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Rural Alltel wireless broadband customers are getting the axe as the company’s new owners have started pulling the plug on customers caught roaming too much with their service.
Not all of Alltel customers have become Verizon Wireless customers after Verizon bought Alltel in 2008. In areas where Verizon Wireless already provided service, FCC rules required Alltel to sell its assets to other cell phone companies like AT&T or several regional providers. One such company, Allied Wireless, bought the rights to use the Alltel name for its service. But it’s not the same Alltel customers in southern Illinois remember.
Scott Sneddon, who lives near Benton, discovered that for himself when trying to log in using his Alltel Aircard. When the service wouldn’t work, he called Alltel to learn they had unilaterally canceled his wireless broadband service because he was roaming off Alltel’s original network too often. For the Sneddon family, that meant the Internet itself would no longer be available to them as they have no access to DSL or cable broadband service. Sneddon received no warning and no second chance.
Sneddon is concerned because Alltel’s unlimited service plan did not carry the typical 5GB monthly usage allowance other providers enforce. Despite having a two year contract, Alltel was able to pull the rug out from under his service because the company wanted to cut its roaming costs. Although the Sneddon initially faced a $400 early cancellation penalty to switch providers, the media attention Alltel received made them relent — Alltel customers in similar positions who find themselves out in the wireless broadband cold will not have to pay a penalty to cancel all of their Alltel services. Additionally, the company has promised to refund one month of service and refund all wireless broadband equipment charges incurred by dropped customers.
For rural America, incumbent wireless providers disconnecting service for customers they don’t want to serve is just another broken broadband promise.
http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSIL Harrisburg Alltel Drops Illinois Customers 6-27-10.flvWSIL-TV in Harrisburg, Ill., shares the stories of two Illinois families left without Internet service when Alltel suddenly canceled their service “for roaming too much.” (4 minutes)
Other stories of interest:
- Special Report: The Rise and Fall (And Rise Again) of Alltel
- Verizon Wireless Introducing Prepaid Wireless Broadband, But Get Your Wallet: $15 A Day For 75 Megabytes
- AT&T Caps and Now Throttles Many of Its Wireless Broadband Customers to 100kbps Uploads
- Verizon’s Abdication of Rural Broadband — Plow Money Into Big City FiOS, Ignore or Sell Off Rural Customers
- Another Guilty Plea in Rural West Virginia Wireless Broadband Caper – $2.4 Million Ripoff
Same thing happened to me, January 2010, I had no internet, I was 6 months into a two year contract, Verizon purchased Alltel, and closed down the two towers that were serving the area which I live…in the country…where no other high speed internet is available. Verizon then reopened the towers and put a 5 mg cap on the broadband, plus many extra fees.