AT&T Wireless purchases Cellular One in Oregon

I’ve been a Cellular One customer for over 2.5 years. I’ve been very happy with the cost, quality of service, and coverage they offer in Oregon. I’ve been out in the boonies in the Oregon Cascades and have been pleasantly surprised that my phone still worked. TDMA in Oregon is amazing, I hope it never goes away. There’s hardly a square foot in this state that isn’t covered by TDMA antennas.

But today, I am very upset. Cellular One has decided to sell all of it’s Oregon business to AT&T Wireless. Someone at Cell One must be making a lot of money from this, because the customer is getting screwed. At Cell One my service was $10/mo, $.10/min in network, and $.35/min out of network (the “network” was basically the southern Willamette Valley and all of Eastern Oregon), with zero minutes per month. I love this deal.. my phone bill averages $12-$19 month.

Under AT&T Wireless my service will increase to $20/mo, $.45/min, with 60 minutes per month. That sucks. Compared to Cell One, that’s like paying $.17/min for my first 60 minutes and $.45 afterwards. Wow. What a great deal.

I’m shutting off my Cellular One service.

I think I’m going to switch to T-Mobile’s GSM network (I have an N-Gage laying around I can use). The coverage stinks, but T-Mobile’s pre-paid wireless works out to be much cheaper for the amount of calls I make. It basically works out to be $8.50/mo for about 55 minutes of talk time on their pre-paid plan if you buy a $25 card every 3 months. I know this is a little cheaper that Cell One, but you can’t make phone calls at 8000ft with GSM in Oregon. 🙂