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The reception showed 4 bars and spiked up to 5 upon calling.

I always have between 3 and 4 bars in my apartment. 3G is sometimes quite slow however.

Sitting here on Blake St. in Berkeley and I've got 3 / 5 bars. i'm able to use Skype using my data plan at home without any major issues and when I take the BART to work down in Fremont I've been able to Skype people, download apps and send emails no problem using the 4G LTE.

AT&T service is SO bad in Berkeley and North Berkeley. Used to live on MLK and Parker and it was bad, but not as bad as North Berkeley. When job searching, I had to buy a Vonage phone so I could do phone interviews. Now I'm lucky if I can go to Safeway and call home to see if we're out of milk. When on BART, the very second you leave McArthur, the service drops down to zero. I am happily switching to Verizon (even though it's more expensive) which has way better reviews in San Francisco (where I work) and Berkeley (where I live).

I just moved to North Berkeley from SF. Everybody loves to bash AT&T in the city, but I always had great reception on my current and former iPhone there. However, since moving to Berkeley Hills last week I've been disappointed to learn how awful the coverage is here. In my apartment on Regal Rd.my phone alternates between no reception to poor reception. If I stand near one corner of the house I can make calls, but the audio quality is often poor. Also, when I drive down Marin Ave. my calls drop with consistency in a few places until I'm nearly to the highway. I run a small startup company which I was planning on relocating to North Berkeley from SOMA, but the lack of cell phone reception here has made me decide to keep my office in the city. My point of bringing this up is to show how the lack of cell phone coverage can affect the tax base, and probably property values as well. Surely I'm not the first business owner to decide against starting or relocating a business here because of the awful cell phone reception.

I've had AT&T "service" for about four years. Service in my home has been consistently terrible. Earlier this year, AT&T gave me one of their "mini towers," which has helped a bit. Often the mini drops out - just like the big towers. My wife and I will be switching to Verizon by year's end. All of our friends who have V find the service quite reliable.

ATT is a total waste of money--no reception at home in Berkeley hills

Absolutely horrible. when you get a call at least 30 percent are dropped. mystery voicemails when there wasn't a ring. All around North berkeley is generally bad the biggest problem being the dead zones which are from block to block. The all digital network needs a straight shot to a tower to work so it's not really something to brag about when there is not enough towers.

There is zero reception with AT&T along Grizzly Peak towards Orinda.

This is a difficult service area in the Berkeley hills. AT&T service is extremely spotty and very poor when it exists at all. My Verizon tablet usually gets and holds 3 bars. I'll be switching my voice line to Verizon once my contract term is up.

this is a dead zone no matter what phone you have and ATT wont let you out of your contract report them to the public utility commission and you should know that there are SEVERAL class action law suits against them in several states for not letting folks out of their contracts

We have a family plan and in one of the cell phones there is no reception at all. In my second line if I'm lucky and if I stay in the good spot then I have 1 bar. I live in Berkeley downtown and thinking to switch to any other company because I'm sick of ATT, but I have to pay early termination fee. ATT is horrible I also have internet issues with them, well if you could my recommendation is avoid it.

The guy at the AT&T store in El Cerrito said a new tower is going up at Hopkins and Carlotta by Dec 31st so hopefully that will improve reception.

AT&T has had it's ups and downs over the years, but since mid summer totally coverage in Berkeley has been absolutely AWFUL. Lots of drops and missed calls (right to voicemail), coverage holes (e.g. Marin from Albany border pretty much all the way up the hill, also northside and above campus). Forget about any kind of real-time data, in the time it takes Google maps to load a page you can get across town. Driving from Berkeley to SFO area I expect 5 or 6 drops - at least once getting to the freeway, again on the bay bridge near YB, couple more passing by downtown SF.. another at hospital curve. It's insane. The FCC&FTC need to start probing AT&T.. that, or I wish some class-action firm would get interested in bringing a case.

I have been living in Berkeley for only 3 weeks. I rarely have more than 2 bars. Every now and then, for a few minutes, I have more. I have dropped many calls and when I am able to have an extended conversation, the reception is really bad. This was also true when I visited for extended weekends in May and July. I had the same phone and AT&T service in Seattle for three years with no issues. In Seattle the reception was unbeatable. I never dropped calls, always had 4-5 bars of reception and consistent connection to the Edge network. If you live in Berkeley, I do not recommend AT&T. The service is so poor that I am likely going to give up my beloved iPhone, because it's essentially useless here. It's most certainly not worth the month cost.

Very poor reception with AT and T. I just got the new iphone and am close to returning it within the 30 days! I hate it, when compared to my old spring phone and that was not great either. But this one is 1000 times worse. Is Verizon the best in the Berkeley hills? thanks

I share the frustration of all those AT&T customers. What's the use of having an iPhone if it's just an app machine and can't receive a phone call? I finally got out of a 2-year contract, and for all of two years I've dealt with hundreds of dropped calls, crackly reception, etc. I just wish I knew if this "Bermuda Triangle" of reception in Berkeley is an AT&T problem or a problem for all the carriers (the map shows that all the towers are pretty much located in the same area for all the carriers). At this point I think the only way to figure it out is to literally find other carriers' active phones and bring it to your house. Don't believe anything someone tells you from one of their companies, they are not in the business of being honest about their reception quality.

1 bar since June 13th 2010. AT&T customer service and technical support are aware that tower at I-80 and University has been down since this date(2 others have on and off) and there is no 3g coverage. Their official response- SPEND MORE MONEY. They are happy to sell you a new contract and phone(will it work?) or a micro-cell(149.99). Since I am out of contract and have been for years, this option is a joke. AT&T's best suggestion to date has been "buy a pre-paid phone until this tower is up". FYI- AT&T, this is one of the more populated areas of the country with motivated consumers that will be happy to share this information on every social networking, consumer and review site on the internet. Also, everyone I know with Verizon in the Bay Area has little or no problems with reception. AT&T- not taking care of your customers will be a policy that you will find to be very regrettable.

Generally I have to go out in back yard to try to keep a call, frequent dropped calls, so happy the 2 yr contract is over although right at this moment it is 3 bars so in the past month something might have changed.

Here at Haas I have always gotten just awful reception - never 3G services. Never, ever. Oftentimes 1 bar. Today I have full 5 bars and 3G all day. Did they open a new tower or something? Totally great to have coverage here finally!

Fed up - thats what I am. It's useless as a phone unless I park it outside my house pointing southwest and hope I hear it ring. People get frustrated, my kids can't reach me, the unreliability is pushing me to dump my Iphone next week. Is it Berkeley zoning battles that are limiting cell tower installation? What exactly is the problem with AT&T transmissions around here?

I've had ATT Wireless (blue) GSM service since 2004. It used to be fine until the iPhone came out. Since then, it's gradually deteriorated to the point where I have to ask callers to repeat themselves and calls are regularly dropped. Reception fluctuates from 0-5 bars many times a minute. Strangely enough, since I have an old blue SIM, sometimes my phone roams on T Mobile. Then I get 5 bars continuously -- until it switches back to an ATT tower. I used to think that my plan, 1100 local (all of CA and nearby NV -- just what I need) minutes per month for $40 was great and that ATT could have it back when they pried it from my cold dead fingers. However, now I'm considering giving it up (that's how I found this site) when this $50 per month unlimited minutes, texting and data pricing war breaks out. It's 2009. If ATT can't expand its network to accommodate all the customers it's taking money from, then I want out. Life's too short to spend entire phone calls repeating oneself.

You have to step out of the house for reception, it's a real shame. This is a class lawsuit waiting to happen.

AT&T has terrible coverage in this area of Berkeley. I get between 1 and 0 bars in my apartment. I have to step outside to get 2 to 3 bars and that's the best I can get within a 100 feet of the building! AT&T's customer service rates their coverage as "good" in this area, but they are overly optimistic. Do not go with AT&T if you live in Walnut Square area of Berkeley.

AT&T must have upgraded service in my area starting about 5 months ago or so. When I purchased my iPHone 3G in end of Aug. '08 I had virtually no 3G connectivity at all until around April '09 (can't remember exactly). Then all of a sudden I was getting 4 bars consistently and sometimes 5. When I was experiencing the problem earlier it didn't matter where in my house I was or whether I walked outside, even in the middle of the street; the entire neighborhood had bad connectivity... .now it's all fine.

It's clearly getting worse. When I got the phone three months ago I was disappointed with occasional weak 3G and failed downloads. Then 3G was reduced to occasional 30 second bursts. Now I can't get a bar of E and can't even call my job! Not bad from other locations, just useless at home.

Reception was terrible for a long time, then got better for a few months. However the past few weeks have been terrible again. No service or one bar at most.

Extremely poor reception, many, many dropped calls.

Terrible reception. I have to leave my house and walk to a more open area to have conversations on the phone. Even then areas of reception are patchy at best. Even though I love the iPhone, I will replace it with another phone just so I can use a more reliable provider once my ATT contract is up. I would expect this kind of coverage in a developing country or rural area--not the bay area!

Terrible reception. No real 3G at all and a couple of bars of Edge! More Cell Towers! Is it a Berkeley thing that they don't want ugly towers? Could the City / Residents be stopping it? ATT and Apple - Please do something! Or I will HAVE to SWITCH!

Wild fluctuations. Sometimes it is fine for half a day. Sometimes it will drop call after call after call. Sometimes there is no service whatsoever for a minute, and then it will be back again. AT&T says it is because towers are line of sight and the hills are a problem... except last I checked the hills don't move around like puppies in June.

reception is terrible ATT says it is not I have changed phones several times including upgrading for sound quality Can not speak with SF at all reception bars very by where I am in the house and weather

Calls are dropped in progress, incoming calls don't ring (but messages are left and chime). I can see three bridges from here, why can't I get phone reception?

Terrible reception on edge network and no 3G network to be found in my neighborhood. I am sick of constantly asking folks on the other line to repeat what they say because of ATT's terrible service.

My reception anywhere inside my house is terrible. It's slightly better outside but not much. It's never dropped any of my calls but it has constant cut outs on words. I am looking to change carriers asap.

I can't use my mobile phone at home. Its ridiculous. ATT is terrible. I have to stand on one foot, wear an aluminum foil helmet, and have the other foot in a sink full of water. Oh, and hold my head a specific tilt. Berkeley mobile service is horrible on every carrier. I've had Verizon for years and won't go back. I tried MetroPCS, no luck. I went to ATT only because I get the phone and service paid for by work, and they all suck. What is going to happen to the residents of this hippie town when a major disaster happens and their precious landlines are melted down and the only way to get a call out is through a mobile phone?

Inside my house (Grant at Cedar) I get barely usable reception. I find myself going to the windows to get a clearer call. Outside I get good reception. I used to be on Sprint and T-Mobile in the same location and they were noticeably worse. Definitely would NOT move back to those.

inside and outside my house it's highly unreliable (both the number of bars and the quality that the bars represent), and very poor even at best -- scratchy sound quality, fading in and out, dropping calls, even not receiving calls. Awful. I have to use land line or drive somewhere out of the hills to make cell phone calls! My old dinosaur of a Nokia was better than the Samsung, but in this location, everything is bad.

Ridiculously terrible. Bars frequently read 4 or 5 but still drop 1 out of 3 calls, and I can't understand a word anybody says because of static, breaking up, and fuzz. Ick! Anybody have a better service in this area?

Reception is terrible no matter what kind of phone I use. No signal, low signal, dropped calls - you name it.

The signal quality is notorious along this stretch when driving through the UC campus. Cuts out competely, particularly along Piedmont in the heart of campus but strength returns on either the north or south side when leaving. If people didn't whine so much about roof installation of cell antennas in Berkeley, perhaps we could also have consistent signals for emergency calls.

Just switched from Verizon to AT&T do to poor reception last month and needless to say it has bars every where I go to around here in the downtown berkeley area. Up and down university, telgraph even side streets in parts of North Berkeley by the BART it works at. Way to go AT&T.

In the 2 years I've been at this north Berkeley location (2 blks above Euclid and 3 blks from the campus), my experience with Cingular has been lukewarm. I usually get 4-5 bars, inside my small apt bldg, but the connection is highly variable (feels more like 2-3 bars) and the sound quality leaves to be desired. I almost always turn to my landline. Outside, though, reception is noticeably better. In addition, a few months ago Cingular quietly slipped in a new $4.99 monthly charge in the phone bills, hoping that people wouldn't notice! Weasels!

Poor reception on Tilden Park side of Grizzly. Poor to none.

Calls frequently dropped. Reception bad. Coverage varies. Some days it can be good, but there are too few of those good days.

There are weak spots all around our neighborhood. Note: I am 1 / 2 mile from downtown Berkeley. My phone usually shows 2-3 bars, but the signal improves if I'm outside. I know the weak Cingular's signal is the problem, not the phone because I travel regularly to Pasadena where I get 5 bars from the second floor of a 5 story hotel. I wish Cingular or someone would put up a cell tower in the middle of Berkeley somewhere. I read the other reviews of T-Mobile and Verizon having better signals in Berkeley and want to switch.

Many dropped calls, poor signial both inside and outside of the house. I can not rely on service.

I get terrible reception, and sometimes none at all. Many dropped calls. I have the same problem at work near Claremont Ave and Ashby. It was the same with AT&T and with my previous Nokia.

Consistantly strong signal (4 bars) both outside and inside my house. No dropped calls. Used to have T-Mobile and a Nokia 6610 and constantly got dropped calls, and weak / no signal here.

My signal bars are always flucuating in this area, but my call sounds fine and I have yet to have one dropped. I hate to say it, but I think Cingular has raised the bar.

Cingular's merger with ATT did nothing good for our service. there are so many dead zones around Berkeley / Oakland that you can't really have a phone conversation while driving. In the Claremont Hotel area you can't even get a call. I get calls about half the time, messages show up on the screen and I've never got a ring. No customer service at night and on weekends? Unbelievable. The operators are rude and uncaring. I cannot stand this service and am thinking of going to TDMA with Verizon. Sound quality isn't as good, but at least I can talk on the phone without constant drops.

Signal strength and sound quality excellent throughout the southern to central Berkeley area, haven't tested it elsewhere yet. Callers report that my signal quality is excellent also. Subjectively, the sound quality seems at least as good as what I would get on good quality landline phones. My two previous phones, Sony Ericsson T68i and T226, were much poorer in RF performance and audio quality on the same, ATT / Cingular, GSM network.

I'm only getting 2 bars - even when I'm outside walking. I recently switched from Verizon, and quite frankly I thought their reception was great (4-5 bars usually) by comparison. Verizon was a bit screwed up in the billing dept. but that's another story. I also read some unfavorable reviews of the v220 on the web. I'm starting to believe them. I hope that Cingular can improve their reception in this area soon.

Cell phone reception sucks! I had Nextel and T-Mobile which both worked fine here, but Cingular is for the birds!