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Chicago, IL Carrier Reviews & Coverage Maps


Rating
1. T-Mobile 2.3 star rating (2.3 stars | 136 Reviews)
2. Sprint 1.8 star rating (1.8 stars | 142 Reviews)
3. Verizon 1.8 star rating (1.8 stars | 162 Reviews)
4. AT&T 1.2 star rating (1.2 stars | 410 Reviews)

Total Coverage 1.7 star rating (1.7 stars | 962 Reviews)
Towers
T-Mobile Towers
Sprint Towers
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T-Mobile

0 Out of 5 (0 stars) | 155 North Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL 60606 |

I decided to use T-Mobile due to their good offers and international call package (unlimited calls to a lot of countries for $15 a month). Unfortunately I had to terminate the contract as I had between zero reception and bad reception in my office (42nd floor, window, facing south) and calls were either dropped, bad quality or not possible at all. Outside of the building or at my home (N State and Grand) the reception was between okay to great, and then the call quality (voice) was close to perfect, even when calling people in Europe. I would switch back immediately if they got the reception issue in my office location fixed (or if we switch our office location)

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AT&T

2 Out of 5 (2 stars) | Division and Grand , Chicago, IL 60651 |

I use their WiFi on my cell from home and it is very slow, spins around gets stuck or doesn't respond to do anything especially around rush hour and weekends. For those who may not know depending on where you are and where your Windows are in Chicago, the satellite in sky faces southwest. If you can't get reception and don't have window that faces southwest your service will be poor for most companies.

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Verizon

1 Out of 5 (1 star) | Summerdale | Wolcott, Chicago, IL 60640 |

I have had Verizon for 12 years and generally have found coverage good anywhere I have been in the country until I moved to this neighborhood in Chicago

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Sprint

1 Out of 5 (1 star) | Union Station | Adams, Chicago, IL 60661 |

First off, it is clear that those 'one liner' reviews are paid for. I don't know anyone in Chicago that says reception is 5 out of 5 stars. So '@#$#' you to all you 'cheaters' putting out fraudulent reviews. The real news is that I have had Sprint in multiple states since 2004 and up until OCT2013, I loved them. We had some problems with tower upgrades to 4G / LTE stuff from 2013-2014 but 2014-2015 was decent, until we moved to Chicago. After that, it has been absolutely horrid. I even got a brand new Samsung Galaxy S5 in Spring of 2015 to help with the issues... but it actually got worse. I am being completely 'literal' / serious when I say that I cannot remember the last call I had that did not completely drop or had numerous times where I had major communication issues. I live on the 20th floor of a condo building and I should have fantastic reception... but I don't. It is so bad that I am using my Magic Jack to make calls, because I never thought I needed to buy a traditional 'land line' phone line again. The only solution that the carriers give is to hook up your 'VOIP / WiFi' box connections... which is total C-rap. I pay for internet and I pay for a cell phone. Why do I want to pay for a cellphone that charges for using a 'smartphone' and for my data usage, and also pay my internet provider too? I want a cellphone that works as a cellphone, not a cellphone that uses my own internet connection to make calls using my internet that I can literally make for free without the cell phone people. This is an absolute scam and we need to demand-as consumers-that we should not have to pay for a cellphone that needs to use our internet or a 'random WiFi' connection to work. For God's sake, I just want my cellphone to actually work as a telephone... is that too hard to do? Because my first Cell phone back in 1998 could do that just fine. Also, with the US's 3rd / 2nd largest city, I am not sure how there cannot be good cellphone reception here, but after about 1.5 years I can honestly say that it is the worst cell phone coverage I have ever seen... and that is coming from someone that has lived in 20 states for at least 1 month and has visited all 50 states. If anyone has a real solution for good cell phone coverage in the Loop or West Loop, please let me know. Thanks.

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AT&T

2 Out of 5 (2 stars) | 195 N Harbor Dr., Chicago, IL 60601 |

Very spotty and unreliable. Can barley have a phone call with out dropping. Will switch if it doesn't improve. Just have to research on who to switch to.

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Cricket

5 Out of 5 (5 stars) | Chicago, Chicago, IL 60608 |

It was very interesting too read those reviews. I guess people have forgotten cell phone companies are dealing with Mountains. You do have mountain ranges down there.

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AT&T

4 Out of 5 (4 stars) | Ashland | Archer, Chicago, IL 60608 |

My AT&T service works good everywhere I go in Chicago both indoors and outdoors, even when traveling by car to Detroit when taking i-94 east where it's nothing but asphalt, fields and trees for miles I still get LTE signal or 4G at the least but I always have service. Data speeds are satisfactory, until my gf got Verizon wireless yesterday and we did several speed tests and I got destroyed each time. It took under 8 seconds to download Candy Crush Saga on Verizon and 24 seconds on AT&T.

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AT&T

1 Out of 5 (1 star) | Kimball Brown Line | Kimball Brown Line, Chicago, IL 60625 |

AT&T is awful. I have no service in my own home, and can't make any calls within a few miles.

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T-Mobile

1 Out of 5 (1 star) | Graceland West | Clark and Southport, Chicago, IL 60613 |

A virtual LTE dead zone, with occasional outages that extend to 3G and even EDGE. Very frustrating, as TMO is rolling out Band 12 in every major city, but due to licensing, won't have it in Chicago any time soon.

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T-Mobile

1 Out of 5 (1 star) | 20 N Wacker, Chicago, IL 60606 |

4G LTE speeds are terrible. Even with full reception, speeds feel throttled. Possibly not enough towers to handle the volume or some sort of government scrambling. No problems at all outside of the loop.

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