As of Monday, March 28th, AT&T's 3G network is live in the Kalispell area. This is an overlay of the Alltel CDMA network AT&T purchased last year, and so far coverage seems to be almost identical - which is to say, excellent. This new network is 3G / UMTS only. If you have an older phone that doesn't support 3G, or if you switch off 3G on your phone, you will continue to get terrible AT&T coverage in Montana.

I've been with Alltel for 2 months after being with Verizon for 4 years, and I've got to say that alltel, in my opinion, is a far better choice for service here. The coverage is better throughout the area. Far better especially indoors. I do quite a bit of traveling and I've never been without service. Overall, I would say I average a couple bars more than Verizon but there are some places I can now make a call with no problem that I was stuck on 0 bars with Verizon. The north part of town immediately comes to mind but it just seems better overall. I'm happy with the switch. The plan is far better. My Circle saves a ton of minutes. I was paying for 2200 with Verizon's family plan, but now we can get by with 900 + my circle so I'm saving about $50 a month. The store had a 15 minute wait when I went but I would recommend the switch to others simply because Alltel works better and costs less.

I would definitely recommend Verizon. So would many of the Alltel users (I asked when wondering if I should renew my contract when I first moved out here). I love my phone. It gets great coverage. I definitely don't have any complaints. I had to sit on the phone with a Verizon representative for an hour in hopes of figuring out how to make my phone sync music to it from my computer and he was extremely nice about it. I say Verizon has awesome customer service. I had Cingular, T-Mobile, and Sprint when I lived out of the state and I would say that Verizon has the best customer service hands down. I have been with Verizon for the past year and a half and couldn't be happier.

I would definitely reccomend Verizon Wireless. I've had nothing but a great experiance with them. I recently switched from Alltel after defective phones, broken promises, billing problems, and many many dropped calles at home in Evergreen. Verizon Wirelss on the other hand has been great for me. No dropped calls, great customer service, phone works great (Motorlola E815) and plus, No roaming, so I get to use both Verizon's and Alltel's network free. P.S. LG phones seem to get worse reception, than Motorola and Nokia phones.

Verizon Wireless blows all other competition out of the water. Year after year they are awarded with the best coverage in the state of MT. There are a couple things to note, bars on the phone don't actually correlate to coverage on a CDMA system. That's an advertising gimmick used by other carriers ie: Cingular. They are actually more of an indication of capacity. Also, each phone has a different transciever. If you are complaining about indoor coverage and you have an LG there is a reason... I've used my phone in all stores mentioned below with no problems...

great service. you have to order it through Wirefly / Inphonic but you get perfect service throughout most of montana

Verizon works great in Kalispell, with a few exeptions, such as stores north of town, aka target, borders, costco. but Alltel doesn't work that great in them either. I would recommend Verizon Wireless because their phone selection is better, better customer service, and network reliability seems better. It just seems like they care about their customers more than Alltel does. At Alltel you always have to wait forever at the store to get some help. Verizon takes much less time to be able to talk to someone

Network Reliability is better than Alltels. I've been with both companys, and Verizon holds the edge in this category, your phone won't do all the jumping around (such as from digital to analog then to roaming) like in certain areas of Alltel's Network. I prefer Verizon because of this.

Great reception with Verizon in Evergreen. No dropped calls, great clarity, everything works great, and their customer service is great. I also love their selection of phones. I wouldn't recommend going with Cellularone / Alltel because their customer service is extremely bad, and they wouldn't do anything for their customers.

Great reception throughout the whole state of montana lots better than Verizon I have full strenth while my friends with Verizon have no service I recomend cellularone if you live in montana

CDMA coverage for the Flathead Valley is 95%. Best bet for sure.

I just switched to Cellular One (formerly Chinook) from Alltel (formerly Cellular One but totally unrelated.. Cellular One is a franchised name). I switched for reasons unrelated to reception, in general nobody beats Alltel's reception in Kalispell, MT. The one place Cellular One beats them I have found to be in Somers, Cellular One blows Alltel / Verizon out of the water. As a general rule though, the coverage density on Cellular One is VERY good, especially considering that it is a 1900MHz GSM network. There is no coverage in Libby, Eureka, Hungry Horse, or West Glacier (though Hungry Horse and W. Glacier are supposed to be covered sooner rather than later... we'll see. Cellular One isn't licensed in Libby). I'm quite impressed with the pricing and value that Cellular One is offering. The network reliability could use some improvement - for example, text messaging was down last Friday night. But Alltel and Verizon have major reliability issues of their own around here. Cellular One's greatest asset right now is their customer service. They promise customer service that will "knock your socks off" and they deliver - no voice menu nonsense or anything. Just a reasonably knowledgeable person on the line quickly! Add service in Hungry Horse and I'll be a very happy camper! Additionally, they plan to cover highway 83 through the Swan Lake area - presently a dead spot for all carriers. This will be a *huge* benefit to public safety and simply cannot happen soon enough!

No, Alltel isn't perfect but they sure beat Verizon! Alltel's coverage around Kalispell is far better inside buildings, and it extends way further west and north of town.

I just switched to T-Mobile. WireFly / InPhonic will sell it to you despite no native coverage - I assume they have some special deal with T-Mobile to allow this. They give Spokane, WA numbers but with some hassle you can change them. The phone will default to roam on USA-590 (the Alltel GSM network, very mediocre) but can also choose to roam on USA-570 / CHINOOK (depends on what the phone feels like calling it, Chinook Wireless' new network) which is very good and well on it's way to becoming the best network in Montana. So why T-Mobile instead of a cheaper plan from Chinook directly? I travel a lot and also plan to leave this place... I'd say stick with Chinook directly if you're local and staying local. It's cheap and it's what you'll want to use with T-Mobile anyways /

Get Alltel if you want to be able to use your phone in stores. Verizon doesn't work in Super 1, Costco, Wal-Mart, Shopko, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, basicallly any store or larger building Verizon won't work in, but Alltel does. Alltel is also improving customer service.

I moved here from the midwest and although Cingular is not a provider here, I get dependable service in 95% of the places in the county. There are few places that I am lacking coverage, my biggest problem is that the networks here are overwhelmed and I get busy signals occasionally. Also, it is my understanding that reception inside of buildings can depend on the type of phone you are using. As a side note, Verizon recently was granted approval for the installation of a new cell tower south of Kalispell on Lower Valley Rd.

Was there from Michigan on a national plan, had good digital two-way and phone use to MI in Kalispell city limits.

Cellularone is rude rude nasty. They have aweful customer service. They are rude to their customers and have no respect for anyone definitally go with Verizon if you want to be treated like a human and not a mop bucket

I work for Cellular One in Kalispell and I must say this. Cell one seems to have better coverage throught the area and inside all the new buildings (Target, TJMaxx, Ect.) But, Verizon beats them hands down at everything else. Customer care is awesome. I actually know the engineer that holds up the Cell One towers and he has explained the network and its advantages over Verizon. Without much more I'll just say my overall opinion. If you are cheap and need a bunch of minutes, go with Cell One. If you want a good phone, don't mind paying a lil extra, and want to be treated like you are a valuable customer, go with Verizon. Cell one has terrible coverage once you get out of the area. A national plan with Cell One will cost more, give you less, and the service sucks so bad that you can't even use your texts or Mobile to Mobile minutes when you aren't at home. With a Verizon plan you are covered nationwide with almost no glitches. I know this because I travel around the country a bit. I can't even take my Cell One phone with me, its like a joke. It seems that Cell One is trying harder to expand their network. I know they just added a tower in Whitefish and another by woodland park. They are also implementing a new voicemail system that is more stable and recently signed a deal with Spring PCS for the area which will bring alot. Verizon is still the way to go if you don't want to get screwed alot. Trust me here, I'm lucky to see a happy customer leave my store. I celebrate if I actually am able to make one happy. I almost feel bad that I have to deal with Cell One, but just like everyone, it has its ups and downs.

Verizon has pretty good coverage in Kalispell and surrounding areas. They are definitally better than Cellularone if your going to travel. I also have to say, as I have been a customer through both Cellularone, and now Verizon, Verizon has much better customer service, they are nicer and resolve problems much better than Cellularone. Cellularone has rude rude rude customer service. Also Verizon promises to improve coverage in the Kalispell area as they already added two new towers north of town, whereas Cellularone promises no improvements.