I've had T-Moble, AT&T, Cingular, and Verizon all in the (south) bay area.
T-Moble's reception wasn't that great in Cupertino/San Jose. Reception in Boulder Creek was zero. When I bought a house in Boulder Creek I payed to break the contract.
FYI, as of 2 or so years ago T-Moble's wireless voice network in the bay area was actually Cingular's (T-Moble payed a lease). I don't know if that is true now (if it is their coverage maps are wrong, and it cost them a sale two weeks ago).
AT&T had slightly better reception then T-Moble in Cupertino/San Jose, reception in Boulder Creek was marginal but it worked, at least outdoors. According to others VZ, Sprint and Cingular had nothing in the area.
Over the next year reception in Boulder Creek got better, it seemed like they built a new tower, and then a month or two a second one. It is possible the first improvement was a new tower and the second was either them tweaking the antennas on it, or bringing more of something or other on line.
After AT&T got bought by Cingular we saw no real change in Boulder Creek, but Cupertino/San Jose's reception got better as measured by the bars on the phone, we also started getting more dropped calls, or more calls that got sent to voice mail when we had reception.
About two months ago we switched to Verizon. In Cupertino/San Jose we got pretty decent reception. Marginal in Boulder Creek (like when we first got AT&T). The EV-DO where available rocked. We got tons of calls going straight to voicemail. Tons. Like every call to my wife's phone when we were home, even when it showed signal. Like 20% of the calls in the city. We are in the process of switching back.
by J Osborne — Jul 28
T-Moble's reception wasn't that great in Cupertino/San Jose. Reception in Boulder Creek was zero. When I bought a house in Boulder Creek I payed to break the contract.
FYI, as of 2 or so years ago T-Moble's wireless voice network in the bay area was actually Cingular's (T-Moble payed a lease). I don't know if that is true now (if it is their coverage maps are wrong, and it cost them a sale two weeks ago).
AT&T had slightly better reception then T-Moble in Cupertino/San Jose, reception in Boulder Creek was marginal but it worked, at least outdoors. According to others VZ, Sprint and Cingular had nothing in the area.
Over the next year reception in Boulder Creek got better, it seemed like they built a new tower, and then a month or two a second one. It is possible the first improvement was a new tower and the second was either them tweaking the antennas on it, or bringing more of something or other on line.
After AT&T got bought by Cingular we saw no real change in Boulder Creek, but Cupertino/San Jose's reception got better as measured by the bars on the phone, we also started getting more dropped calls, or more calls that got sent to voice mail when we had reception.
About two months ago we switched to Verizon. In Cupertino/San Jose we got pretty decent reception. Marginal in Boulder Creek (like when we first got AT&T). The EV-DO where available rocked. We got tons of calls going straight to voicemail. Tons. Like every call to my wife's phone when we were home, even when it showed signal. Like 20% of the calls in the city. We are in the process of switching back.