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.

In my house, no bars. Outside my house, no bars. Anywhere from Durham to Chapel Hill, in my car, inside a store, outside --no bars. Calls go straight to voice-mail When calling AT&T, response has been: "Coverage in your area is excellent"

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

Horrible reception in my house. Probably going to switch carriers very soon.

Sprint put up a brand new tower very close to my house (I live about 3 miles from Southpoint Mall). The reception has been great on our phones. Scott King Rd traditionally has very poor reception because of the trees and the curves, but I have no problem now. We used to have Cingular / AT&T and had horrible reception in the area, and even in the house. Sprint so far has been MUCH improved! I would be careful looking at old reviews for Sprint in this area since the new tower seems to have improved reception greatly!

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

Zero, none, nada at Duke's Bryan center. Other wireless phones work fine there. Not AT&T.

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).

I moved into the area in 2005 and had Verizon at the time. I rarely had coverage, so I switched to Alltel. Until about two months ago I had excellent coverage. Alltel can only say I should have excellent coverage at my location. Verizon said the same thing before I left.

Sometimes it's fine, but all too often, calls go straight to voicemail or break up every other sentence. It's bad enough that I plan to change providers.

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.

The is almost no signal in Hope Valley. Seems to be a dead zone for AT&T no matter what phone is used.

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.

Good coverage, much better than any other provider I've tried here (including AT&T, Virgin, and Verizon). Works inside my house fairly consistently. Not perfect, but certainly adequate.

AT&T works perfectly. That's when you're outside. If you're on west campus inside a building, the signal will drop to zero within feet from the door. I don't know if Duke's buildings are made out of lead, but I should point out that Verizon does have in-building coverage, so AT&T should either build more towers or Duke needs to funnel GSM signal into buildings as they do with CDMA.

Inside my house, no coverage, phone usually does not even ring; if I go outside, I can make and receive calls, but have never heard a full, uninterrupted sentence... coverage fades in and out, and about half the calls get droppoed. I'm close to Southpoint Mall, but neither my wife nor I have had any luck with the Sprint coverage.

I've been told on several occasions by AT&T that they were putting more towers in the area to improve coverage of the Grove Park Subdivision. It's been over a year and the service is poor from most streets in the neighborhood and usually there is NO reception inside my home.

We moved to Durham with one year to go on a Sprint cell phone contract. The Sprint service does not work in our home or in my wife's office in DOWNTOWN DURHAM. We have asked Sprint to cancel the contract and waive the $250 early cancellation fee, and they refuse. Customer service via phone is terrible. They say go to a retail outlet. The phone recording says the retail store is open until 9pm. But the store closed at 8pm. Once I went back to the retail store, they say call customer service. I called customer service from the Sprint store. And they say only a 'service manager' can waive the early cancellation fee. And they only work M-F, 8-5. I was so fed up, I caused a huge scene inside the Sprint store, telling about 20 customers in a loud voice that Sprint customer service is terrible. I will next complain to the North Carolina Utilities Commission.