Coverage Reviews for Philadelphia, PA

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Rating | Carrier | Location

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.

Nextel

As long as I have had Nextel, I have never been able to go to Mt. Airy as well as ghetto Cheltenham Mall and have service. This is stupid considering all of the vendors within the mall that are Nextel dealers. If you reside in Mt. Airy, don't even think about subscribing to Nextel, period.

Nextel

It is rare that you would ever get reception in Center City with Nextel, which in my personal opinion is dumb considering that downtown Philadelphia has the highest cellphone usage in the City. Nextel needs to fix this problem... immediately!

Verizon

Correction. Replaced original battery and antenna on dinosaur handset. Signal strength is 3-4 bars, calls sound clear as ever, all calls come through, very few dropped calls. Verizon's network is the stuff!

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