CosmicJeff

Congrats Robert.  Make sure you stock up on milk, bread, and fried chicken before you lock in for the duration of the blizzard!

If there is any left in town lol. Work was a complete madhouse this afternoon, you would have thought the world was ending. Although i have to admit the thought of 24 inches of snow the first week of October is hard to stomach. Congrats on the house Robert and thanks for the info on the site location.

Edit: Thats some pretty good reach for 1 site if i can pull in 2 bars from 5 miles away when i am at work and without direct line-of-site.  - Jeff

Congrats on the new job, and welcome to Rapid!

Did Sprint have Nextel coverage/towers there before the Nextel network shutdown?  Maybe they'll convert those towers?!  (fingers crossed)

Only 1 or 2 Wimax protection sites here, both on the south/east sides of town, fairly sure one is on the SD School of Mines campus not sure where the other one is if their is one. So those of us who have/had sprint and live in rapid will just have to wait and see what sprint does.

I will definitely let you guys know how things play out.

Well, I wish that you would tell your story straight.  Previously, you said that you were going to use roaming until Sprint kicked you off.  Now, you claim that your roaming setting is actually turned off.  So, those two parts are basically contradictory.

 

In the end, if you use mainly WiMAX and Wi-Fi and keep your roaming to a minimum, then you might be able to fly under the radar.  But I seem to recall that Sprint also includes a majority roaming clause in the Ts and Cs.  So, if you are going to be in Rapid City for six months, your best bet might be to have your Sprint account put on seasonal standby, then go prepaid for the time being.

 

As for the spectrum issue, Sprint does not hold any traditional PCS A-F block spectrum licensed specifically for Rapid City.  Rather, Sprint's Denver MTA PCS A block license comprises portions of six states and includes Rapid City.  As of 2002, Sprint covered 74 percent of the population in the licensed area, more than is necessary to satisfy its FCC buildout requirement.

 

Like it or not, Rapid City is just not a priority market.  Off the top of my head, since Qwest disbanded its wireless network, the only wireless operators that offer native service in Rapid City are VZW and AT&T.  And neither built a network there; both got into the market via acquisition.

 

AJ

 

     In my original post i said i was using WiMax, apologies if i implied otherwise. I would think that changing my address to an area outside their territory would flag my account. I was unaware that there was an option to put your account on standby, that would be preferable to having to cancel it outright. You are correct on the T & C there is a majority use clause i had done some more research the last couple days and ran into that. Thank you for clarifying on the Denver market, i had run across that on the FCC site and was unsure what it meant. Makes since then that they do not have service if we are part of the Denver market, although with 130K in the metro area you would think it would have to be on the list if they consider expanding the network outright when they get done with NV.

-Jeff

I won't BBQ you. But if you hear of a construction management position come open around Rapid City, let me know.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Thanks, I will definitely keep my ears open and let you know if i hear anything.  I think i may write a actual paper letter to sprint kindly asking them to consider putting a couple towers up around here, with 3 Million visitors to the area a year i think it would make sense. Worse they can do is say no.

-Jeff

Woa woa, slow down a minute guys before you bbq me, i am not as you refer trying to stick it to sprint, to the contrary, i do not even have roaming turned on my phone, 95% of my use is data and that is mainly at work since at home i have wifi, and at work i have wimax, i am hardly costing them any extra money, and btw it was not my choice to move here, and the reason i have not closed my account is that i hope to be moved somewhere where they have native coverage in the next 6-8 months.

I go to Rapid City often.  It's unfortunate that Sprint does not offer native service there.  You're going to have to switch carriers soon.  

 

I love Western South Dakota.  I'd move there if I could find meaningful work.

 

Robert

Yea it baffles me why they do not have any coverage here, they own their normal spectrum according to the fcc site as far as i can tell. But i am out of contract so i am going to use it until they kick me off

I recently moved to Rapid City, SD and I can confirm that there is a WiMax signal on the south side of town. Not terribly strong as it is usable only when outside most of the time, but my EVO 3D has no issues using it.