Okay, EVERY map you showed other than Alltel's included roaming coverage! Much of which is *on Alltel* (even what's shown as "Sprint Native" in Montana is actually a Strategic Roaming Alliance with Alltel). Alltel (in former Western Wireless markets) runs tons of GSM T-Mobile roams on. Verizon uses them extensively as well.
BTW, the map you showed for Alltel wasn't coverage either - it was licensed area, which is substantially larger.
This article is so poorly researched and so misleading, it's hardly worthy of comment. NOT ONE of the maps you showed reflect a carrier's coverage. Only (for Alltel) their licensed area or (for everyone else) their PLAN coverage including all their roaming agreements.
Alltel does have the largest network, amazingly enough. Why? Because they bought Western Wireless. Western Wireless built out huge chunks of rural America nobody wanted to cover, provided all digital technologies (TDMA, CDMA, and GSM) - though only sold CDMA to their own customers - and raked in the roaming revenue from everybody when their customers traveled through their territory. It worked out great back in the day when roaming was expensive, but that hayday came to an end with more competitive roaming agreements, and they were the perfect buyout target for Alltel.
Hence, yes, Alltel DOES cover more square miles. And every other map you showed was including at least some Alltel coverage...
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Okay, EVERY map you showed other than Alltel's included roaming coverage! Much of which is *on Alltel* (even what's shown as "Sprint Native" in Montana is actually a Strategic Roaming Alliance with Alltel). Alltel (in former Western Wireless markets) runs tons of GSM T-Mobile roams on. Verizon uses them extensively as well.
BTW, the map you showed for Alltel wasn't coverage either - it was licensed area, which is substantially larger.
This article is so poorly researched and so misleading, it's hardly worthy of comment. NOT ONE of the maps you showed reflect a carrier's coverage. Only (for Alltel) their licensed area or (for everyone else) their PLAN coverage including all their roaming agreements.
Alltel does have the largest network, amazingly enough. Why? Because they bought Western Wireless. Western Wireless built out huge chunks of rural America nobody wanted to cover, provided all digital technologies (TDMA, CDMA, and GSM) - though only sold CDMA to their own customers - and raked in the roaming revenue from everybody when their customers traveled through their territory. It worked out great back in the day when roaming was expensive, but that hayday came to an end with more competitive roaming agreements, and they were the perfect buyout target for Alltel.
Hence, yes, Alltel DOES cover more square miles. And every other map you showed was including at least some Alltel coverage...