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Older model Motorola phone used almost exclusively for voice and and some text with a prepaid plan. Had Alltel prepaid plan before Verizon took over as the current provider. Wish I had Alltel back because verizon's prepaid plan choices are more expensive than the Alltel prepaid plan choices. Consistently get good reception with Verizon using this cdma phone. voice reception is clear and I consistently get 4 bars of reception indoors. Would consider switching to another provider and a smartphone if any carriers provided good / average signal and reasonable prices in this area. Until that happens, I will stick with the basic phone and verizon's cdma service.

verizon sucks. only have 1 bar in a city like durham. its rediculous.

On the first floor of my house, there's not enough reception to make a call. Upstairs, I can sometimes talk for 20 minutes or so before the call gets disconnected. However, even upstairs, I often have the signal fade before the phone has even finished ringing. Verizon is truly awful in Durham.

Excellent coverage in this location, 4 bars 1X and 3G. Big improvement over what I had in Carrboro.

Spotty in the house, outside the house -- doesn't matter where I go.

Poor reception everywhere in house. Occ. good reception in middle of driveway. Calls routinely go directly to voice mail without phone ringing and then show in my in-box days to weeks later.

I have recently moved to Durham and have been very disappointed in my Verizon wireless coverage. There is apparently a device that radio shack's carry that amplifies reception that runs for $300+. I'd rather not switch carriers, but I also don't want to be stuck with a huge bill just to be able to talk on the phone inside my house. Does anyone know which carriers do work in this area as we try to make this decision? A friend recommended AT&T, but everyone's comments here give me some concern.

Our reception used to be very good here about two years ago. we could talk from anywhere in the house. Now we have to go outside and stand in the driveway, day and night, rain and shine. Verizon Wireless should tell people when they sign up that coverage in that area is bad. We got rid of our landline two years ago and now have a real problem.

Verizon coverage along I-85 corridor from Duke Forest to is very weak.

Very spotty coverage within the higher floors of the hospital and around the area.

I only get 1 bar most of the time and this is outside only. Calls immediatly drop as soon as I pull into my driveway. I spoke with Verizon and they said they only provide limited service in this area and that they have no plans to put up any towers nearby anytime soon. Thinking of switching to Sprint, but I want to be sure that the service would be an improvement.

I recently moved to Durham and brought my Verizon cell with me. I live a few blocks from the Duke campus and reception in my house is awful. I get maybe 2 bars max and very often I get no service, I updated my roaming list (*228) thinking it would help but it didn't do anything. Call drops / bad reception are frequent and several times I have looked at my phone and there has been no service. I haven't had much opportunity to test it in the surrounding area, but as I am not planning on getting a landline it is important to me that it works in / around my house, I am planning on switching to Alltel as they seem to be a major carrier in the area and have better rates than the other available carriers. Verizon has announced that they will be buying Alltel soon - I can only hope that this will strengthen their service in the area and in the meantime I can lock in Alltel's good prices (at least until my contract is up).

Terrible reception inside Station Nine Apartments -- 1 bar max, and I face the outside of the building (facing west). Great reception everywhere else in Durham, including the Fuqua School of Business at Duke.

I've been a Verizon customer for a year and don't have any complaints. Until a year ago I had a Sidekick / Hiptop with Suncom, and it didn't work at all in my house (however, it worked fine elsewhere). Verizon seems to work well throughout the Triangle for me, and I even had full voice and data reception near Kerr Lake where family members were having trouble with other services. I rated it as 4 bars even though inside my house it will vary between 3 and 5 bars, but I have never had trouble placing a call or using data features and call quality is always excellent. I don't recall ever having a call drop. I also have a pay-as-you-go phone with Alltel and the coverage / reception seems about as good as with Verizon. Friends and family who have AT&T / Cingular and Sprint complain constantly about poor reception.

Never more than 3 bars inside my house or out. Calls are constantly going to voicemail with no ringing. No reception at all at work in RTP. Every call / store visit results in new direction of blame. VZW is providing a new make of phone shortly to see if problems are handset related. Technical support at nearly Southpoint Mall is worthless.

Calls would typically sound fine for a few minutes, and then the voice cut-outs begin... and don't end. Calls to Verizon typically result in them saying, "Hmmm", try the *228 sequence again to reset your phone, or, "we sent a technician out to your area and he confirmed that you have a weak signal in your area.". Using an indoor signal booster with an antenna outside seemed to help a bit but you still occasionally get the voice cutouts.

I frequently get no signal and / or dropped calls. A friend of mine on Verizon gets great reception on his phone, a Motorola. I will be getting a new phone soon. Most people get lousy reception at my house.

I just moved into town and my cell phone coverage has been pretty bad in Durham. At home (in American Village) the coverage is extremely spotty, which makes sense since I there are a lot of trees and not many nearby towers. Elsewhere in Durham, the coverage is decent, including in my building at Duke near the Duke Medical Center. I can get signal than most of my labmates. It doesn't make up for the bad signal in American Village, though.

Always excellent reception. I've heard that subscribers of other networks aren't nearly as satisfied as we are. Verizon - keep up the good work!

I get very good reception just about everywhere in the Triangle, including at work in RTP. My neighborhood, Fairfield, is low-lying and tends to have problems with all providers, but Verizon is better than others. I used to have AT&T and before that Sprint, and had poor reception in many places around the Triangle with both of them. My husband still has AT&T, and gets terrible reception from our neighborhood all the way over to Southpoint Mall.

I frequently cannot get reception in Trinity Pary area. My statement is valid because this has been going on for months.

I get virtually perfect reception from Verizon all over Durham. I can't remember the last time I couldn't get a signal, even on the ground floor of large concrete and steel structures. I used to have AT&T and got rid of it because service was extremely spotty. I had to go outside my work building and stand in a particular spot on the back steps to get two bars. Prior to AT&T, I had sprint, which was almost as bad. Get Verizon if you are at Duke. It's worth it.

Very spotty reception around Duke Medical Center. Most calls require multiple attempts. No reliable reception indoors. Many outdoors "dead spots."

Generally great reception. Sometimes it takes a minute to get a signal. Call drops are rare. Overall, Verizon's network quality is great.