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Excellent reception, US Cellular has the best overall reception by far in the mountains of western NC, both in and outside the Asheville area. Verizon would be second, with Sprint 3rd, because Sprint will roam on US Cellular and Verizon towers; but Sprint will mostly roam away from the immediate Asheville area and the interstates. I have also had BellSouth Mobility / Cingular / AT&T and Sprint, and have several friends with Verizon. Alltel doesn't exist in this area, but I have friends from outside the area with Alltel and their phones work very well here roaming on US Cellular and Verizon towers. If you have a GSM service (AT&T or T-Mobile), it will work fairly well in the city of Asheville itself and on the interstates to Hendersonville and Waynesville, but if you roam very far away from these corridors your phone will make a pretty good paperweight, but won't be good for much else; because GSM towers are pretty much non-existent in the rural areas of western NC. T-Mobile only recently became available in this area when they bought out SunCom, and they have the worst overall coverage of any that are available here; mostly roaming with AT&T. GSM only exists on the 1900 (PCS) band in North Carolina, the 800 (cellular) bands are all held by CDMA carriers (in western and coastal NC by US Cellular and Verizon, in the Piedmont by Alltel and Verizon); that is one reason indoor coverage is so spotty with AT&T and T-Mobile in this area, and they also have far fewer overall towers.

the best service in america almost never drop a call maybe 5 in 8yrs anywhere I go

Have never dropped a call on I-26 from north of Mars Hill to south of Hendersonville. Signal loss up in the wilds beyond Barnardsville, but who doesn't have that? Local service has been great -- sales reps keep giving me free new phones even though I'm on a plan that no longer exists (and is much cheaper than anything else out there now). Phone choice could be better.

I have to laugh at the comments here regarding Verizon. My wife and I started with US Cellular a few years ago, then switched to Cingular, then finally to Verizon. There have been only a couple of VERY remote places in NC where Verizon has let me down, and my service has been very reliable everywhere else from here to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and down to Vero Beach, Florida.

Does T Mobile work in the Asheville area. Also, where can I find a T Mobile office in Western Carolina?

No signal without M Cell, spotty coverage even with it.

sprint service reps acknowledge poor reception in this area and say nothing is planned to change that in the near future.

Frequent lost signals. Very poor reception. A lot better all around than Sprint.

AT&T is awful. When there is a signal, it seems to go up and down like the wind. Major dead zones and dropped call issues. Call quality is terrible when there is a signal...

No reception inside / outside house. Coverage seems to be spotty along the whole street.