Any hope of ever seeing native service in Montana?

[frostycakes]

I'm living in Montana now (for college, meh), and while I do get service up here, it's all roaming (either on Alltel's piss-poor roamer network that's disgustingly overcrowded, Cellular One (which is actually a decent network), or some small local company called iSmart that only covers Bozeman and Belgrade). Since AT&T bought Alltel's network up here, Verizon already has service here, and Alltel operates a network for Sprint using their spectrum and SID, is T-Mobile ever looking at offering native service here? From what I recall, a good chunk of Alltel's GSM roamer network here uses T-Mobile owned spectrum, and it would stand to reason that once AT&T takes control of the network, T-Mo would most likely get their spectrum back, so why not build out a network/buy out MTPCS? They would be the last national provider without any service here, and there are a large number of college students (at least here in Bozeman, and I would assume the situation's the same in Missoula) that use T-Mobile, so...

Anyone know whether they have any plans or not to do so?

[unplugged]

No, nope, nada. Not much chance of them offering service to a town of less than 30,000 when it isn't part of a larger MSA. I'm sure TMO is happy to continue offering roaming service, but the numbers don't add up for a network. Maybe if there was a Sprint/TMO merger but not much chance of that happening.

Sure TMO offers service in small towns in neighboring Idaho, but again they are part of a larger MSA, and FCC regulations required build out of the MSA licensed area within 5 years. The Idaho network was part of the patchwork of cellular licenses cobbled together in the Voicestream days.

[i0wnj00]

Anyone know whether they have any plans or not to do so?

I expect T-Mobile to start rolling out in Montana once AT&T takes full control of the Alltel network either through their own build or a buyout of MTPCS. I never saw T-Mobile rolling out in Vermont beyond their meager presence in Killington, but I was proven wrong once AT&T took over the former RCC Unicel network. Now, T-Mobile is rolling out fairly strong in Vermont...the 2nd least populated state in the nation. At least a good 35-40% of the state should be covered with new coverage from T-Mobile before 2009 ends.

[psyraver]

I expect T-Mobile to start rolling out in Montana once AT&T takes full control of the Alltel network either through their own build or a buyout of MTPCS. I never saw T-Mobile rolling out in Vermont beyond their meager presence in Killington, but I was proven wrong once AT&T took over the former RCC Unicel network. Now, T-Mobile is rolling out fairly strong in Vermont...the 2nd least populated state in the nation. At least a good 35-40% of the state should be covered with new coverage from T-Mobile before 2009 ends.

I don't think t-mobile would buy out MTPCS because mtpcs is rolling out with there 3g network now(should be live early 2010). MTPCS; I believe will have the same 3g technology as at&t. MTPCS does have 3g phone available from them so I just put 2 and 2 together... lol

[100South]

Maybe just and that is a big maybe I can see them adding native service to Billings, Great Falls, & Missoula in the future. I would say out of any of them Billings would get the first looking at. I would not count on anything anytime soon though. Most likely there is not enough demand for them to justify this.

Sure it would be nice, if there is no return on the investment not worth the trouble.

[frostycakes]

Maybe just and that is a big maybe I can see them adding native service to Billings, Great Falls, & Missoula in the future. I would say out of any of them Billings would get the first looking at. I would not count on anything anytime soon though. Most likely there is not enough demand for them to justify this.

Sure it would be nice, if there is no return on the investment not worth the trouble.

That's all I would really expect from them, because aside from Billings, Missoula, GF, and (as much as I hate to admit it) maybe Bozeman and Kalispell, if they're feeling generous, where else would they need to cover? That's probably a good majority (if not over 90%) of Montana's population right there.

Either way though, I'm thinking the only way we'll see T-Mo in Montana is if they buy out MTPCS.