Carrier / Rating

Location / Comment

Date

Service used to be OK but took a nosedive in the last two years. One bar in my home. Don't even think about using 3G. No service in Andersonville( Hopleaf) No service in Ravenswood Manor. SO basically, if you want service... stay downtown... . outside. Otherwise you're screwed. You would think we lived in Zimbabwe and not a major metropolitan area. And yes, I too have spoken to Sprint. No joy. Disgusted and searching for a new carrier.

I spent an 1.5 hrs on the phone with Sprint yesterday on a much over due complaint. Calls don't come in and then I don't receive VM's until 5hours later. Texts messages are always delayed and I'm constantly losing connection to the network. I was told by Sprint the netowrk is overloaded in Chicago and they don't have an ETR until September! I complained enough were they let me out of my contract. It doesn't seem like any of the carriers have great service. Verizon look decent but they are very expensive. But looks like no choice :(

For the most part, I'm happy with Sprint in Chicago. I live in Northcenter and get 4G no problem. Most of the city I get great reception. But then there's Andersonville... WTF? I was ROAMING in Andersonville yesterday. ROAMING! And with no data. That is completely intolerable. It sounds like Sprint knows this and has not addressed it for some time. Considering I am looking to live in that neighborhood soon, I'll likely have to give up on Sprint, which sucks because I have free service via my job. Northcenter and Lincoln Square : Perfect Andersonville: No Reception

I live on the first floor of a 6-unit buiding. I Have had my phone for two weeks, and have never had more than 2 bars of reception. I have constantly dropped calls, and had internet downloads fail repeatedly. I had the same problem with AT&T, and with Net10.

Service was reasonably good until introduction of iphone. Now horrible or no service at all.

On the 13th floor south facing side of a high rise. Signal ranges from no bars to full strength with average 3 bars. Manual roam on US cellular: full strength.

horrible reception. All calls inside my home and most buildings are dropped. At most I get 2-3 bars when outside or in my car.

SPRINT SUCKS ASS. They have not been upfront with customers about the outages in the Chicago area and nationwide. There should be a class action suit on its way for charging customers for service that it does not deliver. Ever since I switched to Sprint in 2010 the data service has gone from good to AWFUL. I had NO data service in Chicago all day today and extremely slow (under 0.0 - 0.25mbps on 3G). HORRIBLE. Shame on you SPRINT for taking people's money then lying to the people who put you where you are. #3 in the nation. woo- hoo. BTW, you should really do something about the morons you employ in your corporate stores. They know nothing about outages in the area. Oh, and when you do ask them they say 'I don't really care how fast MY phone is'! Seriously, I got this response from an employee. These are dudes who like technology, NOT customer service people. They are often uncouth and have ZERO interpersonal skills. Really? Dumb dumb dumb move Sprint. They are your first line and direct link to your customers. BAAADDD impression. Though I can't fault them, they're just selling phones, right?

Good afternoon My name is Kendra J..I have no type of reception in my area. I can't call or text from my apt or residential block.

I always have reception, however, it's back and forth between 3G and 1xrt. Most of the time it's slow 1xrt, but when on 3G I get full bars. This is my only gripe. Otherwise, calls are always crystal clear and I don't ever get any dropped calls.

I switched from AT&T to Sprint (see my comment from 18 November 2010 for why) and I couldn't be happier. At work (The Loop) I get amazing coverage. At home I get amazing coverage. The only place in the entire city I have ever had an issue is the subway stations underground. At that point I just put on some music and wait until I see the surface to use the mobile web, send a message / e-mail or make a call. I am almost at 2 months and I have yet to have a single dropped call.

Funny, this phone (EPIC) was supposed to be so superior. I only changed carriers form US Cellular to Sprint because my company offeres a corp. discount, and I'm sad I did. There is NO service on the train underground unlike AT&T and US Cellular, and despite the fact my office building is LITERALLY across the street from Sprint's Corp Headquarters in Rosemont, I rarely get reception at work! The worle 4G this is kind of a sham, too... when I am connected and I randomly loose connectivity, I have to completely shut off my phone and re-start it in order to restore connectivity to 3G network! Can't have more than one text message sending out at a time or it will bump all but the first from sending, and you can't see the screen in the sunlight. What's the point of having a big screen to use internet if you can never connect and if you like being able to text with one hand a'la blackberry-forget it. The only redeeming qualities to the Epic are the camera (which you must use two hands to operate) and the apps which I can rarely use because I never get a signal. The battery life is THE WORST! I even using Adv Task Killer, I have to re-charge the phone AT LEAST 3 times DAILY. DON"T waste your $400, people.

I've had Sprint for about 13 months and had not had any dropped calls. Calls go through right away when I make a call, instead of saying "dialing" and never goes through, no issues with my billing. Everyone can hear me good (that's probably the phone). Recently they did have issues with their towers and I wasn't getting all my text messages right away, it was taking a long time. That was annoying but the issue has been fixed, that was just recently... .overall, pretty good. *For the people with IPhones, I have quiet a few friends / family members with that phone also and not sure why they all have the same issues: dropped calls, calls don't go through, bad reception. They said the problem is going away and service is getting better for them though... .hopefully.

We've had Sprint for over a year and we have been for the most part pleased. Good coverage in the Loop and River North--and only a few dropped calls during that year. Much better than my horrible experience with AT&T.

My mom's house is an old frame house with no metal or anything else that would cause interference with a signal. Sprint claims that we have full coverage, a fact that you would expect them to want to back up in a neighborhood full of wealthy potential customers like Andersonville. Yet, the signal sucks both inside and outside of my mom's house. (They were happy to sell me a network extender though.) Sprint has great coverage throughout Chicago, but it needs to address its Andersonville service issues or it stands to lose a lucrative market area.

I've had Sprint for a couple years. While the phone choice, other than the EVO, is kinda bad, their coverage in Chicago is incredible. I never drop calls. Data is fast.

Since I have contract with Sprint, I get many wrong phone calls as well as bad signal and dropped calls. My husband has AT&T and is worse. I had US Cellular for 1 year, and I got much better service.

Sprint is the best! Excellent service, never dropped calls. The choice of phones suck, but if you need to make calls... Sprint is the answer. Their 4G service is up in Chicago, also. I can't wait for the new 4G smart phone from HTC.

I've had Sprint for over 10 years. It's the only carrier that works well in the three locales I need it to: Chicago, DC, and Green Bay / Door Co WI and all points between. My reception at home could be better (not good in the basement) but I've never dropped a call and I get five bars everywhere in Chicago and suburbs. No complaints. I tried Verizon last Fall and their cell service was good but their customer service was terrible and their rates exorbitant.

Just picked up the Blackberry Tour on Sprint. I had looked at a number of carriers and wanted the BB Bold on AT&T, but was scared away by these reviews. I'm glad I waited. The Tour is incredible and apparently the Sprint network in Chicago is the best. This is a very informative site. Glad I found it before making a purchase.

Sprint's service just keeps improving! I laugh at all the poor folks stuck with iPhones on AT&T. I'm sure people can't wait until the iPhone comes to Verizon. Sprint service in Chicago is probably the best of any carrier. All my friends on AT&T complain constantly.

After trouble with AT&T (as documented by local media) service troubles (degraded service in the Lakeview area because of poor capacity), I decided to switch carriers. After reviewing the message here, I decided to give Sprint a try especially since they have the Palm Pre. EXCELLENT service from Sprint. I couldn't be happier.

Sprint rocks in the area. In the basement I still get 4 or more bars. I switched from ATT which was lousy. Kept getting dropped calls even in the backyard outside.

i've had Sprint for over 2 years now and it's way better than cingular / att! it's just a bit expensive. I get coverage everywhere. very seldom do I drop calls.

Two bars max. of five on my phone. Mostly weak signals all the time.

Works ok at street level. My flat is on a higher floor (30+). Signal quality varies widely, and calls drop constantly so can't use it at home.

I concur with the rest of the Sprint reviews, not so good. I lived in DC for a while where the reception was great, probably having to do with the fact they're headquartered in Northern Virginia. Anyway, I'll probably be switching in a few months as my 2 year expires, to a TMobile Android hopefully.

I can't get a consistant singal EVER. "Huh?" "Can you repeat that?" "I can't hear you!" and "I'm gonna throw this f-ing thing off my balcony!" are about the only things I'm saying while trying to talk on my phone.

Im with Sprint and the reception has always been crappy as heck Some phones I have had did get better reception but never were any acceptable

Drop calls for no reason. I have to stand on my balcony and thats a crap shoot.

every call is a hearing test! phone gets knocked off network all the time and never know if someone is really trying to call! countless calls dropped! horrible customer service, wait times and support. Those people even tried to extend my contract without my knowing and it was quite a headache trying to reverse it. I will never ever ever ever do business with them again and if they are the last cell phone company around... well then i'm going back to stamps.

Sprint Sucks... I had pretty good signal till Nov of 2007. Then it went to H*LL. We have lemon laws that protect us from car companies... why not cell phone service? You get locked into a contract with these horrible providers of service!

I get absolutely no reception at my house or around my house. I can't even get a signal if I set my phone to roaming. I have found that Sprint's service is generally pretty poor in Chicago and even in some of the surrounding suburbs.

On the 7th floor, I always have full reception. I've never had a problem with reception in this area since I've switched to Sprint.

Great Reception and great access to all high speed services. Only occasional fades, but not lost calls around train station.

You don't realize what you have until it's gone. I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile because I wanted a Blackberry Pearl. Now my calls sound terrible and drop ALL the time. I never thought anything great about Sprint's service... it just worked like I expected it to do. I didn't realize how lucky I was until I switched to a service that DOESN'T "just work."

Routinely drop calls four times between downtown and Lincoln Square, especially on Lake Shore Drive.

Poor signal quality in my home, dropped calls, and the voice comes and goes when during a conversation.

no service in the buliding! also have Nextel and Cingular same with them!

Sprint has terrible service at 444 W. Fullerton. Unless I stand right by the window, the call drops. This has been a problem since 2005. I have been on the phone with Sprnt for hours, but no resolution. Some of the excuses I have heard are, "We show 100% signal in your area", "You must be in a weird area", "SPrint does not guarantee service in the home", and "Maybe if you get a new phone and sign another 2 yr. contract, you will have reception", etc. etc. Please stay away from Sprint if you are looking for decent cell phone service around Fullerton&Clark.

No reception between the 30th and 40th floors, although I wonder if any carrier would have reception there.

I live in a 2 flat and basically have no reception. Calls are lost 2-3 times per call. When I do have reception it's completely static. I can only stand in a 1 foot area to attempt to get reception.

Have been with Sprint for 6 years (through all the ups and downs), and I'm done. I've experienced the same decline of service other people are mentioning. I love it when I'm walking down my street (my block, especially right in front of my house) and my phone says I'm roaming... that's usually right after a call is dropped. Sometimes voicemail notification can come hours even up to a day later. The interesting thing is that I rarely have these problems outside of the city. No... Andersonville and Sprint do not mix. For that matter, Chicago and Sprint do not mix well.

I have been with Sprint for more then 3years. I loved Sprint back in the day. But have noticed a sharp declined since they merged with Nextel, in the areas of reception, dropped calls, calls going directly to voicemail, not getting voice mail notification for several hours... and customer service. They SUCK now!

Moderate to good reception inside house. Calls tend to fade in and out but usually won't drop. Sprint TXT messaging and Pic mail is not very reliable.

pretty good reception, however inside huge buildings it wasnt v good, but apparently no phone worx there!

Sometimes I get service for a few minutes, then the call drops. Sometimes I have no service at all. Sometimes the phone informs me I have missed several call while in the area. Don't expect much anywhere in this area.

I live in a high rise and find that Sprint drops calls 95% of the time. If there's any possibility of using my cell phone, the only area in a condo of 1300 square feet where I can use my cell phone is the 6 feet along the dining room window facing southwest. Since I have a family plan, my friend in the high rise next door has the exact same phone with the exact same terrible reception. We also tried Verizon for 2 weeks and found similar difficulties. Another friend came over to try his Cingular phone with the same poor reception.

My LG 1200, started dropping calls one Sunday evening (August 2005) - strangely my wife's phone started doing the same thing at the same time. In some areas (including my condo) the phone would drop calls every 30-secs. I then purchased a used LG 4NE1, which exhibited the same symptoms. After this I got a used Samsung SPH-A400 which did the exact same thing. Through this time Sprint told me that it was the phones. I ask Sprint to explain the probability of 4 phones exhibiting the same symptoms. They couldn't. After some research, I found out that I started having problems around the same time as Sprint was announcing the merger with Nextel. So whatever changes Sprint made to their system was causing problems to their older phones. Sprint refuses to acknowledge that it has something to their network. This is a horrible company and they have horrible customer service reps!

I am very frustrated! Sprint's service has only gotten worse. It used to be I could only get reception if I stood in one room of my apartment. Now even that area is not reliable. The frustrating thing is that the phone will show it has 1 or 2 bars, so I flip open the phone to make a call and it immediately goes to 0 bars. So I close the lid again and it goes to 1 or 2 bars, I flip it open: 0 bars. I am seriously thinking about getting cell phone service with Verizon now, 3 months before my Sprint contract ends, because I am so frustrated with Sprint's lack of reception!

Recently the reception has gotten even worse than normal! It constantly goes from 2 to 0 bars and back again, changing every second so that you are guaranteed a dropped call within the first minutes of trying to talk.

Here at my apartment, and all over the Loop, reception is perfect - 4 or 5 bars all the time. I rarely have dropped calls here and never need to go outside and make calls. Other places in the city reception is generally pretty good, although there are some places where I only get 1 bar. All things considered, I think Sprint is the best (but still crappy because of their customer service) wireless company in Chicago.

Not sure why there ae bad reports on Sprint in this area, but since I have it, I have had not issues at all with them including reception inside our buildings.. So far, my network of friends and family has been growing and we always get signal inside of our houses or apartments, I have also travel to other states like NJ, NC, NY, PA, CA, AZ WA and have had no problems at all..

Lots of dropped calls, even outside in my front yard.. call quality horrible. called Sprint 4 times to open a trouble ticket, the always replied back "we found a problem and fixed it, you should be OK now" but the problem still remains.. will have to go to Verizon, cause I already sound like the guy in their commercials but yelling all crazy "can you hear me now?!?!?"

On the corner I get great reception, in my condo I get terrible reception and need to go outside..no reception except on top floor. Anywhere on the street I have 3-4 bars

Sprint's really good in Bucktown. No other company works as well in chicago

Its a 2 year old phone and works decently around the city, except for in basements. Sprint service is decent, but my roomate's T-Mobile smokes it for clarity. I suggest T-Mobile.

Two years ago, I had great reception here in my apartment. However, after the time has passed, and I've cycled through a series of phones, and Sprint has perhaps made some changes to the local towers (?), I can no longer get decent reception in my apartment. It waivers from zero to three bars. When calling Sprint and asking them to look into this drastic decline in quality of service, they simply state that the phones are not "warrantied for inside use." Nonetheless, the problem remains unresolved. Very helpful, Sprint. Thank you.

Live in Uptown, the reception totally sucks! Dropped signal / calls, weak signal, calls go straight to VM. Called Sprint several times and had a trouble ticket opened however the techs say they couldn't find any problems. I must live in a dead spot. Reception downtown and elsewhere is usually good. I have an awesome plan that they no longer offer so I'm likely not to leave them. I'll just have to use my landline at home.

okay to so so at home, everywhere else is hit or miss. lotsa dropped calls

Just changed phones from Samsung VGA1000 to Sanyo PM8200. On the advice of the salesperson, switched to Sanyo bc I was told Sanyo had better reception on Sprint. NOT TRUE! Though my reception in my apartment was great with my old phone, reception with my new phone is non-existant. Calls go straight to VM at least 2-3 times a day. This is not limited to my intersection. My work takes me to Glenview, Skokie, Evanston as well as Chicago and I miss calls every day! My Sprint reception with the previous phone would drop calls every once in a while and people often had trouble hearing me - though I could usually hear them. Lesson being if you're tied to Sprint, don't get the Sanyo PM8200. If you're not tied to Sprint, there must be better carriers out there...

Call drops and Sprint continues to tell me they do not see a problem. In there system. The reception in Chicago Sucks.

I had great reception everywhere I went in Chicago with Sprint PCS. If only one person had reception, it was usually me. The only reason I am not with them anymore is because of the plans they were offering at the time my contract expired.

Sprint works great in my house, from upstairs downstairs and in the basement. The only times I have problems with Sprint is when my phone's software needs to be updated which happens every few months... there is a service store on state street right off of a block west of clark, this is a free service and you should loose all your dropped calls

I can usually make calls, but in this area I rarely have more than 2 bars. Calls are choppy but rarely dropped. It's bad enough that I'm switching providers.

There are good and bad spots for all carriers but my Sprint service has great reception at most places I go. My apartment has five bars and I never drop a call.

I am very pleased with the service. In home I get almost full bar and outside I get full bar. Regardless, it works everywhere in chicago, northwest surburbs. I have been on the phone coming from palatine to rogers park, clear reception except there is one dead zone where I drive by is on Willow and pfingsten. Else all is good. Motorola V60v phone is awesome. No problem so far. The only thing I don't like is the plans for sprint. They are expensive compare to T-Mobile and Cingular. T-Mobile has the best plan and phone prices.

I always have full bars in my apartment (3rd floor, brick 3 flat), actually i only know of 3 places where my signal drops below 2 bars, first being inside Ikea - Schaumburg Store (zero bars except by the windows). Second -- driving on I-90 through Rosemont. Third -- the subway. I have used my phone all over the chicagoland area and also in NYC and detroit... connection / call quality is always good and often outstanding.

I get dropped calls regularly. There's often static or other noise, or sometimes the other person is too faint to hear.

Can't connect most of the time, dropped calls after a minute or two all other times. Outside or in, Sprint is useless in Bucktown.

I was fine in Lakeview, some dropped calls but no worse then anyone else. I have moved to Bucktown in an 3 flat and cannot hardly any reception indoors. I use to have a Samsung A500, then switched to teh Sanyo VM4500 since the Sanyo seemed to get better reception. What I got was a clearer call, when ever the call still came through. I have had Sprint for many years. I have finally reached the point where I am going to Bite the Bullet and pay to cancel this service, that is how bad it is.

I have to stick my head out of my 20th floor window to speak. I don't understand the terms of service when you get dropped calls then you should be charged for that call. It's very annoying. My contract is getting over this Oct 28, I will be more than happy to move to T-Mobile.

Terrible reception inside buildings. Calls constantly cut-out and are eventually dropped.

Terrible reception inside. Every other word cuts out. Very frustrating.

I have tried every cell phone service. And the only one that works good is Sprint. I even get reception in the basement which is great!

Dropped calls are the norm. Static, echo, distortion, and generally poor reception most of the time. This goes for NW suburbs, W suburbs, loop, NW city. I blame most of it on the phone itself, but I'm getting out of this contract ASAP.

The reception here is perfect. I love it since I changed my phone. I used to have Sanyo SCP-5500 and changed it to Toshiba VM4050.

I can't stand not getting calls and only getting my voicemail almost everytime i'm in my apt. I get dropped called almost everyday. Come on Sprint let's see you kick it up a little in Bucktown (Chicago). It wont take much for me to move on to another carrier. Need big time tower in this area. Otherwise forget about it.

It disgusts me that when I try to use my phone I get so many dropped calls. But the real problem is that right outside my classroom window, my calls are either dropped or I get very bad reception. I am stuck with this bad phone for another year and a half. I have switched models of the phones and still I get the same problem.

I've received poor to zero reception eveywhere I've tried within a 1-block radius of this intersection. At a former employer there, when customers complained about poor cellular reception, their carrier was always Sprint.

No reception indoors...poor outside. Calls frequently drop.

dropped calls are the norm. customer service stinks badly. i have tried three phones here and have had poor call quality and dropped calls with all of them - sanyo 4500, sanyo 6400 and sanyo scp-8100. i have given up on sprint in this area. wish me luck on my next service provider.