Coverage Reviews for Boston, MA

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Rating | Carrier | Location

T-Mobile

No service at all whatsoever if you are going in the basement or Lower Level floors in any of the hospitals. It is the worst! Even in higher level floors, service is very crappy. And the only reason I switched is because someone was paying my phone bill! I am so disappointed with T-Mobile!

Verizon

Data is slow to load however I never have any dropped calls.

AT&T

Very poor reception. I'm thinking of leaving ATT for Straight Talk Wireless. Don't know if signals will be any better with ST and new phone, but couldn't possibly be any worse. AT&T definitely not worth their data / rate charge for this service.

AT&T

Reception OK on Street, absent indoors; don't have twenty words unless I have to repeat or filibuster this

Verizon

Cant download files for a game I want. Texts and calls are affected.

AT&T

Trying to improve AT&T cell coverage in 1st and basement floors of brownstone.trying Wilson omni directional antenna..may try directional

AT&T

Lots of dropped calls! Phone cal that don't go through or the other side can't hear me. Poor quality of connection.

AT&T

How do I say this plainly, HORRIFIC. If I can see the Prudential Tower from my window, I should not have an issue getting a signal. Dropped calls, missed voicemails and messages (IMPORTANT), I cannot wait to dump this carrier as fast as I can. I live in the South End, if I'm living next to 750,000 dollar homes and can walk to Newbury St. and live on 3rd floor, I should not PAY to have NO signal. as useful as a dixie cup with strings, only your hopeful your call gets throuh...

AT&T

I switched from T-Mobile to AT&T in Nov. 2010 to get the iPhone 4. Calls were ok, not much better than T-mobile. Data was not very consistant. However I have noticed that for the past 6 months or so (1H of 2012) the data availability is terrible. The number of bars mean nothing! 4-5 bars means MAYBE you'll have data. Many times it just hangs, not downloading any pages despite '3G' and 4-5 bars showing up. On 1-2 bars forget it. It gets worse at rush hour. Try using the data at 5-6pm. You get 7-10 mins max then cuts you off. Listening to streaming music or web surfing just stops even when you close and open back up. Frustrating! I think iPhone 5 will be with Verizon.

AT&T

I live here. When my cell phone rings, I answer with "Hi, I'll call you back." Then I hang up and call on a land line. There is no point in using my ATT / iPhone in this neighborhood. I changed to ATT to get an iPhone. This was a mistake - big time. Is it the phone or the carrier? Probably both. I locked myself into a cell phone contract, but I still need a mobile phone! Now I'm trying to convince my neighbors to help buy a repeater to boost reception... really? We need to spend $300 to get a decent signal? Shame on ATT for taking our money without providing decent service to the middle of Boston.

AT&T

I've noticed a steady decline of my coverage for some time now from my home in the South End and also in the South Shore area down to Kingston and Plymouth. My old Chocolate phone and iPhone 3G got decent reception in my home. Even my iPhone4 got reception when I first used it. I could opt to get a MicroCell from AT&T, but that's just a band-aid fix and AT&T will then be piggybacking off my Internet bandwidth... Just fix the problems in the Boston area. It's simple... Or it should be with all the account fees they collect every month.

T-Mobile

I am on the Top Floor overlooking the Charles River with clear line of site to Cambridge and have had poor to no service for years with Tmobile. They always claim the next tower, 3g or 4g will fix the problem but I have finally given up and will switch from T-Mobile after 10+ years next month. The reps have given many explinations but the one I have heard multiple times that I believe is: Beacon Hill and the area between Chestnut, and Cambridge streets and Charles joy streets are near the edge of 2 towers and your phone is constantly switching back and forth and dropping calls and switching from edge-3G-4G causing data issues. Who knows... .

AT&T

Emergency service only on the street and in my apartment. What a joke - checking the AT&T map it should be the 'best'. I'm going to have to install a land line for all the calls all I can't make. Going to cancel the service this week. ANy suggestions for Southie?

AT&T

I have been with AT&T for the past 4.5 years (since 2008)and at first I had regular reception and only at times in certain locations would I have dropped calls. Soon after and more specially now, I can't use my phone anywhere! I do have some bars, but I get dropped calls constantly. Usually every call I make is dropped at least once. If and when I am able to make the call, quite frequently (about 70% of the time) the other person is not able to understand anything I say. This even happens when I call AT&T customer service to report the issue, oh and customer service is not 24 hours, if the network is bad, you just have to live with it. I would never recommend AT&T to anyone in New England, more specifically Boston -because I dont go out of Boston that often-. I think as soon as I hear the new Iphone is coming out, I will terminate my contract and purchase it in any other carrier. Anything is better than AT&T ANYTHING, unless you dont want to be able to use your phone but still pay for it.

AT&T

I am not able to use my phone at all in my office... There is usually 2 or 3 bars but no service. Then it will start to look for a signal. I actually get excited when I see the "E" network bc then I can use it. Why hasnt the FCC come down harder on these companys with all the hard push they give with great service when in fact they are horrible and unreliable...

Sprint

Sprint is the worst. Do not pay $80 a month for never getting to use he internet or any apps. The customer service over the phone and at stores suck. I will urge everyone who is thinking about it away form it. I'd rather pay the early termination fee.

AT&T

Voice reception is average, but the data network is so slow as to be useless. Text-based pages won't load, etc.

AT&T

Most accurate comment here was "like having no phone at all" I can't make calls, download emails, play games or anything. it has gotten worse each month to the point where I can't use my phone at all in the city. I can use it at home, but it's basically an $80-a-month ipod at work.

AT&T

terrible reception- I have to go outside to make a call and even then I often lose the call repeatedly. AT&T is great, as long as you don't want to make or answer your phone inside... .

Verizon

If there is a cloud in the sky the phone service is shakey. The real rip off is the wireless hotspot and internet. They worked great for the first few weeks. After Verizon got the iphone they hardly work at all.

Verizon

I switched from a flip phone to the 4G LTE Thunderbolt by HTC the day it came out, and the call signal has gotten slightly better, but I still loose a call about once every few months in my apartment. After a trip to NYC (Manhattan) a few months ago and after experiencing the amazing 4G LTE reception in NYC, I have realized just how mediocre the 4G signal is in Boston, with the signal constantly fluctuating, where as in NY, I had full bars where ever I went. After commenting on this fact to a Verizon Wireless store manager, he said the Boston network most likely won't get any upgrades for a couple of years until they are finished launching 4G in all of their other planned markets.

AT&T

AT&T service was for the most part a mixed bag up until about June 2011. Now all of the sudden 95% (not exaggerating) of all calls get a dropped at least once, if not several times consecutively and the data coverage is absolute ****. It's also killing my battery making my smartphone's battery go from lasting roughly 2 days to now, a paltry 5 or 6 hours because the phone is constantly seeking and reconnecting to the piss-poor signal. I'm glad these bozos, who don't know their a****** from the elbow won't be taking over T-Mobile because I'm sure as hell jumping ship as soon as my contract is ending - maybe even sooner.

Sprint

Poor reception in City Point. Have to leave house in order to keep calls from dropping

AT&T

No reception whatsoever in my apartment. I have to walk 3 flights of stairs to go outside to make / receive calls.

AT&T

Vary from 1 to 3 bars. In conclution AT&T has a bad reception. I prefer to use t-mobile.

AT&T

I have a iphone 3g, and I don't get reception in my apartment. I'm thinkning that maybe it's due to the age of the phone, however, I'm cautious about upgrading and being locked into this terrible service for any longer. My roommate on Verizon experiences no issues at home. ATT is absolute garbage in Boston.

AT&T

Get good voice signal however, data rarely / never works in my office building which is a large building housing KPMG. Most AT&T customers have spotty coverage in here (variety of phones covering HTC, iPhone and Blackberry + some windows phones but can't remember which OEMs specifically). Addittionally, several restaurants around the area get spotty coverage which has proven very difficult when I need to head out for business meetings / lunches. NEED TO RESOLVE - this is downtown Boston and this buiulkding alone has at least 600 employees (~200 AT&T given their market share)

T-Mobile

I have great signal outside of some of the buildings, but once you step inside its like a dead zone. Online on the coverage map it says I would have good coverage but I barely get a bar of 3g in the cafeteria even near the windows and sometimes its one bar of Edge overall spotty coverage in here. The other buildings are terrible, only edge and the wifi on my phone keeps saying UMB network not in range but my laptop says full bars for the wifi network around the other buildings. Wheatley is terrible, my signal fluctuates from 3 bars of 3g to Edge then to no signal whatsoever. Science center has to be the worst phone fluctuates from 1 to 3 bars of edge and rejects all text messages I try to send and won't even put a call through. No signal inside the auditorium / lecture hall. McCormack is also terrible signal is spotty and sometimes non existent. Getting very frustrated with tmobile's signal at UMB. Not sure if my vibrant has a warped antenna. Friend has AT&T iphone 3g and gets 3g everywhere. 5 bars in science center lecture hall and 5 bars in McCormack, while I continue to have no bars.

AT&T

Moved from O and 1st St.had great reception there nothing here. Yet Verizon, Metro PCS and Tracfones work here. To make a call you have to stand in the middle of the street. Can't wait to get rid of AT&T.

Verizon

My apartment and the North End is a complete dead zone for Verizon. I only have cell service in one place in my apartment and that is the bathroom standing over the sink. I can't even receive texts if my phone is not in the bathroom. Sometimes I will use SKYPE instead of my cell phone and I've even considered getting a landline. If you are walking down Hanover Street, you will most certainly lose calls.

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