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Been in Castro Valley for 11 years. Terrible coverage. I kept thinking that it would improve. Called Verizon this year and told them that I "couldn't hear them now". They said there were no plans to fix the problem. Their answer was to sell me a home micro cell that hooks up to the internet. Good signal now but there is a brief delay in the conversations like the international calls had back in the day. I have a Sprint phone from work that gets 5 bars in my living room...

These are new hybrid phones. Have lots of dropped calls. Voicemail notification sometimes takes over 24 hours. Very unhappy.

When phone was new 4 years ago recption was good now it is poor.

Used to get good reception, but now it is down to mostly 1 bar and periods of no reception.

I have ATT and am looking for new service. ATT has poor reception in my home. Only works in certain areas but lots of interference and constantly drops my calls. A friend on Mt. Rushmore has Verizon and claims has good reception.

Sprint is the only carrier I have found that gives even mediocre coverage in palomares hills.

I was told the AT&T tower for Castro Valley are is damaged. It took them 3 months and still not able to get it fix. It caused weak signals and a huge amount of dropped call.

More to add on last posting - Avg rating only with WIFI, without WIFI, T Mobile is not as good as Verizon or ATT. Outside of Palomares, ATT / Verizon has TMobile beat by a longshot. In Palomares, Verizon was slightly better than ATT but cost more and the difference between VZ and ATT did not justify the additional cost. ATT would have coverage in a couple of rooms but had to be in a specific location of the room and had to hold the phone still. Heard Sprint did not get anything.

My phone piggybacks off of my WIFI and gets a very decent signal through out the house and up to my property line. Without the WIFI feature, the signal sucks. Don't confuse the TMobile BB8120 with the ATT BB8120; while the ATT one advertises "enhanced coverage" with WIFI it doesn't allow calls made throught WIFI; unclear what they mean by "enhanced coverage"; their reps didn't know either. On TMovile, occasionally the cel phone service drops and re-establishes itself after a power down / up. The HO association said T-Mobile will install a new tower near the water reservoir off of Summerglen. When this happens, hopefully, Palomares Hills will finally get decent cel phone reception. This may happen in 2008; have recently seen notices posted on lamp posts on this.

I have lived in this development for over 4 yrs. Reception has been spotty for all cell services. I have Verizon now and I now avg. 2.5 bars but it does fade in and out (especially in the evening). Verizon has been the best of the worst for this area. Inside residences usually exacerbates the reception problem, especially facing the canyon. If you live in this development / zip (94552), do NOT depend on any cell service to replace your land-line. AT&T is 2nd best (2-bars less often but this will fade in and out also). T-Mobile, Sprint / NexTel and Metro-PCS have non-existent coverage (no bars to 1-bar and it fades). My recommendation, Verizon is best for this area but don't rely on reception and use a land-line as a primary phone service. Use cell only as a back-up.