I started out a Nokia 6160 on AT&T's TDMA network. An old phone and the battery was on it's last legs. I upgraded to T-Mobile for their rate plan and got the T610 phone. No reception at my apartment unless I hung out over the balcony and no reception above ground on the Orange Line in VA. Exchanged the T610 for a Nokia 6650 which had improved reception, when T-Mobile was able to provide service. Found out firsthand they have oversold the network, so when it's busy no reception. Also found out their frequency (1900 MHz) does not penetrate buildings like my old 800 MHz TDMA. Took everything back. They tried to get me to stay by claiming DC has "exceptional" coverage and that they will have two new towers up in 6 months. They would not put that in writing and were not able to tell me what to do in the meantime. I found too many dead spots to list, and am betting at least one of their towers is the one local residents have successfully stopped construction of with a court order. I am now switching back to TDMA with AT&T where I get full reception to T-Mobile's GSM's zero. PS: Even when you do have reception T-Mobile's T-Zone data network is down for days.

The reception at South Dakota & Michigan Ave is horrible. I have to stand at my front door of my house just to get any kind of connection.

Sprint rules. I have tried T-Mobile and ATT Wireless GSM. I do not get signals inside buildings with the GSM phones. Sprint is always at full bar. I even get 3 bars reception in my garage which is 2 levels underground and in the elevators. I would highly recommend sprint for DC.

I love T-Mobile plans but the reception sucks in my house. I live upstairs and still have to move around saying 'Can you hear me now?'

T-Mobile worked fine in this area before, for the last month and a half I have gotten no reception and t-mobile's tech support people won't get back to me. I should have stayed with Sprint

Reception is non-existent from 23rd Street across the Memorial Bridge. Going south on the GW Parkway from downtown, reception does not return until after passing Reagan Airport. Heading north on the GW Parkway, reception returns for approx. 5 miles then is lost as you approach the McLean exit until you approach the 495 ramp.

My life keeps me around Capitol Hill and the Pentagon. I moved here from Baltimore where my service with AT&T was great. Once I arrived here in DC I checked in with my local AT&T Wireless store to get my number changed. The sales associate was kind of enough to tell me that there seem to be regulations keeping GSM towers from the areas I work in. Thus far my reception has been extremely poor and sporadic. Just recently I am not able to get any service what so ever. I'm switching to Verizon and going TDMA now that my contract is up.

It used to be real great in my area. Before I had AT&T and they sucked in my area, so i switched to T-mobile. Recently in the past few months my reception has been horrible, i've called t-mobile about it many times, but they havent seemed to done anything about it.

Why is it that on my billing; it sometimes shows Arlington Virginia as location of call; when I am in Washington, DC?

Last year, I tried with a Motorola. This year, an LG. Reception is defective in upper Georgetown. Calls drop way too often in several other sectors downtown.