Great service everywhere I've went in southern illinois. Even. Have good enough service to watch netflix on my phone in my appt which has pretty thick walls and an entire floor above me. I highly recomend Alltel for anywhere in southern illinois.

HORRIBLE reception, constantly dropped calls and missed calls, receives text messages hours later than sent, wont open picture messages, no internet browser service I always get "NO SERVICE" notification. I have a 3G phone and I get maybe 1 bar. Future SIU students change before you get there

when we are going to get 3G service.

It is hard to place an outgoing call. and sending and receiving texts also isn't that great.

Occasional dropped calls. Slow aircard for PC. Usually 1-2 bars. Will get repeater / antenna to improve reception.

great coverage within Carbondale, 5 bars at nearly all locations accept thick walled buildings.

Verizon has the best coverage in and around Carbondale.Don't even think of getting a Cingular phone and Sprint has poor reception in some dead spots inside city limits.Verizon phones are the best bet hands down in Carbondale.

nextel is horrible. used to be great, now there service is terrible anywhere you go.

I've been with Alltel for a couple years since they were First Cellular here and I found this site before just getting a new Razr to see how other providers were doing in the area. But for those of you not in the area, Alltel now and First Cellular before has always had by far the best coverage in this area. I'm from here in Carbondale but I always make friends that come here from other places and have trouble with other providers, especially T-Mobile and Cingular as mentioned in other reviews. But the Alltel signal is perfect all over campus. As you get away from campus it also does very well all over Carbondale. I have no problems near the mall or on out by the super Wal-Mart. Frankly, it just works all over the place. I don't have any problems where any of my family members live and that's just about all over the city here including way up several turns off of N Illinois Ave on the other end of the city as campus. But all in all, Alltel seems to have some good plans, I just upgraded to a My Circle plan, but most importantly the coverage is great here and what good are minutes if you can't use them?

Would not recommend Cingular for the rural areas south of Carbondale.

I live on Country Club Rd.West of the Main Mall of C'dale. I could call home from there; however, could not understand calls received or sent from my home.

Absolutely no reception in Carbondale for Cingular phones. If you plan on attending school here, do not sign a contract with Cingular. They will tell you that there is reception here, but I have NONE!

It's unfortunate that I discovered after the internship of my daughter that T-Mobile is not functioning in Carbondale((NO RECEPTION ) and for those students planning on attending SIU, parents and student should research ahead of time specially those who are far away from home. NO future installment of T-Mobile towers as validated by T-Mobile company. Reflect your zip code now we are in process of obtaining another provider. T- mobile is great anywhere else since we travel a lot except for Carbondale,Illinois.

Meh, its ok. Get some static here and there, but its overall ok. Bad penetration via thick walls though, but nonetheless, it works.

The entire city of Carbondale is dead for T-Mobile. There is reception just east in Carterville, and on the extreme west side of the city towards Murphysboro. It's unfortunate because this is a college town.