Alltel tower switcharoo to Verzon

[derpudel]

My laptop internet went down this morning (Alltell wireless USB device). Called tech support. Was told to go into my dial up program and change the phone number to dial in to. Seems since last night, they made a switch from using an "Alltel" tower to a "Verizon" tower. Nice of them to let me know. Now, the interesting part about this is we have never had Verizon in this rural area, only Alltel towers. So..technically, they just made an Alltel tower a Verizon one. The merger is coming, bit by bit. Slowly...ever so slowly. When I inquired if and when I called back into tech support (*611) if they would answer Alltel or Verizon right now, he replied "Alltel". He said until the billing is switched over (follow the $$$) it would still be Alltel.

[kch50428]

The only thing that might have changed for you is a set-up issue - and they had you change something called a MIN in your dialer program's set-up.

And, for what it's worth - all of the Alltel towers ARE Verizon towers - they own 'em all, lock, stock, and barrel - they're presently working to combine the networks to function as one, but operating as separate entities is some areas yet... and some will be sold off to other companies in certain areas - those are being operated as Alltel by a court appointed trustee until the sale of the assets is completed.

[derpudel]

Well, I received a notice in the mail today about the changes I needed to make in my set-up in order to have internet access from their towers...2 days AFTER they made the changes! Hope the rest of this transition goes more smoothly.

[jgfan1972]

I got the letter about the internet last week, and the change took about 2 minutes. I also got a text message from Alltel stating "A network update will occur in your area on July 30, 2009. On this day, please dial *2286 + SEND."

I live in Western Nebraska. I also have noticed that there has been a bunch of construction work going on in the local Alltel store. However the sign still says Alltel.

[derpudel]

Glad they notified you of upcoming changes! No construction/re-modeling work here yet. Our local Alltel store is still pushing their own brand hard, with sale signs and "deals" all over the place. I've been in there several times in the past 2 weeks, and the CS reps seem to know very little about when/how the upcoming merger changeover. They are all still very much representing Alltel and selling the Alltel phones.

[jgfan1972]

Originally Posted by derpudel

Glad they notified you of upcoming changes! No construction/re-modeling work here yet. Our local Alltel store is still pushing their own brand hard, with sale signs and "deals" all over the place. I've been in there several times in the past 2 weeks, and the CS reps seem to know very little about when/how the upcoming merger changeover. They are all still very much representing Alltel and selling the Alltel phones.

They still have the sale signs and what not here but there are signs of red also...its a little weird..but, we will see how long the final and most important switch takes.

[klmini_acres]

I received an E-Mail yesterday that on one of the 5 phones I have on my account wont be able to access the web after sep 1. That I could go to a alltell store or go online to upgrade now. When I called a corporate store near me He said no we cant do that, your contract is not up on that line. I read him the E-Mail and he said not unless you have a letter. I said I could bring in the E-mail and he said NO. In 12 years I have never had such a problem with them. There not the friendliest anymore.
CS said no problem we can do it over the phone, the thing was I wanted to take my mom in and let her touch the phones and pick one out. My ? is why CS so understanding and not the corporate stores.

[derpudel]

Not sure why your corporate rep wasn't willing without the letter in hand, BUT why not take your mom into the store, let her try out different phones and select one, then go online to do the upgrade? Seems like that would take care of the immediate issue. Good luck with getting a solution.
I do find that the local store reps here seem a bit frazzled.

[R.O.C.]

These changes that most of you are referring to in this thread are MIN changes. About one million Alltel customers MIN's are changing on a daily basis.
This change does have to do with Verizon, but really has nothing to do with the quality of the service, or the towers you will be using.
MIN numbers are a way for the carriers to identify their own customers. With phone numbers being ported to and from different carriers all the time, they're not really reliable.