I have a Verizon phone for home and a Cingular / ATT phone (Nokia E62) for work. The Verizon phone works much better all over SF, and the Cingular phone is the only phone that will get reception on Stanford campus.

T-Mobile's EDGE / GPRS "Broadband Speeds wherever your phone works" is AWFUL! I spent $180 on the card for my new Sony Vaio Laptop and $49 / month for the EDGE / GPRS Service. I was told by T-Mobile that it would be fast. EDGE / GPRS is SLOWER than a Dial-up connection! T-Mobile offers no apologies, or a cent of credit for the crappy service. Most of the representatives at T-Mobile don't even know what EDGE / GPRS is. "Is this some sort of thing for your laptop, I've never heard of it." said one lady from T-mobile. I tried Sprint's EVDO, but it had spotty service, and their phones drop calls too much, not any worse than T-Mobile. DON'T GET T-MOBILE OR THE EDGE / GPRS laptop card! Not ready for the market yet, price should be reduced drastically. Oh and to those people who say "all cell phone companies have issues and drop calls", that is like saying all cars break down. Yeah, they do, but Honda's and Toyota's statistically do it less than say a Ford. My point is some carriers are of course better than others. I had VERIZON and the phone worked everywhere, and rarely dropped. CINGULAR (Which is going back to AT&T now... WTF?!) has strict credit requirements, awful customer service, and their phones drop constantly even though the billboards say "least dropped calls", they are terrible. Why can't a company just make a basic phone that works. I don't need to watch TV or use my phone like my iPod. I use my iPod when I don't wanna talk or be near my phone. No real world testing. The NOKIA 6133 I now have from T-Mobile though is the only bright spot. Easy to grip rubberized exterior and push a button to flip it open make it great. Also a durable phone, T-Mobile sucks, but Nokia 6133 rocks.

After reading comments from all over USA, I scratch my head and wonder, why is it that we pay such high prices for a service that at best it would appear works average to just plain ole bad? (to say nothing of the problems these devices create) Is this indicative of a larger problem here in America?

Dropped calls inside apartment nearly on top of Nob Hill, even near windows. Bad reception on Bush / Pine routes in and pout San Francisco. No service out at Lincoln Park.

My phone works... but it's so garbled that I can't stand it! I'm always having to move to various locations in my apartment, and even then it seems to only work when I stand at the window, or (strangely enough) in the bathroom. But honestly who wants to do that?? My roommate has T-Mobile, and her reception is just as spotty. I used to have Sprint, it worked fine... but I was trying to be cheap and switched to Ghettro. Ugh. I am going to try Verizon and hope that it works :(

San Francisco State University has absolutely horrible T-Mobile reception. Getting a signal indoors near Holloway and 19th avenue is next to impossible! Outdoors I get 1 bar, tried other cell phones with my sim and same deal. A litle better towards the stonestown mall direction but considering how many people go to school there not to mention work there one would think T-Mobile would wake up an imporove the signal. This has been the case for 3 years. I have called them a number of times about this and I still have to go outside to check my voicemails.

T-MO works great in CV. The RAZR is another story. Looks great but lots of software glitches (made by marketing people).

I really wanted this to work since I am tired of being gouged by Verizon for occasional minute overage--come on, it doesn't cost them anywhere near 40cents / min--it's just entrapment. But sadly, when trying to activate, I could hear the person on the other side, and they couldn't hear me. Tried it twice and had to return the phone. Good thing I didn't cancel my old contract yet.

reception on this free Sprint Motorola phone is always good. but on the other brand new Cingular phone in same location its always bad. how is that possible?

Wow I used to have Verizon which was great. Cingular is terrible. I have dropped calls all the time. When I got the service two plus years ago they told me they didnt have a tower in bernal heights but would be upgrading service... its been two years... i am going back to verizon.