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Living in the Ridgefields subdivision in Kingsport -- I have two bars in the house, sometimes drops to one. Voice calls are fine 90-95% of the time. However, only holds onto 3G about 50% of the time, then drops to EDGE. I have Wi-Fi in the house, so that's no problem for me. AT&T really needs another tower (or two) in Kingsport. Verizon is 5 / 5 bars (Moto Droid) at the same spot.

I am with T-Mobile what a joke. it works fine if I want to stand in the middle of my street in the rain, snow ext. to use it. But if I'm in my home. IT never has signal, calls never come threw, and if it has signal as soon as I pick it up to call someone. it Goes Straight to Nobars and searching. I HATE this service sense T-Mobile bought out my old company. sun com. Sun com was bad, but I hoped it would improve one T-Mobile took over. Only got worse.

I love Verizon Wireless I do get reception almost everywhere I go and when I don't it is only gone for up to a minute (when traveling) Altell and Verizon have the same reception because they use the same towers

Have had other carriers but Alltel seems to get the best reception in this general area.

We have had cingular, altel, and verizon, and used different phones. We have no reception at all, not even 1 bar. Aparently there is not a tower close enough, or the signal is blocked

I have great reception all over the Tri-Cities area. I even have reception in the Smokies while hiking. The biggest problem is Nextel seems to be dropped calls. Sometimes calls are dropped a lot and sometimes they never drop. I love the off network walkie talkie feature, it allows you to talk to someone even if there is no reception, unique and very nice to have.

Alltel has great coverage all over around here. I'm on a full 5 bars all over Kingsport. I spend most of time around Bloomingdale and Lynn Garden area but travel throughout Tri-Cities. Even Sullivan Gardens is covered well which others on here have mentioned having trouble with another provider. I'm happy with reception all over area.

Don't buy Cingular phone if you live in the sullivan gardens area.

Had good repeption one year ago. Recption has gone to nothing now. NO signal along Sullivan gardens parkway. If you live near the middle school don't get cingular.

Before choosing a phone I borrowed an Alltel, Verizon, and Cingular phone from different family members and really watched the bars for a few days. I heard many poor reviews of SunCom and several customer service horror stories from Sprint so I eliminated them two immediately. I tested signal just driving around as well as at Fort Henry Mall, a house in Colonial Heights, and a house on Cooks Valley. Overall, Alltel and Verizon were similar and noticeably better than Cingular. Cingular cut out several places on Memorial Blvd, did much poorer inside the mall, and was consistently a couple bars less than Alltel or Verizon. Alltel and Verizon were very close and by far, the two best options for Kingsport. Alltel gave an extra bar in several places in the mall, and also did a little better at the house in Colonial Heights. Overall, after trying them out, I went with Alltel because they appeared to me to have the best coverage here with Verizon in a close second. The price was another issue. I have more family on Verizon, but Verizon's prices where a little more expensive and they gave fewer minutes. I went with a 900 minute plan with My Circle on Alltel which is basically unlimited calling for me. Verizon also gave 900 minutes for $59 / mo, the same price but no unlimited minutes to anybody but Verizon customers. Most other plans were similar in comparison, Alltel, on every plan either gave more minutes or equal minutes plus My Circle to 10 numbers. Alltel also gave more text messages for the price on those rates. Overall, I really consider a lot of details before choosing a provider and if this is ever read, I hope it helps somebody else out. I tried out just about all the providers and Alltel seemed like the best deal for the price and also had the edge on coverage for this area. The only other provider I would even consider for this area is Verizon but I didn't see a clear reason to choose them.