Cellular Coverage? (Grand Forks, Minot: how much, gated, price)

[alymaibra]

Which wireless service providers cover the Minot area? I have just switched my carrier from T-mobile to U.S. Cellular (literally a few days ago), I am supposed to have a nation wide coverage, I just wanted to know if our 2 year contract will be useless when we move in 18 months.....
We've had T-mobile for the past four years and only had troubles when we moved to the Springfield area! it totally sucks... no coverage outside the city unless you are heading due west on I-72 and we don't normally go any farther then Decatur... sometimes we don't get coverage inside the city! Needless to say, we had to switch... I travel for work and the area I was traveling to didn't even offer cellular piggybacking off of any local towers.

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by alymaibra

Which wireless service providers cover the Minot area? I have just switched my carrier from T-mobile to U.S. Cellular (literally a few days ago), I am supposed to have a nation wide coverage, I just wanted to know if our 2 year contract will be useless when we move in 18 months.....
We've had T-mobile for the past four years and only had troubles when we moved to the Springfield area! it totally sucks... no coverage outside the city unless you are heading due west on I-72 and we don't normally go any farther then Decatur... sometimes we don't get coverage inside the city! Needless to say, we had to switch... I travel for work and the area I was traveling to didn't even offer cellular piggybacking off of any local towers.

Hi

Just saw your message....and checked on the u.s. cellular web site. I personally havent heard of them before as in the Grand Forks area most have Verizon or
Alltell or maybe AT&T. From the info on the u.s. cellular map...all of North Dakota and surrounding areas are outside of the wide plan and in the roaming fee area. So you can use it...but you will pay roaming anywhere in the state.

Also just found a previous talk about your question on this board earlier this year. Here is the link to that....

http://www.city-data.com/forum/north...und-rural.html

Dan

[magiccity]

Alltel has coverage but it's not the greatest. I have Verizon and I can literally drive any where and I'll have coverage. There are some dead areas, but not as many as Alltel. A friend of mind that has Alltel will lose the signal faster than I will when we are out traveling the back roads. As for AT&T, I don't know anyone who uses it. As for U.S. Celluar, I don't know if that is the same as Celluar One here in Minot. If it doesn't work here in Minot, are you still obligated for that 2 year contract?

[alymaibra]

I can do a little research on the u.s.cellular/cellular one stuff but i do know that if there is no coverage into the area that i will be moving to then i will not be obligated to the 2 year contract. i have discovered that you can switch carriers and keep the same number you have if the new service provider is compatible with the switch... Verizon is, but again, ive just switched to u.s. cellular. the coverage map that i have doesn't show much for the minot area but does cover parts of the state of ND. as to how much, well, thats a different story.
again, thanks magic for the info.

[alymaibra]

i had seen that post before but was wondering if maybe by chance u.s. cellular had moved into that area yet or not. i know alot of new towers are being put up all over the place here, just none of them for the previous provider i had.... unfortunately. i guess thats what i get for going with a company thats got the best coverage and options available in western europe (t-mobile originated in England i do believe and the service in europe was pretty darn good).
thankfully i had signed up with the nation wide coverage so there would be no roaming fees to my useage outside of my primary calling areas. if im lucky i can get them to piggy-back off of another service. its just a matter of getting into some settings and changing a few things around. i do know that t-mobile can piggy-back off of cingular, but again the problem was the coverage area in which i was traveling most frequently. no need to go out of my way just to travel where i MAY end up getting service. lol not with the price of gas these days.
which by the way how has that been as well? we are still hovering the $3/gal during the more notable traveling times, it goes up about 20 cents/gal. crazy i tell ya! at least were not on a gas ration card any longer...

[Trevor92]

US Cellular will work fine in North Dakota. US Cellular does not provide service natively in ND, nor would they be able to give you a Minot telephone number, but they will roam for free on Alltel and Verizon towers (I'm not sure which one it prefers). US Cellular will probably not be in the Dakotas anytime soon because they lack a license to use airwaves for that part of North Dakota. They are actually more of a regional provider rather than a national provider, but they have agreements with other carriers to provide nationwide coverage.

US Cellular is not Cellular One. "Cellular One" was a brand name used by Western Wireless, which was purchased by alltel sometime around early 2006.

Personally, I would go ahead and use US Cellular without a worry. When you get to Minot, you shouldn't have any problems. When it comes time to get a new phone though, there probably won't be any US Cellular stores for several hundred miles, so you'll have to switch. At that time, I would personally go with alltel. One thing about alltel and US Cellular is that they both offer a lot better plans and better features like My Circle (alltel) and Free Incoming Calls (USCC), than larger providers like Verizon which doesn't offer any special incentives but sure likes to advertise about how great their network is (Who comes to your mind if I say 'Most Reliable' ... lol). Alltel and US Cellular both roam off of Verizon when they don't get a native signal, so it's really the best of both world in terms of the least expensive plan and best possible coverage.

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

alymaibra,

US Cellular will work fine in North Dakota. US Cellular does not provide service natively in ND, nor would they be able to give you a Minot telephone number, but they will roam for free on Alltel and Verizon towers. US Cellular will probably not be in the Dakotas anytime soon because they lack a license to use airwaves for the area in question. They ares actually more of a regional provider rather than a national provider, but they have agreements with other carriers to provide nationwide coverage.

US Cellular is not Cellular One. "Cellular One" was a brand name used by Western Wireless, which was purchased by alltel sometime around early 2006.

Personally, I would go ahead and use US Cellular without a worry. When you get to Minot, you shouldn't have any problems. When it comes time to get a new phone though, there probably won't be any US Cellular stores for several hundred miles, so you'll have to switch. At that time, I would personally go with alltel. One thing about alltel and US Cellular is that they both offer a lot better plans and better features like My Circle (alltel) and Free Incoming Calls (USCC), than larger providers like Verizon which doesn't offer any special incentives but sure likes to advertise about how great their network is (Who comes to your mind if I say 'Most Reliable' ... lol). Alltel and US Cellular both roam off of Verizon when they don't get a native signal, so it's really the best of both world in terms of the least expensive plan and best possible coverage.

Thanks Trevor for that informative post. '

Dan

[alymaibra]

thanks trevor that was some very useful information and i will keep that in mind for our move.
i really appreciate it.

[Trevor92]

Glad to hear that it was of some help. One less thing to worry about!
Good luck with your move.