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Sprint and Cingular Expand Roaming Deals with Alltel |
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Sprint and Cingular Expand Roaming Deals with Alltel
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Tue May 09, 2006 9:27 am
Sprint and Cingular today announced expanded roaming agreements with rival Alltel.
The Sprint and Alltel 10-year agreement is effective July 1, 2006, and encompasses CDMA voice, data and EV-DO high-speed mobile data services.
Alltel also said that it had also expanded a roaming agreement with Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. until 2012.
Roaming agreements are common in the U.S. wireless industry, allowing customers to use rival networks in areas where their own provider has yet to build a network.
"The new agreement expands our current voice and data roaming relationship while providing customers greater access to services in more places," said Len Lauer, chief operating officer for Sprint. "Our technology alignment ensures an improved seamless roaming experience for text messaging, call/messaging notification and mobile broadband services."
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| 1. Posted by alexisart |
Sun May 28, 2006 6:11 pm |
I'm totally stupid when it comes to how these things work but I live in a "low service" area and have cingular - from my home it has gotten harder to stay connected at all and I am trying to decide what to do. Alltell has a tower nearby. Sprint at present only gets slightly better but I would love to switch to them if they could improve. Alltell does not offer as good a plan or phone deals as Sprint. Since there is going to be a roaming deal with Alltell and Sprint is there any chance that although I do have sprint service here but it doesn't work well, my phone could go through the alltell tower that is near my house and all my problems would be solved?? Probably too good to be true?
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| 2. Posted by Logan Howard |
Mon May 29, 2006 1:08 am |
The agreement is pretty much
-Cingular uses Alltel's towers.
-Sprint uses Alltell's towers.
-Alltel uses them both.
so particularly in your case, it wouldn't make much sense NOT using alltel
if all three networks don't have a strong tower near you, then don't get your hopes up. BUT... alltel is your only chance, seeing as how they gain their reception utilizing all three of their network towers (hence the largest network).
phones take reception by proportionally taking signals. this is done from whichever nearby tower is needed more or less. this would become key with alltel and their new agreement in dead/rough spots. and yours is possibly one of them.
i actually have sprint as well right now. but really 'cause they happen to be the only ones with reception where i live in california. but i've been with at&t (before the merge), verizon, cingular (after the merge), and t mobile. my experience with alltel about a year ago was only through a family member but very nice feedback. otherwise i sure wish t mobile had reception where i am, but i'd prefer the U.S. adopting Europe & Asia's law on networks (allowing only one, gsm, and companies still compete obviously). in the mean time i think i want to switch to alltel, and order over the phone since their not in cali. sprint has just been errr to me
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| 3. Posted by alexisart |
Mon May 29, 2006 2:30 pm |
Thanks for the input - it helps me understand. To clarify - the Altel tower is close and at least as of last year Altel phones worked really well all over my house so I know that tower is good for me. Yet apparently Cingular already has the agreement and it's just being extended yet I've complained to them (loud enough that they let me out of my contract that was until 9/07) yet I wouldn't have the problem right now if my phone would just pick up the Altel tower - on the maps of towers I can't even FIND a Cingular tower anywhere near here at all! So I don't understand it. Sprint shares with Nextel I believe and there is a Nextel tower within probably 3-4 miles but my daughter doesn't get good reception with Sprint when she is here. How close does a tower have to be? It would seem the way it's going, if they all have to build their own the whole country will be covered with towers side by side before it's over!
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| 4. Posted by georgiablk |
Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:54 pm |
I have a pretty good question. I was in the process of buying the Sprint Treo 700p, but the Sprint high speed network is not here where I live. I need to know that If I do buy this phone, will I be able to roam off of the Alltel towers and how will this work. I also want to know if July will be the date to start roaming off of the Alltel tower or not.
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| 5. Posted by alexisart |
Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:18 pm |
I have a pretty good question. I was in the process of buying the Sprint Treo 700p, but the Sprint high speed network is not here where I live. I need to know that If I do buy this phone, will I be able to roam off of the Alltel towers and how will this work. I also want to know if July will be the date to start roaming off of the Alltel tower or not.
OK - I got a reply from ComCentral who are dealers for most services except Cingular - this clears things up for me.
He said:
"Ok, first thing: There are three different digital standards being used in the US for wireless: CDMA, GSM, and iDen. None of them are the least bit compatible with each other.
Digital Technology Standards
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) - Alltel, Verizon, and Sprint use this
GSM (Globas Standard for Mobile Service) - T-Mobile, Cingular, and all of Europe use this
iDen - Only Nextel uses this
So, even though Alltel and Cingular have roaming agreements (all the carriers do), it will only work if your phone is in Analog mode. Many new phones (for instance the popular Motorola Razr) won't even work in analog because it's old technology that is being phased out.
So, that Alltel tower near your house is not going to be able to help you with your Cingular coverage. If you had Sprint or Verizon, it would."
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| 6. Posted by tehnoah |
Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:49 pm |
Hey - I have a friend with Sprint in a remote part of Indiana. Their original plan, purchased about 2 weeks ago, was said to include free roaming because of their location. In the past week their service has been cut off 3 times because of maxed out accounts. They had iuncurred about $900 in roaming charges. After turning the phones on 3 times, yesterday, june 02, they said that there was a mistake and that there were only 100 roaming minutes in their plan. In any way, could this have produced by this change in roaming access?
Thanks for any help!
Noah
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| 7. Posted by alexisart |
Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:11 pm |
Hey - I have a friend with Sprint in a remote part of Indiana. Their original plan, purchased about 2 weeks ago, was said to include free roaming because of their location. In the past week their service has been cut off 3 times because of maxed out accounts. They had iuncurred about $900 in roaming charges. After turning the phones on 3 times, yesterday, june 02, they said that there was a mistake and that there were only 100 roaming minutes in their plan. In any way, could this have produced by this change in roaming access?
Thanks for any help!
Noah
I doubt it has anything to do with the change but found this on the sprint site and this could be the reason:
Roaming Charges
Check your service plan for the per-minute roaming rate information. Where roaming is available, roaming charges will appear on your monthly Sprint bill within 30-60 days.
Certain service plans, including Sprint PCS Fair & Flexible AmericaSM For Families, allow you to enjoy no additional charges for roaming in this expanded coverage area, reaching more than 280 million people, as long as less than half of your monthly call time is used while roaming. Print this topic
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| 8. Posted by djnickleon |
Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:40 pm |
can cingular customers roam off alltel tower? since they use different techologies cingular gsm and alltel cdma?
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| 9. Posted by FlyerTDL |
Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:49 pm |
can cingular customers roam off alltel tower? since they use different techologies cingular gsm and alltel cdma?
For the most part, no, however there are *some* GSM networks that Alltel acquired after their purchase of Western Wireless, if memory serves. One could possibly use that GSM network. Alltel's prefered network (and the only one that they market now) is CDMA. Cingular's is GSM.
Therefore, by and large no, Cingular customers can not roam on Alltel's network.
Unless they are an old TDMA customer, then they would be able to roam on Alltel's analog AMPS network. And Alltel customers can use Cingular's analog AMPS network, at least where they do not have an agreement with Verizon or Sprint to have digital coverage.
At least that is my understanding of it.
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| 10. Posted by doctadre183 |
Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:16 pm |
omg all of these companies suck and now they have to upgrade their raoaming!!!! ewww thats disgusting
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| 11. Posted by FlyerTDL |
Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:39 pm |
omg all of these companies suck and now they have to upgrade their raoaming!!!! ewww thats disgusting
AH! We have a communist.
Capitalism=BAD! All corporations must die! Death to the bankers! 
 Just kidding.
All companies have their flaws, some worse than others, but they all have their good points too. At least these are trying to do something good for their customers by providing them better coverage via roaming. 
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| 12. Posted by djnickleon |
Wed Dec 27, 2006 4:27 pm |
yeah all companies have there flaws no company is perfect if they tell you that they are lying...
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| 13. Posted by blondetom |
Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:41 am |
because I live in Eastern Ky and alltel has a tower in Southern WV. An I have cingular and the service is dead when you go over to Southern WV.
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| 14. Posted by Connex |
Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:54 pm |
Sprint and Cingular today announced expanded roaming agreements with rival Alltel.
The Sprint and Alltel 10-year agreement is effective July 1, 2006, and encompasses CDMA voice, data and EV-DO high-speed mobile data services.
Alltel also said that it had also expanded a roaming agreement with Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. until 2012.
Roaming agreements are common in the U.S. wireless industry, allowing customers to use rival networks in areas where their own provider has yet to build a network.
"The new agreement expands our current voice and data roaming relationship while providing customers greater access to services in more places," said Len Lauer, chief operating officer for Sprint. "Our technology alignment ensures an improved seamless roaming experience for text messaging, call/messaging notification and mobile broadband services."
How in the word does a CDMA tower can roam off of a GSM tower, and its stupid, why would Sprint set a roaming agreement with alltel when alltel does not even have nationwide coverage they have converage in certain areas.
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| 15. Posted by McGirk |
Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:41 pm |
Sprint would agree to a roaming agreement with Alltel due to the fact that Alltel owns more towers then Sprint does.
Pick up a Sprint nationwide flyer and compare that to the Alltel nationwide coverage flyer, the places that you roam on Sprints network is enormous when compared to that of Alltel. Sprint may have the largest network, but Alltel owns more towers then any of the others. Granted 11 million subscribers is small compared to the last reported 51 million that Sprint has (counting Nextel subscribers) or the 58 million subscribers that Cingular soon to be renamed AT&T boast. The reason that they both deal with the small fry is because of the enormous network that they have.
Sprint and Nextel do not run on the same system, and it will be at LEAST a year before they share the same network via loading dual signals on both towers. It is more likely however that the Hybid recently renamed Powersource phones will eventually replace the standard Nextel, and it is presumed by some of the Vendor Representatives that Nextel is being positioned as the new high-end name plate for Sprint. The QChat phone that will be capable of walkie-talkie like communication with both Nextel's DirectConnect, Sprint's Readylink, and possibly Alltel's Touch2Talk systems is also going to be released under the Nextel name and is currently waiting for the improved EVDO RevA network to be more widely available before it is launched.
Sprint and Alltel is also working on a network sharing effort between the two to share EVDO networks, which would significantly increase the usual coverage area of all of you with PowerVision phones and those Alltel phones that are capable of EVDO data.
EVDO is nice but the trade-off is that you lose the analog band that allow you to work is some more of the rural areas.
Given the choice between Alltel, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, Team Mobile, and Cingular, my next phone will almost definately be an Alltel. As a sales rep for three of the companies above, the Alltel Network is growing faster now then is ever has, largely on the strength of it's My Circle plan which only has one drawback, the primary plan has to be at least 59.99, and everyone on the account has to share the 10 numbers. What with the unlimited Mobile to Mobile however 10 is usually sufficient for most customers.
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| 16. Posted by kanewbie |
Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:58 pm |
ok. i am a total idiot when it comes to cell phones. i recently entered a contract with alltel as i live in arkansas and it seemed they were my best bet. my only previous cell phone ownership was when bag phones were the rage! i have a question about these "expanded roaming agreements" between companies.
when i am roaming on an agreement participant's network am i charged for roaming if the network is on the PRL? i ask because i can watch my phone while sitting at home, either talking or not talking, and it cycles through "not roaming', "blinking roaming", and "roaming".
how in the world can i know if i am being charged 59 cents a minute for roaming other than waiting and receiving a bill?
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| 17. Posted by FlyerTDL |
Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:04 pm |
"Not roaming" is your home network. Your roaming indicator will flash if you are on another company's network, but you are NOT charged for "Flash Roaming," because you are on a preferred partner network. If your roaming indicator is solid, then your are out right roaming and WILL be charged as such.
This would be the general rule. I have heard that this is not always the case depending on what market you're in. To be certain of this, call 611 and/or visit a store to ask them if they can check for you about your roaming indicator and its associtated charges.
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| 18. Posted by McGirk |
Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:17 pm |
Sometimes a low signal will cause your 'phone' to roam. Sometimes an older phone that begins to degrade through use and age will not have the signal it once did, or will malfunction due to it's age. Sometimes newer roaming agreements will cause your phone to act a little funny until the newest software can be loaded onto your phone.
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