Alltel doesn't offer local numbers in Chicago yet, but I kept them because their plan features are very competetive and I've been a happy customer for more than 5 years. Punching in *228 yields a "Welcome to Verizon Wireless" greeting, indicating that I'm using Verizon towers. Because I have a national plan, however, I never get any roaming charges. My phone is a tri-mode and gets reception pretty much anywhere you would expect it. For example, I have perfect reception in my high rise building and in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, but will drop calls in the elevators of either building. I lose calls in the El and in some of the bigger malls / department stores (the Nordstrom downtown and Target in Lincoln park come to mind). I hope that Alltel eventually gets rights to local numbers here because I've been very happy with them. For people that have been unhappy with Verizon service, I would recommend taking a look at your phone. Make sure it receives at least two digital frequencies---but three are even better (e.g. two digital / 1 analog mode)!

Great coverage... if you want to pay roaming fees. Alltel is roaming all over Chicago. I haven't found one area where I won't incurr roaming fees.

Seriously, God forbid I ever have to call 911 and hold a call! AT&T is absolutely wretched, though, everywhere I go, so I should be used to it by now. Definitely getting rid of them soon! It's always something with them..

No reception in my building. No reception within ogilvie train station. 15-20 min away from the city I can finally start getting SMS and phone calls. Very frustrated since most of the day I am out of reach. The interesting part that my work blackberry which is supported by AT&T has reception all day... Plan on going to AT&T store to ask for trouble shooting, hope it will help.

Riding the commuter train home, I thought it was a good idea to have a smart phone for the ride. The problem is that you have to get 10 minutes outside the city before you can use it. Bars don't matter. I've had 4 or 5 bars from AT&T and still can't get any data - just times out. I'm sure AT&T would say it's because there's a "spike" of usage around 5-6pm downtown at the train station and that they can't accomodate for the spike in usage, but I would submit that a "spike" that happens at the same time every day is really just something you should be able to plan for. It's sad that a "contract" can lock you into a company that can't delivery on their side of the contract. I think I may just pay the fee and get out.

I'm amazed how bad AT&T sucks in downtown Chicago. I have a signal, data just won't connect. It times out and I get absolutely no data. I've had to resort to using my Verizon 4G MiFi just to get data on my AT&T iPhone. When AT&T can't provide data, Verizon has full 4G speeds at over 10m+! AT&T, you suck! Avoid AT&T if you live and work in downtown Chicago. It's useless for business.

Horrible Connection constantly!. I can get reception most of the time when I am not holding it, but as soon as I hold my phone, it will lose connection within ten seconds. And this happens almost anywhere in the city. I've lived in Atlanta and Oklahoma before this last year and never had problems with iphone / att reception nearly this bad.

I live in North Center and work in East Lakeview. I can never get a signal whenever there's a ballgame or a parade or a street festival or anything going on. I can't even send or receive text messages. I often fail to connect to the 3G. throughout Chicago. The one thing I really like about the service is all the AT&T hotspots, though I wish it were easier to connect to the internet without wi-fi. I always joke that my phone is wi-fi only. Anyway, I just canceled my service. Not sure where I'm going next.

Well, in addition to the crappy cell service, for the past 3 days, I have been having problems with text messages not going through. This just started. No changes to my phone. Just another reason to hate AT&T.

I like this company because I get a perfect signal on my phone even if I am in the basement it has at least 4 bars unlike T-Mobile they drop so many calls I'm glad I switched to AT&T

The reception issues just keep getting worse. I often drop calls on the street in the loop, and almost anywhere else in the city. I'm trying to decide between between Verizon or Sprint. I will never give AT&T another dollar.

awful

ATT is horrible! I used to have Sprint which was excellent service and switched to ATT. What a mistake! I have continuous dropped calls and it's very annoying. There are 2 phones on our plan and our lives are spent on the phone with ATT. We get answers that the towers are down, our phones have a problem, we need to hook up to Itunes and update them,we have to talk tech support and then they have us on the computer and checking bars on phone, etc. If you have these problems, you can get a micro cell tower for free. But, guess what?? It doesn't do a thing. Whereas, Sprint NEVER dropped a call, works in the elevators EVERYWHERE, even at the main post office elevator and people would look like it was unbelievable. In fact the ATT rep that came to our residence couldn't use his ATTphone. What did he use to call ATT?? The SPRINT network with his personal cell phone. What does that tell you? Like another comment, we stay on the phone but get "free" service. It is worth it?? NO! for all the annoyance of dropped calls and the time we are on the phone with them. The next step is the FCC. Then switching back to Sprint!

I just moved from Los Angeles and thought it was bad. This is redic! 4-5 dropped calls a day!

Terrible reception anywhere near where I live, near western and grand up to north. AT&T is awful and expensive. They offered to sell me a modem to improve reception. Why should I have to pay them to provide me service I am already paying $225 (family plan with unlimited data and texting) a month for? Their service is so bad I have to have a land line. Insane! I am switching to Sprint or Verizon...

Absolutely AWFUL coverage by ATT in downtown Chicago. I literally walk outside my building, up Wacker Dr.and across the river to the Merch Mart and get no service - zip - zilch - nothing. I'm wide out in the open with hundreds of thousands of people and there's no service. Once I get 3G on my phone I have to sit and wait until I get away from downtown before it actually works. On the 26th floor of my office building it constantly goes from 4 bars 3G to No Service to 1 bar E to a combo of them both, then searches then starts all over every minute. I can't actually use the phone for anything because it won't pick up a signal for more than 10 seconds before dropping it for another.

I have been without 3G service for a week. All AT&T says is "we're aware there is a problem and we are working on it. We don't know when it will be resolved." I guess it will be resolved when they merge with T-Mobile in 2012. Bye bye AT&T. You suck.

AT&T sucks my balls. Sorry for the language, but this has been HORRIBLE for over a year now. Constantly dropped calls -- I mean like 5-10 per day. EVEN DOWNTOWN, on Michigan Ave, of all places, or in the business district, the phone will read 4bars and drop calls repeatedly... OR... there's zero signal. How is that ok? Customer service apologizes, sometimes refunds part of a bill, "pings" our phones to try to correct issues, and IT NEVER GETS BETTER. They always say "there's a tower down in your area, we're working on getting it back up"... = "We're hoping to buy TMobile to give us the coverage we SHOULD have, so we're waiting to see if that deal goes through". Guess what?... that merger won't happen, if approved, until well into 2012. I've had enough, and am now leaving AT&T, even if it means paying to get out of my contract. It is RIDICULOUS to me that we've been paying $215+ / per month for two iphones on a family plan. Sprint now has the iPhone and has cheaper plans, and one can unlock the iPhone and go to TMobile. Why would anyone in Chicago have AT&T? NO F-ing IDEA.

AT&T provides almost no ability to make calls from within the house. From outside, it works alright (weak signal) from many places, but there are a few corners and neighborhood spots where the call will always drop. Have submitted numerous reports to AT&T using their iPhone app for dropped calls, poor reception, slow data, etc. No improvement over 3 years. They offered to sell me a mini-cell for about $99 that would allow me to generate a mini tower in the house using my own Internet connection. Have decided to switch to another carrier, Verizon or Sprint (if they announce that they'll carry the iPhone after 10 / 3 / 11).

It was really difficult to make a decision on reception rating. My Iphone original's reception is really good (upto 4~5 bar) as long as I leave my balcony door open, either little bit or wide. However, the reception drops to 1 bar or No Service at all if I close the balcony door. BTW, I live on 49th floor.