Against a common misconception that AT&T in the mountains sucks, I find it on par with Verizon and US Cellular and at times better. AT&T seems to keep a more stable signal and has higher call quality which leads to less dropped calls and network busy signals than with Verizon. This could be capacity issues as well considering the majority of people have Verizon. There are a few dead zones (mainly in backwoods rural places in the middle of no where) but suprisingly I could call and text from the top of mount mitchell as well as hiking up mount pisgah. As with all carriers coverage on the parkway is spotty. If you travel to anywhere else in North Carolina, AT&T is the only way to go. They are FAR superior to Verizon in both Raleigh and Charlotte

Verizon could use some help in the Hendersonville / Asheville / WNC area. Terrible call quality and lack of service. Dead spot at that location

Great reception on Kanuga Rd. and throughout Hendersonville. Dead spot located at Kanuga / Old Kanuga intersection. Coverage maps show moderate service but actually no usable signal (phone shows no service). A new tower to cover Crab Creek Rd. would be good.

Initially I was nervous about switching to AT&T from Verizon but now I am glad I did. Coverage with Verizon was ok at best and call quality wasn't the greatest which suprised me because the majority of the people here have Verizon. Verizon has coverage in a few places on the parkway AT&T doesn't but for the most part they are equal. AT&T has FAR better call quality than Verizon. Verizon has their 3g network in Hendersonville, AT&T not yet. They just added Greenville though and Asheville is next. Other than that no reception issues. I really do have more bars in most places than I did with Verizon as well as less dropped calls and better call quality.

used to be decent, in past 2 1 / 2 months, continuous dropped calls and "service not available". have talked with at least 3 other Sprint customers all of whom have the same problem, totally unstable signal. Even at the Sprint store on 4 seasons blvd. they are surprised at the instability of their service and claim it's a tower issue. Sprint customer service says there are no issues in the area and network coverage is from 92 - 98% on all 5 towers, they lie. I have been averaging over 70 dropped calls a month.

why?

Lots of dead space going to Fruitland and on top of Royal Pines Mountain but the phone works well in other area's and is easily used

With Verizon, almost everywhere I go, I can get a usable signal, even in DuPont State Forest... you'd be surprised; if you're outside and only have one bar, it really goes a long way. The only "no service" spot I've found is mills river campground (small dirt road straight down the side of the mountian on the Parkway), and the tunnels on the Parkway. There's a couple places in the boonies out here Verizon doesn't pick up, US Cellular lets me roam with em, and all of VZWs plans are National so I dont care!

I have at most one bar and this is constantly changing from searching for service to one bar. Even when I go into Brevard the most it ever was was 2 bars. Verizon is decent in Asheville though I have never tested an AT&T phone. Sprint sucks everywhere basically

Alltel works great up here, but only due to CDMA roaming. While they have a license to cover up here, they haven't yet... from my house, on 191, I'm using Sprint. Took a trip to the Blue Ridge Pkwy. yesterday, and was on Verizon the whole time... when you're going 45 MPH in a GMC Yukon, the coverage is in and out, but stopped at the overlooks or on the trails, it's very usable in 911 situations... and who goes out on the trails to chat or change cable service??? If you want to find out who you are roaming on with any network, dial *228 and listen. By the way, the reason that CDMA is better than GSM (Alltel, Sprint, VZW VS. AT&T / SunCom) is because CDMA has been deployed for about 8 years longer than the latter in America and you're probably double as likely to have roaming coverage in rural areas with CDMA.