I was originally with ATT on this Nokia 6160 TDMA phone since 1999, now changed to Cingular. My reception has always been 3 to 5 bars in almost every part of Baltimore -- with rarely a dropped call or audible static. And I did travel to all areas. Believe it or not, reception is influenced as much by the phone itself as it is by the tower range coverage, network loading and surrounding band clutter interference. I just ordered a new Samsung SGH-p777 with Cingular and may well regret that decision if the reception isn't as good as with my old plain-Jane Nokia. It's been a toughie and always reliable.

Cingular seems to drop calls all over town, or diverts to voice mail without calling the phone.

I live in Pikesville and rarely do I get good reception. I get perfect reception downtown, but in my house and neighborhood I get 0-1 bars.

Outside reception was bearable, but nothing indoors on UMBC campus.

Reception in my home office is very poor. I sometimes lose a call 2 or 3 times during a 10 minute call. My many calls to Nextel does no good. Their standard reply is: "Experiencing some equipment problems in your area"... or... "Will soon be adding another tower"... yada yada.

My reception seems to be getting worse and worse even though T-Mobile tells me thier adding towers in this area because people are requesting them. My reception no longer works in my house and when I leave out my house I have to power cycle my phone in order to get a signal.

Nextel is terrible and only getting worse. It is impossible to talk to anyone anywhere in the city without droping the call. Pityfull, absolutely pityfull.

Nextel's great in the county, but is terrible in the city. I rarely get a signal anywhere in the city and if I do, it bottoms out after a minute.

I had Sprint PCS plan (there was no reception) before switching over to Verizon Wireless service plan after reading reviews but found the service to be horrible with frequent disconnect during the calls.

I bought Verizon Wireless service plan after reading reviews but found the srvice to be horrible.

Horrible, Horrible reception in my place of employment(Johns Hopkins Hospital). More often than not I have No Service at all.

My husband and I have similar phones and our T-Mobile reception in our neighborhood (close to downtown Baltimore) has gotten steadily worse over the past year. I have no coverage in my house and have to walk 1 / 2 block down the street to check voice mail. It is difficult or impossible to get information on whether a different phone would do better. We almost switched to Cingular, but checked Consumer Reports web site rates them worse than T-Mobile.

I have Verizon and have terrible reception. I used to barely eek out reception in my apartment, occasionally getting 2-3 bars on a good day, but now, can barely get one bar, and even then, calls drop out in the middle of connecting routinely, etc. Retrieving voice mail is an exercise in futility. My Verizon coverage, strangely enough, has actually gottten worse. Same location, same phone - but my bars are now pretty much gone, even within a few block radius. T-Mobile works best in my area, of so I've heard. Haven't tried Cingular / AT&T but am considering it, since across the board, the performance of Verizon, everywhere I go is increadingly spotty and unreliable, with drop-outs, echoes, and sudden drops from 5-6 bars to none with no warning. Verizon definitely is starting to show reliability problems for me. (Of course, at work, they installed a Verizon antenna, so it works there. To bad it stinks every where else seemingly.)

The service has several dead spots in Baltimore City and Baltimore County and drops calls on a regular basis (Multiple Times Daily).

2 bar reception at most, about half the time the phone won't even ring when there is an incoming call. Works well elsewhere but Hampden reception is POOR. Complained to Sprint PCS and was informed that "sometimes it happens"...

I just switched from the SCH-A530 to the A670. My older phone overall had better reception, but the service is still great. I get a great signal throughout the city, and wherever I travel. I rarely have dropped calls. Also, when I'm in a city's subway system, including Baltimores, I always get a full signal. I think Verizon is still the only company that offers underground cell phone reception.

I always have a great signal no matter where I am in the city including the downtown area. I live in a high rise apartment building, and my reception is perfect in my apartment as well.

I sell Verizon phones but they do not work in my house. My friends are also on Verizon & they all have problems in the Pikesville area 21209. I tryed At&T it also had a bad signal. I have T-Mobile now and it works the best in my area. Cingular and Sprint work here as well. Every company has dead spots in some areas. You need to find the one that works the best where you need it. On the road Verizon is the king.

No reception worth a darn in Rodgers Forge. I have to walk into the middle of the road to talk. I want to ditch my landline but cannot until I can find a provider that works.

Verizon has the best system, They have the most amount of towers and maintain there system. Every system has dead spots in certain areas. There is no perfect system, Verizon does not work in my house but it has the strongest signal when I travel with almost no drop calls.