Coverage Reviews for Philadelphia, PA - By Rating

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Rating | Carrier | Location

T-Mobile

I wonder if those of you who have such troubles are smart phone users. I have been with T-Mobile exclusively since I first got a cell phone in 2001 and only at the beginning - when I lived in the middle of Nowhere, Suburbia - did I have any trouble with reception. I moved to Near Civilization, Suburbia and my reception was suddenly great. Now, I live in the deep heart of Urban Dreck and my reception is outstanding. I drop maybe a couple of calls a month but my bars are always full. I have never had nor will I ever have a smart phone. Call me a snob but my phone works. Can you say the same?

Sprint

Never had a problem in or around this area. Have had Sprint for several years and very surprised when I hear people talk smack about Sprint coverage yet I'm the one looking things up on my smartphone while my iPhone praising friends comment in disgust, "urgh. AT&T is so slow". I would have to say Sprint is just as good as Verizon in the Philly area.

T-Mobile

Maybe I'm lucky but I get five bars in the corner of my apartment. No dropped calls and pretty clear reception. I didn't sign up for the 3G plan though because it's apparently still not very good. Will wait until they develop that later this summer. No complaints thus far...

Verizon

Verizon is by far the best network in this area. AT&T sucks! I had so many dropped calls and horrible call quality. Verizon rocks here.

AT&T

At&t in my area is perfection, in and out of my house I get all bars of service I never dropped a call and the volume on my phone is perfect. AT&T I think is better then any other compnay

Verizon

Great outdoor reception, Both 3G and 1X. Indoor reception depending on the building drops down to 1 bar but typically I'm able to hold onto the call even in the oldest of buildings all around the city.

Sprint

Perfect service, I cant remember ever not having service or dropping a call. A+++

Sprint

I was with Cingular. Sure I had 3600 rollover minutes, my phone didn't work in my house. Every call had to be done standing on my outside steps. Switched to Sprint--Perfection, perfect on all floors of my house, perfect going down my cement basement steps. Works everywhere, inside and out. Contract will be up soon. I'm not paying for their $100.00 "everything" plan. Will probaly switch to Virgin Mobile. They use Spirit services and that "everything" plan is under Fifty bucks. Go figure.

T-Mobile

Great reception usually during the day, after 5 or 6 no reception, dropped calls, calls fail or I get someone else then the intended person I tried calling. Was told by T-Mobile my signal gets scattered and should turn my phone off and then on so that the closest tower will pick up my signal. Nope, I believe the problem is congestion, too many people using cells during the evening hours. I pretty fed up with this losey service and hope T-Mobile will reimburse my lack of use and be held responsible for any emergency that I can not make a call for. NOT HAPPY!

Verizon

Two years and great call quality. Other than the rediculous high bills, I have have no complaints.

Sprint

Sprint has great service in this area. No dropped calls for me (5th floor of condo)

T-Mobile

reception is fine. but NO CALLS GET THROUGH. sometimes I have to dial 7+ times to reach someone, and texting is a nightmare of holding the phone in my hands and constantly resending mssgs over and over. lately it's been especially bad, dropped calls and network failures.

Verizon

Clear signal, no dropped calls... even works in my basement. Verizon is pricy, but worth it in my experience.

Verizon

Verizon Wireless gets great reception in the Kensington area of Philly. I travel a lot in Eatern USA and have had no trouble with Verizon. (Meanwhile I have a friend who goes for miles and miles on major roads with no reception at all. I'll stick with Verizon!)

Verizon

maybe i'm getting good karma after suffering with reception issues with Cingular for so long, but now with verizon, and with a good phone (probably something to do with it as well) I have not gotten anything less than perfect and I live on the bottom floor of a big building with lots of trees around. Even in the basement level of the apt. complex I get 5 bars. When i'm outta da house, I still have perfect reception. its been so good that if I go down to 3 bars i'm thinking wtf is going on, even 4 bars rarely happens. the only place I have any issues at all is on the basement level of where I go to school, but considering that NOBODY else ever has reception down there no matter what carrier they have, except a few other Verizon people, and the fact that I sometimes have enough bars there to carry out a phone call, i'd say thats pretty good. btw, my problems with Cingular were befor I moved so I have no idea how it measures up in this area.

T-Mobile

To all you people who think T-Mobile is so bad: They're just started a few years ago and have been improving a lot since then. I've had them since the beginning and now their service works just about everywhere. They're even starting to roll out a 3G network.

Verizon

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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!

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

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

AT&T

I always get service no matter where i am. I have not been out of Philly yet with my service.

Sprint

Great reception throughout West Phildelphia, including inside University Buildings

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