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I’m a VZW store manager and I always try to explain to customers how hard it is to text on a touch screen while driving and at the same time I’m thinking in the back of my head, “I really should not be training these people on how to kill themselves in the car”…but I suppose it’s safer that I tell them that BEFORE they buy a touch screen, try to text in the car and get into an accident. Riiiiiight. That’s my subconscious telling me it’s ok

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Neither Verizon nor current Alltel customers will lose service or be canceled off. In order for Verizon to complete the acquisition, Verizon will have to sell some spectrum in those markets to another company so that they do not violate monopoly laws or overload the spectrum in the respective market. They could sell to another service provider like Sprint, at&t, or T-Mobile. They could also sell a fund of some sort. Additionally, the spectrum they sell could be from their current holdings or spectrum that they gain from Alltel. The goal is to end up with the best coverage area possible whilst still meeting the DOJ and FCC’s requirements. Customers from either carrier should not notice any negative change.

The bottom line is that Verizon is not completely exiting any of the areas mentioned, but the coverage may change (hopefully for the better).

For example, in Virginia, both Alltel and Verizon have fantastic coverage (with Alltel being arguably better in the country). In order to meet the Government’s requirements, Verizon will have to sell some spectrum. This will likely occur in the areas with significant overlap. Customers may experience intermittent issues during the change, but no current Verizon or Alltel customers will be shut off.

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Verizon (and ATT from the best of my knowledge)hasn’t changed their base plans in years, there have been adjustments to those plans but the base rate has not changed.

The chances of VZW buying out Sprint and ATT buying out T-Mob are very very very slim. The FCC and/or DOJ would never let that happen. That’s why Verizon is buying Alltel now, Alltel isn’t that big comparitively.

As far as Sprints $99.99 plan for everything…….reeeeeeeeeks of desperation.

Not sure about ATT but Verizon’s CSR’s are all located within the US. I have never once been on the phone with a foreign rep that i could not understand.

Ever been to Alltel’s website? I have been on a few times recently reading about MyCircle and their other products/plans. Anyone noticed you can’t even see the calling plans without putting in a zip code where Alltel has a store??? I put in my home zip code, which Alltel isn’t near me, it says please put in a valid zip code. Gimme a break. The family plans are expensive as hell. $84.99 is the starting price then $15 a piece for additional lines. Roaming charges???? Are you kidding me?? I gotta say though their single line plans are pretty good and competitive, but family share plans BLOOOOW like the wind.

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Will we still have myCircle?

Doubt it. That will probably be the first thing to go.

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Ok, now that that’s been said… Good job Verizon. I might be joining your network this year if the Storm is all I’ve hoped for… So get your firmware right on the Storm. No point in purchasing a phone that doesn’t even work correctly.

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What about that state that Alltel is headquartered in? a.k.a. Arkansas

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The problem is that if at&t has say, 20Mhz of spectrum in a market, then if they dedicate 5Mhz to 3G, then that 3G spectrum has to share both data and voice for all 3G phones in the market. W-CDMA has the added problem that you can only expand in 5Mhz blocks.

When EV-DO is deployed in a market, they can do it in 1.25Mhz blocks, and because voice remains on the 1xRTT network, issues on the EV-DO network don’t cause problems with voice calls.

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And for Alltel and Verizon, who needs more CDMA phones in the market?

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There are plenty of times where I wish I could use both voice and data. I’ve been on phone calls where I need to access emails, talking to someone and needing Telenav to work, phone calls that come in while I’m tethered to my pc for data, receive PIN/Blackberry messages while on the phone, not being bombarded with emails once I hang up, the list goes on and on. While you have a right to your own opinion, it would actually be something that a lot of business users and consumers could benefit from. I blame the CDMA providers for not implementing EVDV and now that AT&T has started rolling out HSDPA, they are once again ahead of the game. Back to the merger, the US has four major carriers at this time which are Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, and T-Mobile so if this deal goes through well now there are three major carriers left. While Cricket, Leap, MetroPCS, and the other smaller providers are an option for some people, its my opinion that greed is going to run through the major providers blood and screw us all. It has already happened. Text messages are now $0.20, every plan keeps going up and providing less (from my experience with Sprint) and what are we the consumers going to gain from this? Not a whole lot in my eyes. The technology is so far behind here in this county and yet we pay so much for it. With Verizon Wireless basically being Vodafone, one would think that they’d do a lot more to improve their networks to meet other countries offerings, create more attractive pricing plans, and bring the top notch phones here to America. if they want to improve retention and customer service, stop out sourcing the calls. There is nothing more annoying that someone half way across the world speaking to me using scripts to assist them. No offense to anyone but I’d rather speak to someone here in our own country rather than being placed on hold 15 times because I used a word that the associate did not understand. Plain and simple, we’re getting screwed and the providers are making us pay for the dinner too.

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VZW – less functionality for more $$. Atleast in my experience.

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