Best cell phone coverage - which company?

[VroomPshhTsi]

So I'm getting tired of T-Mobile's lame ass coverage, just being in my friend's basement gets me no bars at all. I looked at plans and phones and most of the companies have the same price and features. My question is what cell phone provider do you have and how good of coverage do you get? Where does your coverage go out?

note: i'm out of my 2 year contract so i'm ready to switch, and i'll probably transfer my number

[70 cutlass 442]

well, i never had issues with US cellular, maybe a basement would be spotty or what not, now i Have Nextel, and in the city it works awesome, i was in the basement of waukesha memorial and I had full bars, when i go up north however i dont have coverage. T mobile sucks, we had them for two months and was horrible. sprint sucks as well where i am which is also new berlin

[CPonyGo]

us cellular for coverage and free incoming calls and nights starting at 7pm...

[PureSound15]

I had Verizon for a long time, and although the service was good... I dropped a lot of calls.

I now have At&T, which I ALWAYS have service with, even in the middle of nowhere.

I've heard alltel wireless has good coverage also because of their signal borrowing type business (I'm not sure how all that works).

[03CVLX]

Us Cellulars service is quite good, never dropped a call and almost always had service. As of late though their customer service and anything pertaining to their internet(easyedge) pretty much sucks. I switched to Verizon and am happy so far. I have not gotten up north personally so I can't speak for that area. Around the city though I have never had issues.

[Reverend Cooper]

US. cellular here,no problems have been with them for 10 years

[JC70SS]

I am getting rid of my T-moble because it drops so many calls:fire

[Russ Jerome]

Sprint PCS has been rated the worst service and coverage
for several years now........I know first hand!

New Sprint Phones next year:
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ujkrmmeBeeeOxM:http://www.dreamstime.com/paper-cup-phone-thumb163363.jpg

[70 cutlass 442]

Sprint PCS has been rated the worst service and coverage
for several years now........I know first hand!

New Sprint Phones next year:
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ujkrmmeBeeeOxM:http://www.dreamstime.com/paper-cup-phone-thumb163363.jpg

Sprint sucks horribly, Im glad they let me switch to nextel, when i had one of their hybrid phones (sprint for voice, nextel for walkie talkie) I would have perfact walkie talkie, but couldnt make phone calls.

[88Nightmare]

nextel and sprint = same company = fail


verizon here. rarely drop a call. there is always a dead spot on the freeway by the airport where I drop calls, but other then that, it works great. No other complaints

[70 cutlass 442]

nextel and sprint = same company = fail


verizon here. rarely drop a call. there is always a dead spot on the freeway by the airport where I drop calls, but other then that, it works great. No other complaints

Nextel and spring are two completely different platforms which is why i have had very decent coverage in town with my nextel, sprint does own them which unfortunatley means that now nextel custoemr support also suck, though has gotten better since i signed up

[88Nightmare]

I suppose the nextel push to talk is kinda neat, I simply dont know anyone who has one so who would I communicate with? :rolf



I'll keep my verizon. They have an awesome selection of phones, good customer service by far (the few times I had to call them), and I can easily change my calling plan online any time I want as many times as I want without renewing my contract again... so if I feel my minutes needs have changed, I can go pick a new plan in 5 minutes or less

[GRAMPS SS]

I suppose the nextel push to talk is kinda neat, I simply dont know anyone who has one so who would I communicate with? :rolf



I'll keep my verizon. They have an awesome selection of phones, good customer service by far (the few times I had to call them), and I can easily change my calling plan online any time I want as many times as I want without renewing my contract again... so if I feel my minutes needs have changed, I can go pick a new plan in 5 minutes or less

i agree with the some what plump guy

[88Nightmare]

i agree with the some what plump guy

big boned mother****er, big boned :rolf

[Slow Joe]

I have sprint... And honestly I wish I wouldn't of renewed my contract... The only good thing with them is the corporate discount I get...

It use to be with sprint you were pretty safe with having no dead spots on major highways... Now it's quite the opposite... I've been finding more and more spots...

Also I would never get T-Mobile again...

[mr.gone1985]

I have no problem with Sprint. I'm in SW Waukesha County and it does far better than my wife's U.S. Cellular phone. I know the phone itself makes a big difference.

[DirtyMax]

In this neck of the woods... for coverage and network quality.... US Cellular no question.

They might not have the fanciest neatest gadgets but coverage should be most important if you're using it for a means of communication.

Spent several years in the wireless industry and have friends who are field engineers for several of the companies. Even the ones who work for competitors have to agree that US Cellular has the best coverage. Many of their tower locations have been around since the 80's so they have prime real estate so to speak.

My two friends and I all have Blackberrys, all on 3 different networks. Mine is the only one that consistently works worth a crap and it is a US Cellular product. All the do is complain about how they miss calls, drop calls, email never works, etc. I have no complaints.. .well other than the buttons are kind of small, LOL.

[Slow Joe]

I have no problem with Sprint. I'm in SW Waukesha County and it does far better than my wife's U.S. Cellular phone. I know the phone itself makes a big difference.

I have the Sanyo Katana DLX as does my fiance.

I live in New Berlin, and I'm on the road 90% of my day. My territory is from here to Oshkosh, including Waupun, Beaver Dam, and Sheboygan. I drop calls, miss calls, get voice mails w/o calls... All kinds of great stuff.

Kristie drives for work as well... She's on the road about as much as I am, but has northern IL as her territory. Her phone drops calls as well...

I love my sprint...

Oh yeah, and when I bought my new phone they messed up and didn't put insurance on it as I had asked, I moved got my bill late and the past month have had the run around with them trying to get insurance. I decided that if they can't get me the insurance and my phone dies or gets wrecked, I'm just going to spend the money cancelling my account instead of buying a new phone...

[Car Guy]

I've had Verizon for ten years and honestly can't remember a dropped call ever.....






:3gears: :3gears: :3gears:

[pOrk]

US Cellular is the BEST for Wisconsin, hands down. If you travel, their nationwide plans blow balls. Verizon is the best provider for nationwide imo.

I have Sprint, the plan I have beats the piss out of EVERY other cell phone companys prices for nationwide and the service is above average. The customer service is a joke, so take good care of your phone or pay extra for the insurance. My Q is junk, and they won't warrenty it because I didn't pay for the extra insurance ( Its less then a year old ). Bastards.

[Russ Jerome]

I have no problem with Sprint. I'm in SW Waukesha County and it does far better than my wife's U.S. Cellular phone. I know the phone itself makes a big difference.

With a good Sprint phone you will get reception. The problem is
sprint is for people who never leave town, coverage areas are
only along major freeways. Should you decide to go Muskie fishing
in Green lake county, Timber Rattlesnake catching in the Neceeda
wildlife refuge or even Salmon fishing 3 miles out in Michigan your
on your own should you want to dial 911.

With my old US Cell phone (many years back) my wife called me and
asked where I was. When I replied "touching down in Oakland CA"
her reply was "Wow sounds like your right next door".

[Prince Valiant]

I seem to have great coverage with AT&T and my sony erickson phone. Very few areas around the nation that doesn't give me pretty good coverage (western MO for, gives me pretty crappy coverage, but it's due in part to the all the hills in the ozarks). The fiance and I have a good family plan with a good amount of roll-over minutes + roll over which really does come in handy sometimes...we might have too much considering the free mobile to mobile connection.

[jbiscuit]

I just left sprint because I didn't even have service in my kitchen! Dropped alls all the time, sucky customer service...I hated them. Got a familytalk plan with AT&T and so far so good.. PLUS they have a nice range of phones available. Crystal clear reception also

[ND4SPD]

IMHO,
Any CDMA-based cell company (Verizon, US Cellular, Sprint, AllTel) is going to have the best coverage. This is primarily because CDMA was here first so there are more towers. With GSM (ATT, TMobile, etc) once you get out of the major metro areas or off the major interstates and highways you're sunk since the GSM phones can't use the CDMA towers. I have never been in an area with any of my CDMA phones and had no service unless I've been in a shielded building or several floors underground, etc... (where no cell phone is going to work). The GSMs are getting better as they put more towers up, but they're not quite there yet. A few years back when I was dating a gal in St. Cloud, MN we used to compare cell coverage everywhere we went (because she had a GSM T-mobile phone). It wasn't even close... my US Cellular phone (and later my Verizon phone) would have service long after hers had started blinking "no service". Once the GSM companies get to the point to where they're rivaling the CDMA networks, I will probably switch since it is somewheat better and is more prevalent throughout the world... but for now I'm sticking with CDMA.

P.S. I don't know what the deal with Sprint is, because yes, I've always heard complaints about their coverage... so I don't know if they just don't like to use other networks towers or what.

[pOrk]

With a good Sprint phone you will get reception. The problem is
sprint is for people who never leave town, coverage areas are
only along major freeways. Should you decide to go Muskie fishing
in Green lake county, Timber Rattlesnake catching in the Neceeda
wildlife refuge or even Salmon fishing 3 miles out in Michigan your
on your own should you want to dial 911.

With my old US Cell phone (many years back) my wife called me and
asked where I was. When I replied "touching down in Oakland CA"
her reply was "Wow sounds like your right next door".

I travel the midwest constantly and have had NO problems with Sprint. But I am a city skipper, not a wilderness buff so that might make a big difference.

[johnny--2k]

With a good Sprint phone you will get reception. The problem is
sprint is for people who never leave town, coverage areas are
only along major freeways. Should you decide to go Muskie fishing
in Green lake county, Timber Rattlesnake catching in the Neceeda
wildlife refuge or even Salmon fishing 3 miles out in Michigan your
on your own should you want to dial 911.

With my old US Cell phone (many years back) my wife called me and
asked where I was. When I replied "touching down in Oakland CA"
her reply was "Wow sounds like your right next door".

I think you got this backwards! USC has good coverage, but their nationwide plans suck donkey ****. I worked there for two years, and I didnt even carry one of their phones because I travel quite a bit. If you are staying LOCAL, get USCC. If you travel outside of the midwest, Sprint and AT&T are your best bets. Depending on if you want data or not, I would say AT&T has nicer phones, but they are a bit more monthly for their plans.

[Deggy]

I have AT&T and I am satisfied with the service and the reception I get in most places. No complaints here...tried T-mobile for 30 days and hated it.

Next phone company I get if I decide to change carriers would be Verizon or US cell.

[Beagle]

Ive been with US Cellular for almost 6 years now and I have never had one problem. I get service everywhere and ive never had a dropped call. I had verizon as my first provider and they where horrible. Calls dropped and not very good reception. Went with US Cell and have been happy ever since.

[johnny--2k]

I agree, USC is a great provider if you stay in the Midwest. Otherwise, if you need nationwide service, AT&T or Sprint. Sprints Cust Serv sucks, but for what I pay (half of what I did at AT&T with double the minutes/data/etc...) I will deal with it for the once or twice I may ever need cust service in a year's time!

[MoCkiN U]

AT&T & Verizon for nationwide service. Sprint doesnt deserve anyone's money until they address their customer service issues. You can have great service but if you dont have the support structure there to please your customers on small issues you shouldnt even be promoting your business. At least the 2 mentioned companies have outbound survey systems in place to monitor the pulse of the people and determine where their weaknesses are to please their masses

[wrath]

US Cellular is the biggest piece of shit I've ever seen. It ranks with T-mobile in the Wisconsin area. We use it at work. It doesn't work anywhere I go, especially as I go rural. I even tried a bunch of phones in case mine was a pile. The phone costs $7/month plus $.07/minute.

When it does work, it's great. Probably the best sound quality I've ever experienced. But you can't rely on it. There's no way in hell I'd rely on it as my only form of communication.

We have T-mobiles Wireless Hotspot for my girlfriend's phone. It's awesome that you can use 802.11b/g but when not using it drops calls like crazy. And you have to hard reboot the phone (pull the battery) daily or it craps itself. It costs $55/month.

I have a Cellular One (since purchased by AT&T) and it has worked everywhere I've ever been. Even in the sticks of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the 2meter radios roam. The catch is that SE Wisconsin has a GSM capacity problem (whodathunk, Wisconsin is an infrastructure barren wasteland in every other way so why not communications too?) so I periodically get put in "Emergency/SOS only mode" which prevents me from using my phone at peak times (like 12-12:30 and 5-5:45). And it costs me $41 after taxes and fees for 450 anytime minutes, free after 9pm, and free weekends. No roaming anywhere in the 48 states. Same shit costs $55+ elsewhere.


If I were to get a new contract/phone it'd either be Verizon or AT&T.

[Korndogg]

see. Thats what I need. A phone that works in the UP. My phone loses service in about Crivitz. Anywhere north of that and I'm screwed and our cabin is in Iron Mountain/Kingsford area.

[BoosTT]

Prepaid!! heh. Just kidding.

Anything in the 800/900 mhz band is good around here. This would be at&t. They also have a accurate detailed coverage map on their website. You can litterally zoom into you house and workplace to see how many bars you well get.

I would check the coverage map and either go with at&t or us cellular based on that alone.

[03CVLX]

Ill throw a new twist into this.

I like Verizon,Us Cellular, and to a lesser extent AT &T, for work purposes. As a 911 operator for Milwaukee Fire when you dial 911 from your cell phone the location we are given on our screens is the tower the phone is using and sometimes we will get latitude/longitude coordinates for the actual phone location. We never get the actual address or area you are calling from, no matter what the companies say Those larger CDMA companies have more towers so the address we get is usually closer to the actual emergency which sometimes can be VERY helpful.

I remember one call from a T-mobile phone, the caller was in the area of Howell and College and the tower the phone was using was in Menomonee Falls. Because of that fact, the call was sent to Waukesha county 911 and then transferred back to us. In a life and death situation I want a service that has lots of towers.

[Korndogg]

howell and college eh? I use to live right over there lol. sorry for the off topic

[theavenger333]

i've had US Cellular and AT&T now. honestly both worked fine, in the city. i used Nextel and Verizon separatly for work at one point too. all were just fine in the city. honestly, if a cell phone doesn't work within 50 or so miles of a huge city like Milwaukee, it shouldn't be in buisness. my test is up north in the Chippewa Valley, where out cabin is. only thing that gets coverage is Cellular One, they have the only major tower in the middle of the valley. otherwise, AT&T is better up there then US Cell was.

[Korndogg]

I just checked my contract online and it expired at the beginning of this month. I thought it was next month but eh. So now I might possibly be looking for another plan. I have Nextel now but like I said above, I would like to have service in the UP too. Im gonna have to check some of these out.

[CPonyGo]

wrath- you really need to re look at costs...I have been trouble free at USCell for 14 years and since I have an air card with verizon I tried their phone and no free incomings and after 9 free is not a bonus(450 minutes goes quick) plus I have had dropped calls with them. You must be the ONLY person I know that had that much of an issue with USCell..

[michelle]

I have had Verizon for almost 2 years now. Most of the people I talk to or text are on Verizon, which is very helpful for all that "in" stuff. As far as coverage, I haven't had any problems - even out in Whitewater. I tend to travel around a lot and it works great without having to worry about roaming. I even had service when at my parents house (Hubertus) - not the best, but no cell phone company works out there.

[Arigmaster]

I build networks for all the different carriers. The most complete network coverages belong to US Cellular and Verizon in the Midwest. They have roaming agreements in areas where other companies hold the RF licenses. One thing both have is programs for travelers who go out of the area. You can purchase extra "roaming minutes" ahead of time so you don't get raped byt the companies they have their agreements with. Keep in mind, there are some towns (Oconomowoc and Pewaukee for example) who have tower moritoriums in place where the friggen tree huggers don't want the unsightly towers ruining their sunsets or whatever. The same damn tree huggers who pushed the moritoriums are the ones who are bitching loudest because they can't get a signal.

The Sprint/Nextel is crap... T-Mobile and AT&T are middle of the road. It isnt that their equipment isnt good... It's that they don't have enough dollars to complete their networks like Verizon and US Cellular. Both are always adding sites where needed and expanding on network redundancy.

[MoCkiN U]

^Are they still masking towers or blending them in to look like trees? I heard of this when I worked in the chicago market and they said there were some in winthrop harbor (another skyline worried town) but I saw one in person near a nicer part of town in charlotte, NC. Those things are pretty cool.

Tower base textured and painted brown with fake limbs at the top.

P.S. For everyone talking about up north coverage Verizon and US Cell are the ones I hear customers tell me about all the time raving one way or another about our service up there AND when the alltel merger goes through finally then UH OH, ITS ON UP THERE!!

[Slow Joe]

My Q is junk, and they won't warrenty it because I didn't pay for the extra insurance ( Its less then a year old ).

That's strange because technically the phone is still under manufacturers warranty. Unless it was water damaged or such...

[70 cutlass 442]

I build networks for all the different carriers. The most complete network coverages belong to US Cellular and Verizon in the Midwest. They have roaming agreements in areas where other companies hold the RF licenses. One thing both have is programs for travelers who go out of the area. You can purchase extra "roaming minutes" ahead of time so you don't get raped byt the companies they have their agreements with. Keep in mind, there are some towns (Oconomowoc and Pewaukee for example) who have tower moritoriums in place where the friggen tree huggers don't want the unsightly towers ruining their sunsets or whatever. The same damn tree huggers who pushed the moritoriums are the ones who are bitching loudest because they can't get a signal.

The Sprint/Nextel is crap... T-Mobile and AT&T are middle of the road. It isnt that their equipment isnt good... It's that they don't have enough dollars to complete their networks like Verizon and US Cellular. Both are always adding sites where needed and expanding on network redundancy.

How did you get into that field? i actually wanted to get into that a while back for some odd reason

[Arigmaster]

^Are they still masking towers or blending them in to look like trees? I heard of this when I worked in the chicago market and they said there were some in winthrop harbor (another skyline worried town) but I saw one in person near a nicer part of town in charlotte, NC. Those things are pretty cool.

Tower base textured and painted brown with fake limbs at the top.

P.S. For everyone talking about up north coverage Verizon and US Cell are the ones I hear customers tell me about all the time raving one way or another about our service up there AND when the alltel merger goes through finally then UH OH, ITS ON UP THERE!!

Yes they do have towers that look like trees and others (many in our area) that are made to look like flag poles. The also place the systems on existing buildings, water towers, and other tall structures. They have even gone as far as putting graphics on the antennas to mask them on buildings to make them less visible. (Matching colors ot buildings and even patterns like bricks etc)

Up North, US Cellular has roaming agreements with Cellcom. I build their networks as well all the way up into the UP. Verizon uses them and Einstein PCS for those areas too. Einstein/Airadigm is a minority held company. (Oneida Nation) We built their network about 10 years ago but they haven't done much expansion on it since.

Anyone with a hand set older than 3 yrs that is not a dual mode will probably want to start looking for a new hand set. TDMA networks equipment is going to be phased out at the end of this year and if your phone is not dual mode it won't work. Some of you with older phones may be experiencing poor service because of the conversion over to CDMA technology. Although some TDMA sites may be still operating in networks, more and more of this equipment is being shut down for EVDO expansion (Phone based Internet) since it is being phased out.

[77thor]

Verizon here.... no issues.

[70 cutlass 442]

Has the iDEN network been growing at all?

[65black]

Alltel here -one word GREAT_ waiting to see what happens with the verizon buy-out?????????

If any-one ever says einstien run like HELL!!!!!!!I live 2 blocks from there tower and office and could't get a call out 3 out of 4 times.....IN my front yard....