Shoals Rd is VZW and
Cingular. The Alltel tower here is near Fairview Rd and 418, behind
the Spinx station. I'd expect excellent coverage from most carriers
along I-385, I-85, and US25.

>>I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
>>the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
>>helping out others who may this way come.
>
>My daughter wants Verizon because "all my friends are on Verizon" and
>the M2M is nice. I've offered to pay half ... it is the same as
>Alltel for her needs. Adding a line on mine is not cost effective.

I won't even let my daughter give her number out. If I add any of her
friends to the contact list (and that's a huge *IF*), they'll all have
*67 appended before the number. I've already set up her voice mail
greeting. It basically says, "Your number is not authorized to
contact this phone. Please hang up now. Thank you." I'll just
ignore it and leave a message when prompted.

I left VZW in July & went with TMO. After 4 months I'm very happy with TMO &
so is my family.


"The Ghost of General Lee" <ghost@general.lee> wrote in message
news:7feco1pe14uid31mjljr2i3hhkh7cob291@4ax.com...
> Due to their sorry selection of bar style phones (especially from
> Kyocera), and the need for an extra LOS for my daughter, I have left
> Verizon Wireless/Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile/Bell Atlantic Mobile.
> Much to Lyin' Larry's revelry, I'm sure, I have gone with Alltel.
>
> Instead of paying $89.99/mo for two lines so that I could have the
> Kyocera 444 (which includes having their PTT feature forced upon me),
> I'll be paying $79.97/mo for three LOS, which means my mother can drop
> her $15/20min/month "retention" plan. Plus she gets a new Blade phone
> (along with my daughter), which works very much like her VZW Kyocera
> 2325 does, so she doesn't have to learn a completely new phone.
>
> I also got the KX440. Although it is a PTT phone, I was allowed to
> have it on a non-PTT plan. When I called VZW CS to get my account
> number (to facilitate porting my number to Alltel), the CS rep asked
> if there was anything they could do to keep me. I asked her if they
> could get with Kyocera and purchase a bar style, non-PTT within the
> next 6 hours. She laughed for a second, then after realizing I was
> serious, she said no, apologized and wished me a happy Thanksgiving.
>
> Although I will no longer be a VZW customer, I'll still hang out here
> (like Steve Sobol) to help those who have questions. And unlike Lyin'
> Larry, I won't be here just to bash VZW or push alternative providers
> on people when they only have simple questions. Granted, Alltel's
> coverage here isn't as good as VZW's. But, VZW's coverage wasn't the
> greatest out here 3 years ago. So I'll take that issue up with Alltel
> and hopefully get a couple of antennas adjusted to improve the
> coverage.
>
> I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
> the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
> helping out others who may this way come.
>

Why not just have them turn off the voicemail?

Dean
______________________________________
"The Ghost of General Lee" <ghost@general.lee> wrote in message
news9tco153bn5gak4nub7sglarqnu1rktge4@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 19:24:41 -0500, GeorgeB <nospam@att.net> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 17:21:11 -0500, The Ghost of General Lee
>><ghost@general.lee> wrote:
>>
>>>Due to ... I have left Verizon Wireless ....
>>> ..., I have gone with Alltel.
>>
>>Welcome! I hope you are happy; I am with my Total Freedom.
>>
>>> Granted, Alltel's coverage here isn't as good as VZW's.
>>
>>That depends ... there are areas where I have much better coverage
>>than one of my coworkers ... one happens to be his house in
>>Powdersville <g>. Which plan did you pick, NF or GF?
>
> NF 900.
>
>>>So I'll take that issue up with Alltel and hopefully get a couple
>>>of antennas adjusted to improve the coverage.
>>
>>As I recall, you are in the Fountain Inn area; I visit Faurecia and
>>Southchase regularly, and have very good coverage there (along I385).
>>I drove from Faurecia to Donaldson 2 weeks ago, and had great coverage
>>the whole way ... 418 to Fork Shoals to Antioch Church ...
>
> Yeah, but take 418 east into Laurens county (Durbin Road area) and
> you'll see a lot more service holes. The Alltel tower is off SC418
> behind the Kemet plant in Ft. Inn. VZW's tower is behind the Bi-Lo in
> Ft. Inn. And that tower at 418 and Fork Shoals Rd is VZW and
> Cingular. The Alltel tower here is near Fairview Rd and 418, behind
> the Spinx station. I'd expect excellent coverage from most carriers
> along I-385, I-85, and US25.
>
>>>I had a ball, folks, kind of sorry to leave VZW over this issue, but
>>>the writing was on the wall. Y'all take care and I look forward to
>>>helping out others who may this way come.
>>
>>My daughter wants Verizon because "all my friends are on Verizon" and
>>the M2M is nice. I've offered to pay half ... it is the same as
>>Alltel for her needs. Adding a line on mine is not cost effective.
>
> I won't even let my daughter give her number out. If I add any of her
> friends to the contact list (and that's a huge *IF*), they'll all have
> *67 appended before the number. I've already set up her voice mail
> greeting. It basically says, "Your number is not authorized to
> contact this phone. Please hang up now. Thank you." I'll just
> ignore it and leave a message when prompted.
>

In article <TZuhf.7413$id.199@trnddc04>,
Ben Skversky <bskversky1@verizon.net> wrote:
>I left VZW in July & went with TMO. After 4 months I'm very happy with TMO &
>so is my family.
>
>

I've considered TMO before, and am still doing so as I am on the last year
of my contract with VZW. I live in the city, so signal from both
providers is good. I have the family plan for my wife and me, and by
balancing act is between TMO's prices and phones vs VZW's coverage and
their Get-It-Now offering. I really like GIN because of the weather
radar. As a ham operator, weather is of great interest to me, so where
there is VZW service, and questionable clouds, I have ready-access to a
reasonably updated radar. My two-way ham radio can only get me so much
info - it helps to see the radar image.

TMO claimed a few months back they have no plans to add such a radar
service. The one time it could be useful might be the one time I have
TMO.

Thus, at this time (a year away from end of contract), I'm keeping a close
eye on both companies.

Scott

The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@general.lee> wrote in
news:84sco1pqoa01sraiksnmugd7com73835qt@4ax.com:

> It seems as if the phone can find any Alltel signal at all, it
> goes with their own system, even though VZW's or SPCS's may be
> stronger.
>
>

Yeah, that's true on any system. The phones used to stop searching in
Charleston on an unusable Verizon signal, even though you were staring,
longingly, at someone else's working tower. Of course, that was back when
the PRLs allowed roaming...damn them.

It's all about money....

--
Larry

The Ghost of General Lee <ghost@general.lee> wrote in
news:84sco1pqoa01sraiksnmugd7com73835qt@4ax.com:

> National. I had just put my mother on a plane to DC with her new
> phone. And we travel to AL, GA, TN, and VA occasionally and I still
> plan on a return trip to Florida. The peace of mind of a national
> plan was well worth the price.
>
>

When I was on LDC, a Florida trip sailing cost me over $400 because I used
the phone a lot coordinating repairs to the seawater flooded engine
problem. Buying 100 mins national for $10 on Alltel's regional plan would
have saved me $370 in roaming charges. I travel like that "occasionally",
less and less often as time goes by, unfortunately. So, the regional plans
800 minutes is a better deal for me. The SC/NC region includes a lot of
the border states around us on the plan map. If I were going to
Birmingham, I'd call 611 and buy some minutes. They don't double-charge
you, either. When it roams out of region, it charges against the 100
minute blocks. Come back into the region and it charges your regular
minutes. I still got 50-some minutes credit on the bill from last trip out
of region.

--
Larry

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 04:33:17 GMT, "Dean" <dean173@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Why not just have them turn off the voicemail?

Because I (and only I) would sometimes need to leave one for her.

You're a "ghost"... You'll be back, even as an apparition!
Good luck, buddy....

--
I work for the ILEC ...." stuff happens! "