Metro PCS Adds 'Extended Voice & Text Coverage in NH, ME CT

[offthegrid]

Huge swath of voice and text coverage added in NH and ME and they have almost finished the little links between Worcester and Pocket Comm in western MA and between RI and Pocket in CT.

Now if only they could do that in their core area here in MA and RI. Still no coverage in my town.

http://www.metropcs.com/coverage/

[dmarkson]

That is big news. I am kinda surprised but that is a huge boost for users up here in these here parts. Basically it looks like all native U.S. Cellular CDMA coverage is now part of the local extended network, which means unlimited voice and text on plans of $40 and up !!!

[offthegrid]

This is probably just the start.

They can trade bandwidth for low low rates and get coverage fast. Look at the western midwest area on their map. I see them maybe doing this with Verizon soon. Data, voice and text in the core areas and voice and text everywhere they haven't built out.

Its a good strategy.

[dmarkson]

Hopefully we do not see the cheap monthly prepaids going away. Unlimited voice is great for some but others could care less. They would like to pick and choose between voice, text and data. That's an area that is not being covered right now.

[scott_currier]

I'm wondering what USCC is getting in return. I'll have to look at some of their coverage area maps. At the very least they probably got great roaming rates in the MetroPCS area in MA, RI, and Rockingham County what little there is.

The cost was to bring in another competitor to Rural NH and Maine unless Metro is not allowed to sign up customers in the USCC area.

Does anyone know if Metro has been using phones capable of operating on Cellular, PCS, and AWS frequencies all along. If not, customers will need a new phone to use the USCC network.

[scott_currier]

I also wonder if we will see a faster Metropcs buildout in Rockingham and Strafford counties as well as the parts of MA that are not covered already? After all, it would be a foot in the door for USCC and presumably give them better roaming rates in those areas where it does not have spectrum. I am assuming that if Metro has roaming rates on USCC that are so good that they can allow unlimited calling, then USCC would get the same rate on Metro.

Dave, I sent you an email about this, you can ignore it since it was covered in the forum here. Should have checked the forum first.

[scott_currier]

I suppose that it wouldn't be out of the question for Metro and USCC to join forces for a 5th national carrier. That includes Leap as well. They can operate their separate companies but cooperate on roaming and not overlap each others coverage areas, but instead complimenting them. Could work. Who knows. All of my predictions about the wireless industry have been wrong.

I'd rather see USCC stay independent or join forces with Leap and Metro and other small companies to make a 5th national carrier.

73 all. Enjoy the nice weather.

[Edward]

USCellular is majority-owned by Telephone & Data Systems, it would be up to TDS (and the minority USC shareholders) if they wanted to sell or merge it.

metroPCS has been siting new locations in the Boston area for new cell sites. Although in one particular town up in the Merrimack Valley, the NIMBY's were at work recently...

[Edward]

metroPCS' coverage in CT is currently limited to the southern portion of the state. They have mobile numbers for New London and Bridgeport and it is in those areas where the bulk of their native network is located. Currently, Mashantucket (home to Foxwoods and MGM Grand) has roaming coverage (Verizon) but native metroPCS is just to the south of there and Uncasville (home to Mohegan Sun) is listed as a future coverage area.

[The Sweeper]

Well, according to Metro's coverage map, you can now have data roaming in some areas (it may have been this way before but I had not noticed). I know this to be true (their web site how has it posted on the coverage map) because I was in Buffalo, NY for a basketball game Saturday night and I had EVDO data coverage (I switched from T-Mobile To Go Sidekick to the Samsung Code), and the Metro coverage map indicates that I was roaming. I'm not complaining, mind you.

[Edward]

I am entertaining the idea of switching from T-Mobile postpaid to metroPCS later this year, if their planned dual-band LTE/CDMA handset is introduced.

I've had mixed results with some of the T-Mobile phones I've used over the years, especially with the Samsung models (Stripe flip phone and Gravity) losing the signal from the towers on a whim, without any warning whatsoever.

[dmarkson]

I wouldn't hold your breath. Would be interesting tho. Not a bad deal here in NH now that US Cell native network is extended network.