Interesting story. I really wanted to try Alltel because I was with Verizon and the service was so expensive. I call landlines and have friends with every provider and Verizon gave me the fewest minutes, no nights at 7 option, no My Circle, and I has to get a plan up around 2000 minutes. Paying for texting was even worse. I first tried Alltel after comparing all the options. Alltel gave the most minutes, I love the My Circle feature, and now I'm on a family plan with my wife who wanted her first phone and I'm paying half as much for 2 lines because I only needed 900 minutes plus My Circle. Alltel is by far hands down the best deal of all the wireless providers. They give more features, free texting on some plans, and more minutes. As for the coverage I'll compare my experience to Verizon but it is strange. I got my phone, a Motorola E815 and got her a Kyocera KX16. Immediately I saw my service was far better than Verizon. The calls sounded clearer, I had more bars than Verizon gave me all around the area and Richmond in general, and everywhere that was a problem area for Verizon was great with Alltel. No dropped or missed calls with Alltel either like I had with Verizon. I have a full signal at apartment near Parham road, at work in a huge concrete building, and all over neighborhood here. Full signal at VCU where I'm taking some night classes. All over Richmond it's really good. But my wife's phone never did as good as mine. She would hit no service in some places and I consistently had 2 more bars. I took her phone back and got her a Motorola Razr. For this area, I strongly recommend Alltel as the provider and I recommend Motorola as the phone. It's by far the best service and the best deal going around here.

Had Alltel for years and was just used to going outside to make calls. Phone never worked in my parham road office (although would sometimes roam on the Sprint Network). Never worked inside any schools (Not that we should be using the phone in schools). Never worked in my home. Had just gotten used to it over the years. Well, I decided to change to Verizon, and there is no looking back. I have yet to have one dropped call. I have yet to find one place where it says searcing for service. I feel like I have finally joined the cellular revolution. I am sure each company has their strong and weak areas, but let me tell you living in this neighborhood in Richmond Virginia Verizon is the only way to go.

Everything forwarded to voice mail. NO reception!

Service has really been great all over Richmond. No problems in the building I work downtown. No problems in or around the Wal-Mart on Sheila Lane. Very happy with service and it's always in 5 bars. I've never had a dropped call. I thought about every provider and Alltel really seemed to have the best deals on plans and giving minutes, even free texting on my family plan. I'm really happy I didn't go with another provider that didn't give near as many minutes for the price. The best part though, is that I really don't believe the coverage could be any better here in the city or traveling. Alltel really seems to put coverage first.

Spotty reception. Sometimes dropped calls... sometimes not. Sometimes great.

Good signal indoors... great out doors

We have used Alltel for years, travel to Central NY, Indy, FL etc. never a problem, no problems around here except in "no zone" areas, usually near defense zone areas. Love it, and 1 of us has old Motorola phone, either picks up signal lots of times when Nextel can't.

Reception all around is very good, selection of phones is terrible, and newer phones have trouble getting reception where my e815 got full service, all in all reception is very good, no dead spots. Miss my old Sprint phone though.

Verizon has perfect reception around the neighborhood, and to be honest I haven't had a problem anywhere in Richmond!

I'm finally about to switch - Sprint is consistently terrible in my house and my area - as is customer service