On the beach and surrounding streets the Verizon service around here is very sketchy. You're lucky to get enough of a signal to send a text message let alone make a phone call without it dropping. In my apartment I can get a bar or sometime two on the upper balcony. I barely get one in the bedroom or the back of the apartment. I can stand down in the middle of the street or the wide open beach and have a hard time getting a signal most times. I'd really like to switch to another provider, but it seems that none of the providers provide great coverage all over the Oxnard area here.

Sure, reception is good if you care to live on the roof! Incidentally, they consider coverage in this area "good" based on their coverage map but, in speaking with their reps, it turns out "good" in T-Mobile speak is equivalent to having coverage gaps (their words, not mine) with some locations having NO coverage. Two neighbors told me they switched from T-Mobile because they can't get coverage here. Yes, it's THAT bad.

Very bad reception going southbound on the 101 near Vineyard. Better going northbound. I had much worse reception driving my low slung car. It is a little better in the Minivan.

Reception is very unreliable. Fluctuates between 1 and 3 bars. Indoor it's zero.

Verizon Sucks in this area.. I have had 4 kinds of phones and none work. I have to drive half way across town to get any bars!

Had Nextel service in this area and it sucked! Changed to AT&T and ten times better. I get good service all along the 101 frwy from Camarillo to Ventura!

Usually only one bar. Occasionally jumps to 3 bars and then back down. Frequent dropped calls.

No reception inside my home, and 1-2 bars signal strength outside. There is a new tower 1 / 2 mile away, and after updating the phone's program, reception is unchanged for both Sprint and roaming. Dropped calls while outside is the norm. Very disappointed.

Sprint SUCKS! Barely can hold a signal, most calls dropped. Tried several phones... Neighbor can't get a signal at all.

Verizon Rocks! Card good for 30% (1900Mhz EVDO), amplifier brings that to 100%.

Cingular ROCKS! Just get the right phone (good for 70% signal strength) and an amplifier (brings it to 100% signal strength).

I've put at least 12 hrs in the past 3 weeks with customer service and various Cingular shops trying to resolve various problems. I dial and I can't hear a ringtone and I can't hear the people I'm calling though they can hear me. dropped calls, other voices on my line and horrible customer service most of the time wanting us to be on hold for some ungodly amount of time. Ridiculous and I will be trying another phone again. Less minutes for the new plan and worse service and less reliable.

Reception is very poor in this area, although neighbors across the street have better reception. Other on this side of the street report similar poor reception on Verizon.

Actually, I vary up to 3 bars. However, this fluctuates wildly. It is not limited to my phone either. I also have a Nokia 3350 (?) and it experiences reception problems also but is better than the Motorola which is newer. The larger problem is that I experience NUMEROUS failed calls, dropped calls, calls going directly to voice mail instead of ringing first, poor reception (very garbled) etc. There is no rhyme or reason to this in town. I did find out from Customer Service that we are in a "low to moderate" service area to begin with. Add to this the fact that 2 of 3 towers are out of service right now. They could not tell me definitively when these two towers went down, but I have had reception issues for several months and recently (within the past 2 months) experienced serious connection issues such as failed calls or dropped calls. I'd switch carriers for better reception but from what I have read, it appears coverage (or lack thereof) is the same all over this area and Cingular has better calling plans for my use than the other carriers. I wish they would open their SMS services and MMS services to other carriers both domestically and internationally. The merger was a bad idea gone worse in reality. I hope they can fix it soon.

Seems to work fine out on Hollywood Beach too.

I can't get any ringtones on my cell phone WHY IS THAT?

Patchy low signal between Hollywood Beach and the shores from Harbor Back.

Too many drop calls durring a conversation. 0 - 2 bars. Customer care is terrible. I was talking with them for over 2 hours trying to come to a resolution. Came to a conclusion that they are going to give me 30 dollar discount on a different phone but no guarantees of the reception. Asked him if I can get in contact with him if the new phone does not resolve this problem. He said that was impossible as they do not have a number to their building (ya right!). I turned around and asked him to then give me a call in one months time to follow up to see how every thing is working for me. He did not want to do this for their customer and started making excuses that he will be on vacation in one month. Asked him to then give me a call in one to two months and that he can decide which day he can do this. All I want is a curtousy call from himself to see how I am doing with the new phone. Took me a while to get a "yes I will call you myself to see how you are doing in a month or two". They did not want to shorten or break my contract and their was no one else I can talk too. I have been with ATT for over 5 years with no problems until now.