Cell Phone Carrier

Hi Guys,

Last week I was eating in a restaurant with a group of 5 others... and I got a call on my phone. Reception was terrible, couldn't hear the person on the other end, call ended up dropping a few seconds later. I tried calling back and all I got were voicemails, I looked at my reception and it showed 1 bar. 2 others in the group share the same service as I do, ATT, and they also had crappy reception! However, 2 people in the party had Verizon... they lent me their phone to use and voila... full bars... clear voice... no problem.. I was able to call the person back.

So it got me thinking, after 11 years with ATT, is it time to switch? I've noticed a lot of dropped calls lately via ATT, and my 3g internet seems to be slow (can't compare to other carriers so it might be just in my mind). Anyways, now that my contract is up I'm thinking about switching. Anyone have experience with more than one carrier and can offer an opinion?

It's a business line, so I use the phone a lot, including the internet.. so having 4g capability would be a bonus. Also, I can never get decent reception in Tahoe either... don't know if this is all mobile phones or just ATT.

Thanks for the help!

i have At&t and they do suck but i dont think verizon is any better its prob the same and it also depends on the phone i dont like at&t but with the iphone 4 which i have i think at&t is better then verizon

at&t is the best around me, just depends on where you live, verizon and sprint both suck. alot of my friends have tmobile and have no problems with it.

Originally posted by psyccologicc I was an AT&T customer for about 12 years, but just recently switched to Sprint... the service for both of them sucks in my area, but with Sprint I pay quite a bit less for my crappy service.

In a lot of cases, 4g is really just WiMAX with a name people will feel more comfortable about.

I had Cellular One before ATT bought them out.  Since then, I haven't had a problem with them.  They have some great phones and I can get signal mostly everywhere I go.  All cell phone companies has there pluses and minuses.  I hear good and bad things from all providers.  I think Sprint has the best deal for phones and plans anywhere at the moment.

Originally posted by fishkur 4g doesn't actually exist yet...they haven't agreed on a standard yet so everyone's using different protocols.

I have had Verizon for yeeeears, only carrier I ever had. Only time I ever lost reception was one day in Oregon where I usually can get it, but nobody with any carrier did that day, and in Wisconsin there were a few spots where you could lose reception driving through valleys. Other than that, FL, NV, IN, where ever I've used it I had no problem, so I can see no reason I would ever want to change.

I've got AT&T on my personal phone and Verizon on my work phone. AT&T is faster but with less coverage and Verizon is slow but everywhere.

my verizon phone almost always has good reception and service

Ive had them all in the DC area, and I haven't noticed much difference between them.  I'm using Sprint now and I have no complaints.  

Get verizon, haven't had one problem yet

I have had AT&T all along, and plan to stick with em.

I personally have Verizon and in the Portland OR area, it's got better phone service than ATT.  The 3G coverage for ATT is better however. 

I wish they would grandfather my plan in... but as soon as I asked for a data plan and messaging plan they said the old plans are not compatible... SOB's!

I'm still with the blackberry unlimited data plan... does anyone use the new ATT limited data plans? Do you ever find yourself going over the limit?

I just want to know what's going to happen with TMobile and AT&T in a year span because they both suck at my house.

dude they are all in it for the money none of the carriers have as great of service as they make it sound. However, in mass verizon definitely has the best coverage (which still isnt that great). Everyone I have ever heard of who has AT&T has switched back to verizon...ask around thats gonna be the easiest way to find out who owns the cell towers in your area

Like everyone has been saying, it really depends on where you live and how much you want to spend. If you want okay reception and nice 4G speeds for a great price Sprint is good, I have it and while I sometimes hate the the lack of internet availability, not paying an extra $20+ a month I think it is worth it. If you don't mind paying a little more I would definitely recommend Verizon, a lot of my friends have Verizon and the reception is really nice, plus they have the Droid and iPhone.

I get better service with AT&T in the mountains of Tahoe than my home in Silicon Valley.  Retarded.

I'm not a telecommunications expert, but from what I understand, the signal bars on a CDMA phone (ie: Verizon and Sprint) represent the usable bandwidth in the RF signal, so theorectically you can have no bars and still make calls, whereas the sound quality would be abysmal. On the other hand with a GSM phone (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) the bars represent signal reception or strength of the reception signal, so if you have no bars, you cannot make any calls.

I have T-Mobile but OMG I have such bad reception in some areas.

I want to switch but why is it that after years and years it seems like cell phone plans really haven't changed much. still mad expensive with so little minutes.


-CJ

I have Sprint and am very pleased I pay on 67 per month for an unlimited everything plan....downloads could be faster but it beats being drained for every nickel of service I wanted with Verizon, my old carrier.

which one has the least dropped calls?

in the bay area, sprint is probably the best.

verizon is the best but i hear sprint is getting alot better

I have Rogers in Canada. The service is pretty good and works on any GSM network in the world, but the cost is high.