AT&T and Alltel Merger

**steer** · December 23rd, 2010, 10:32 AM

I think ATT hurt itself when it didn't make these towers GSM around here. But on another negative side, Verizon is getting the iPhone , but it's going to be a CDMA only.

But going back to earlier post... my cousin was with Alltel, and got a network extender through Verizon and could pick up on 72 (coeburn-clintwood) at his house. When switched to ATT, he lost all that service.
My brother and I have a network extender and we live on 72, and we have better service with it than in most tower locations.

**red66** · December 23rd, 2010, 10:52 AM

What benefits do you think GSM would provide? Maybe if you had a 10 year old flip phone that all you did was make calls on, but I guarantee you if you have an iPhone, or any other smartphone and all they put out here was GSM everyone would be complaining a lot worse than they are now. GSM/EDGE is pretty much the wireless' version of dial up. It may be good to make and receive calls on, but I'm not really even sure that it has call benefits of HSPA/UMTS. So far I am very satisfied with my service and the speeds I am receiving and I have service everywhere i have been that Alltel used to have service. Granted I don't usually go over the mountains and through the woods too often, but the service, price, and reliability beats Verizon hands down for me. But it is true that every person will have their own opinion about it as it relates to their needs.

**Shooter** · December 23rd, 2010, 10:53 AM

My sister got her final bill from Alltel yesterday...$1180...not due to the $200 ETF per phone that everyone was worried about, but because Alltel says they were texting out of network. Apparantly where people have switched there phones over to ATT, Alltel is charging them for out of network texts. After calling Alltel, they said there was nothing they could do about it....so she finally to it to the local store, and they were on the phone with ATT for an hour trying to straighten this mess out.
Anyway, thought I would throw that out there for yall to look forward to.

**red66** · December 23rd, 2010, 11:11 AM

Texting out of Alltel's network or AT&T's? I'm assuming Alltel since it was an Alltel bill. But everything Alltel should have ended as soon as she activated the AT&T phone. Alltel shouldn't have even recognized she was texting at all. It must just be another glitch in the system. Hope she gets it all worked out.

**steer** · December 23rd, 2010, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by red66

What benefits do you think GSM would provide? Maybe if you had a 10 year old flip phone that all you did was make calls on, but I guarantee you if you have an iPhone, or any other smartphone and all they put out here was GSM everyone would be complaining a lot worse than they are now. GSM/EDGE is pretty much the wireless' version of dial up. It may be good to make and receive calls on, but I'm not really even sure that it has call benefits of HSPA/UMTS. So far I am very satisfied with my service and the speeds I am receiving and I have service everywhere i have been that Alltel used to have service. Granted I don't usually go over the mountains and through the woods too often, but the service, price, and reliability beats Verizon hands down for me. But it is true that every person will have their own opinion about it as it relates to their needs.

GSM can be used on any network. I travel A LOT, and mainly outside of the country. Majority of the rest of the world uses GSM. If you're staying here, and the states, you won't have a problem.

**red66** · December 23rd, 2010, 11:31 AM

Your phone is still GSM compatible. If you travel outside of the states then you will be able to get service. It may be a problem for somebody coming in from another country that has a phone that is only GSM.

**steer** · December 23rd, 2010, 11:50 AM

Some phones will if they have the right sim cards in them. Like my verizon tour, it has a Vodafone (Verizon's parent company) sim card in it. So, I can go anywhere and use it.
But if you just have a regular curve, razor, or something of that sort, that doesn't have the compatibility, it will NOT work.
iPhones work regardless, I should've mentioned that earlier.
My friends from England come to the states and get put on AT&T here.

**red66** · December 23rd, 2010, 12:03 PM

Well I must say that I do not know enough to say whether or not a regular feature phone is compatible outside of the US or not, but I do know that every AT&T phone is compatible with GSM inside the US. But them having or not having GSM around here would have nothing to do with your phone being compatible outside the US. You would still be offered the same phone choices. I would guess that if you were traveling outside of the US then you would need a phone that allows you to do that, but regardless it would work here whether the AT&T network was GSM, UMTS or HSPA. It's just all about the speed you would have with data.

**Shooter** · December 23rd, 2010, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by red66

Texting out of Alltel's network or AT&T's? I'm assuming Alltel since it was an Alltel bill. But everything Alltel should have ended as soon as she activated the AT&T phone. Alltel shouldn't have even recognized she was texting at all. It must just be another glitch in the system. Hope she gets it all worked out.

Alltel...for people who havent switched over yet to ATT and are texting ppl who HAVE switched over...the texting bill will rack up.

**red66** · December 23rd, 2010, 01:34 PM

That doesn't make sense to me. I don't know why you would get charged extra for that. I mean you don't get charged extra for texting somebody on say Verizon unless you go over your allotted text limit. Does she have unlimited texting on her Alltel account?