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Where's Your 'D-Spot?'

Posted by timothy on from the can-at-least-now-use-cingular dept.

John Hering writes "The battle between cellular carriers in the U.S has become especially fierce within major metropolitan areas. The focus of this battle clearly revolves around issues of quality of service (QoS). In an effort to demonstrate superior QoS, AT&T Wireless has just released the results of the Top 10 "D-Spots" in Chicago from a survey conducted online with a random sample of 520 Chicago men and women. Although AT&T touts improved coverage throughout these metropolitan areas now, the vice president of AT&T Wireless, Greg Slemons, has publicly admitted to serious problems with dropped calls. " I have yet to see really detailed coverage maps for cellular provided by the providers themselves; in cities especially a one-block difference can mean 3 bars of reception or none.

5 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Up and Coming... by lindec · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have been with several wireless providers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. From my experience so far, AT&T had the worst service of the three. T-Mobile has been growing fast, and I get amazing coverage wherever I have gone. In fact, I've actually seen the network expanding. On my annual drive from my home in California to college in Colorado, there used to be no service at all in Nevada or Wyoming. Now, I have full service on the drive through all those states. I have also found the customer service to be excellent. That's just my 2 cents on the cell phone battle... I think T-Mobile is trying very hard since they are move of an up-and-comer than a giant like AT&T.

    1. Re:Up and Coming... by quizwedge · · Score: 5, Informative

      T-Mobile's service may be getting worse, at least in the California/Nevada region. Here's a little history.. unfortunately, I don't know dates.

      1. AT&T forms AT&T wireless
      2. AT&T spins AT&T wireless off as a stock symbol
      3. AT&T sells AT&T wireless to investors (so it is no longer part of AT&T but carries the name)
      4. Cingular buys AT&T Wireless, but not the name
      5. (in the future) AT&T will release an in-house brand of wireless known as... AT&T Wireless, but using Sprint's towers instead of the GSM towers.

      Currently all AT&T customers will be or have switched over to Cingular.

      Now for a little background on Cingular and T-Mobile. At least in California, I can use either Cingular's towers or T-Mobile's towers for free (I'm a cingular customer). This is because T-Mobile did not have any service out in CA and NV and Cingular had really bad service in NY. Now that Cingular has bought out AT&T Wireless, they could easily break the agreement with T-Mobile since AT&T has great coverage in NY. T-Mobile gets the shaft by having to either stop offering service in CA and NV or put up a lot of towers.

      --
      I have no .sig
  2. Coverage maps by timgoh0 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are coverage maps for gsm readily available for various countries, including the US, at gsmworld.com

  3. Re:Parent not a troll by Minderbinder106 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you have a stucco exterior on your house? I had good reception with Verizon in my dad's house in Jacksonville until he had his walls stuccoed. The metal frame used to attach the stucco degrades the signal to the point where my phone is unusable inside but I get awesome reception by stepping out to the back yard.

  4. Re:Home Cellular Repeater - Cheap!! by The+Conductor · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't know if they make mobile antennas for that band

    Look to Ramsey Electronics for a suitable antenna. The LPY-2 covers both bands, & it's $35 cheap! If you really want to be clever you can rig up reflector or director elements to enhance gain.

    Keep your cable run short though, RG-58C loses 0.25 dB per foot at PCS frequencies. That means you gotta drill holes rather than go around obstacles. Low loss cable is bulky and expensive.