this phone sucks i730. switching to cingular

Reception in North Beach is rock solid. There are spots in the city where calls get dropped, but they have improved. I tried T-Mobile recently and it was absolutely horrible. I called customer service to point out that I had no service in my apartment and they told me I could request a new antenna in my neighborhood. Yeah, right. In any case, I've had Verizon, Cingular, and T-Mobile. Every one has its flaws, but I'd stay way clear of T-Mobile in this area. Their reception is so bad it's a joke.

Fine reception all the time.

CINGULAR SUCKS. Every call drops out after a minute or two at this location. Lots of times people call me and my phone doesn't even ring. Later I get a voicemail message.

WORST reception in SF ever! Great everywhere else but the Bay Area! I go to school at SFSU and the only place I get reception is OUTSIDE every single building! Usually, I have to turn the phone on and off or wait a few minutes just for the phone to find reception! I cannot even get any signal in my garage and there are occasionally dropped calls on the first floor of my house. I'm lucky if I even get 1 or 2 bars anywhere in the city! I can never get reception inside buildings and it seems to be the worst in the Sunset area. I went to Hawaii in the summer and surprisingly gets better reception than here! My contract is finally over and I need to decide if Cingular, Sprint, or Verizon is the best in the city. Choose anything but T-Mobile!

Haven't had any reception problems. Voicemails and text messages always get to me straight away. Use in other parts of the city have been problem-free, too. In sum, drama free.

It's not bad compared to where I used to live. I can always make and recieve calls. I'm better at the front of the house than in the back. Sometimes I will get 4 bars, but mostly I get a solid 3. I can hear callers fine, but many people tell me that I fade in and out. Customer Service SUCKS - they told me they cannot guarantee service INSIDE a structure. Are you serious? My contract is almost up and I may stick with them seeing that Cingular GSM is getting poor ratings and Verizon refuses to offer 7PM nights.

I get pretty good reception everywhere... except my home / office. Drives me nuts. I get better recption at the top of the Summit Six chair in Tahoe than at the top of Potrero Hill. I was ready to switch, but after reading some comments, hard to decide. If I worked anywhere else, I'd stick with Sprint for sure.

I can only get a signal in one room of the apartment. Cingular says they have good service in this area. They are very very wrong.

I been with Sprint for 4 years now without problems...

To add to the 94103 comment: These stairwells are hard handoff areas for BART / MUNI METRO stations downtown that have Sprint PCS coverage. Surface St.is Channel 100, while underground is Channel 75(?!). I suppose BART really can shut down underground wireless coverage. Got the info from my debug screen. Once your CDMA 1900 phone locks on to a consistent signal, you're good to go.

Orient yourself between the Masonic Auditorium and the Pacific Ave. and Jones St. SW corner cell site for best reception. Otherwise you get poor line of sight.

The top of The Hill is really bad even though phones show good signal strength. As with a previous comment "I assume this is due to very poor C / I ratio (carrier to interference). The network also fails to be able to maintain calls (properly handover) when moving from the north-facing slope of the hill to the south-facing slope and vice versa." This has been a problem for many years and I have just assumed because there is no way for proper coverage it will always be very poor.

A lot of these posts are from people within blocks of me, and also with Cingular, yet the service is very different. I consistently had great service until Cingular sent me a SIM card upgrade which essentially rendered my phone obsolete. This happened to coincide with my 2 year contract expiring. Great corporate strategy... I think different phones can make for highly varied reception.

you really do get what you pay for. horrible customer service - horrible coverage - many dropped calls

This is for T-Mobile but it is true for Cingular as well. The problem is the absence of any antenna west of 19th Ave. (see map) both side of Golden Gate Park. Manu cellular companies had projected to build antennas above a Church (Irving and 43rd) but a group of citizen petitioned to block that project. Cellular antenaes are dangerous for our health. Probably true but any 10th grade student could explain that such a danger is proportionnal to the square of the distance. At the end, the antenaes above the church has less effect than my microwave oven or my own cellular phone. By the way, do these citizens have asserted the risk to have a 911 call not done properly? Five minutes delay for fire fighters, ambulance or police represent a threat much more consistent than a whole life living at 100 meters from these so dangerous antennaes.

cingular - poor little to no reception in apt despite line of sight to sutro towers. ATT was also nonexistent in the past...

Full bars (7 out of 7) on third floor, west-facing apartment

Coverage is very good anywhere in my apartment. My roomates use Cingular and Sprint and they have no coverage in the apartment unless they are next to a window. Have been with Verizon for 4 years and have had next to no problems with service but choice of phone is not the greatest. If you're looking for a cool / latest phone your options are pretty limited. Guess it's a trade off, nice phone or better coverage. I've used all three major carriers and have noticed one thing, no service is perfect, you'll always find a place where you can't get service or calls start dropping

T-Mobile is the worst. My contract is finally up and I can stop being held hostage by them. I have outages all over on Hwy80, around the city (the Marina District is awful); I find both Verizon and Sprint are better in the bay area for overall coverage. Sometimes even voicemail alerts are as much as 24 hours late arriving...