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Horrible reception. Dropped calls are a constant, even when my phone indicates that it has a strong signal (4 bars). AT&T coverage is abysmal.

Moved from Minneapolis area where I had zero complaints. Here I have extremely slow 3G, I remember my E data network in Mpls being faster than this. Calls are often dropped or never go through even though I'm sitting at 3 to 4 bars. Does anyone know if Verizon is better here?

Poor to none. Got a cell booster from AT&T for $200 and it died after 3 months. Calls drop. I live just a couple miles from the store where they assured me of coverage.

At&t service in Eagle Hts. is HORRIBLE. You can't call nor receives calls at home. There are a lot of people there so I really don't understand why they do not improve or fix it. Also the coverage map is a lie as it shows Eagle Heights as good reception.

I get ok reception outside my apartment and chopped or dropped calls in my apartment on the second and third floor. I'd like to change plans but the other companies have worse ratings. I moved from Chicago and always had great reception whether they called the company AT&T or cingular. I figure the best thing to do is complain and get them to put up another tower. The problem might be the airport limiting tower height. I have always never understood AT&T bashing, I thought it was people who could not afford I-phones but now I think its because they don't live in Chicago. Then again I have traveled quite a bit and never had a problem like this. Also my first three numbers and area code are overlapping area codes, so my number is the same as a thousand other phone numbers unless 1 is dialed before the area code, not a big deal prank calls are easier when people call me.

Poor coverage inside East town mall or East side Menards inside.

In my apartment (& area) I am always on a "bar" chase. It goes up and down for no reason, and constantly drops calls just 3 feet from the window facing south. My phone (AT&T) it seems, can't handle the 3G protocol with enough reliability that it is always switching back to the EDGE technology. Plus, I pay for data service, and I am lucky if I ever get better than 1.3-1.5M (down) service in Madison's 3G territory. The only reason I currently stay with them is the ton of overage mins I have available, and the "GSM" / removable SIM card. If US cellular supported such cards or any other non-AT&T (T-mobile) service did, I would quickly DUMP AT&T! Terrible coverage and dropped calls...

Voice reception is pretty good in the area, but even though it says 3G on the phone, data reception is bad (unless, I turn off 3G).

Stop buying the Iphone because its "cool". ATT coverage sucks everywhere around here. Their phones wont let you roam outside the Madison area into smaller rural areas. The phone becomes useless with NO SERVICE at all. If you want a phone that really works and has "cool apps" buy a Blackberry!

Generally I have great reception in my apartment. I do have a few dropped calls and was considering changing providers but I am not reconsidering. AT&T seems the most reasonable compared to other plans.

One bar if I'm lucky, I have to stand by the upstairs window to make calls. Based on all the other complaints for this area, AT&T needs to add a tower in the area. Now. I've spoken with a Customer Rep to no avail. Can't wait to dump AT&T for a carrier that works. New UW students - take heed if you live in this area.

Signal strength is very good here and voice quality seems to be fine inside or outside.

Dead zone. All calls are lost when passing East Washington on Stoughton Road.

I have traveled quite abit in the US and canada and AT&T has been good for me, but sometimes the signal isn't so good inside buildings in the US(but it has been getting better in my opinion). Canada had outstanding signal strength everywhere inside and out.

In my house it's hard to pick up anything unless you are outside, and even then it's usually no more then a bar.

Einstein PCS has awesome coverage in the monroe street area. They have a tower on Regent street so I get full bars all over campus at Edgewood College, even in the basement of my residence hall!

I have had OK to good reception with ATT since June of 2007 on the far west side of Madison (Muir Field / PD) and on Fish and PD--where I spend most of my time. I also find that the signal is solid (at least 2 bars, usually 3-4) nearly everywhere I've gone in Madison... and solid to IL (Rockford) south and north east to Milwaukee. I have an HTC 8525. I previously had Verizon and had nothing but trouble in the Madison area.

No Contact with the outside world on the west side of Madison with AT&T and Sprint's garbage service stay away from these plans. I'm out to find another company!

Location is by Madison Memorial High School. I get one bar and multiple dropped calls inside my home. No service in the office, which is located nearby. Many vendors who come into the office have to go outside the building to make / receive calls. I want to change carriers, but looking at the comments it appears that no major carrier is getting service in this area. Why aren't there more cell towers on Madison's westside? Cingular / AT&T was looking to put up a tower by the high school - what happened to that initiative? Are we suffering from the "not in my neighborhood" syndrome?

good reception with cingular / att older phone not even in inventory, any where in dane county

I'm counting the days until our two year contract is up. Used to live near Gammon and Old Sauk and rarely got reception in our home. We have 3 phones and experience 2-6 dropped calls per day. Called and complained numerous times but it's a huge waste of time. Their customer service is dismal. Beware of Cingular!

Generally no problem making or receiving calls at home even with 2-3 bars. Reception is generally better than my brief stint with Einstein. Verizon was less reliable in this neighborhood a few years ago but that may have changed.

I had switched providers because Cingular had the latest phone that I wanted. BIG MISTAKE. I not only had no reception outside of the city but in my own apartment. I needed to call the police once and my phone didnt have any cignal. Thats when I decided to switch back to my previous provider. Completely uncalled for!

My g / f lives in the apartments here and gets little to no reception in her room. She's had two different Samsungs as well as a Motorola. Whenever she calls, she either has to sit next to the window or go out into the hallway[close to the building entrance.]

Typically hovers between 0 to 1 bar for Cingular coverage; I was told from Cingular repeatedly over the last 2 years of service that they would be adding a tower in Fitchburg, but it still hasn't panned out. Granted the particular phone I'm using really stinks, but most of my neighbors using Verizon also complain, so it may just be our location and not anything service-specific. (Cingular's customer support stinks big time).

Cingular SUCKS, I regret switching over from US Cellular.

Nothing but problems with Cingular, especially west of Madison on 14. Very spotty coverage in Cross Plains and none beyond that. Quite a few dropped calls also. Exact same coverage map on their website that has been there since 2000, no changes made at all to improve coverage.

Everyone who has old AT&T GSM phones should check if the phone supports 850MHz band. If not - you will not have a good reception here, in the USA.

I was a cable technician and therefore had to travel all over Madison, and my cell reception was always great(except for basements an underground parking garages). Once you leave Middleton / West Madison and head west I lost all reception.

signal strength varies in my apt (2nd floor). usually miss lot of calls when at home. Cingular really sucks. I tried 4 different phones, but no use.

An occasional blip of several bars on a good day; otherwise very poor reception in this neighborhood, particularly indoors, even at the open window. Original CIngular (not old ATT) -type service.

I get less than two bars at home - and that's when I'm sitting in the chair by the window. The service also fluctuates, as if it's switching between subnetworks or something, so I get cut off a lot, even when I'm sitting still. I live in a brick building, so that may have something to do with it, but still... Reception elsewhere isn't bad; my boyfriend lives on the near west side of the Capitol in a wooden house, and I've never had trouble placing or receiving calls there. I also get 3 bars or more in the elevator at work. Still, not being able to take advantage of free long distance at home because of crappy reception sucks. My contract is up in May, and I'll find another service provider then. In theory, my plan was one of the best values out there, but I'm paying too much for features I can't use because the network is bad. Also, I agree with other posters that Cingular's customer "service" is lousy. I've been left on hold for 45 minutes before, only to have the person on the other end of the phone yell at me because I asked her to repeat something that she mumbled at me in the first place. :^(

When I lived in Florida, my AT&T / Cingular reception was abysmal. I've had nearly perfect reception ever since I moved to Madison. However, the past week or so it's been a little less stable than usual and I read in another poster's comments that very recently Cingular somehow deactivated its old AT&T towers in the area. That's unfortunate. Cingular's customer service, however, is absolutely horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

I had fantastic reception everywhere in Madison until a few weeks ago when Cingular decided to 'upgrade' its network by taking down old AT&T TDMA towers. My reception went from excellent to nonexistent. My housemate has a GSM phone (also formerly AT&T now Cingular) and has no reception problems. It seems like Cingular has decided it can make a lot of money by making people pay new activation fees and sign up for more expensive plans just to get the same service they were getting before from AT&T.

Almost no service at all. Sometimes will get a ring on incoming calls, but they always drop.

Cingular service is good in this spot. US Cellular would drop calls and signal strength was low, 1 bar or none. US Cellular also did not work at the Airport, how Cingular performs there remains to be seen. Most of the East side of Madison seems to be covered well.

I get horrible reception inside my apartment, and along Muir Field for about.25 mile south of Raymond Rd. Too bad... I had excellent reception with my crappy old AT&T phone, but since AT&T merged with Cingular, I had no choice when I wanted to upgrade my phone.

I've had Cingular for 5 years and love their customer service as well as my phone's reception. TDMA was only fair with my old phone inside buildings, but GSM is great with my current phone. One daughter has the same phone, with no complaints; my wife and other daughter have Samsung X427Ms, with no reception complaints. (One of the Samsungs sometimes sounds muffled to the listener for about 20 seconds.) I have great reception everywhere in Madison and Monona (53716) as well. In fact, I've had great reception everywhere I've gone in the U.S.

I've had Cingular for 5 years and love their customer service as well as my phone's reception. TDMA was great with my old phone, and GSM is great with my current phone. One daughter has the same phone, with no complaints; my wife and other daughter have Samsung X427Ms, with no reception complaints. (One of the Samsungs sometimes sounds muffled to the listener for about 20 seconds.) I have great reception everywhere in Madison as well, including inside University buildings (53706).

Extremly BAD!... Don't use Cingular if you want to have a aperational Mobile in Eagle Heights

Awful Reception if you live in or around Norris Court (Near Paterson and Ingersoll, b / t Johnson and Gorham). If you get AT&T Wireless then reception is fantastic, I'm talking ALL SEVEN BARS-- but AT&T is not available anymore after Cingular bought it. Sounds good though, right? Cingular bought out AT&T and will get AT&T's towers and reception will be great! WRONG! I've been waiting months for them to integrate their towers but they have yet to do so. Cingular has basically swallowd up more customers and done NOTHING to improve their service to customers (they give you free minutes and perks when you complain but reception continues to suck). I ask you, Cingular: why are perfectly great towers not being utilized! I should add that you do sometimes get reception from AT&T's towers but ONLY AFTER your phone call is dropped! It's ridiculous. Cingular has given me so much pain and trouble. Sometimes I stand in the corner of the room waiting for my phone call to drop just so I can get better reception. But there's another catch! After you get the great reception, do you know what happens? Soon after the phone goes out of its way to switch back to the crappy Cingular towers. Amazing!

Cingular service is horrible along the Gorham and Johnson corridor on the Isthmus. DO NOT get Cingular if you expect to use your phone between Tenney Park and the Capital.

I use to have US cellular and made to switch to cingular. I have found more dead spots with cingular. It's amazing what good marketing can do to sell a bad signal. "raising the bar" How about going to the bar. I'm told that they are currently in the process of merging AT&T and Cingular to make a better signal "be patient" I guess I have 2 years to wait now... .. :-(

Actually 3-5 bars depending on how you point the phone. But still does not seem to drop calls anywhere in Madison or anywhere else so far. I have good reception at my work which is in the basement of a large building. I had no reception there with Nextel.

No reception in my house, slight reception outside.

Great reception on the West side of campus -- crystal clear! No dead spots encountered yet.

Cingular works awesome in Madison. Haven't dropped any calls, and I always have 4 to 5 bars.