Inside the house, reception is very rarely adequate or useable. Stand outside in the cold and one may receive a couple of bars and able to make or receive a call; however, even that frequently does not work well nor is it dependable. No carrier seems to work well on the west side of Awbrey Butte. Therefore, switching carriers is of no or little help. To work in this area of Bend, a carrier needs a tower west of Awbrey Butte. Other locations in town and the Sprint reception seems to work fine.

Only one to two bars here. Some functions not working correctly, phone freezes up and won't do anything, so have to turn it off. Or takes numerous trys to get into email. Can't always send email messages. They have disappeared into outer space. Wasn't saved to my drafts folder either, so I lost it all. Very frustrating for a brand new phone and service from US Cellular. Did I buy a flunkie phone, or is it just this area?

I left a comment about AT&T (dated Feb. 4, 2010) reception being very poor in my location--since that time AT&T has updated their "service coverage map" which now states "moderate" for my area and reading their explanation for moderate they say "to go out to the road" to get service---are you kidding me! Before their service coverage map said I had "good" reception--well, that was wrong if you consider 0 to 1 bar as being "good" and having to stand next to a window to even get that 1 bar! There is some good news---I've switched to Verizon and I now get 4 bars any where in my house or on my property and I'm loving it!---sure beats paying for over a year for a service I never really got. Oh, when I talked with AT&T rep. their solution to the problem was: first I had to agree to signing another 2 year contract and they would send me a new phone---I asked what if the new phone didn't work at my house then what---their answer "we're putting up new towers in your area but won't be done until 2012"---AT&T reps have been using that "ploy" on me since 2009---well, my patience has run out and I went with a cell phone carrier who can / does deliver--Verizon!

Was with Sprint, had no signal at all at home. Switched to T-Mobile and I get perfect reception in my house. Never had a dropped call or poor call quality. And I pay less...

Perfect coverage have driven to Summer Lake, and Newport with minimal drops in service. If Sprint Towers are not available I get to use Verizon towers. Best Deal in bend for reception "SPRINT"

ok service with my HTC evo really only have seen 3 bars max in central oregon but the data is always super fast. I dont get good service inside my house which is strange for living near downtown bend.

Great reception in town, no dropped calls. Awesome customer service, never a problem with a bill in over 4 years. Reception is spotty to non existent once you get into the woods, but I'm always with friends who have either Verizon or Sprint so if something happens while I'm out there, I'm covered!

I've been in Bend,OR for five years. I been with AT&T the whole time. And reception as been perfect. And I too have experienced a drop in bars back in Nov 2009. Called AT&T and they said they can do nothing but gave me hope about towers and network coverage coming soon. So I wait and slowly it did get better and now my phone switched to 3G... .Its still in and out,but full bars on Edge or 3G. I recommend to the guy on gift rd is try another high end smartphone that gets better reception. And I get full 3G in Redmond too. Hand in there... .it will get better!

Have been an AT&T customer on my son and daughter-in law's family plan for over 6 years--(they live in Seattle, WA and I live in Bend) up UNTIL Nov 2009 I had excellent coverage (4 to 5 bars at my home) but now I have mostly NO coverage, some times I am "lucky" to get 1 bar. In the 6 yrs of excellent coverage AT&T was in "partnership" with other cell phone companies and was paying to use their towers--but now AT&T is erecting their own towers here in the Central Oregon area and stopped paying for the use of the other towers---did I receive notification from AT&T of this change--NO----so as of Nov. 2009 my cell phone coverage went to 0! AT&T has erected several towers within the Bend city limits which gives excellent coverage (4 to 5 bars) to those people living within the city limits---but I live 8 miles north of Bend. I was told by AT&T "tech person" that a tower had been built near Hwy. 97 (half way between Bend and Redmond) which is only 1 / 2 mile from me but that tower is "giving off an extremely weak signal" but other towers are "planned in the near future--some time in 2010" and I could wait to see if when the other towers are built my reception improves OR I could look into purchasing a "cell phone repeater or amplifier"--I checked out the prices for these items and the price ranges from $300 to $900! Right now I'm not happy with either situation but will wait and hope my reception will improve when the other towers are built-----a person would think service would "get better" after 6 excellent years instead of going in the reverse to NO service and the tech people at AT&T are of NO help at all because the only thing they seem to say is "sorry"---if things don't improve by June I will be becoming a Verizon customer. FYI--if you are thinking of becoming a AT&T customer and you check their website to see if you will get cell phone coverage at your home don't believe their graphic because when I put in my address it shows "good" and surrounding area "best" when in reality there is little to NO coverage--so before you sign a contract ask questions!

I had always had good reception in Central Oregon and when traveling. I'm not sure why more people don't use US cellular. The only spot where I get dropped calls is in Walmart and it actually hasn't happend in the last few months! I give an A+ for my carrier!

I live near 14th and Galveston and my Verizon coverage is spotless. Granted, I don't ever go to Redmond or any of the other towns much in Central Oregon. In the downtown core and the near westside (old mill, 14th street) coverage never fades (obviously though because the towers Verizon initially bought were mostly located close to the center of town). I was surprised to hear that someone on 15th and Newport got bad reception with Verizon. I previous lived at 13th and Newport and got the same, good reception there. I never had to change rooms to make a call or text whereas my friend with an iphone on ATT barely got coverage anywhere in town at all and usually had to go outside to make calls, if she could make them at all. I have encountered terrible Verizon reception in Washington D.C. where I used to live, and I always assumed my phone has a poor antenna and also that the issue was related to D.C.'s rather severe restrictions on tall buildings compared to other major cities. I have also lived in Chicago where Verizon was fine. Bend has even stricter laws than D.C. regarding new and tall buildings and cell phone towers (to preserve the natural look of Bend) and yet I have no issues, other than not being able to access Verizon's 2.5G network outside of downtown. Maybe the people experiencing issues with Verizon either have really new phones that really on 3g we don't have or really old phones which tend to have crappy antennas (unless they are external). Verizon has spent a lot of $$$ to make coverage in Bend great, as they have the most money to spend of any carrier. Now, I don't really get much coverage at all outside of town or while on rural highways, and even coverage on highways between Bend and Portland is quite spotty but since I'm mostly out of town while hiking, I don't really need my cell phone while I am doing that. Granted, I will admit the coverage drops off REALLY quickly as you head out from downtown, like outside of a 10 mile radius of Bend its pretty minimal apart from Rt 97 but I guess that hasn't really bothered me. I didn't get ANY reception in my neighborhood in D.C. such that I would drive my car 10 blocks to the nearest hill to check my voicemail it was so bad. But, here my coverage is practically dreamy in town. So I guess it depends on where you intend to use your phone. I mean would people in Bend really want Cell Phone towers dotting the hillsides and natural areas? Deschutes county is over 50% government forest so what do you expect? I'm sure there are better or at least equivalent carriers for rural coverage but for "urban" coverage, Verizon is best in Bend, I think. Also, I don't use a "smartphone" aka something with wifi or a data plan. If I did, I might think twice. Most of my friends here have Verizon as well and I have never heard them complain about service either here.

Just switched from US cellular to Verizon. So far, one week and 6 dropped calls. US may have crappy phones but they do have the best coverage in the area. Before Verizon came here, they used US Cellular's towers and the coverage was great. Now I'm pretty dissapointed

Switching from Unicel since Verizon bought them out, I got great coverage on unicel and I have great coverage on verizon. to make thing even better they told me that Verizon is switching all the unicel towers to Verizon YAY. by far the best cell company in bend. NOTE: I had T-Mobile for a while, DO NOT GET IT, the coverage is really bad.

We signed up for Verizon in April 2007 because we are snowbirds and their coverage is good in La Quinta, CA. However, at home in Bend, the coverage is terrible. Our calls usually end up dropping although we have two or three bars showing. The coverage in downtown and Old Mill is fine, but on Awbrey Butte it doesn't work well at all. We would switch to AT&T, but their coverage is poor in La Quinta, and we use our cell phones exclusively when we are in California. It's a no win situation for us.

Ever since I got my Verizon phone ( I switched from unicel when I heard Verizon was going to buy them) The service has been better than good. Unfortunately, I went to the authorized dealer on Hwy. 20( Greenwood), for the most part they did a good job, but when my moms glyde wasnt working properly they just kept saying its not the phone, and guess what... It was the phone^_^, but in the end it was all worked out

Great service. I used to have T-Mobile and didn't get the reception I needed outside of town. I also had Sprint and had lots of dropped calls. Verizon is the best I have found in this area. I went to The WirelessSouce on Greenwood and they were very helpful. The staff did more than any other place I have ever done business with. Give them a try! You won't regret it.

Even though AT&T claims roaming in Bend Oregon, NOPE, ZIP, NOTHING!

I just got a new Dare phone from The Wireless Source on Greenwood. It is a great phone; the service seems to be the best I have ever had and I have exclusively used cell phones for the last 11 years. No more landlines for me! The people at the store were great - spent lots of time going through features of the phone and helped me understand my first bill. They did a followup call and reminded me about my rebate (I had put it in the file with my other papers and forgot all about sending it in). That saved me $50! Can't say enough good things about the people over there. Nice and efficient! I would highly recommend them!

What has happened to Nextel? My service is so poor these days? I heard the Walkie talkie portion on Sprint / Nextel is going away. Is there any validity to this?

I have had T-Mobile for several years. Service has not been well, and I'm finally tired of it. Any suggestions on the best carrier?