Carrier / Rating

Location / Comment

Date

SprintPCS has excellent reception in the Charleston, WV area. Interstate coverage is excellent. The surrounding cities are covered almost 100%: South Charleston, Dunbar, Big Chimney, Kanawha City. Once you get out into rural areas in Cross Lanes and Elkview you will start to roam. No Sprint coverage on the interstate past Clendinin exit, nor any coverage past Beckley.

Pretty good coverage throughout the state, with the exception of the north eastern portion of the state that is covered by Easterbrooke cellular. Cingular claims they will have a roaming agreement done March 1 with Easterbrooke. I Started with a Motorola V551, but had spotty reception a loads of dropped calls. Switched to the Nokia and have had much better reception and no dropped calls. Works well in Bluefield, Lewisburg, Wheeling, Huntington, and just about everywhere else I've been. A glimmer of hope on the cust service front: after screwing me on an AT&T phone return rebate (they said my rebate was invalid but would not return the phone either) I got an instant credit from the store for the rebate amount.

With Sprint in WV it is only on the Interstate to Parkersburg and Charleston, the route to Clarksburg... forget it. And even in downtown Charleston, you get roaming 50% of the time. For all practical purposes -- there is no Sprint Service in this state period. I am going to switch to Nextel.

I can even be outside of my house and reception is horrible.

We moved here from Illinois. We are using Altell towers because that is the only network that will allow Verizon users service. If driving, service drops in and out in various spots in south Hills / South Charleston. Also, if driving through Southern Ohio or eastern KY service drops out completely. We cannot receive GPS service or picture sending services like we had in Illinios either. They have said they have the largest service area nation wide, but have none in this state at all. It's frustrating. We like our plan, our minutes, and features... we just wanted to keep them. They say they MIGHT have service here within the year but they have no definite information on if this is a guess or a fact.

Honestly, I don't know that one carrier is any better than another here.

Phone works just fine in EVDO mode with a -99dBm level. Reports working off tower at lat 38 degrees, 21 minutes, 47 seconds by -81 degrees, 35 minutes, 37 seconds. (Using Open Signal Maps)

Office location near corner of Greenbrier St.and Rutledge Rd.with essentially zero signal. Once in awhile, can get a text message in or out, but most often no signal at all. Zero signal on Rutledge Rd.to Baker's Fork to Oakridge. Signal adequate at top of Oakridge. Placed call to Verizon requesting that this be checked about May 9, 2011. Have not yet received call back. Really like Verizon, we are a recent switch from AT&T. Giving AT&T its due, I could usually make voice calls from same office on AT&T. So... I like Verizon, except for the fact that I can't use my phone at work... kind of a deal-breaker for me.

disappointing service on Oakridge road and up Chappell Rd. in Kanawha City

Alltel has excellent reception in Charleston. When you head farther along Greenbrier St. toward Elkview it weakens in a few spots, but is still usable. They also have better than average coverage into Ohio. However, if live down Route 60, you'll want something different. The service is strong through Glasgow, but drops off completely right by the London Locks. This means Alltel has no reception at at WVU Tech in Montgomery. NTelos has good service in Montgomery, but is really weak once you go up Oakridge Drive. NTelos has good coverage in Ohio if you have a national plan. Cingular also has good coverage in Montgomery.