Cellular reception is generally adequate, but can be spotty. Data (3G) reception is poor. It is not uncommon to have good reception in a spot for minutes at a time, and it just go away. It is not uncommon for two different phones (HTC and iPhone) on the same carrier to be side by side and one have reception and the other not.

I barely have service anywhere in Charlottesville. Tmobile's coverage maps say I have excellent service in my apartment on 14th street, however I hardly have one bar and my calls are dropped all the time. I cant talk inside and have to go on the porch to talk on the phone. I still get dropped calls there too. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes to send one text when I am inside. Having dropped calls is a daily occurrence for me. It will say I have 4 bars when I am walking down the street and it will drop my call. If you go anywhere outside of Charlottesville, ie Crozet or Mineral, your coverage is 0. As for the rest of uva, it is rare when I do have service inside a building. T-Mobile is the worst. First year, I had to talk outside in the rain with an umbrella since I had no reception in my dorm.

Very poor reception throughout the area where I live. I can basically only call from my room near the window, and that's spotty at best. In other parts of Charlottesville reception is slightly better, but not good, so I will definitely be making a switch when I can.

I am very disappointed with AT&T. I bought a very nice phone with all kinds of apps etc but half the time I cannot get reception around Charlottesville. When I travel I get great reception but at home (south edge of town) it is spotty. Around town reception is very poor most of the time. Some places great, some places poor, some places zero. This is not that big of a town. Why can't we get reception everywhere in these few square miles. I used to have US Cell and reception was much better. Not happy with AT&T.

I find it humorous that Verizon gets glowing ratings in Charlottesville. I have been with them 2 years and have frequent dropped calls. I understand the lack of coverage in the country, but not on the downtown mall or major shopping areas. My best friend has Sprint and she gets coverage on even the back roads. I give Verizon a C- rating.

Switched from AT&T to Sprint hoping to get better reception. Was told by sales associate Sprint had better coverage, but I could not get a single bar indoors when I took the phone home, so I returned it after a few days.

Could not get any reception indoors. I rarely even got one bar. The only way I could make a call and not have it dropped was to stand outside away from any trees.

I got my first Verizon phone in Alexandria and kept it when moving to Cville in 2006. At that time they did not have Verizon here but reception has been great the whole time I've had it, including nationwide. The only time I have a problem is if I am up on the mountains or in one of the "hollows" where there is no reception for anyone. I wish I could go with a cheaper prepaid pain like Virgin but the Sprint network does not work as good here according to reviews. I wholeheartedly recommend Verizon for this area and actually just about any area - they really do have the best coverage. Caveat - I do not have a smartphone - I only use it for calls and some texting but people I know with Verizon like their smartphone connection too.

T-Mobile's coverage in dorms sucks :(((( My parents insist on T-Mobile for the family's phones because it's great in Fairfax, but I say don't ever get it for the Charlottesville area!

I haven't had any problems with any of my Verizon Service anywhere in charlottesville.

I have had Sprint here in Cville since late 09 and the voice service has been good; the Internet service on the phone, however, has been hit and miss. When driving towards DC, the voice service gets much worse. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what service is better out here in the "sticks" of VA.

My phone drops almost every call I make. It is not just my phone because my husband has AT&T and his also does this and my old phone did this as well. I am unable to send pictures or receive pics or multimedia, as well.

In my office which is right on the mall and has many windows I have reception about half of the time and consistently drop calls and have calls go straight to voicemail. Verizon customers have not experienced reception trouble in my office, though I have not had a Verizon phone to test reception over a longer period of time.

No signal or very little signal. Floats back and forth from no service to searching to 1 bar.

I had a breakdown on county road 637. This was the Ivy exit 114 (I believe) off of I-64 West. I was using Tracfone, and it put me down (No signal). Luckily my wife uses Verizon, and if not for her Verizon Cell Phone (LG), I may still be waiting for a signal. Note: She has never been without a signal, no matter where she has traveled. Luck?? You will have to decide on that one.. I even tried recently, "Consumer Cellular" with the same results as Tracfone... NO SIGNAL... . I will be changing my service..

AT&T in Downtown Charlottesville is unusable. I have been a customer of ACS analog on the Kenai Peninsula, cheapo no-name SIM cards in Europe, and Claro and Movistar in Nicaragua and Peru; no experience was worse than what I'm going through now, Summer 2010. My phone just doesn't work at all for days at a time. This has been a problem for weeks. Every time I reach customer support they say a technician will be at the tower at 5am to fix everything. Load of crap. F that s. DO NOT come to Cville without Verizon.

I reached Charlottesville, VA today on a business trip and before coming, I confirmed with the MetroPCS customer care center on whether I would have coverage in the "22901" area. His answer was in the affirmative. Alas, on reaching Charlottesville, I can only text but no incoming / outgoing calls. My problem is now that I am going to be here with no availability to make / receive calls from my mobile.

Located in Berkeley subdivision near Four Seasons. Excellent 4 - 5 bars inside the house.

I came to Charlottesville in March and April 2009 to look for a house and the extended network coverage was terrible (couldn't send pictures or videos). SInce moving here in June 2009, Verizon has bought AllTel and the service seems to be improving. I can send pictures and videos from almost anywhere. Still some weak coverage in outlying areas (VA 20 between I-64 and Scottsville). The "network" is making a significant change in the area.

Like any GSM carrier T-Mobile is a bit weak compared to CDMA, BUT just about every other country uses GSM and T-Mobile will unlock your phone, so if you travel outside the US it's the way to go. Their coverage map is accurate down to your street level, so I assume only those who didn't do their homework are having reception problems.