Coverage Reviews for Palo Alto, CA

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Rating | Carrier | Location

AT&T

Brand-new iPhone 3GS, and AT&T provides no coverage.. it worked slightly the first day when I tested to make sure I got a signal, but since then coverage is non-existent. Sprint coverage was great... what a mistake.

AT&T

Drops calls all over town. AT&T is terrible in Palo Alto. No reception at all inside my home. Very limited reception in the area around my home. AT&T map shows 3G service area.

AT&T

Drops calls all the time. Sometimes no reception at all. Sprint worked great thru out Palo Alto. AT&T is terrible in Palo Alto.

AT&T

poor reception; frequent dropped calls in building. will probably change to another carrier... Verizon maybe ?

AT&T

goes from 3 bars to 1. quality is OK sometimes, and terrible other times.

AT&T

Consistently bad service. Oscillates from No Service to one bar. Takes several attempts to send a text message. For calls that go through voice quality so poor that even saying "call me on my fixed" is difficult before the call drops. AT&T says its a known bad area and there are no plans to improve it anytime soon (why are they not putting a new cell-tower on the new Community Center on Charleston Road?!)

Sprint

Poor reception inside apartments near Greer park. Better outside, but still not great.

T-Mobile

dropped from 3 / 4 to 0 / 1 one week or ten days ago.

Verizon

Unable to hold conversation in my house. 1-2 bars at best and drops signal usually within 30 seconds.

Verizon

I get good reception where I live in downtown Palo Alto area. Reception on Stanford campus is terrible, however. Slightly better reception on med school campus, but still pretty darn bad.

Verizon

Incoming and outgoing calls break-up, many dropped calls.

AT&T

My old TDMA phone doesn't only have much better sound quality, but it also has a better signal than Cingular's GSM.

AT&T

Cingular has a lousy signal at this location. Half the calls don't even connect. Works okay across the border in Mountan View, though. I've driven to Costco a couple of times, when I had to make a call that had to go through.

Verizon

4 years with Verizon and I've never had a dropped or missed call except in two places. (1) Stanford campus, which is well-known to be terrible for every carrier but Cingular (rumor has it that Cingular has some sort of exclusive deal). (2) Inside the all-metal IKEA store off 101. My phones have been Motorola phones with extendable antennas (V265 and V120). The reviews of those phones say that they have some of the best radios available, so that may be the source of my good luck.

Verizon

I travel often and enjoy the nationwide coverage Verizon is known for. However, it is hopelessly bad at my house. Most calls I receive are dropped. Verizon has let me know that I could be released from my contract because it is a known bad area. (Yes, in the heart of Silicon Valley!) The really bad news is that our previous Verizon phones worked reliably at the same house. Is it possible that as the number of cells increases the sensitivity of the new phones is decreasing to save cost? Verizon has replaced my latest phone once but it did not help.

Sprint

Reasonable reception at home, but a few houses away inside a friends house there is almost no reception

Sprint

Never had problem indoors or outdoors. I always get 4 or 5 bars.

T-Mobile

No reception in home. Also no signal within a block of the YMCA on Ross Rd.

AT&T

I live in 484 james road, palo alto where Cingular has a very bad reception. Works great everywhere else, so I am sticking with the service.

T-Mobile

Coverage in Mitchell Park is alright, but in my apartment across the street I have to stand in an open window to get any signal at all.

Verizon

no problems yet... medical center prefect except on ground floor...

Verizon

Reception is often very poor in the office building here: dropped calls, choppy sound, frequent switches to analog, etc. I usually have to go outside to make or receive calls. Verizon is much better in neighboring towns, or even in other parts of Palo Alto. I have heard that in this particular area, it is crippled by Cingular's monopoly on cell towers on the Stanford campus, a block away.

T-Mobile

There is no T Mobile signal once you get one block off of El Camino. Occaisionally, the phone will see the ATT signal, but not always and the ATT signal does not have GPRS

Verizon

Weak signal. OK outside or directly next to windows facing toward 101.

AT&T

I had Cingular TDMA before, but my husband lost his phone and can not get replacement TDMA phones at the Cingular store, so we switched to Cingular GSM. We now have the Nokia 6102 and the Motorola flip phone V551. I dont know how much our problem has to do with the phone, but I am quite possitive that the problem rest a large part on the GSM service. Our calls are dropped on a regular basis now, compared to almost perfect reception with the TDMA system. Previously, I have not miss any calls for 2 years (AT&T, before and after bought out by cingular). I work in Redwood City and lost more call there than I am at home, again, no problem before. My husband has the Nokia 6102,and he also has lost calls. After reading the post, it sound like the service I currently have is just average, not below average, for the area, though less than acceptable.

Verizon

Signal always drops when travelling from Junipero Serra to 280.

Sprint

I often get the roaming sign on my phone in my house. It has been getting worse the last few months.

Verizon

I can get ~30 seconds of call time before my call is dropped if I lean out on my balcony. Otherwise, No Signal anywhere.

AT&T

I get a good amount of bars... The clearness of calls varies a little

AT&T

The closer I get to my home near Meadow and Middlefield, my bars stop dropping. I get no signal in the house! My husband has a different phone but also on Cingular and he'll get maybe one bar, so not much better. Also drops around 101 and 85 intersection.

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