I'll be going a long just fine with 5 full bars, then I type in the number and hit dial and it will immediately drop to 1 bar. This happens all the time. Also, I can be on an active call and it then goes to dead air, when I look there is 1 or no bars - and as soon as it disconnects or I hit the hang up button, it jumps back up to 5 bars. The way that Cingular / AT&T has the lowest "dropped calls" is because when you lose the signal, they have it programmed so that the phone stays active so that when 30 seconds later you get a signal, the call is still active and it comes back... they are just playing with the numbers.

although I think verizonwireless is a bunch of tight asses as far as their business practices, they do have the best network... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..

I would not recommend anyone in Oak Ridge getting Cingular or ATT. If there is an emergency you could foreget it. A Cingular rep called me and asked how the reception is and when I told her how bad it is and how good Ver. is at the High School her reaction was like too bad.

Standing inside the Cingular store, literally in sight of their cellular tower on Tulsa Road, the signal was never more than two or four bars and was usually just one. Driving closer to the Tulsa tower, bars went to four, but a call to my home phone voice mail revealed the sound to be scratchy, with chopped words, and garbled words. Brand new, "top of the line" Nokia 6126 and it stinks! Cingular TDMA service was top notch -- until they switched over to the "greatly improved' GSM system. It really sucks. Goodbye Cingular, hello Verizon.

I travel throughout the East Tennessee area, especially Anderson, Roane, Knox, Morgan, Scott and Campbell counties. I almost never have a problem with Verizon unless in the really mountainous areas. Even if you only have one bar, you can usually get a call through.

the coverage for cingulare in my travels from oak ridge to norris are generally good. There is one small dead zone around the clinch river in the elza gate region, but after the merger the coverage up into east tennessee (tazewell, harrogate, etc... ) has improved. I have also noted improved reception on norris lake (at least in the west end).

In the west end of the ORNL campus, Verizon's reception is OK outdoors in most areas, but there are dead zones. Indoors, it ranges from OK to nonexistent. I have less experience in the east campus area, but generally it is better there.

Always get great coverage all over Oak Ridge and going up Pellissippi through Solway, Knoxville, and up to the airport. Haven't had one dropped call since the merger with AT&T and even better signal! Always had dropped calls with Sprint.

Verizon coverage is perfect in Oak Ridge, always full signal. Very good also inside buildings. Used to have nextel and it was bad.