I live just outside DC, ride the metro and bus, work downtown. Have rarely had dropped calls, except in one of the metro lines, but mostly I have been able to use the phone while on the metro, even in tunnels. So I don't get the dropped calls said to be so frequent. What bothers me is the quality of the call. Often I can't hear well if there is any noise. I don't like talking for an extended period of time on the cell and prefer my lanline at home.

Throughout my city of Takoma I get great cellphone reception, but that is also true of several other providers. Each person living in my apartment has a different provider, and we all get great signal in this area, so it's difficult to say one company has "better coverage" than another in DC. We frequently call one another and none of us have yet to miss a call, except for phone specific issues (bad phone antennas vs. bad coverage). A lot of things could be better, like company policies, but that is the main reason I switched to sprint: They still have true unlimited data, and their phone plan matched my needs (TEXTING ALL OF THE PEOPLE!). Also, Sprint is far less "evil" (COMPARATIVELY) than the other major choices I could have gone with. So, for me, it was more a choice of morals than a choice of coverage, as they all have great coverage for my area.

Over the past few months reception in this area has dropped to practically zero and almost every call dropped.

Reception is atrocious at best in all of Takoma Park.

Used to be horrible, but since about March 2006 service has improved. Sprint has always had good recpetion here.

Verizon reception at my parents' house is extremely poor. They often have to stand in a doorway to avoid being dropped, and when I visit my phone often spends the entire day dropping in and out of analog roam mode.