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AT&T coverage is not perfect, but is it that bad?

H

hcho3

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 13, 2010
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I am a graduate student in Maryland. Yes, I live in maryland and I work in DC. I travel about 30 minutes to 1 hour everyday for school and work. My question is following. I have had both Verizon and AT&T. Now, I only have AT&T with iPhone 4. While the coverage is certainly not perfect, it is not that bad in Maryland.
I hear people say AT&T is so terrible. Some people don't even get signals in their own homes. Where are you guys located? I am just wondering...
I know about NYC and Sanfrancisco. IS there any other areas that AT&T service is so terrible like u all describe?
Please share. -Thanks-
 
I did my undergrad in Fairfax and the signal there was just fine. I'm now back in North Carolina and the signal is still fine. Some of my friends on other carriers didn't get a signal in the residence halls and thus had to set their phones on the window sill to make sure they got their texts and phone calls. :p

It was pretty funny whenever we had a party and everyone would be hunched over at the window sill trying to get a signal.
 
It's depending on what you mean by 'coverage'

If you mean 3G coverage, then yes, Verizon dwarfs AT&T when it comes to 3G coverage in the United States

Verizon Wireless 3G Coverage
vzw_3g_10b.jpg


AT&T 3G Coverage
att_3g_10c.jpg


Just from an instant visual perspective, Verizon definitely has better 3G coverage. Anecdotal evidence points to this as well.

It's probably best to ask fellow AT&T users how their reception is in your area, especially along your commute lines.
 
No, it's not. For me AT&T is better than Verizon, which has no signal penetration in my house. Sprint swears there is signal, but two different EVO's couldn't find it. T-Mobile- what a joke.

AT&T isn't perfect but no carrier is.
 
AT&T is far better than Verizon where I live (northwestern Arizona). I had both AT&T and Verizon for nearly a year when I moved here, and experienced constant dropped calls, entirely missed calls (without any indicators whatsoever) and difficulty even connecting with Verizon. No 3G at all, a weak 1xRTT signal was the best I could do. AT&T, although it's strictly Edge where I live, is a much stronger signal and I experience no difficulties with calls at all.

When I recently went into the store to cancel my Verizon service, they did the usual "we'll have to send a service tech out to evaluate your area", to ascertain if the coverage was really that bad. The significance was that if they deemed the signal to be sufficient, I'd have to pay the early termination fee - if not, I could cancel the contract without penalty. The tech came out a couple days later, tested it and immediately agreed that the service was terrible....so I'm dropping Verizon entirely now.
 
I've got 4-5 bars in most areas of Colorado Springs and the signal is good enough for me to be able to stream Pandora while driving from one end to the other.

You also have to realize that most of the people with real signal issues either live out in the sticks where there are a huge lack of towers or in San Fran or New York where the towers are overtaxed.
 
Having used both extensively over the years (and more recently being an AT&T subscriber, JUST for the iPhone), AT&T is fine in most places. It's pretty good. But Verizon has been excellent, and that's keeping in mind I haven't used them in 2 and a half years now. They were better then, significantly, than AT&T is now, at least when it comes to trouble areas.

Parking garages, rural areas, RenFests, even in caves, Verizon had my back. I was the only person I knew on Verizon for a good while among my friends, and whenever we went to an out-of-the-way area, people would be borrowing my phone, because I'd be the only one who had coverage.

So no, AT&T isn't that bad, but I'd still rather be on Verizon, even now, after AT&T's had years to get its **** together. Assuming Verizon's got the iPhone by the time their 4G network goes live, I'll be jumping ship, to be sure.
 
Most people are going to find that ATT and Verizon are about equal. ATT will have coverage some places Verizon doesn't and vice verse. ATT has gone through some rough times with there network, even then it wasn't too bad, but things have greatly improved in the last year or so.
 
aohus said:
Verizon definitely has better 3G coverage.
Click to expand...

Funny because I tested my friends Droidx against my iPhone here in LA (the most important metropolitan area in America) and guess what... His 3G was SLOWWWWWWWW. So when it comes down to where it counts, Verizon fails.
 
AT&T is the only carrier that I can connect to in my house in Southern California. I've had great coverage in Hawaii, in the San Bernardino Mountains, and 4x4ing in the middle of nowhere. No complaints here.
 
ljx718 said:
here in south florida, its the best/fastest
Click to expand...
No kidding. I'm going on vacation to the Miami and the Keys in 2 weeks and was just checking the coverage map. There is almost full coverage from East Florida all the way through Key West. That has to be the most full 3G coverage I've seen in the US. It's nice to know I'll be able to feed my addiction while at the beach ;)
 
Hype2k2 said:
Whiners make the loudest noise. ATT is fine.
Click to expand...

Blah blah blah, yap yap yap.

It's awful here at home and I STILL can't use the microcell thanks to E911 issues. Nor do I know if/when I'll ever be able to use it. In areas with decent reception the data rate is still poor. I assume AT&T runs their towers off dial-up modems in this area. Per Florida, data speed was awesome in downtown Kissimmee! I was very envious!
 
I'm a CT resident with an office in Stamford, CT and an office on Park Ave in NY. At the Park Ave office (32nd floor), my company Verizon Blackberry is lucky to get one bar on the signal strength meter if I hold it to my office window. I literally have to take calls leaning my head against the window. My iPhone 3G and now the i4 are just fine in the office and anywhere on Park Ave from Grand Central up to Central Park. I think a lot of people complaining about AT&T coverage in Manhattan are living or working around Wall Street. By all accounts AT&T has problems in that area.

I use the iPhone every day commuting either the I95 or Merritt Parkway corridors through Fairfield County in southern CT. Coverage is great!

Likewise the metro north train ride into Manhattan has zero dead spots with the exception of the tunnels inside Grand Central. Inside the terminal building is fine.

I've used the iPhone from Boston down to DC along the East Coast with great results.

I've used the iPhone in Chicago without problems.

The two places I found to suck pretty badly were both in CA. San Francisco at the Four Seasons Hotel and at the Ritz Carlton resort in Dana Point just south of Long Beach. It was rather funny. We had about 400 people at a corporate annual meeting with investors. No one had service. Not AT&T users, not Verizon users, and not Sprint users. We came to the conclusion that the resort was jamming cell towers to force us to use their land lines. Watching a herd of crackberry users forced to go cold turkey was hilarious. They refused to give up. Maybe on the balcony. Maybe down on the beach. Maybe at the entrance. Maybe on the restaurant patio. Hey do you have service? No, do you? What carrier? Sprint, what about you? Verizon. I just started lying to friends telling them the iPhone worked great :D

Also, I don't travel the rural byways of America that often but I'd bet when you're off the interstates in Jackwater Hollow or some such place the signals can be pretty spotty for all carriers.
 
Ryeno said:
Funny because I tested my friends Droidx against my iPhone here in LA (the most important metropolitan area in America) and guess what... His 3G was SLOWWWWWWWW. So when it comes down to where it counts, Verizon fails.
Click to expand...

i wouldn't consider L.A to be the most important metropolitan area in America. Anyhow, I don't believe it was the 3G connection that was slow, but the moto-blur skin + bloatware that Verizon put on the Droid X itself that made the droid x sluggish when rendering a webpage.

3G speed difference between AT&T and Verizon is almost negligible.
 
QuarterSwede said:
No kidding. I'm going on vacation to the Miami and the Keys in 2 weeks and was just checking the coverage map. There is almost full coverage from East Florida all the way through Key West. That has to be the most full 3G coverage I've seen in the US. It's nice to know I'll be able to feed my addiction while at the beach ;)
Click to expand...

yep its pretty nice. i regularly get around 4 mpbs up/ 1.2 up
 
Spent time in Alaska last summer. The professor had an iphone and was still able to get reception and make calls throughout the entire trip. Me, on the other hand, using my blackberry with Sprint, didn't get any reception as soon as I stepped foot away from the Anchorage airport. That's all the proof I need. :)
 
That Verizon map is borderline fraud. That is VOICE coverage including roaming. Zoom then clik on DATA and you will see lots of !X. Not saying V doesn't have good coverage but that map ain't it.
 
Well I live in Chicago and many times I would take a train from Chicago to the Quad cities (Iowa area) and during the train ride there would be a stretch of at least 45 minutes where I would have 0 service as in NON BUT.....

People on the train that had verizon would still be using there cellphones (Talking, Texting) while I had absolutely none...

So yea it sucks....But I will say this, I have LESS dropped calls with my ip4 (@least 95% less) then I did with my iPhone 3g so thats a HUGE PLUS+++++
 
I also live in Maryland and work in D.C. and aside from a dropped call here and there AT&T is great; hell I've even noticed a boost in reception since I've gotten my iPhone 4. I also have a work-issued Verizon cell phone and most of the time reception is neck-and-neck between the two services, with the exception of my father's basement in which Verizon goes in and out and AT&T usually maintains a steady two bars. So, I don't know why AT&T has such a bad rap because they're just as good as Verizon, if not better, in my area.
 
At&t works great for me. When I had Verizon, I couldn't make a call inside my house, but their maps showed good-excellent coverage. At&t maps shows the same, good-excellent coverage and I can make a call clear as day inside my house. To me being able to make calls inside my house was a deal breaker. Verizon just couldn't perform, while At&t has done great! In and around town, At&t has not disappointed me at all. In the past 5 years of being with At&t, maybe 5-10 dropped calls. Most of that time using an Iphone or a Blackberry.
 
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