[daphne]

I think Verizon has the same cap on their MiFi. I agree it doesn't make much sense, but if people do their research and understand the limitations, then buy anyway, they shouldn't complain too much.

[johnnyrichter]

The bad thing with Sprint is you can not use your phone as a modem unless you buy the wireless broadband 3g or 4g package...and as said above, 3g is capped at 5gb/month and 4g is not in the very few areas it's actually available.

Phone-as-modem is pretty much the only thing I'm concerned about. Alltel offered/offers it without caps, but it looks like I'm losing this option which means I lose internet entirely since no DSL/cable/wifi/satellite/etc in my area.

[MikeLip]

I saw the Tour at my Alltel/Verizon store (my daughters phone was playing up, so we were in to replace it - 3rd time). I liked the Tour better than my 8330 - for the keyboard anwyay. I talked to the guy and he said yeah, you have to cancel your Alltel contract. $200 per phone (4 phones) = $800. Then re-up with Verizon. So, I can cancel my contract with what is now Verizon, get penalized $800 for that, then I can re-join Verizon and get less service! What a deal. Thanks, guys! You rock.

[johnnyrichter]

Yeah, this buyout is hurting all of us Alltel customers. In the end I'm sure the network itself will be better, but you'll be paying more for less and seeing new things like monthly caps on data.

The Alltel customers taking the biggest hit are customers like me that heavily rely on tethering our phones as our only way to get online at home. I'm sure I could find a way to monitor my usage and keep it under 5gb/month, but that's going to be an extreme pain in the butt and heavily limits me on downloading stuff like game patches that can reach in excess of a gigabyte in size.

[OrangeBDS]

Jeez, this Alltel transition is terrible it sounds like. AT&T also has the 5GB limit on phones-as-modems/laptop cards.

[rambo47]

Sounds like Alltel is canceling everyone's upgrades. Or Verizon is. They just don't want to honor them, so they call it a termination of your contract by forcing you to go to Verizon immediately. Your choice is to stick with what you've got until the merger/buyout is complete, or pay your ETFs and start again.

I imagine a roomful of greedy lawyers, sitting around an ornate conference table, cigar smoke so thick you can barely see the length of the table. They're all laughing and high-fiving each other when they come up with a new and innovative way to hose the users. Pure concentrated evil. The trick of the century would be to call al-queda and convince them that these lawyers are the real satan and the biggest threat to Islam. That'd fix 'em!

[ArgonNJ]

I said this months ago when this merger was announced. Verizon buying Alltel would not be a good for Alltel customers. Many disagreed. What do you think now.

[MiataMike]

This is a RAVE and a RANT

Had the same LG phone from May 2004 until July 2009...... Alltel. Was stupidly paying $5 a month for free replacement if bricked it. The LCD display went out July, and I went in to replace it (Alltel still at that time.... getting to Verizon). Rep told me could pay the $80 deductible and get my choice of phone x,y,z - - none of which were as small as my LG, or had voice dialing, or had as good a camera... but because they were newer models and had bluetooth were considered "replacements".

You can guess what I told him and instead entered into a new 2 year contract with them and paid nothing (after rebates) for a phone closer to what I had. Refused to reactivate the $5/m protection plan. Then....... few months later, new phone keypad nearly clear, LCD screen bit warped looking around edges (the picture, not physically), but have to admit phone worked okay just looked 10 years old. Alltel store was now a Verizon store and my bills say Verizon at top. Wanted to "upgrade" to a Blackberry.

First rep gave me all the crap about switching over fees etc (funny since bills already came from Verizon). Went 3 miles away to another store and walked out with my new Blackberry Tour. My complaint with store number 2 (pat on back for better rep than store 1 but.....) they would not let me "upgrade" my phone. Had to buy it as was too soon to "upgrade".... remember I had the original LG for over 5 years without upgrading and NEVER used the replacement insurance policy either. And a warped looking picture and keys worn down to having a hole in middle was not a replaceable problem on my second phone - even if I had gotten the protection plan on it. This phone was not even used for texting!

DATA PLAN - did not have one with Alltel - but with Verizon pay the 30 bucks per month for UNLIMITED Blackberry use. Bit expensive I guess - but I tether by berry at work to get around the Websense block (want a laugh, it blocks my Verizon online bill pay!) and also when our wireless at work goes down (often does). The tether also means I can quickly log on at home without having to reconfigure my laptops wireless.

[southwestcomm]

1. The is the standard with all carriers these days.

2. The buy-up to tether with a standard data plan is $15.00. The 5GB cap is standard across all carriers as well.

Originally Posted by johnnyrichter

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check them out.

EDIT: No go on Sprint.

1. Under a normal plan that includes unlimited data, the fine print says absolutely NO phone-as-modem usage.

2. To use phone-as-modem, I would need a mobile broadband plan...which has a 5gb/month cap.

Great, once my Alltel contract runs out I'm screwed out of a net connection. :(