Experience with Plateau Wireless Service in Eastern NM? (Santa Fe, Portales: buy, live in)

[WasSoggyInSeattle]

My parents live in EXTREMELY rural Eastern NM - ATT Wireless discontinued their service a few years ago because they weren't in a 'service' area & were 'roaming too much'. so much for "unlimited roaming". They have tried Sprint - no service at all, and are now on Verizon with little success. The service there is very sketchy - they basically have to be hooked up to some kind of booster antenna to receive a signal.

They are considering switching to Plateau's national plan but my Mom has heard bad things about it. They are elderly, taking care of even more elderly grandparents and all of their kids are scattered in Texas (other than me here in ABQ).

Do any of you have any experience with Plateau? Is their national plan really national?? They are full-time RVers and travel some when not taking care of my grandparents so having a national plan is important to them.

Any feedback - good or bad would be appreciated.

[BrianH]

What part of rural Eastern NM are they in ?
I have Plateau and am very happy with the service.
Over the last two years they have put up alot of cells, and are putting much up.
I pay $39.99pm for 1000 anytime minutes, free plateau to plateau, free calls to anywhere nights and weekends and never go over my 1000 mins. I really like it.

[hopeful transplant]

Hi Soggy, we tried Plateau when we moved here, but decided that we needed to switch to Verizon because of the coverage area. DH travels and Plateau just didn't have the coverage that we needed. Most of our friends and families in WA and CA have verizon, so it made sense for us to continue with that. If your parents were to stick around this area -NE NM, then I think Plateau would be fine, but with travel, I'd go with Verizon.
Linda

[BrianH]

Hopeful is right there was alot of issues with losing signal with Plateau Wireless too but I have travelled all over the NE down to Ruidoso with no issues at all in the last year or so. Theyre putting up new cell sites monthly it seems.
BTW I am not a Plateau salesman, just really satisfied as of late hehe
56/412 is still patchy at places though, but they may already be working on that.

[spindoc]

We had the same issue in SE NM - had cingular for years with what I recall as the best cellphone service ever...until they switched to at&t and told us they were no longer servicing the area and gave us the boot.

We searched around and settled on verizon - HUGE MISTAKE. Never have had so many dropped calls or dead zones. Called verizon - they tried to blame the phone itself and never resolved the issue. Can't wait to get rid of them. I heard similar stories about sprint as well.

So your parents may not have too much of a choice. How about ALLTEL? I know they service this area and have national plans. I don't think the national plan for plateau has as broad of a coverage as the bigger cell companies. Maybe someone who has alltel can let us know.

[Jim West]

I travel quite a bit and my Verizon phone just did not work in E NM. I lived at Logan on Ute Lake and had no service. We tried a Plateau phone but found that if you get out of Plateau's area it did not work in other places. I cured my problems with a Tracphone that I purchased in Amarillo. You have to get the one that has the 4 band GSM frequency. CDMA phones will not work in Plateau area. The 4 band GSM phone works in Plateau area, and it works everywhere else. Plateau will not allow you to activate it in their area, and you have to activate it where you buy it before you come back to Plateau. Look for the ones that come with double minutes for life and have single rate, because Plateau will double or triple charge you if you dont. Me a fan of Plateau? Not hardly. It is a monopoly and I have heard that ATT has bought it out,,,,anyone else hear this?

[newmex]

I have Verizon, and you will have dead zones ( no bars ) in some areas, but have been happy with it. I live in Ohio and text and pict to my wife in NM with no problem. Verizon has you on "Extended Network" where they use other network towers in NM without roaming charges. GPS only will work in larger metro areas, such as Santa Fe and ABQ.

[WasSoggyInSeattle]

We checked on Alltel and were told by the rep that they were bought by Verizon and would be switched over by the end of the year. Parents have Verizon now and can use it starting in Dora and going north to Portales but where they are (Pep, NM - about 30 miles south of Portales on 206) there is no coverage - unless they are plugged into some kind of antenna booster (smooth talker I think it is). Which is no help if they are out & about on the property. They main areas they would travel too now (since we've moved down from WA) would be out to Southern CA, Texas and then around this area - maybe up in CO... I thought if they could get on the Plateau "National" plan then they would be OK but I don't like (or just don't understand) what I see on their website... things like "Unlimited roaming WITHIN Plateau area - which defeats the whole "national" thing, doesn't it? Does that mean that if they were in WA state and called someone then they would be charged roaming fees? ARGH!!! Maybe since Verizon supposedly bought Alltell then they will have coverage... Or if ATT bought Plateau... they had EXCELLENT coverage with AT&T and we do when we visit... Thanks for your input.