U.S. Cellular selling it's operations in Illinois

[Da Coach]

For those of you who have cellular sevice from U.S. Cellular, this might affect you. It could also affect the Chicago White Sox, who play in U.S. Cellular Field, which may need to be changed.

U.S. Cellular is selling its Chicago, St. Louis and central Illinois markets, along with three others in the Midwest, to subsidiaries of Sprint Nextel Corp. for $480 million.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-us-cellular-exiting-chicago-market-20121107,0,6960450.story

[ChewaBrave]

Supposedly they are keeping their name on the stadium. US Cellular in Chicago blows anyway.

[Da Coach]

Supposedly they are keeping their name on the stadium. US Cellular in Chicago blows anyway.

I saw that. In 2003, they paid $68 million for 20 years for the naming rights. I predict the name will get changed long before that deal runs out in 2023.

[Beninator]

Until recently, I had US Cellular as a provider for almost 20 years. During that time, I had great customer service although I wasn't always happy with their selection of phones. However, last September I switched to Verizon to get the iphone 5 and 4g! US Cellular's CEO turned down the iPhone 4s and to a degree I can understand that decision. However, I have to believe that decision by their CEO led to the mass defections stated in the Tribune article.

[ChewaBrave]

In a world of ever increasing smart phone and tablet use I'm now sure how you could ever expect to be successful while not offering 4g in Chicago of all places.

[Da Coach]

My only 2 year experience with U.S. Cellular was not pleasant at all. U.S. Cellular was the first to go to digital service, but they did so before they had adequate towers and equipment to handle everyone's calls digitally. So for 2 years I had half my calls dropped or not completed. Plus there were huge areas outside the city of Peoria that had limited or no coverage, even though their "coverage map" guaranteed that they did.
I tried to get out of my contract, but they refused to allow it. I was actually told by a corporate service manager that their claim to have coverage in the areas I needed actually meant that they guaranteed I'd get service only if I actually got service there. Because of that moronic attitude, I would never go back to US Cellular.