Nelson County, Virginia
If you carry a Verizon Wireless (VZW) smartphone or Alltel, you may have noticed a quiet, subtle change on your display over the past 48 hours. We noticed on our Verizon PDA unit about two days ago that the 1X technology signal has been replaced with the faster more modern EV (EVDO) signal indicator.
Verizon Wireless completed their acquisition of Alltel last month. Though nothing official has come down some of the changes are being noted on some of the phones used here in Nelson. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, you have been an Extended Network customer in the Nelson area. The local Verizon Wireless net begins at the top of Afton Mountain at the I-64/250 interchange. Waynesboro and the rest of Augusta County have been local VZW territory for years.
The changes may be an indicator of the merging of the two carriers’ technologies now that they are the same company. Competitor, nTelos Wireless has been on an aggressive expansion campaign here in Nelson over the past year or two and just this past week put up another one of their monopole style antennas just south of the Route 151 & 6E intersection north of Nellysford, VA.
We inquired to Verizon about the upcoming changes several months ago. No one from Verizon has responded to any requests for information.
I was wondering when we would see a change with the merger. My phone has not changed, however. I have a blackberry curve (8330) and it still says 1XEV like it did before here in Nelson. I have full bars. I use my phone as a modem for my laptop some…but so far my speeds are averaging around 200kbps. I am hoping with the verizon change it will be faster.
Maybe your phone’s status changed because you are verizon? Maybe the alltel phones won’t change at all out here…we’ll see.
Tommy