<p>I just switched to Sprint and was wondering how reliable Sprint is at UVA compared to other carriers?</p>
<p>You should be fine.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, there was a problem with AT&T service in some dorms, but they installed some sort of booster things that apparently fixed that. The only issue I’ve ever had on Grounds is with service in Scott Stadium during a game. That might be from the amount of people on the network, but I’m no expert. :)</p>
<p>That’s good to know about At&T. When DD and I were there last April the service was horrible-we said that if she gets in we’ll have to switch her! Hoping we can keep AT&T now :)</p>
<p>S2, Co2015 had some trouble with AT&T his first year in the McCormick dorms. We just skyped, which he liked better anyway. He always wants to see the dog, lol. This year he’s in Lambeth with no problems in the dorms, or elsewhere. </p>
<p>Dean Js right, Scott Stadium is a black hole. Make plans of where you’re meeting at half time or after the game prior to going in. I can get a text through maybe 7-10% of the time and have given up. Plus the person you’re sending it to is rarely going to notice a text with all the noise.</p>
<p>After our D’s first year (2010), we did wind up switching her service from AT&T to Verizon because of dropped calls, no coverage, etc. She hasn’t had any problems since switching. In the past year, though, AT&T has made strides in the CVille area. For instance, last year when I was in her apartment (Corner), I got zero service, but now I have no problem connecting.</p>
<p>Yeah, if you’re going to switch providers then Verizon is generally accepted as having the best reception (at least as far as I’ve read and seen). I have Verizon and I always have service unless I’m in a basement of the Chem building or Scott Stadium. My friends have ATT and Sprint and they work for them, but aren’t as great. Normally it’s pretty managable though. I think First-Year dorms are bad especially if they don’t have the cell booster. I remember my friend with ATT last year didn’t get reception in his room (Watson-Webb).</p>
<p>Can anyone personally attest to Sprint’s coverage in Cville? And are there any plans for cell boosters for Sprint?</p>
<p>We probably live in the only neighborhood in Northern VA that doesn’t get Verizon coverage! We are surrounded on 3 sides by a 15,000 acre forest and Verizon can’t seem to get permission from the county to put in a tower close enough. When our son left for college he couldn’t call us cell phone to cell phone and kept running though our minutes–so we were able to break our contract with Verizon and switch to AT&T. Even in our basement we get perfect AT&T. Go figure! Luckily the kids’ contracts are up in October so if DD’s isn’t working out well we’ll switch just her :)</p>
<p>what about t-mobile? any experience with them on here?</p>
<p>Our ATT service is horrible out of the McCormick Rd dorms. The phone shows a couple of bars, but about every other word is often garbled or missing.</p>
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<p>Sorry to dredge up an older post, but since S will soon have an expired Sprint contract we want to look at other options. His Sprint service currently is very poor on Grounds - but he has a 3G phone (iPhone 4S) not a 4G phone. Looking at the other carriers mentioned by ITS, T-Mobile is by far the best deal cost-wise and Verizon and AT&T the most expensive. But after the 4G carrier upgrades this year, how do those 3 really stack up against Sprint in reception/connectivity? He will be getting a new 4G capable phone regardless of carrier (including Sprint). I believe my Verizon iPhone 5 worked fine when I was visiting, but again, how is T-Mobile today? Thanks for any insights.</p>
<p>The last time I was down there my boyfriend with TMobile had pretty shotty service. He went in and out of service along 29 multiple times and had a couple of deadzones while on the Corner. Overall though he didn’t have any trouble making calls, it mostly seemed to be the data connection suffering and somewhat consistently at that.</p>
<p>I have AT&T and while I had almost no problems, there were data deadzones down around the Mall and just outside of Cville on 29, but that was it. I had it while attending UVa and the biggest deadzone I had there was in building basements (duh), football games (duh), and in my apartment building of all places. I never had an issue along 29 which was a primary reason for staying with AT&T and I would connect to wi-fi in buildings.</p>
<p>Cell service is best across flat ground and no buildings, and obviously UVa has a ton of buildings and the entire area around UVa and Cville is hilly, anyone that’s been on the roller coaster drive of 29 can probably attest to that (that section right outside of town is notorious for having crap signal). This doesn’t exactly bode well for perfect coverage.
UVa’s IT dept recommends AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile due to the fact that they upgraded service significantly in the past few years. Verizon actually used to be pure roaming on Alltel towers until Verizon acquired them, which was awful for Verizon users, and enough complained that Verizon came in and upgraded the systems while I was a second year, and things have slowly improved since then (I remember the day AT&T brought 3G to Cville, it was a great day for iPhone folks! I feel so old knowing that :(…). You should be okay with any of those three major carriers, you probably won’t have 100% coverage at full strength everywhere, but he should be good enough to not be bothered by drop-outs too much.</p>
<p>[Charlottesville</a>, VA Coverage Map & Carrier Reviews | CellReception.com](<a href=“http://www.cellreception.com/coverage/va/charlottesville/page1.html]Charlottesville”>Charlottesville, VA Carrier Reviews & Coverage Maps | CellReception) for some more info</p>
<p>Thanks shoe. If I can ask, when was that that your boyfriend was last @ UVa with his TMobile phone? </p>
<p>It sounds in general like there’s no real “winner” that stands out for data, and voice is generally OK with any of them. When looking at cost of carriers our choices look like this: Sprint $30/mo (he is an add-on to our family account), T-Mobile $60/mo (with the Advantage discount), AT&T $110/mo, and Verizon $110/mo (can’t use a 4G device on their cheaper prepaid plans). </p>
<p>But as I said, he has complained that his 3G iPhone 4S on Sprint has terrible connection everywhere, so maybe that’s Sprint, or maybe it’s the phone? His mother’s Sprint 4G HTC worked fine when we were their and my iPhone 5 on Verizon seemed to be okay. But Verizon and AT&T are just out due to cost. I’m thinking he’s stuck with Sprint or T-Mobile.</p>
<p>I’ve been on AT&T in Charlottesville for nine years. </p>
<p>The service hole in the stadium is still an issue. AT&T knows this, but I can’t remember why they can’t put boosters there.</p>
<p>The only other hole I’ve found in the last year is in Stony Point and Keswick. Students don’t really hang out in those areas. :)</p>
<p>We were just there in the spring. </p>
<p>It sounds like it could be his phone and the new iPhones have increased their bands (i.e. better service support). Maybe keep him month to month until you can move to family plan on AT&T or Vz? AT&T has always seemed to have provided the best service in Cville, like I said I only had a data issue on the Mall and I think it was due to being in the concert venue there that is slightly built into the side of a hill</p>
<p>We have AT&T and whenever DD calls me from her dorm (old) it is a lousy, choppy connection 
Better when she’s outside walking but still not fantastic.</p>
<p>Our family has Verizon. My wahoo daughter and I have talked while she was walking around grounds and in her dorm. I have visited Charlottesville several times over the years in various hotels, etc. Never had a problem with service.</p>
<p>We also have Verizon. NO issues with S in the old dorms - although he has commented that others (non-Verizon) have issues at times. Not sure if those others are AT&T, Sprint or whatever. We visited last weekend for the football game - and I was able to text and make phone calls (with some difficulty) at Scott Stadium, but had no data usage whatsoever. Great coverage everywhere else.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the feedback, it is very helpful. </p>
<p>To summarize (and over-simplify), it sounds like Verizon is definitely the #1 choice for strength of connection and data coverage. After that AT&T is next and relatively solid but can be spotty around grounds. T-Mobile and Sprint are fairly equivalent with extremely spotty data coverage and weak voice spots as well. In the cases of T-Mobile and Sprint (and AT&T in its dead zones) you heavily lean on wifi around grounds for data - which is what S does now with his Sprint phone - but since wifi is available and free for students this doesn’t become a huge issue in most cases. So… he’s stuck with Sprint till I can figure out how to get him on my Verizon business plan. :)</p>
<p>My son had Verizon for four his four years on Grounds, and never had a problem. We have great service in C’ville, too, except over at some places on the East side of town and in Scott Stadium. I understand that US Cellular has good coverage in the stadium – one can even use a USC iPad during a game without problems.</p>