I switched from AT&T to Cingular a bit over a month ago, and got a new phone that I'm very happy with, but it was a total disaster when it came to cell coverage. Driving from Silver Spring around the western beltway to I-95 S and ultimately south to Richmond, it's pretty hard to maintain a conversation for more than 5-10 minutes at a time virtually anywhere along the entire route. Now, I just got off the phone with Cingular and I have moderate good news: the representative spoke with a supervisor, who verified that they do in fact have low coverage around the western part of the beltway, and they agreed to waive my termination fee. (I had argued that their sales rep sold me a product that doesn't deliver what they said it would, and I made it clear that I was prepared to document all my dropouts for a week or two and then dispute all charges on my account.) The rep was actually very apologetic, but she also said explicitly that it will be at least months before they get enough new towers in place in my area for it to make a difference to me. She also told me that she could not switch me back to AT&T because they were phasing it out. So, bottom line: I think (and the company itself more or less verified) that Cingular is virtually worthless if what you want to do is talk on the phone on the western Beltway and down I-95 South toward Richmond. (Yes, I use a hands free set and I drive very carefully, with a lot of follow distance!) However, I was lucky enough (or had chutzpah enough) to get them to waive my early termination fee. Now I just need to figure out which other provider is the best one to switch to, because I don't want to go through all this again. Wish I could have my AT&T back, sigh...

Cingular has decent reception in this area at times. It tends to get overloaded at times and calls will not go through or come in. Additionally, the service is hit or miss. Sometimes there is a delay in receiving a voicemail notification. Also, the service is very temperamental as you start traveling around, working in some places and not in others. Overall the signal strennth is not very strong anywhere (even though my phone indicates that it is). The service is mediocre at best, and I would npt conitnue on with them if it were not for the fact that they use GSM technology, and this saves me money when I am traveling outside the USA.

Occasionally good enough to carry on a simple conversation upstairs, but often no reception at all in the basement. Sometimes it works a little better on the front porch.

Typically, the phone only has a one to two bar connection (both inside and outside) and the calls eventually end up being dropped. I've noticed Cingular generally has poor coverage around DC altogether, though, the phone seems to work great in Scottsdale, AZ.

I never had coverage issues in the past. Recently service is not available. What happened?

On the beltway around Greenbelt heading toward Baltimore coming from AAFB, the call always gets muddled and then drops. Nextel suggests bringing the phone in for a diagnostic test, but never admits fault with their service area.

Everytime I drive from DC using 16th street into Maryland and am using the cell phone, it goes dead and takes at least 3 miles before I get a signal again. This ALWAYS occurs around Walter Reed, and not even really near the hospital. Nextel CSR's always say that I need to take my phone in to get it tested. Maybe they need to take their towers in to get THOSE tested.

SOS only in my house. Nice. Need to walk outside and up the street to get any reception at all.

Since AT&T merged with Cingular my reception has gone severly down hill. Every time I call someone they can't hear me even though I can hear them and I have to call a second time. The bars change so rapidly, I go from like 5 to 0 in with a few steps. I used to get great service in my house but now there are numerous dead spots where I lose service. I also get busy signals when I call the other phones on my family plan... cell phones aren't supposed to be busy, you should be routed to voicemail. When I complained to Cingular they said it was my phone and tried to convince me to buy a new one, but I think that is just a marketing ploy.

At the house, good reception inside (except basement), outside very strong signal. Previously used ATT TDMA, did not work well inside, had to go outside near the street to make a call.