The reception here fluctuates without any pattern to it. At the moment I opened my phone to test signal strength, it was at the perfect 5 bars... then 4... .then 3... .then 5 again. I have witnessed it drop to 1 or 2 bars and immediately back to 5 (or vise versa), and it is quite entertaining to watch it perform as if it were a super-bounce ball. It maintains the connection always, even if it depresses and rises, and it doesn't cause any problems. Every once in a while, text messages will fail to send. I don't know if that is based solely on the signal strength. AT&T is reliable in most parts of Durham and Chico.

For almost 2 years I have been disgusted and perplexed as to why the reception in our area is so terrible. I live approx 2 1 / 2 miles fromthe Sprint store on Norte Dame Blvd. On the day I purchased not one but 2 Treo 600 Smart phones I noticed that the reception at the store which is just around the corner from the Chico Mall was terrible. I commented on what a irony it was that the Sprint Sales store was a place that reception was terrible. The sales staff would not talk about it. I desired the Treo 600 PDA Smartphone and only Sprint had it available at the time I purchased it. I had AT&T with a Nokia 6400 phone and it was satisfactory as best. Then after inquiring as to when AT&T would offer the Treo I neded to replace my phone. AT&T replied that they did not know when they would offer the phone. Could be 6 months. I could not wait so I prompted for the Sprint Treo 600. I do want to point out that it is not just this area. I travel a great deal to many places and find dead spots where other phone service is present. Recently while at Disneyland I could not call or receive. Not being aware of the consumer laws at the time I demanded satisfaction and called customer service and wanted my money back for both phones. They said that they do not guarantee reception in all areas and that there was nothing they could do about it. I could opt out for a $250 service termination fee for each phone. I was so angry. I have a disabled son and depend on satisfactory reception in case of an emergency call. I informed them that even their own Sprint store had bad reception. I reminded them that they were in the city limits and just 500 feet from a major mall in the middle of Chico. Not out in the country. I would reccomend that all run the other way from Sprint. I do not know anyone that has Sprint to be pleased. With all of the mergers that are taken place I hope that another network takes them over and improves their crappy Mulit Billion Dollar Baby~