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Virginia 3G Coverage. Any gripes?

cobaltchroma

cobaltchroma

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 22, 2008
109
0
hey everybody,
im soon going to at&t for an iphone 3G and i live in south east virginia,
chesapeake to be exact. and i commute to virginia beach every weekend.
at&t's map says we get good 3G, but i just want some reassurance.
anyone?
 
I live in yorktown, work in hampton, and visit norfolk/va beach several times a week. I get pretty much amazing 3G coverage all over the area, and haven't had a single problem up this point...
 
awesome!
thanks.

wow, alot of people must not live in virginia cause there isnt but one reply!
hahha
 
I basically have no signal in my house in VB by the Indian River/64 Interchange. Outside I get an ok signal. Most other places around town my signal is great until you go into a store. ATT's site says I should get a better signal then I get. I am coming from Sprint which had a much better signal at my house and in a lot of stores.
 
Chesapeake gets around 3-4 bars avg. 3G, Newport news has coverage everwhere. Richmond has 5 bars everywhere. VA beach is actually pretty bad from my experience i got around 2 bars around the ocean front. Suffolk ( i live in suffolk) NO 3G coverage maybe 1 bar if im lucky.
 
Yeah, Over by regent university and indian river road there is a lot of dead spots. I have pretty good 3g coverage eveywhere else, oh yeah chicks beach no coverage at all no voice nothing. So its so so .

I have been so tired of dropping calls bc of 3g that i have turned it off and now my phone works pretty well. Which also gives me almost 2days of use before a charge.

I will say this, i really do not think that the phone sounds well at all. everytime i call my wife or a friend they say i sound horrible and i also have lots of static when i call then too. I have full bars everytime. ATT in my opinion sucks. I had alltell before and they were great.
 
thanks everyone.
does anyone know if there is 3G available in the rural hickory area in chesapeake?
 
damn okay.
there is an at&t tower visible from my backyard,
i guess its not 3G.
oh well,
maybe they'll upgrade it soon.
:)
 
cobaltchroma said:
at&t's map says we get good 3G, but i just want some reassurance.
anyone?
Click to expand...
FWIW, the AT&T map doesn't show 3G signal strength, so there's no real way of knowing if an area gets a good 3G signal, an excellent 3G signal, or a poor 3G signal. It just shows that there's a 3G signal of some strength in that area. :(

DavidMc said:
I basically have no signal in my house in VB by the Indian River/64 Interchange. Outside I get an ok signal. Most other places around town my signal is great until you go into a store..
Click to expand...
Hey, I live sorta near there too ... up by Indian River/Kempsville. Get a marginal signal inside my house, a little better outside. EDGE/3G both have the same low strength.

It amazes me how low the signal is inside some stores/malls. The end of Lynnhaven Mall, near Barnes and Nobles, is pretty much a dead spot.

Coming from Verizon, which seems to have this area nailed, has been pretty frustrating for me.

Ryanhdd said:
Yeah, Over by regent university and indian river road there is a lot of dead spots.
Click to expand...
Which doesn't make much sense to me. The signal starts to suck there, all the way up Indian River to near Princess Anne. That's a huge area, and one of the busiest traffic corridors in Hampton Roads. You'd think they'd add more towers to give it decent coverage.

I have been so tired of dropping calls bc of 3g that i have turned it off and now my phone works pretty well. Which also gives me almost 2days of use before a charge.

I will say this, i really do not think that the phone sounds well at all. everytime i call my wife or a friend they say i sound horrible and i also have lots of static when i call then too. I have full bars everytime. ATT in my opinion sucks. I had alltell before and they were great.
Click to expand...
Well, one they fix 3G, 3G sounds much more like what I'm used to on Verizon/Alltel. Even a 3G signal of 1 bar sounds crystal clear to me (whereas an EDGE signal of 1 bar sounds staticy). But with 1 bar of 3G, my call drops often. Ugh.
 
well i have verizon now and the closest tower to my house is about 9 miles away.
i dont get any bars, but i can still text.
weird...

and in lynnhaven mall i get horrible service,
especially in hollister.
hahaha
 
Great coverage here in NoVA and when i visit Richmond i have great coverage there too. Dropped calls now and then, but that's an issue of 3g and edge exchanging services apparently.
 
Pat Robinson and his people must be Verizon subscribers or there would be a lot better coverage around his campus and area...

it is very frustrating and I am to the point of taking the phone back and just living with an Ipod Touch and my Sprint phone until they put up additional towers in the area.

aristobrat said:
FWIW, the AT&T map doesn't show 3G signal strength, so there's no real way of knowing if an area gets a good 3G signal, an excellent 3G signal, or a poor 3G signal. It just shows that there's a 3G signal of some strength in that area. :(


Hey, I live sorta near there too ... up by Indian River/Kempsville. Get a marginal signal inside my house, a little better outside. EDGE/3G both have the same low strength.

It amazes me how low the signal is inside some stores/malls. The end of Lynnhaven Mall, near Barnes and Nobles, is pretty much a dead spot.

Coming from Verizon, which seems to have this area nailed, has been pretty frustrating for me.


Which doesn't make much sense to me. The signal starts to suck there, all the way up Indian River to near Princess Anne. That's a huge area, and one of the busiest traffic corridors in Hampton Roads. You'd think they'd add more towers to give it decent coverage.


Well, one they fix 3G, 3G sounds much more like what I'm used to on Verizon/Alltel. Even a 3G signal of 1 bar sounds crystal clear to me (whereas an EDGE signal of 1 bar sounds staticy). But with 1 bar of 3G, my call drops often. Ugh.
Click to expand...
 
Just wanted to say thanks for this post and thanks for the replies everyone. I'm in Norfolk and am looking at getting an iPhone 3G in 2 months or so. This thread was the very first result from a Google search "iphone 3g coverage norfolk, va".

"Coverage" maps only do so much so it's nice to read some real world feedback from you all.
 
ATT is the weakest link in the whole iPhone phenom

cobaltchroma said:
hey everybody,
im soon going to at&t for an iphone 3G and i live in south east virginia,
chesapeake to be exact. and i commute to virginia beach every weekend.
at&t's map says we get good 3G, but i just want some reassurance.
anyone?
Click to expand...

My coverage is OK in N VA. Still get about 30% drop call rate. 3G coverage is pretty good. One thing I noticed and I am not sure whether this is the device or the service, but it is kinda lazy in finding a signal. I get out of the metro and people start getting signal and talking on the phone right on the escalatoo on the way up. It sometimes takes me almost 2-3 minutes.
 
aristobrat said:
Hey, I live sorta near there too ... up by Indian River/Kempsville. Get a marginal signal inside my house, a little better outside. EDGE/3G both have the same low strength.

Which doesn't make much sense to me. The signal starts to suck there, all the way up Indian River to near Princess Anne. That's a huge area, and one of the busiest traffic corridors in Hampton Roads. You'd think they'd add more towers to give it decent coverage.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I just wanted to update the thread to note that AT&T has done something in the area above to dramatically increase the signal strength.

I'd say that the added a new tower, but they usually send a SMS when they've done that, and I haven't received one about this area.

Anyhow, I've gone from 1-2 bars of 3G inside my house to 4-5 bars, and although calls still drop more than when I had Verizon, they drop on AT&T a lot less now.
 
Agreed...I now average 3 bars in my house. I can still drop a call if I turn the wrong way, but at least now the phone is usable. I did notice this change after the 2.1 update though. Now Edge on the other hand, if I go to Edge like I used to have to, I get 1 bar to No Signal...but at least it works now in 3G and I am a happy camper and glad I stuck it out till the 2.1 release time frame.

On another note I did get a text last week stating that a new tower had been put up in the area, but it was no where near my area. I think it was around Great Neck or so...I deleted the message all ready.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I know this is an old thread, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to start a new one or not, anyhow, anyone have experiences to share about coverage in Williamsburg, VA? How about Wintergreen (ski resort 45 mins outside of charlottesville)?
Click to expand...

We have a weekend home outside of Wintergreen and I've basically given up on using my phone while we're down there and rely on my wife's Verizon phone to make calls. You can get a few bars down in Nellysford but they quickly disappear as you travel down Rte. 151 towards Wintergreen. I've occasionally gotten a bar or sometimes two at the top of Wintergreen but more often than not, I lose it pretty quickly.
 
its terrible in Lynchburg with Blacksburg being decent. I'm hoping they upgrade soon.

I found a link online talking about Central VA + South West VA getting 3G soon? I'll believe it when I see it though.
 
hokiepokie07 said:
its terrible in Lynchburg with Blacksburg being decent. I'm hoping they upgrade soon.

I found a link online talking about Central VA + South West VA getting 3G soon? I'll believe it when I see it though.
Click to expand...



Not sure whether you're talking about 3G or just service in general, but there is zero 3G service in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The folks at the AT&T store told me that one of their VPs said a 3G tower would be put in over the summer, but they wouldn't believe it until they see it.

Too bad, really. It's just a good thing that the campus has such pervasive wireless access.
 
OasisNYK said:
We dont get any 3G in Charlottesville - its a crime they charge us for a 3G plan here
Click to expand...
It does suck that there is no 3G in a city as big as Charlottsville, but FWIW, none of the carriers charge more for 3G (faster) data.

The reason the original iPhone had a $20 data plan wasn't because it was EDGE. It was because AT&T didn't spend any money up front to subsidize the cost of the original iPhone (to make it cheaper). You paid Apple the full $399 price for the iPhone. Where AT&T dumped in the money was to create a special data plan (that saved iPhone customers 42% a month compared to customers using other EDGE phones).

When the iPhone 3G came out, AT&T reversed its actions . They dumped their money in up front, to make the iPhone 3G cheaper. You paid $199 to buy the iPhone from them instead of paying $599 to buy it directly from Apple.

So the whole time original iPhone owners were paying $20/month for EDGE data + 200 texts, everyone else on AT&T with EDGE phones (like BlackBerrys/Palms/etc) were paying $35/month for the same EDGE service + 200 text messages. But that sort of averaged out, because you paid $399 for your phone up front, and they paid a lot less for their EDGE phone.

Sorry, probably more info than you wanted, but I didn't want you to think you were getting charged "more" for 3G data that you can't use out there.
 
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