Reception: north of Boston

[JPS]

I have a first gen iPhone, and reception around here moves from No Service to one bar. It's like that for about a mile in any direction. The 3G coverage map shows that we're drowning in 3G, but I'm wary of buying a 3G as I have no idea if this will improve reception.

Anyone from the same area able to share his or her experience regarding reception?

 

[daniels]

There was a thread just the other day about 3g reception in Boston/surrounding areas and the consensus seemed to be that it's pretty damn well covered. I go to school in Boston but I'm at home for the summer for another week. I guess I'll see how it is once I get up there.

 

[JPS]

Are you on the North Shore? That's where I'm located. Weirdly, if you drive around the corner all the way to the end of the street to what's basically the edge of the ocean, reception's perfect. Ten feet away and it's essentially nonexistent.

 

[fs454]

I get odd reception around here with my white 3G. I live in Wakefield, MA and I get no 3G near my house, but when I go downtown, I'll get full 3G. Boston was either full 3G or none depending on the areas, but I never see any nice cell reception around my house unless its towards the downtown area.

I'll get 1-3 bars of Edge at my house. I remember having my old N-Gage that I got for cheap cheap, I couldn't download anything over GPRS unless I left my house and went about a mile away. Verizon was the same way. I dropped every single call within the first three minutes unless I went about a mile away from my house. And I live in a non-deserted area, just a suburban neighborhood.

And now with 3G, I'll never see it here, but downtown, full 3G. Surrounding towns, maybe maybe not. The Haverhill line Commuter Rail into boston from here will run full 3G to completely nothing to only Edge, it's a crapshoot until North Station where I get full 3g.

It all one big crapshoot.

 

[JPS]

That's the sense I'm getting from the board. Reception is never really consistent anywhere.

 

[spamdumpster]

That's the sense I'm getting from the board. Reception is never really consistent anywhere.

I live in Marblehead. Decent reception from Boston into Lynn. Spotty in Swampscott and Marblehead. There's one .5 mile stretch on my way home from work on Humphrey St/Atlantic Ave. in Swampscott where I get no reception at all (same was true with my blackberry, so it's not the iPhone). If I'm on a call for work (often), I have to drive through Vinnin square so I don't lose the call. My EDGE/3G reception at home is pretty weak.

 

[JPS]

I'm in Beverly (actually in the Cove), right next to Endicott College. You'd think, with a college nearby, there'd be a cell tower not too far away. I'm told that Verizon reception isn't so great out here, either.

 

[ophavok]

In Arlington I get 2-3 Bars of service this is both at my work and my house which are about a mile from each other. Pretty much the surrounding areas get at least 2 bars and I see about 120k per second for data so it's all good

This is coming from a iPhone on TMO and I had 4-5 bars everywhere I went.

 

[Houls]

North of Boston

I live in Billerica and 3G in the Merrimack Valley is spotty at best. I get 1-2 bars of Edge at home. Now the the whole 128/93 corridor is great for 3G. I get 5 bars everywhere from Wilmington to Downtown Boston. The only really bad area is Winchester. No just for AT&T though. My Verizon and former Sprint phones were also horrible in Winchester. Rich folk fight against cell tower construction.

 

[spamdumpster]

Rich folk fight against cell tower construction.

Yup. This is the same problem with Marblehead and, to a lesser extent, Swampscott. Everyone complains about the spotty coverage and then gets pissed when they plan to add some towers. Wealthier towns don't need the money from tower leases as much as other towns do, so the people are more successful in keeping them out.

My house is at a decent elevation for Marblehead, I wonder if I could get at&t to pay me $20,000 / month to put a tower on my roof?

 

[JPS]

Please aim it my way. I can see Marblehead from just behind my house!

 

[545h4]

I'm currently in southern Maine (Portland area):

No 3g until at least late fall 08
Reception as defined by bars great, reception as defined by call quality is sub-par

Just about everyone I know that's on Att (iphone and otherwise) has been complaining a lot over the last couple of weeks, lots of dropped calls, late delivery voicemails and SMS, etc...

I can't wait to get back to a semblance of civilization!!!

 

[MLO]

no bars in 3G

I live about 20 miles north of Beverly but work in the area. I turned off 3G due to the lack of bars. I am only using EDGE. We are paying for service we are not getting, this is , I need not banter. Why all the fuss over Apple's ads on the iphone, what about AT&T's ad - " More bars in more places."