Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Cellular Carrier Changes

When you don't see a blog entry for a few days, you know we're either roaming or our noses are buried in serious web site updating. This time we have been checking our links among our Review Pages, visiting the associated web sites, and calling some of the carriers to get additional information. It's something we do on a regular basis, with a complete update at least once a year. We found some changes, but no big surprises:

Airpeak Wireless just plain moved from northern Nevada to southeast California. We've never seen a network move before.

Brazos Cellular in Texas sold out to AT&T.

Also in Texas, West Central Wireless took over 5 Star Wireless, but the two are still operated separately, although with nearly identical plans.

Cellular One of Northeast Arizona, the only carrier that serves the entire Navajo Nation, has stopped hosting their site at www.4cornerswireless.com. Why did they change their mind? Hopefully, it has nothing to do with the flap over the actual location of the real 4 Corners!

Sagebrush Cellular is now called Nemont Telephone (as in NorthEast MONTana) to reflect the name of parent telephone cooperative.

Wilkes Wireless, the phone company in Georgia that shunned wireless customers, changed their name to Via Wireless and now at least gives you an online application you can send in to ask for wireless service. Who would bother with an application when you can just call any other carrier to start service? And why did they bother changing the name?

As usual, we recommend you check the offers from the smaller carriers in your state. Some of them offer a truly superior product.

1 comment:

Benjamin A said...

A note also on CellularONE of San Luis Obispo. They have closed all but one store and have droped customer care down to Monday through Friday from 9 to 6. 4 Years ago they had 5 stores and customer care could be reached 24 hours a day. This leaves room to wonder how stable they really are.