Coverage Reviews for Philadelphia, PA

Verizon

Love Verizon it gets reception when I need it to and I can sometimes even get reception underground on the train.

T-Mobile

I get little to no reception in my house. As soon as I go out side I get at best 2 bars.

Sprint

Most of the time Reception is cool, it's the voice quality thats bad. I find myself self saying what did you say over and over again, also ringtones volume is low compared to other phones.

T-Mobile

Worked fine until Nov. of 05 and then I would get a continuosly fluctuating signal and almost any call over 5 min. would be dropped. Sometimes I get bars, but it won't let me make a call. T-Mobile gave me an excuse about aligning towers to fix it, but nothing has changed in months.

Verizon

For the most part I've had VZW for about 7yrs and its been great. However there phones suck compared to other companies. Sprint / Nextel has the flyest phones but the worst service.

T-Mobile

Only one dead spot on Germantown Av. in Mt. Airy. Great phone. Too bad they don't offer this one anymore.

Verizon

The reception has been great all over Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Outside of an occasional dropped call I can't report any cellular war stories. I've been in basements, elevators, on highways, and in the countryside and have always been able to make some sort of connection. I must say I also love the Kyocera brand. The handsets features are very easy to navigate. And Verizon seems to be the only company in Philly carrying them Verizon is more expensive and I'm experimenting by switching to T-Mobile using a Samsung x475? phone---I'm holding my breath hoping the experiment doesn't tank... and have a sinking sensation that I will be back to Verizon within the 20 return window

AT&T

Cingular has great coverage here with signal even indoors in elevators. I used to have T-Mobile but due to poor cell coverage in this area, I switched.

Verizon

Coverage is fine in about 1 / 2 of the hospital; the ground floor of most buildings and the Rhoades building have poor-no coverage. Total deadspot in the ground floor hallway between Rhoades and Silverstein. Best reception in the upper floors of Founders and Silverstein.

Cellular One

Reception is pathetic on the cheap plan I have. If I get service at all, I usually lose the connection after a few minutes. This is true all over the City. By contrast, my Cingular service on my blackberry is usually fairly reliable. I can not wait to get out of my cellular plan.

T-Mobile

T-mobile reception was ok at home, but I used to have dropped called constantly (usually at the 17 minute mark in a phone call).

AT&T

Just switched from T-Mobile to Cingular for non-reception reasons. so far the coverage has been great. I used to have AT&T Wireless 2 years ago, and they were horrible, in this area, but the quality has steadily improved, and I almost always get max or max - 1 strength

Verizon

I used to get excellent service in my home, even in the old stone basement. But just within the past two weeks I can't get any service except analog until I drive to the top of the hill! service constantly goes in and out. There is no reason for this... ridiculous.

Nextel

There is completely no reception indoors and very minimal reception outdoors

AT&T

Works well generally except in my house. Many complaints from others about the sound quality. Anybody have any experience with this phone or the 650 with Verizon?

T-Mobile

I live in the Mt. Airy / Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. T-Mobile constantly drops coverage. Especially frustrating are the 'call failed' messages I get until I clear the dead zones. I am switching carriers due to the frustration...

AT&T

Perfect reception on the 17th floor of my University of Pennsylvania highrise. No problems at all around any other parts of the campus, except for the basements of some buildings.

Nextel

I bought a Nextel for all thier cool features such as walkie talkie and insta-messaging, but now regret ever getting involved with this compnay thier reception is non-exsistant and I drop at least 5 calls a day! Take my Advice and Aviod at all risks!

Verizon

If I want to make calls in my house, I would have to stand up, sit straight, or I would get dropped. I put my phone in the living room and sometimes it won't ring when people call, then I would get a voice msg indicator from them because later. I can't even make calls outside in my back yard, the only place where calls don't get dropped on a regular basis is my front porch. Besides that, it works excellent everywhere else I have used it in Phila

Verizon

In my apt. calls are continually dropped. It is so frustrating.

Verizon

Generally reception is around the Philly is great, but it sucks at my new place in Fairmount. Unusable indoors, very tempermental outside.

AT&T Wireless (TDMA)

Overall pretty good, but many dropped calls. Spotty signal inside my 3rd floor apartment. Practically no reception inside university buildings.

Verizon

I have never had below 4 bars since I got verzion except for some spots in center city.

Verizon

Reception is bad in this part of Queen Village; actually, it's bad from South St.from 2nd St.to 8th Street, and down to Christian.

Verizon

reception is good outside but bad inside the house (stone walls)

Sprint

Terrible reception with numerous dropped calls. Frequently lose signal while talking to people. Cannot get any reception in my own apt.

Verizon

I've never gotten anything but perfect reception with Verizon on campus, indoors or out, except in the sub-basement of my lab building (two floors below ground), where it drops calls a lot (like at least one in three calls will be dropped mid-call).

Verizon

I too get no reception in parts of the house in W. Mt Airy and drop calls if moving from certain rooms to others. But outside of the house and throughout the city, mid-atlantic region, and wherever else I've travelled in the USA, reception has been outstanding. Same carrier and number for 6 years and never had any of the problems or complaints that others talk about. Only problem now is the lack of good phone choices and locked / blocked features compared to other carriers.

Verizon

reception is spotty within the house. only the areas near the windows are acceptable with occasional drop offs.

Nextel

Best phone out there today. I had Cingular and I did not have any service the people that work at Cingular store are very mean to everyone that walks in and I am happy that Nextel has great service in philadelphia.

AT&T

Calls routinely drop every 10-12 minutes! The signal bars will all appear but, a few minutes later, without fail, even if I've not moved, they drop to 1 or 2 and the call fails. BF's phone does this too, and sometimes so quickly that he can't even listen to the messages on his voice mail before the call is dropped. I have SOME better luck outside of the house, but still often get dropped calls.

Verizon

The ONLY problems I've had from the Delaware through 69th; Oregon through Tmple U has been the Subway and basements / elevators of large bldgs; elevator in my high rise condo at Broad and Spruce fine, though

AT&T

I have had absolutely no problems with my carrier, i.e. cingular.

Nextel

over all reception is bad but periodically signal would get stronger from time to time... .

Sprint

I do not get reception in this neighborhood at all, my friends one had a Cingular - he gets one bar another has Verizon - he gets may be 2-3 bars; but mine - NO BARS WHATSOEVER.

AT&T Wireless (TDMA)

Five bars at my house but reception has deteriorated accross the city since the merger with Cinglar. I have read that they want to force everyone to GSM. But GSM out of urban areas is terrible!

Verizon

Great reception all over the city and suburbs. Occasional dropped calls.

Nextel

Nextel is the worst carrier ever. I do not get reception anywhere! I work in Center City and can not get service until I'm on 76 or 95, and then I continuously drop calls. If you are looking for a carrier in Philadelphia or anywhere in the US save your money and DO NOT go with Nextel.

AT&T

I changed phones at about the same time as the ATT / Cingular merger. My old phone on Cingular got great reception: inside, outside, etc. V180GSM Motorola. I now have a Cingular Nokia 3100. Piece of junk. Poor reception. Drops calls even when I'm in a good reception area. I'm beginning to think that they save on air time by cutting me off after a minute of talking. My crews call me on land-line now because cell reception is so poor. Cingular says I shouldn't be having problems, and that I am in a "medium" reception area. My wife and kids have VERIZON. Love it.

Verizon

not bad... havent had too many dropped calls over 4 years. on the way to the jersey shore is another story... but once you're down there... its fine.

T-Mobile

Always good reception here. The closer you get to Pennypack Park the worse the reception. There are no towers in the park!

AT&T Wireless (TDMA)

i had contract with att, now my phone is not work have no service for three days, Cingular refuse to void my contract. I have been told either begin a new contract or shop e-bay. this is totally crazy, I will never sign with Cingular on a contract, I rather pay the penalty fee than to have lousy customer services

Nextel

No matter where I've gone in the city of Philly AND the burbs all the way up to my cabin up in potter county(on the boarder of NY) I've literally had nearly perfect service and signal. Both rx / tx raw signal strength as well as dispatch strength has been awesome. I use my phone for not only voice and data service but rely on the GPS applications as well on a daily basis to find clients homes, Nextel being the only carrier that even has anything CLOSE to the navigation system they offer. I can say that in the past two years of living in philly I've not had even 1 dropped call or gargled D / C trans. Been with Nextel now for 7 years and loved every minute of it by comparision to other carriers I've had since 1989(yeah I know, a VERY long time). I can honestly say that d / c has actually saved my life at work when I was stabbed by a client, so if their service had n ot worked, I wouldn't still be alive. To me that says alot. Highly recommended!

T-Mobile

T-Mobile has never ever given me a problem 3 different phones all great reception From the NE to Center City to Manyunk.. No one dropped call (with the exception of any call I make to any Nextel phone but it's their's not mine) Nextel Sucks... please hold why we don't locate our subscriber

T-Mobile

T-Mobile loves to jerk people around with reception. Some days I get great reception, some days, like today, nothing. I'm pretty sure I can make a call, but no web browsing, and no instant messenger. It may seem like whining, but I bought the phone for those services, so I expect them to work when I need them. Oh well, Cingular, here I come!

Verizon

0-1 Bars, dropped calls in my house and in the Acme in Academy Plaza.

AT&T

only one or 2 iffy spots in my freinds house but all over the city Cingular gsm is great and there international romaing parters in europe are wonderful so I dont know why u ppl think Cingular is horrible works wonderful for me T-Mobile works almost no place

Verizon

As long as your not in a basement or in an auditorium you should be cool, but anywhere else (and I mean anywhere) you will get service even if it's a little. I've had very few drops and I actually think that Verizon is the best service out there right now.

Nextel

Good luck getting reception. Cuts in and out... and thats even if you get the chance to make a call. Gf's Cingular gets full bar while I pray for 1 bar.

Nextel

Nextel has been and remains the worst of all carriers. Every call that lasts more than two minutes gets dropped and that's standing OUTSIDE! Inside a building... you can forget about it. Just wish they would get the message and upgrade. I'm leaving Nextel after 5 years... maybe if more people jumped ship, they might get the message.

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