Coverage comments are submitted voluntarily by visitors around the Ellicott City, MD area.
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There's a dead zone at the hill near that intersection that no carrier and no phone keeps reception. Everyone that I have ever heard talk about that spot loses reception for the length of the hill.
Today is Monday, Aug 18th. As of about last Thursday (8 / 14), I suddenly started getting 4 of 4 bars of 3G signal. Prior to that, I was lucky to get 2 bars of Edge. Guessing a new tower was brought online, or an existing one was upgraded.
The reception isn't too bad nor too powerful. I would recommend T-Mobile or Verizon. But planwise with pricing and minutes, Cingular does the job well overall.
Had Cingular for 4 years and never could get decent reception at home. Bars vary wildly from no bar to 3 bars with mostly no bar showing at my house. I can see the bars moving like a tennis match. Reception is non existent inside the house. Does anyone have a service that works well in this area?
I am frustrated that I cannot use my phone inside my house at all. My wife has an Alltel phone (not available in MD) and has no problem with reception anyhwere. I have local number, Cingular service, and often cannot get reception in Ellicott city.
I gave Cingular the benefit of the doubt with 1 bar of reception. The reception changes from 0 bars "No Service" to 3 bars and back in a matter of seconds. I have to dial calls 3 and 4 times for them to actually get placed and then they will get dropped. I'm afraid to call any business clients. I've been told that this is temporary as Cingular merges the At&T equipment to complete it's merger and that it would be resolved last week. This has been happening for 3 weeks. I have had this account with AT&T for 6 years. I work from home and can't call any clients for fear of looking like an idiot. My husband's company (Arbutus) has it's corporate contract with Cingular and they met with their rep last week to break contract. This is no way to treat business clients. At least fess up that there is a problem.
Reception sucks. I can sit in the parking lot at Rite Aid on RT. 40 in Ellicott City (across from Odonnel Honda) and watch my reception go from 3 bars to 1 without moving 1 inch. I was an (unhappy) AT&T customer before switching over to the Cingular side of the house hoping my service would improve. It has improved some at some locations around town (MD / DC / VA) but has performed worst in more locations - especially at home. I have to go out my front door to get a quisi reliable signal. When I was on the AT&T side of the house - I could at least make phone calls from my home. I spend quite a bit of time on my phone do to the nature of my job and spend a good percentage of my day concearned about whether I will be able to recieve calls or make calls. I think Cingular sucks. I think they are selling us a bill of goods. To make it worst - I just love riding buy one of those Cingular billboards bragging about how many bars they have. Then I am reminded by the few bars that my phone has (typically 1 or 2 - if any at all) and I am quickly reminded the old sales motto of never confusing selling with installing.
