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I have always had very good blackberry reception from Cingular near my home... that is until yesterday. Service has gone to absolutely zero. What's all the more infuriating is the 3 "bars" of service that they may as well have painted on the face of the blackberry, because it's utter crap. I am now reduced to driving up to Beverly Glen and circling around until all my inbound and outbound emails clear. DO NOT get Cingular for anything until this problem is solved.

My home phone went out, so I needed my cell phone to call for service. In the apartment... nothing. Outside of the apartment... Almost nothing. I found myself at 11PM standing in the middle of an intersection (paying careful attention for cars that might hit me) -- just because I discovered a 2' patch of ground that would net a dial tone. Finally, I just woke up a neighbor and asked to use her land line. I got great reception when I took the phone on a trip to Utah. But in Westwood... No use. No joke. I immeditately switched to Verizon and have had great Westwood service ever since. If you use your cell for emergencies, then it should WORK during emergencies!

AT&T and Cingular has the worst reception ever, I've had my cell phone with Cingular for more than three yrs and havent had very good experience overall especially in West LA area. Sprint, T-Mobile gets like one or two bars usually in my area and with my Cingular phone, I get no calls, if I am lucky I get one call occasionally and when I answer it, it just drops. I would not consider getting Cingular if you live in west LA or if ur in that area alot.

Verizon is a dramatic improvement over AT&T wireless, especially in and around Westwood. I notice friends with other carriers have reception here or there in their own special "sweet spot" in the neighborhood / campus. Verizon is the only one that works everywhere around here.

reception used to be good here around ucla, but it seems like Verizon is losing towers across the board. everyone I know has been getting more dropped calls in the past couple months... be careful. also their customer service went down the drain they used to be a lot better, but the past coupld weeks when I told them I would probably switch my service when my contract expires in june they didnt even really care or try to fix the problem...

Deep inside South Campus buildings, reception is weak and usually non-existent. But the article leading up to this survey explains that adequately (power). In Sproul hall, reception is very good, even working in elevators. In some other residential halls (particularly DeNeve Plaza), reception is spotty in certain corners, but reliability is still around 98%. Verizon is the best choice around all of UCLA when the competition is considered.

Even on the 16th floor of a glass building with a view of the ocean, no reliable reception. GPRS is a crapshoot, though Blackberry users are OK. Apparently the phone is just as important as the network.

No reception inside of the apartment and 1 or 2 bars if I find a *good* spot outside.

Able to make call from 3rd floor apartment. Drastic improvement over AT&T TDMA service. T-Mobile / Cingular has problems with service in my apartment. Verizon works well.

Verizon has the best reception in the UCLA area by far, and it's actually the only company that seems to get reception within my apartment building (my friends with other services get literally NO reception). I switched from Sprint a year ago, and it was more than worth the extra cost. You will still get dropped calls occasionally, but generally service is very reliable. If your reception starts cutting out frequently, consider taking your phone into the Verizon store for a software update. Also, if it's within its 1-year warranty period, they'll replace anything (batteries, bent antennaes, etc.) for free. To keep reception up, update your Preferred Roaming List once a month by dialing *228 and choosing option 2.