Cell Phone Coverage? (Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Custer: how much, to live in, moving to)

[cosmo66105]

Hi, i'll be moving to rapid city hopefully in a couple of months. I go through sprint here in missouri, and they just told me that there is no cell coverage in rapid city from no cell phone carriers at all...i'm shocked and in a little disbelief of this....do you guys not use cell phones in rapid city?

[ElkHunter]

there are plenty of cell phone carriers in Rapid City. Just not Spint evidentally.

I used to have a cell phone that was unlimited in Wyoming. But Rapid City, I would get hit with roaming fees. But I found out, if I set my phone to "No Roaming", I could pick up the towers from Newcastle just fine. haha

[msdmckee]

You can use Cellular One for service........we used to live in Custer. There are some dead spots around the hills, but over all you can get good coverage in Rapid City. Enjoy your move!

[DannyBanany]

You can use Sprint in Rapid City, but you will have unbelievable roaming charges because you will be using other companies' towers. Most people in Rapid City have Alltel, Verizon, and Boost Mobile. You will most likely have to change to one of these companies when you move up here.

I have a SmartPhone with Alltel and my bill is about $75 per month. That is with the occasional roaming charge in the deep Black Hills and in Wyoming too.

Good luck on the move and I hope you like it here!

[msdmckee]

Yep.....Cellular one. NOW it's Alltel. We have a nationwide plan that eliminates roaming. Two phones, about $80 per month. 1000 min per month included.

[Chris19]

Verizon and Alltel are the main carriers. They both get coverage in Rapid City and have outlets out there. Depends on how much you talk on the phone. Alltel is more generous on their plan minutes but Verizon is a stronger national company. If you have more people who are on Verizon, then the free minutes to minutes may lessen the need for additional minutes. If you have most of your people on other networks such as Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobil, then Alltel would be a better bet with the My-Circle and more generous minutes plans. Sprint would be a more viable option if you are along the I-29 area in South Dakota, but Verizon and Alltel have fine services and have nationwide plans. I prefer Verizon over Alltel myself (due to most of my family and friends being on Verizon), but it is your decision.

[nanjosbrand]

In my experience in having Sprint and Verizon in South Dakota, Verizon is the best choice. We had Sprint for a year in SoDak, and couldn't wait till our contract ran out because our calls were always getting dropped. Switch to Verizon--if you're in a contract you should be able to get out of it since service for Sprint is so horrible in SoDak.

[DannyBanany]

My aunt travels to and from Sioux Falls and Rapid City for work. She says that when she had Verizon she would often have no service between the two cities. She switched to Alltel and even though she was roaming, she never lost service. I'd rather have roaming service than no service at all, especially driving across South Dakota!

[a42887]

Add another vote for Alltel. They have been absolutely great in my travels in SD. My girlfriend's Verizon phone frequently lost service even on major roads / interstates.

[debey]

East River with Verizon, and we are very happy with our service....thre is a dead phone zone pocket by Ft ThOMPSON, along the corp dam and camground....