I was reading in our local newspaper in Avon, South Dakota that a new Alltel was going up outside of town. I drove out and saw that they have the tower setup but not functioning yet. The paper claimed that Verizon was placing a tower north of town. Just curious as to why Alltel is placing new towers when they will become AT&T someday in this area. I am not complaining we have had horrible coverage here. Just seeing if anyone knew why they would be putting those towers up with the pending merger coming?

Because until AT&T takes control of the remaiming Alltel network, what's left of Alltel is a separate company and must still do business as usual. As soon as AT&T takes over, they will just have one more cell site. What's even more curious is that Avon has a newspaper!

Verizon has been putting tons of it's own towers up in South Dakota as well.

My assumption is that areas where Alltel filled in the gaps Verizon wasn't in, they are trying to fill in. This way roaming fee's to AT&T will be much less and customers will have fewer problems when the transition starts soon.

As for putting Alltel towers up, I do find that odd too. They aren't just putting Alltel towers up in SD they are also putting more Verizon towers up. So IMO there is definitely a strategic reason for it.

Still, Verizon has some major catching up to do in the Black Hills. Alltel has made some huge progress in the past year or so...new towers in/near Custer State Park, Fairburn, Buffalo Gap, Oelrichs, Angostura/Hot Springs, Deadwood, Keystone, Rapid, and several others. I hate to see it go, and hope Verizon will continue to allow roaming there for a while; in my opinion, Alltel's network has become far superior in that area (though still lots of room for improvement), and I was really hoping they'd choose to divest the Verizon side in the merger.

But, on the other hand, I suppose it will be very nice to have some good GSM coverage in those spots. With all the tourist traffic, I simply cannot believe how neglected in terms of wireless service that the area has been for the last decade.

Nice.

Sounds like Wyoming to this day. There is no such thing as reliable coverage or a good carrier in Wyoming. Alltel has done pretty decent with the areas they serve, but its only part of the state.

Union cellular does a very good job of covering southwest Wy. Very seldom that can not make a call when I need to.

That is if AT&T doesn't find a way to screw it up first. :/

Burt I agree. The Black Hills attracts MILLIONS of people a year, and it only has Verizon and Alltel. Sad.

Was it SD that was Cellular One and Alltel bought? Also, does Verizon run a PCS network or Cellular network in SD/ND/MT/WY? Verizon puts up towers like its nothing. They put some new towers up in MS (Alltel area before) in a week.

Yes a few years back or so Alltel bought Cellular One in the Dakotas. And yes, Verizon does have network in those states but so does Alltel. Those states are also going to be going to AT&T from Alltel due to the AT&T buyout.

Considering the size of concrete footings probably needed for tower construction and concrete cure time, I find that hard to believe. Not to mention any other prep that may need to be done at the site; grading, installation of said tower, fencing around site, etc.

Verizon is going nuts in SD. So I to some extent can attest to the fact they are moving fast on putting towers up. And quite a few at a time. So much so that it made the news in Rapid City.

Where are the new sites? Are they doing anything about the Black Hills?

I haven't seen anything on the FCC's antenna structure registration, but they might just be behind.

The Black Hills will likely most always be a blind spot for many reasons. One, for it being a National Forest so there is a natural fight there, and two, landowners and those owning claims not wanting towers ruining the view or their property, which I can understand. I believe the Black Hills themselves won't improve much. All the carriers will likely do is just try to find ways to improve around them. Many of the new towers seem to be around the Black Hills and rural areas where Alltel primarily had coverage.

IMO I believe much of what is happening is a direct result of what's going on with the merger and Verizon trying to plug in what could become potential holes or gaps once AT&T starts to take control soon. This rapid building of towers only started to happen within the last 6 months. Which puts it in correlation with the Alltel/Verizon merger and the announcement of AT&T acquiring Alltel in the upper Midwest, especially the Dakotas. Verizon is definitely doing something strategic IMO.

I don't doubt that they are being agressive with it. I do, however, doubt the timeframe CellTrollDude posted. One week is nearly impossible. Then again, it's not like I've been in the construction industry for over a decade or anything.