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Comparisons of Cellular Service Quality?

Posted by Cliff on from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept.

dmr asks: "What are the best sources of information for cell phone service quality? Is there a source out there which can give a reputable ranking of service, coverage, dropped-calls, etc, for the major cell phone providers, broken out by region? There's a huge pile of anecdotes and tall tales out there. Where can someone find out which providers work best in his hometown? Bonus points for assessments of capital improvements to equipment, as well as trends from the past."Update: A commenter points out that MyRatePlan has a great coverage map comparison tool.

5 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Good survey for DC and SF areas by kawika · · Score: 3, Informative

    Consumer's Checkbook had a good survey of all the cell providers serving the region in their latest Washington DC area pub, and it looks like they did the same for San Francisco as well. I have Sprint and I can tell you they mentioned most of the dead spots Sprint has near my house.

    To read the survey you'll either need to buy the dead-tree version at a local bookstore or subscribe to the web site.

    Gan you near be how? Could.

  2. You can find service rankings and reviews... by Blind+Linux · · Score: 3, Informative

    ranked by zip code or by manually selecting your location from a list of counties and cities by statehere. Once you have specified your location, it brings up a list of all the providers in your region with user and expert reviews covering most if not all of the features you need.

  3. There is coverage and then there is service by cpuffer_hammer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Though a bit out a tangent there more to service than signal. Check out how the banks and airlines are doing also. We will be doing a detailed study of wireless soon.

    http://performance.empirix.com/voiceindex/wirele ss _voice_perf_a.asp

  4. Excellent site for cellular phones by pnutjam · · Score: 2, Informative

    Howard Chui runs an excellent site with cell phone reviews. His forums have alot of information about differnet providers. I highly recommend this site.

    --
    Cheap storage VM.
  5. Re:Simple by sphealey · · Score: 3, Informative
    In the aforementioned areas, Verizon is sufuckingperior
    I lived for a while in rural Illinois, and received reasonable (if a bit expensive) service from Verizon.

    Then I moved to a reasonably well-to-do suburb of a major midwestern city, with a few more hills than rural Illinois. Basically, my Verizon phone just stopped working. There was no signal - zero - nada - within 1000m of my house.

    I spent 3 months on the phone with Verizon Customer Disservice and Verizon Technical Non-Support to try to get it working. Their final answer? "You have a bad handset". Funny - it works in rural Illinois, it works in downtown Chicago, it works everywhere it the midwest but fails when I bring it in to my house. Funny that. Funny too how 3 coworkers with different handset models experienced the same failure when they drove through my neighborhood.

    I asked them to send out a signal strength truck and copy me on the test results. "Signal strength truck? What's that?".

    Their FINAL ANSWER? "Too bad dude. Don't forget to send us a check every month for the next two years".

    So then I got involved in a registered letter battle with the VP of Customer Service, the President of Verizon Wireless, and the CEO of Verizon. Finally, I had to write a letter to the senior outside memeber of the Verizon Board of Directors and the Verizon Corporate Counsel explaining that yes, I do know what a formal complaint to the FCC is, and yes, I will write up one asking that Verizon's license to do business in my state be revoked. Suddenly they were able to make an exception to their "no refunds" policy.

    Switched to AT&T and everything has been hunky-dory since.

    That's my experience with Verizon. Your milage may vary.

    sPh