I use Cingular through work and I have an Alltel line. I think I've picked out the Alltel tower about 1 / 2 mile before coming into Jonesborough from Johnson City on 11E and the Cingular tower about 1 mile past Jonesborough on 11E. Both providers generally cover the city well in my experience. That said, I would recommend Alltel service. Alltel's plans offer way more minutes and throughout East Tennessee in general I find the service to be the best around here. I usually get an extra bar or two throughout most of the city. Where I live and work inside I actually get 2 extra bars because Alltel seems to do a little better inside. The calls sound a little clearer. And through work I have to deal a lot with the customer service of Cingular for everybody. I always dread getting in touch with them and their attitude is always, we're sorry for your problem and too bad, but thanks for being a customer of the worldwide huge corporation of AT&T. Alltel has always been more helpful, more polite, offering phone and acount help. Customer service may not seem like a big issue until you have a problem then you'll thank your lucky stars you're dealing with Alltel rather than Cingular or AT&T or whatever it is. I even prefer the atmosphere at the Alltel retail store compared to Cingular in Johnson City. Just a quick note, always go with a Motorola or Nokia phone, Kyocera and LG just don't get the same reception. My Motorola always gets at least an extra bar than by wife's Kyocera and the calls sound better too. We'll be trading her phone in soon.

Little to no Alltel service in Sulphur Springs area. Cingular has recently installed tower off Chalybeate Rd. It provides good signal strength for most of area. Alltel doesn't seem interested in improving quality of signal in this part of the county.

I must agree with the individual posting of 02 / 21 / 2006. The analysis of the Sulphur Springs dead are is "dead on." I would add that a similar problem location is Stewart Hill at the water tower on SR 81 North. Along with a challenge to winter driving, this curving road over the ridge forces one to pull over at the auction house to complete a call. That said, I noticed that one can get lucky and keep a call on ocassion. The experience is limited to the Verizon Network and I cannot comment on Cingular. Andy

Excellent coverage everywhere in the Tri Cities, but beware going past Jay Armentrout Rd, in the Sulphur Springs community. Coverage (FOR ANY CELL PROVIDER!) will drop out past a small distance, to about a mile past that point temporarily. No cell phone will operate in this "black hole area!" However, there is a cell tower site nearby backtracking in the north direction of Hwy. 81 (cell tower site is I think, located near Kiser Circle or somewhere in the immediate vicinity). JONESBOROUGH AND FALL BRANCH CITIZENS, AVOID SUNCOM AND SPRINT / NEXTEL... Very bad coverage in most, if not all of Fall Branch and parts of Jonesborough backtracking closer to Fall Branch. SUNCOM, SPRINT / NEXTEL DROPS CALLS ALL OF THE TIME IN THESE TWO AREAS. The ONLY tower that serves SUNCOM, SPRINT / NEXTEL in my immediate area is about 6 to 7 miles back on the Interstate, traveling north on HWY 81, until you approach the bridge underpass of INTERSTATE 81 going towards Fall Branch. Overall, the best providers for Fall Branch and Jonesborough, I recommend Cingular, or Verizon, or Alltel, in that order. These network operations engineers do need to look in to these problems. Web sites like this would really help them out A LOT MORE, to gather great and real-world situations data on coverage, dropped calls, and no signal situations. The customers use the networks way more than the network testers out here driving in their vans with call testing equipment over hundreds even thousands of miles. Otherwise, I get an impeccable signal with the trio (Alltel, Cingular, Verizon) These are the providers I recommend MOST for people in Fall Branch and Jonesborough. I will add in a comment for Greeneville / Baileyton cell phone purchasers, DON'T ORDER SUNCOM IN THIS CITY, COVERAGE IS VERY SPORADIC IN THESE AREAS, ESPECIALLY ALONG HIGHWAY 11E / 321.