Cell Coverage in Bella Vista/B'ville? (Little Rock, Fayetteville: living in, stores, moving to) - Fayetteville - Springdale - Rogers - Arkansas (AR) -Northwest Arkansas - City-Data Forum

Kimballette · 05-20-2010, 02:07 PM

My husband and I are moving to the Bella Vista/Bentonville area this summer. Right now (in Phoenix), we use cell phones exclusively (no land line).

I'd love to hear from those of you in NW AR regarding the best cellphone providers, coverage, etc. Please help the newbie. Thanks so much!

thewizard16 · 05-20-2010, 02:48 PM

I have AT&T for my primary phone, which has excellent signal strength and coverage in the area, but the quality has been pretty mediocre lately. Lots more dropped calls than a year or two ago. My other cell is Verizon and it has good coverage and quality in my experience, but slower data. I don't use it as much. I am likely to switch to Sprint soon- no roaming charges and cheaper unlimited plans than with AT&T and they supposedly have good coverage in northwest and central Arkansas, with roaming over the rest of the state. I'd let you know how I like it, but I'm not switching until July or so.

SwingVote08 · 05-20-2010, 03:00 PM

AT&T and Alltel are the most popular in the area as far as I'm aware. Sprint is #3. Alltel's been taken over by Verizon which is usually the top service nationwide. I would guess that parts of Bella Vista might not have the best service because of all the hills but that's just speculation.

Cricket cell phone service is an interesting option in the area. You might look into it. The details of the plans they provide change constantly though. It's incredibly cheap from what I remember when I used to have it and I remember it worked better than any other plan in the area by far but if you left the very limited NWA "zone" then you're stuck just talking to yourself.

Kimballette · 05-21-2010, 07:55 AM

Thank you for your feedback. Looks like we'll be switching carriers when the contract is up.

thewizard16 · 05-21-2010, 08:50 AM

Are you on T-Mobile? I'm not as familiar with them, but according to their website they have "Excellent" to "Good" signal strength all over NWA. I forgot to mention them since I don't think I know anyone on T-Mobile right now, but they apparently have pretty good coverage here, as well as the more populated areas of northern, western, and of course central, Arkansas.

Kimballette · 05-22-2010, 06:36 PM

Thanks for all your great input.

Right now, we have Sprint.

thewizard16 · 05-24-2010, 07:28 AM

You'd probably be fine with keeping Sprint unless you were switching for other reasons. Their coverage appears pretty good here and they've been expanding in Arkansas in the last several years so odds are good their coverage will continue to improve. We don't have their 4G yet, unfortunately.

OzarkBoy · 05-25-2010, 01:08 PM

Had Sprint for many years when living in Texas - on our regular trips to see family in Fayetteville and visit Eureka Springs was on roaming all the time and service poor (this was 2002 timeframe). Lots of dropped calls when traveling to/from Arkansas. My son-in-law had Verizon, and he got great service in NWA and in Eureka Springs and on the entire trip from Houston when he and our daughter came with us one year. We then switched to Verizon (#1 recommended by consumer magazine for many years now) and still on Verizon when we moved to NWA in 2005. Loved their service, but no stores here then (Little Rock only). Now Verizon stores everywhere in NWA and we get great phone service all over the state - except for deep in the Ouachita or Ozark forests like on Highway 7 south from Russellville to Hot Springs Village or on the Buffalo River in places.

I still like Verizon and it works well all across the US when we travel, but we can't get an iPhone except with AT&T and my wife wants one. Uh-oh.

thewizard16 · 05-25-2010, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OzarkBoy

Had Sprint for many years when living in Texas - on our regular trips to see family in Fayetteville and visit Eureka Springs was on roaming all the time and service poor (this was 2002 timeframe). Lots of dropped calls when traveling to/from Arkansas. My son-in-law had Verizon, and he got great service in NWA and in Eureka Springs and on the entire trip from Houston when he and our daughter came with us one year. We then switched to Verizon (#1 recommended by consumer magazine for many years now) and still on Verizon when we moved to NWA in 2005. Loved their service, but no stores here then (Little Rock only). Now Verizon stores everywhere in NWA and we get great phone service all over the state - except for deep in the Ouachita or Ozark forests like on Highway 7 south from Russellville to Hot Springs Village or on the Buffalo River in places.

I still like Verizon and it works well all across the US when we travel, but we can't get an iPhone except with AT&T and my wife wants one. Uh-oh.

Thanks for the reflections on Sprint, since I'm about to be switching to them. I believe they are a pretty recent addition to the area as far as having their own towers goes, so it is possible that the service is much better now. Verizon has had good coverage here for some time, but only opened it's own stores a couple/few years ago due to competition from Alltel (which was very large in Arkansas and had great coverage) and AT&T. Then Verizon bought Alltel, absorbing their network and coverage, which rebranded all their stores and gave them a huge presence here.

Tell your wife she can have a Droid Incredible, which Verizon offers, haha. The iPhone almost suckered me in until I saw that thing. I'll be getting the Droid Evo when I switch to sprint, which is basically the Incredible with a bit bigger screen. I played with one this weekend (a friend just got the incredible) and it's my new favorite "Jesus phone".