When we first came to Gainesville - our reception was just okay. It's gradually gotten worse ~ now it's quite annoying... ... ... ..rarely over 2 bars. Nearly every call is dropped - even if I'm sitting in one place OUTSIDE - the call will drop. I spoke with Sprint about it and all they would say is that many people have problems in Haile Plantation. FUNNY - they certainly didn't tell us that when we entered into our agreement. I'm fed up with Sprint and will DEFINITELY change in April !

I live one mile north of UF, and I cannot get any reception inside of my home. Even after stepping outside to make my calls, reception is lousy. I have called numerous times about this problem. I had difficulty with Nextel in the NE section of town as well. DO NOT use Nextel in Gainesville, FL (worked fine for me while living in MD and AL).

Even when we have reception, our calls get dropped. We don't get messages until the next day, if ever. When we try to make a call, all we hear is our own voice on the line. We have talked to Cingular about this several times. I'm paying for a service that I can't use. I hate Cingular. Never had a problem with them until we moved to Florida.

No reception within 10 miles of Brooker in any direction

Cingular has gone down hill over the past 6 months. I never had a problem with the service but now I have NONE. It started with not receiving my phone calls. Out of no where the phone would say I had a message. THEN, it went to the text messages, they would show up the next day..same with the voice mail. The sad thing is, I have talked to quite a few people who have Cingular and they are having similiar issues. My friend lives right around the corner and we can't even call each other. First thing I did was talk to someone at a Cingular store and was told that it would get better within a week. That was in February. I called Cingular in April and complained that the issue was getting worse, they made me screw around with my phone and then told me it was fixed and I should have no more problems. Now it is June. I have ZERO service. I have called Cingular twice in the past week and I am told that it will be fixed by the 7th. Then some guy from Cingular calls my home (when I said I would not be home till after 6) and left me the nastiest message saying that if they can't get in touch with me they weren't going to fix the problem. I am without a phone and the people who work at Cingular are morons. The are rude and they do not help at all.

Cingular in Gainesville is terrible. There is often no or bad reception, frequently unasnwerable calls (i.e. you can hear it ring, but cannot pick it up), and many times the "network busy" message comes up. Do not use Cingular in Gainesville.

Cingular is the worst in FL. Awful Customer Service (basically they say on the phone" oh I see you live in Florida, too bad, we are again experiencing problems all over Florida and have no idea when they will be fixed"). Stay away from Cingular here.

cingular told us we would have service here and yup you guessed it NO DICE! Cingular has the worst customer service and would never use them again. also I had many many dropped calls or network busy when trying to dial out all over gainesville. stay far far away!

Cingular stinks here. All the problems other posters listed are true; dropped calls, failed calls, incoming calls straight to voice-mail; today absolutely nothing. Dead in the water. No service, and when I call myself, it doesn't even go to voice-mail. That means I'm just missing all calls. Yeah, my bill is paid, it's not that... .. Cingular just stinks.

Generally the reception is good. Driving to Trenton on 232 the reception is awful, lots of dropped calls. After the switch from AT &T everything was fine, but gradually it all went sour again. I wish they would be honest and tell people where the towers are and what to expect with the reception.

Dropped calls, "network busy", fast busy signal, calls go straight to voice-mail. This isn't just now and then, but very frequently. Cingular service in Gainesville is very poor. I do not recommend it.

I've been with Cingular for three years. I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to stick with them or go with another provider. I get a lot of fast busy signals when trying to dial a number - particularly around the downtown / NE area. Often, calls will go straight to my voice mail - no ringing! This happens ALL the time!. It is very irritating especially when I'm expecting a call. I'm working from home and was using my cell for work - but had to add another line at my house because the service was not reliable enough. After all these problems, I still don't know if any of the other carriers are any better.

No problems with dropped calls for the past 4 years; excellent reception. Other carriers from this location have poor reception and some of our friends have to go outside the house to connect well with their phones. We're very happy with Alltel (other than the cost!).

We have 3 phones with Cingular all Motorola V551's these phones go from full bars to no bars sitting in the same location in Gainesville. Called Cingular and they stated there was nothing that could be done, we have friends with them with different model phones that have great service in the same spot. Cingular has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with, while speaking with them about my reception they kept telling me to read my contract "cell phone service is not guaranteed".

Nextel really stinks in the area. The constantly have issues that result in dropped calls, not getting calls, and direct connect that doesn't work. I am changing to something else, I've had enough NO-TELL for the money I pay.

Terrible. That is why I am here to find a new carrier. It is trluly pathetic and I have long since lost my patience with NEX-TO-NO-TEL

cell phone service always dies near 43rd St.and US 441. Also poor in downtown Alachua.

When I moved back to Gainesville in 2003, I had a Samsung phone and used Sprint service. The service was okay in Gainesville, but anytime I visited my family in High Springs, I lost all reception once I passed through Alachua on US-441. Through word-of-mouth, I heard that Alltell provided reliable service in Alachua and High Springs, and my experience has confirmed this. The service has been exceptional in Gainesville as well. I may have one or two dropped calls per month, but overall I am very pleased.

I've never had too much of a problem except in some buildings on campus where its touch and go. I think that has more to do with the building than anything else

I used have Verizon which I loved. I had problems at one point, but once I got a new phone which I got for free because of the issues, it was fine again. Wonderful cell service. I switched to Sprint because they offered a better discount through my work. The customer service is good, but the reception is terrible. I expected this because most of my friends use Sprint and have these problems, but I just couldn't turn down the discounted rates. Verizon is the best by far!