Carrier / Rating

Location / Comment

Date

I work and live on Gallaudet Dr. right by California school for the Deaf, and California School for the blind. Reception is poor on both Cingular (gsm) and ATT (gsm). I have to go right by thwindow to get a descent (1-2 bar) reception. with Nextel I had no problem.

If I had to rank carriers: 1. Sprint, 2. Verizon, 3. T-Mobile 4. ATT / Cingular. Verizon is about as expensive as Sprint with good coverage and reception that is great in the Bay if you are calling someone in the Bay or vice versa. However for some reason when people call from out of state - to them it sounds as if you're talking inside a soda can with quality randomly getter better or worsening. Given the similarity in price with Sprint. It makes more sense to go with Sprint if you're paying for a Verizon plan. If you want to pay less and you're willing to get a plan that's not as good as Verizon but not as horrible as ATT / Cingular - T-Mobile is a good choice.

T-Mobile is pretty decent in the Bay Area. There are a few dead spots (BART tunnels, a part of San Jose) but overall coverage has good reception. If you're rich, you're probably better off with Sprint.

Great service. Have service everywhere I go. Had services where places I never had with Verizon.

Average reception outdoors. Poor to below average indoors.

In the area of Fremont, Irvington district I usually have about 3~4 bars. I work in Newark and receive much less signal strength, about 1~3 bars, inside typically none. In the Santa Cruz area I do not have any signal on the AT&T GSM and usually go into roaming mode. Problems also on Highway 1 in the Davenport area, low signal and roaming on Cingular network. Good coverage on 880/680 with coverage problems on north 680 near Concord. Should also note that my phone has a few problems with coming back onto a signal, sometimes I will get a "unreconized sim" message and need to reboot my phone.

No reception inside 2-story building. Very poor reception outside the building where I work. Last month, AT&T salesmen convinced me to switch from TDMA to GSM, and they also told me that GSM reception will have big improvement as they activate more towers by end of March 2003. Well, nothing changed. Yesterday, they told me it will take a few more weeks! If things don't improve, I will switch back to Verizon and stay with TDMA.

Inside the house in 94538 or 94539, I used Samsung X426 and Motrola T721. Either phone I got none of 1 bar connectivity while Verizon got 3 or 4 bars.

I've been a customer since before Verizon was called GTE. I always thought Verizon had the best reception but I can no longer say that. It has such poor reception in Fremont, CA that I'm seriously considering switching carriers. Put up more towers or I'm switching!

Was awful a year go (2010) but somewhat improved recently. Still drops my calls every time when I drive around our neighborhood, which is in the Mission Hills.