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What the heck is a market area?

catholiclibertarian

Oct 15, 2008, 7:54 PM
OK, so my wife and I recently moved from Austin, TX to Southfield (Detroit), MI. As such I thought perhaps I could change my phone number and combine our plans and save money.

Going back to the beginning of my story, back when I first got a cell phone I was dating the lady who is now my wife, so I got Alltel as she had it and we'd get the free mobile to mobile. this was like 5 years ago now, I think. We both had the old nokia's you got for free with the sweet snake game. Well over the past few years, we've grown up, we both have SmartPhones, she a PPC 6800 me a BlackBerry 8130, and we've moved around the country several times. Right now, with each of us paying our own bills, with our own data plans, etc. its costing us almost $200 a mont...
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Nadesico81

Oct 16, 2008, 3:21 AM
Ok here is the deal with Market areas for Mobile networks. The FCC sells wireless airwaves to a company to provide serivce in the markets the companys ask for. Networks bid tooth and nail for the rights to a given area.

Now since you moved from a Alltel area into a NON Altel area. They cant legely sell you wireless serivce since its another companys market. Even if they offer coverage there they have a roaming agreement with some one elce. Market areas are diffrent for each company they all devide them up diffrently for billing and network reasons.

The only way around the market area issue is to change your numbers to the same market. However if you dont live in that Market area Alltel can NOT leagly sell you serivce. Your contract c...
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BLEDSOE

Oct 16, 2008, 11:21 AM
in essence it means that the numbers must originate from the same area in order to be on the same bill. It is called a market to market transfer.
Alltel will give you new numbers in the same area. However the procedure to get them on the same bill is called a change of responsibility. They would first need to be in the same market then they can get placed on one bill. If she is not willing to change her number you will need to determine what market her # is from...and get one from that market as well.
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mark477

Oct 21, 2008, 1:15 PM
basically what they are trying to say is that you have to change your number. it not alltel's fault they are following federal law (FCC)
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jay1981

Oct 23, 2008, 7:44 AM
Acutally you can have different area codes or Market areas (CSA's) on your account but they have to be coverd with alltel. For example, I have a CSA in my hometown on my account but I also have my little brother with me with a differnt area code in the same town we stay in now.
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jay1981

Oct 23, 2008, 7:45 AM
sorry... I forgot to mention that both my number and his are in alltel coverage areas. 😎
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Wireless.O.G.

Oct 30, 2008, 11:53 AM
AT&T and Alltel both do this. I do not know why.
Sprint has the ability to have multiple area codes on a single shared plan. Sprint apparently figured out how to stay inside the law and still be convenient for customers. I had the same problem with my husband on Alltel.

Sprint has awesome plans too...
For Plans that include
7PM Nights and Weekends
Unlimited Mobile to Mobile
Nationwide Long Distance, and NO ROAMING
Unlimited Text, Picture, Video, and Email
Unlimited Web Browsing
Sprint TV Premier
Sprint Radio
Sprint Music Store
and GPS Navigation
For the following prices (2 phones included in pricing)
1500 Daytime Talk Minutes $129.99
3000 Daytime Talk Minutes $169.99
Unlimited Daytime Talk Minutes $189.98

Not only th...
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silvabullit

Oct 30, 2008, 12:32 PM
sprint sucks..

and texting doesnt come off your minutes

get your facts straight sprintfanboy
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mark477

Nov 10, 2008, 4:52 AM
um yea as said after me sprint does suck. and no texting and interent usage does not come off your min. I also just want to point out that alltel is the ONLY wireless company that automatically does not charge for dropped calls, rarely when i do get them.
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Azeron

Nov 9, 2008, 6:42 AM
Once you convert to Verizon this shouldn't be a problem any longer. I'm just not sure how long it will take to migrate Alltel's customers into Verizon's billing platform.
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rmtp22

Nov 10, 2008, 3:41 PM
Unless he's in an area that is not going to be converted. 105 markets are getting divested. Now if one of them is in a market that is going to become VZW and the other is not going to take the plunge, it could get really messy for him.
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michael_herc

Nov 10, 2008, 11:04 PM
Well I can tell you the whole reason why he's having problems is because he's living in Detroit. Detroit has no Alltel coverage whatsoever. Alltel only exists in Michigan outside of metro Detroit. So this whole market divesting thing doesn't even apply to him. No Alltel markets in Michigan will be divested. Also, he came from Austin, TX which also had no Alltel coverage. To me, why is he even on Alltel if everywhere he goes, there's no Alltel coverage. He's using the Sprint network there in Detroit (either that or Verizon). So why not switch to one of those two? That only makes logical sense to me.
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semick

Nov 10, 2008, 10:27 AM
It might have something to do with the fact that sprint pcs was built using the same SID and considered the entire it's operating area. Older cell phone companies started out as having distinct areas by acquiring licenses in either MSA's or RSA's. In each area, Alltel, Verizon, or other CDMA carrier's had a unique SID (systemID). In fact when Verizon was just airtouch here in Cleveland and Alltel was GTE Mobilnet, if I traveled to another area I was roaming and got charged more, even if it was on Airtouch or GTE Mobilnet. It wasn't until later that cell companies started allowing cheaper roaming on their own networks across the country and eventually free roaming. When sprint pcs started up the chose to have a single sid across the count...
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