Verizon is the way to go in New York city. I have had sprint and AT&T and both pale in comparison to Verizon service. With Verizon I even have reception in subw tunnels sometimes. With Sprint and At&T I had problem getting reception standing in the middle of the street. Do yourself a favor and start with Verizon. Otherwise you have months of frustration and shotty service ahead.

Cell phone service goes out frequently on this street and nearby on some streets off 5th avenue 9, 10, 11, 12 street

Signal strength is good, BUT their system is overloaded: incoming callers consistently receive "All circuits busy" messages (and aren't bounced to voicemail!), and outgoing calls require multiple attempts before they go though. DO NOT CHOOSE CINGULAR FOR THIS AREA!

Decent reception most of the time.

Terrible coverage in the Middle of manhattan!!!

No reception in basement, while T-mobile worked fine down there

lately i've been getting "network busy" and need to try a few times to try to make a phone call.

very good reception except in interior of the building. on 21st floor of a high rise office building.

generally good reception. recently, have had difficulty establishing a call - often takes 2-3 redials, network busy, etc.

If I go into a building without reception, when I come out it can take up to five-ten minutes to get a signal again. Also I have had incidents where my phone is on with a signal but people cannot reach me as it goes straight to voicemail. Within 30 minutes or even several hours, the phone will recognize that I have a voicemail. Very bad reception here. It may just be my phone however, the Panasonic GU87.