I have had Alltel in Houghton Lake for over a year now and the reception has never been great at all. If you are in town, a mere 8 miles from the house, you get good reception, however I do not get any reception at home or at work (in Roscommon) and over 70% of the calls in those two areas are dropped or not received at all. All areas around the lake are extremely poor in reception. I dropped Nextel when I moved up here and Alltel's reception is about the same if not worse than Nextel / Sprint for this area. As you can see, I have had two different phones and it has not made a difference in reception. Even updating the roaming did nothing at all. Looks like I shop for another carrier.

1 or 2 bars on my best day. 2 miles east on m-18-n. there is a hole on Alltel service between outside Roscommon village and m-72.

1 or no bars. Can almost always count on calls being dropped if they ever get through.

I gave up on Nextel because I had no signal in Roscommon. T-Mobile gives me 5 bars in Roscommon and 3-4 bars at my home, 2 miles north.

Nextel is good in the major cities but even along I75, there are somme areas where the reception is not good

Alltel needs better service on the M 55 corridor between Lake City and Houghton Lake. Signal is strong heading east out of Lake City but as soon as you approach 7 mile road good luck ! This is a heavily traveled road ! Signed on with Alltel in October and have been quite disappointed with my decision to go with them. Downtown Roscommon is an absolute joke.