Poor coverage unless I set the phone on my office windowsill.

Looks like AT&T decided to drop a tower on the south side of Athens. We went from 4 bars, 3G, to 1 bar GPRS, and that is with a booster. Looks like we will be switching carriers

Phone works great. If I can't get reception with Sprint in and around Athens, it's usually rural enough that there's no cell phone service. In other words, with Sprint you won't worry about roaming.

The service was pretty average but I couldnt understand that Verizon has no towers down here and you have to go up towards Columbus to set phones... .If you have Verizon Wireless service you really arent suppose to in this area... .You cannot send pic to e-mails, send some text and you receive voice-mails at a later time because you are using some other tower, than Verizon... .also, Verizon was not up front and honest about that when we purchased phones in June 2006 online and we even gave them zip code!

I found this site looking to see who had the best reception in Athens because I had a few problems at the hospital where I worked with the signal getting in that huge building with Cingular. I noticed on the tower lookup that Alltel had a couple towers around Athens so I tried them and so far I've noticed a world of difference. I've been convinced that Alltel has a great signal here and definitely the best of the providers I've tried. I also wouldn't recommend Verizon here because my son has a lot of trouble with them and is always on Extended Network when he does get a signal. I guess that's Alltel according to others on here. But so far, the Alltel signal has been great all over Athens and Alltel seems to have pretty standard plans but I my change to one of the My Circle plans. I didn't have any problems on a recent trip to Columbus or where I live on E. State St. either. So far, I'm really pleased with the service.

Verizon's reception isn't too terrible in Athens. When I make a call, it does take a long time to start the call. But the most aggrivating thing about having Verizon in Athens is that it's constantly on an extended network [Alltel] and Alltel sends the usage information to Verizon about a month late, so you don't know if you're going over your minutes or not and by the time you find out, it's way too late to do anything. I've argued it with Verizon and probably got about $90 worth of credits back to my bill. I'm switching to Cingular this summer.

Terrible reception here and in several locations in the city of athens.

T mobile has a bad service in this region. phone goes on roaming to cingular. I live in area near US32, Athens. I have to go outside my house to get a reception just 2 bars. signal goes away in the middle of calls, which is very irritating. Most of my neighbors use Cingular, where you have maximum signal strength. I am also shifting to cingular. Their new plans are great, they have excellent customer care.

I have had wonderful success with the Cingular reception in this area. It even gets reception through Albany and headed toward McArthur on Rt 50.

Nextel just started up in Athens, and the service is terrific! Full service just about everywhere in the city and surrounding areas.

There is hardly any service anywhere in Athens. Stay with TDMA for the time being.

The coverage is pretty good within city limits and neighbouring areas. Only problem arises if you are in the basement of a builidng and do not have windows closeby.