Cell Phone service

[castmaster]

i lost my employee cell phone plan and with it the $5 a month charge

looking for input as to what company has the best customer service, price, and probably most important coverage.

i'm looking for something that has good coverage in northern MN, WI and the dakotas primarily.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

[SDHNTR]

First off, sorry to hear about losing your employee cell phone plan.

I am guessing you are more interested in rural coverage than in city coverage being as you are asking on this site. I have lived in both ND and SD. Traveled all over both of them and a fair part of Northern MN. I have learned that the two best options are either Verizon or Altel(cell-one). I also am in charge of all of the cell phones for the district office I work out of for a power company. Either of these two companies will have holes here and there in their coverage. Both have similar priced plans for similar amounts of minutes. Both have similar package deals and options. Both have similar yet mediocre customer service. The areas travel in the most, which are Eastern ND, and North Central South Dakota, tend to have a little better Verizon coverage. But, my best piece of advice for you is to go with the one that has a store nearest to you for convenience.

Hope this was at least a little helpful.

[nitroant]

I have had Air Touch/Verizon for about 6 years now and have had very little if any trouble during that time. Most of my time is spent in the Cities, but I have pretty good coverage everywhere I go up north, except at the hunting shack, but that is about 15 miles from the nearest tower, so I can't blame them for that.

[Benny]

I have Verison just for the fact that I travel in the Eastern Dakotas and the Iron Range area of Minnesota a lot.

From what I was told by a few cell phone tower installers and line men is that there are really only two companies that cover the areas we travel.

One is Verison and the other was Axtel or cellier one.

All the rest go through one or the other and have very limited range of use.

I have never had a problem with Verison,I did not have service down in the valley by Browns Valley and the boarder area but once I got up the platue a ways I had good coverage and qulity.

Up on why 65 there are some dead spots heading North but not many.

Stop in and see what they have to offer.

Benny

[delcecchi]

you might take a look at tmobile. Ours is great, but died just north of Virginia. Now there is coverage considerably north of there if you get a triband phone that does the 850 MHz band.

My advise is to look at the maps of each company and compare to where you need to use them. In some rural areas around Rochester, Midwest Wireless is only way to go.

[DTro]

I'd recommend Verizon. I've been with them continuously for over 10 years. It's funny because at my parents house near Lake Vermilion I've now have better luck with a digital only phone than with a tri-band.

I'm pretty sure I can now have a decent signal all the way from here to there 35/33/53.

[Bobb-o]

I have T-Mobile and have not had any problems with their service, they dont charge roaming, and i occasionally even get service on Red Lake.

[Paul Waldowski]

Verizon all the way. I have been on YellowGirl bay on LOW and had great reception as long as I was standing on top of the houseboat Seriously great coverage....regret the day that my company switched us to Nextel

[FRESHWATER PETIE]

T-Mobile here!!

Get more coverage!!

[Captain B.R.K]

I wouldn't hesitate to look into Cingular Wireless! I had them a few years ago when they were still AT&T and lived in Duluth. Went to URL and LOTW several times during ice season and my phone never skipped a beat along all those county roads we took or out 5 miles on URL! Their customer service was excellent and couldn't complain BUT for the fact I got a call one day from one of their customer service agents stating I couldn't be on their program any more. Evidently I was using the competitors towers to much and I was costing AT&T to much money Strange huh?!

My buddy still has Cingular and has no problems what so ever!

[delcecchi]

I think the tmobile 850 roaming on lake vermilion is new due to a tower just outside cook that went up last fall. Big green 850 MHz roaming now on the coverage map.

Verizon used to be the best for the East end of Vermilion. My old ATT analog phone would work on the west end, sort of. Outside on a good day.

I don't know who actually owns the tower in Cook.

[hondavxr]

I have Sprint for years, but make sure that you get a free roaming plan. I have a free roaming plan, and I get service almost everywhere , even in places that sometimes Verizon, and Cingular doesn't get. But the only thing is that when you are roaming you are actually in analog mode instead of digital.

[yakfisher]

I've had Sprint for a few years and have used their system all over MN and in most other spots in the country. If you are spending most of your time in the Cities area I would suggest Sprint or Verizon. I actually looked at making a change to Verizon yesterday but decided to go with sprint. With the no roaming plan you have digital coverage over most of the state and if you have a tri-mode phone you can get analog coverage in the areas where that is provided too. As far as costumer service goes they are all pretty much the same, they have never heard of customer service. I also saw an article in a magazine that said that all of the cell phone companies were equally poor when it comes to customer service. I would go to Best Buy and compare the plans there. They sell most of the major companies services and it makes it easy to compare plans. The phones at Best Buy are a little more expensive so you may want to finalize the deal at the store for whomever you choose to go with. Good luck

[Down Deep]

I've got Verizon and fish the Tower side of Vermillion. I have checked for service and it worked on Frazier Niles, and Big Bays.

[echotrail]

Verizon for sure! I make most of my long distance calls to home from the Crane Lake area with hardly ever a problem. The calls are in my "Home area" so roaming charges do not apply. Verizon has equipment on a tower a few miles South of Cook and it serves the surrounding area well.

[MedicDan]

verizion, I have had for 3 years, and it keeps getting better.

[so haaad]

AT&T used to be great. But now that it's Cingular, the customer service and coverage outside of the metro has gotten worse. They just shut off my plan/phone without telling me to try to get me to buy a more expensive plan with fewer options that AT&T offered. I'm switching to Verison or Sprint.

[SomethingFishy*]

Nobody has mentioned QWEST yet. They use CDMA Digital and have Analog back up networks.

Get the Cross Country Plus plan. Nationwide No Roaming (any where you can get cell phone coverage) I have used mine 5 miles out of Westwinds on Upper Red and also in the BlackDuck area on both Blackduck and Rabideau lakes.

Plans Start @ 39.99

39.99-200 minutes

49.99-500 minutes

59.99-750 minutes

69.99-1000 minutes

89.99-1500 minutes

109.99-2000 minutes

129.99-2500 minutes

149.99-3000 minutes

You can also save money by bundling with your QWEST home phone. When bundled with your QWEST home phone you get free calls between your home and cell.

Add-a-line on plans over 500 minutes ($14.99 each additional phone)

You can bundle things such as Home phone, Long Distance, DSL (Highspeed Internet), DirecTV Satellite and Wireless.

Bundle 2 services save $5

Bundle 3 services save $10

Bundle 4 services save $20

Bundle all 5 services save $37 off the total bill.

All 5 sevices starting as low as $129.96+tax per month

[eyechaser99]

Verizon is the best out there for coverage and service. Verizon even works on lakes when your fishing where most other ones dont. I would say Cingular, Alltel and Tmobile are good too but coverage varies. Sprint is the worst as it drops alot of calls because of its coverage is only on main highways and cities.

[walleye_dog]

Honestly, I have had Cel-1, Sprint, Nextel(through work), and Cingular all in the past ten years. Plus my wife has tried T-Mobile, but overall our Verizon coverage has been the best, which we have had over the last three years. Customer service can sometimes be a pain with any company, but overall we are happy with what we have now.