Carrier / Rating

Location / Comment

Date

Located partway down a little "valley" in an area near Lake Michigan that's full of dune hills. Naturally, all carriers try to position their towers so the signal ends at the lakefront, so my neighbors and I are always at the edge of the signal-range, and the hills don't help. A few years ago, the Verizon signal was terrible--they all were. New residents would walk down the street with their phones held high, trying to get a signal. But since then, a new Verizon tower has helped a lot. Reception is fine in my house and yard, no dropped calls, 2-3 bars everywhere, sometimes 4 on the 2nd floor.

Every year when I visit my mom in Gary, I barely get a signal on her block... and even worse in her house. I've attempted to go outside, I've walked around... still a poor signal. I called Verizon while there and they had me go through the programming crap and it still didn't get any better.

Verizon Wireless works great at this intersection. They're on a leased tower at the intersection of 35th Ave. and Chase St.in Gary. I'm not sure how high up they are on the 500' tower, but the signal goes out much farther than most of the monopoles around my area. I live along Ridge Road, near the Ridge Road / Chase St.intersection and all Verizon Wireless phones work well in this area, including my current phone, plus previos phones: Samsung SCH-a650 and Motorola 120c (this one only worked where signal strength was strong), plus my brother's Motorola V265 and LG VX4400, also my mother's Nokia 3589i and 6256i, and last, my sister's Nokia 3589i and Samsung SCH-a850. Only once has reception suffered in this area, and that was when lightning struck the tower, and couldn't connect to a far away signal, due to an extremely spaced towers system, since Verizon is located on a 500' tower, and it covers a few miles, allowing them to space towers further out from this one. I don't know how well Cingular and T-Mobile are in this same spot, but as long as power is running to the 500' tower, Verizon Wireless will always have a strong signal in this area. I even get full strength inside my home.