New Native Coverage in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, etc.

**sprke81** · 12-31-2010, 03:02 PM

Wirelessly posted (Droid: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Originally Posted by Oopsz

As of March 2011, almost all coverage in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming will be roaming.

http://support.sprint.com/support/ar...0101207-115335

Interesting...definitely a negative for sprint customers...

**Jordan T** · 01-14-2011, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by larryt510

So Sprint has given up their own network in Montana? Why happened to the 55 Qwest towers that Sprint purchased back in 2004 in Wyoming and Montana? Those towers still exist under Sprint FCC ownership and I don't see why Sprint would get rid of them.

Sprint owns the towers, the physical structures, but as I've told you all along (and know as a result of being here), Alltel ran the entire network, NOT Sprint.

**Evan702** · 01-14-2011, 09:29 PM

I think that most everybody already realizes that Alltel ran the network there, hence the funny coloring on Sprint's coverage map for that area. That's not in dispute. But the question remains as to what is happening to those physical structures and equipment. As you've already acknowledged, those things belong to Sprint. Alltel, Verizon, whoever can't divest something that didn't belong to them in the first place.

Sent from my Epic 4G using Tapatalk

**larryt510** · 01-14-2011, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Mark Uhde

Sprint owns the towers, the physical structures, but as I've told you all along (and know as a result of being here), Alltel ran the entire network, NOT Sprint.

Yeah but that's beside point now. Regardless of who actually ran/managed the network there, why would Sprint just give up their 55 towers to Alltel/AT&T? Now that the agreement is apparently over why doesn't Sprint just say give us back our towers now and we will offer our own service? What will they do with their licenses that they own there? This situation is very puzzling to me. Also keep in mind that Sprint used to differentiate the coverage from the Qwest towers and Alltel partnership coverage with a different color green on the maps.

**Jordan T** · 01-14-2011, 11:06 PM

larry, Alltel never needed those towers or used them for 850MHz service. They were only used for 1900 MHz. The thing is, ALLTEL owned and ran everything. What will Sprint do with it? Something, I'm sure. I bet by the end of the year they've launched something with those sites!

**larryt510** · 01-14-2011, 11:17 PM

I know they were used for 1900 Mhz. Sprint was always listed as the registered owner on the towers they purchased from Qwest in Montana. The FCC records still indicate that Sprint is the registered owner.

**Jordan T** · 01-14-2011, 11:40 PM

Correct, Sprint owns the towers. They're just pieces of metal. They own spectrum. But all the network side was Alltel. Will they deploy their own network? I bet so. We shall see!

**larryt510** · 01-14-2011, 11:51 PM

I'm thinking not. Otherwise they wouldn't have released that new bulletin that all native coverage in Montana/Wyoming was going to be lost.

**Jordan T** · 01-15-2011, 02:08 AM

Well, how long are the licenses leased to AT&T? Remember that agreement isn't over yet. That's why I find it REALLY weird Sprint is considering it roaming and pulling EV access.

My guess is that, despite it being a very good roaming agreement, without reciprocal traffic from Alltel customers, which will go away in February, it's still too expensive for Sprint's liking...

**Baldilocks** · 01-21-2011, 09:21 PM

Just ran across this tonite on Engadget. Guess it's hitting the national news now.

http://mobile.engadget.com/2011/01/2...ana-north-dak/

**tanman889** · 04-06-2011, 06:23 PM

When exactly is At&t going to shut the the CDMA network off? Because I live in a town that doesn't have Verizon service so verizon customers got service off of Nemont (CDMA local telcom service here) and then alltel built a tower in my town and in 2009 we could get full service off the tower. Such as 3G etc.. Now on my HTC it used to say Verizon Wireless in the notification bar for telling me what service I use. Now it says Extended Network but I still get 3G and all the features on my phone still work. So my question is what is going to happen to us Verizon people when the or if the CDMA network gets shut down because when were on Nemont all we can do is text and call, service isn't great. Some towns like Wibaux Mt are only serviced by an alltel tower so does that mean verizon is going to build there own towers and service over here? I know this more of a sprint post but i'm concerned for my service. I don't want to get At&t because I travel alot in NE Mt and often am switched on to Nemont for cell service in small towns. At&t won't be able to use thos towers anymore like alltel can. I recently went to the nearest alltel site now At&t and this is on it: Name: IMAG0110.jpeg
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**NGeorge** · 04-06-2011, 07:05 PM

Here's a post I made on this subject the other week that has some screen shots... depending on where you click on the maps, the native ex-Qwest coverage does show up:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...=#post14328605

--Nat

**larryt510** · 04-06-2011, 07:55 PM

Good to know that Sprint kept the former Qwest coverage areas (FCC records confirm this too) although it's still a mystery as to why the maps are screwy on showing this coverage. This coverage shows up and then disappears depending on how you zoom/scroll on the maps. Also why can't Sprint show actual signal strength in those cities like they do everywhere else instead of just a 'signal strength varies'? Why don't they add their own 3G data to those towers? How hard can that be? Why can't Sprint actually offer phones and plans to residents in those Montana cities now that their deal with Alltel is over? The mystery deepens.

**Jordan T** · 04-07-2011, 01:11 AM

AT&T is planning to rapidly build out as needed in the Alltel areas, so expect more Montana coverage soon (soon in this world meaning year or more) reducing your need for Nemont coverage. AT&T will probably be a great option for you by the time the Alltel network is shut down. That will be no sooner than June 23rd, 2013 by FCC mandate.

ALL ROAMING AGREEMENTS ALSO HAVE TO BE HONORED FOR THIS PERIOD, IT WAS SPRINT'S DECISION TO BLOCK 3G ACCESS AND START CALLING MONTANA ROAMING. Presumably, because without reciprocal traffic from Alltel, it just got too expensive to maintain that agreement in a one-sided manner.

George and Larry, Sprint's maps have always been a mess here and from what I have seen I would consider anything that shows up occasionally on the map to be nothing more than a mapping anomaly. The widely-published "before and after" map is much more likely to be correct.

P.S. Larry the FCC records only show the licensed operator (Sprint), not who's actually running the network (AT&T)

**tanman889** · 04-07-2011, 08:45 AM

I don't know if i'm to sure about this. Alltel didn't even bother to build towers around the smaller towns back in 05 and 06 when they started rapidly building out from buying Western Wireless. Nemont built at least 50 towers around here through 05-07. I used to have Nemont. Way more reliable service over here for calls and text but slow data.