I use Cingular through work and I have an Alltel line. I think I've picked out the Alltel tower about 1 / 2 mile before coming into Jonesborough from Johnson City on 11E and the Cingular tower about 1 mile past Jonesborough on 11E. Both providers generally cover the city well in my experience. That said, I would recommend Alltel service. Alltel's plans offer way more minutes and throughout East Tennessee in general I find the service to be the best around here. I usually get an extra bar or two throughout most of the city. Where I live and work inside I actually get 2 extra bars because Alltel seems to do a little better inside. The calls sound a little clearer. And through work I have to deal a lot with the customer service of Cingular for everybody. I always dread getting in touch with them and their attitude is always, we're sorry for your problem and too bad, but thanks for being a customer of the worldwide huge corporation of AT&T. Alltel has always been more helpful, more polite, offering phone and acount help. Customer service may not seem like a big issue until you have a problem then you'll thank your lucky stars you're dealing with Alltel rather than Cingular or AT&T or whatever it is. I even prefer the atmosphere at the Alltel retail store compared to Cingular in Johnson City. Just a quick note, always go with a Motorola or Nokia phone, Kyocera and LG just don't get the same reception. My Motorola always gets at least an extra bar than by wife's Kyocera and the calls sound better too. We'll be trading her phone in soon.

I must agree with the individual posting of 02 / 21 / 2006. The analysis of the Sulphur Springs dead are is "dead on." I would add that a similar problem location is Stewart Hill at the water tower on SR 81 North. Along with a challenge to winter driving, this curving road over the ridge forces one to pull over at the auction house to complete a call. That said, I noticed that one can get lucky and keep a call on ocassion. The experience is limited to the Verizon Network and I cannot comment on Cingular. Andy

Excellent coverage everywhere in the Tri Cities, but beware going past Jay Armentrout Rd, in the Sulphur Springs community. Coverage (FOR ANY CELL PROVIDER!) will drop out past a small distance, to about a mile past that point temporarily. No cell phone will operate in this "black hole area!" However, there is a cell tower site nearby backtracking in the north direction of Hwy. 81 (cell tower site is I think, located near Kiser Circle or somewhere in the immediate vicinity). JONESBOROUGH AND FALL BRANCH CITIZENS, AVOID SUNCOM AND SPRINT / NEXTEL... Very bad coverage in most, if not all of Fall Branch and parts of Jonesborough backtracking closer to Fall Branch. SUNCOM, SPRINT / NEXTEL DROPS CALLS ALL OF THE TIME IN THESE TWO AREAS. The ONLY tower that serves SUNCOM, SPRINT / NEXTEL in my immediate area is about 6 to 7 miles back on the Interstate, traveling north on HWY 81, until you approach the bridge underpass of INTERSTATE 81 going towards Fall Branch. Overall, the best providers for Fall Branch and Jonesborough, I recommend Cingular, or Verizon, or Alltel, in that order. These network operations engineers do need to look in to these problems. Web sites like this would really help them out A LOT MORE, to gather great and real-world situations data on coverage, dropped calls, and no signal situations. The customers use the networks way more than the network testers out here driving in their vans with call testing equipment over hundreds even thousands of miles. Otherwise, I get an impeccable signal with the trio (Alltel, Cingular, Verizon) These are the providers I recommend MOST for people in Fall Branch and Jonesborough. I will add in a comment for Greeneville / Baileyton cell phone purchasers, DON'T ORDER SUNCOM IN THIS CITY, COVERAGE IS VERY SPORADIC IN THESE AREAS, ESPECIALLY ALONG HIGHWAY 11E / 321.

I have no problems with AT&T, just wish they'd lower their prices.

Alltel has very good coverage all over the campus and area. My phone is always on full signal. There's not that many places I even drop below 4 bars except maybe back in Wal-Mart and Food City down to 2-3 bars at times but signal doesn't drop much inside and I can still make calls. No dropped calls or problem areas at all that I can think of. Very good coverage, even indoors, all over campus and in local Food City, Wal-Mart, Freedom Hall, and just all over. Entire Tri-Cities has pretty much blanketed coverage with Alltel. Also love the fact that I can include landlines in My Circle to keep in touch with my family in Rogersville. I have friends with about every provider here and I really believe Alltel's coverage is as good as it gets here.

Cingular has excellent signal coverage for the whole ETSU campus, I never have dropped calls out of the usual, Johnson city has very good network coverage and so reception is never problem.

Used to be with Alltel which had good service in my area. Now with Cingular since Nov. 2004. Very good service. I get full bar service everywhere in Johnson City and Greeneville (where I work). However, there is only one store I never get a signal in and that's any "Food City" grocery store. I have tried in several different "Food City" stores, and its the same. Overall, Cingular has made a very good impression on me.

Virgin Mobile is a great service for us who choose to live without a plan! Not for you if you depend on your phone for everything 24 / 7. If you want a phone for occassional daily use, go for this.

Reception seems to be great all over Unicoi except Limestone Cove, Dry Creek Rd. (past the Laurels Park), the River Road in Erwin past Nolichucky Adventures, and past Temple Hill. But, other than those places, plan on have a great to decent signal strength in Unicoi, especially on the north end. Basically if you live in Unicoi I would strongly suggest you have only Alltel or Verizon, the other providers are very spotty.

Verizon is the best in East Tn

US Cellular by far has the best reception in Bakersville and the rest of Mitchell County, as well as Avery and Yancey Counties. Verizon has good reception as well, and these are also the only two companies with towers in these counties. I have had Sprint and AT&T also; Sprint will work fairly well in the area, but it will be roaming on US Cellular or Verizon the whole time, Sprint's closest native coverage is in Marion around I-40. AT&T and T-Mobile have no coverage whatsoever in the area, and since they use GSM they cannot roam on US Cellular or Verizon's CDMA towers. The closest AT&T coverage would be around Johnson City, TN, about 30 miles away. I suppose it might be possible to pick up a tower in Tennessee from one of the higher mountaintops on the TN / NC border, but that would be more of a fluke than anything. I doubt GSM coverage will ever be any better in this area, if they add towers anywhere it will probably be in Asheville, where coverage exists but isn't very competitive with US Cellular and Verizon.

I never have a problem with reception anywhere I have traveled around the Tri-City area. It does get weak past the airport and the call will drop as I near the airport. I never have problems while traveling on interstates. The signal is also good inside, as well as outside, my home. I haven't had any real problems since I switched from Verizon to Sprint.

Avoid SunCom and avoid Cingular. I live a little ways outside of the main part of Elizabethton and thought that I wouldn't be able to get reception here with anybody. All my family seems like is on SunCom or Cingular and don't get reception within 2 miles of my house. But the Alltel reception here is great. Not just downtown but the surrounding areas like where I live are covered great. Calls sound clear and I feel a lot safer if something were to happen like a car breaking down because I've got service wherever I go. Just by watching my phone I think I've picked out 4 Alltel towers just in Elizabethton. Reception on 19E is great, downtown Elizabethton and even the backroads. I'm very happy with service and plans seem to give more minutes than other options. I agree with others after reading many reviews on Elizabethton, Johnson City, and all over the area really, Alltel is #1, Verizon is #2 in coverage and more expensive, and don't touch anybody else.

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.

Alltel has excellent coverage throughout the Bluff City area. Never seems to drop below 4 bars.

pretty much everywhere in unicoi county you get a Verizon signal, all other carriers are extremely spotty

I have good service at home but if I go down G st I loose it around the bp then pick it right back up. No idea.

On top of a hill at Rader, between Greeneville and Mosheim, 1 / 4 mi south of Hwy. 11E. Verizon works well, inside building and outside.

Good coverage with this phone in most area's of the Tri-Cities, reception was much worse with previous Motorola V262

takes long time to get reception and sometimes will cut off