Cingular dumping our area

I live in a small rural area and have cingular. I've had the service for one year and it's been ok.
Alltel came into my area about 3-4 months ago and we started having a LOT of problems. Now many of the cingular customers have been receiving letters that cingular will not have service in the area.
My husband and I have two -1 year old Motorola V551's, wireless headsets, the works.
The only thing in our area is Alltel and Brazos Cellular ( a little tiny spin off of Nextel I believe)
Can our phones be interchanged with Alltel? If not what do I do with one year old phones and equipment.
Also..is it cheaper to buy online or go to a store?
Sorry but I'm not cell phone savy.
Thank you for your time.

---

› See More: Cingular dumping our area

You seem to be out of luck. Both companies appear to use CDMA technology. Which means that your phone, which is GSM, will not work with them.
CDMA does not use sim cards, the phones are tied to the carrier. GSM phones can be unlocked and used on other GSM carriers.

As Cingular has "dumped" you, I assume you were let out with no ETF. Look at it this way, you now have 2 v551's to sell in the FS/T forum.

And a word of advice if you choose Alltel. Try to deal directly with an official Alltel rep. You will receive the runaround whenever you have problems from an agent/independent store. I just witnessed my brother having numerous problems with a replacement in that situation.

But other than that, he loves Alltel, and their coverage area (no roaming).

Good Luck!

I spent about an hour on the phone with cingular, they said they would email me the config to unlock my phone, so that Alltel would allow me to use it. I called Alltel and they said sorry no, I have to buy a new phone.
Geez!
I have a stack of phones I can't use anymore and want to get my info off of them. I asked Alltel if they could download my phone numbers into a new phone and they said...maybe.
How do I get all the info off of phones to resell them?

Also to Nickel....what is an official rep with alltel? We have one store here and they are advising us to not buy over the internet because if anything happened to the phone, we couldn't get a replace for a long time.

Best to buy from a hometown carrier or online? The online stores are cheaper...Anyone have an idea or the best place to buy online?

Originally Posted by househuntress

I spent about an hour on the phone with cingular, they said they would email me the config to unlock my phone, so that Alltel would allow me to use it. I called Alltel and they said sorry no, I have to buy a new phone.

That is definitely true!

I have a stack of phones I can't use anymore and want to get my info off of them. I asked Alltel if they could download my phone numbers into a new phone and they said...maybe.
How do I get all the info off of phones to resell them?

Depends on the phone model. Most phones I've owned had a "delete all" option to blank the phone. Also, depending on the phone, you may be able to export your contacts to your computer for download to your new phone.

Also to Nickel....what is an official rep with alltel? We have one store here and they are advising us to not buy over the internet because if anything happened to the phone, we couldn't get a replace for a long time.

There are independent retailers who basically can sell you a phone and service, but not much else. From my brother's experience with them, I'd avoid them. Ask the local guy if he can take care of all of your needs there, or if you'll be referred to a corporate store. In my brother's case, to replace his phone, he would have had to travel 2 hours to the next closest company owned store to exchange his phone. The independent (Pro Cellular) could not do the exchange/replacement.

It was more of a suggestion to look into when purchasing. Ask them questions about whatever circumstances may come up.

actually the time for replacement for most cell phone companies when shipping is around 3 days...