<p>I'm considering switching from AT&T to Sprint. Which carrier has the best coverage on the Berkeley campus and in the bay area in general, Sprint, AT&T, or Verizon?</p>
<p>I’m also really interested.</p>
<p>I am in the Bay Area, S at Cal. AT&T has been working well for us.</p>
<p>I have AT&T and it has worked perfectly in the Bay Area.</p>
<p>AT&T’s okay but Verizon was better.</p>
<p>AT&T is okay but Verizon is the best.</p>
<p>AT&T and Verizon are fine. Don’t know about Sprint. I know for sure that T-mobile sucks. You already lose reception when you’re at the stadium.</p>
<p>I have Verizon, and I had 6 bars in Unit 3 at Cal. I didn’t even know it was possible for my phone to have 6 bars.</p>
<p>Bars are not really an object measure of reception. What five bars means on one cell phone can mean something completely different on another. Some cell phones are out of four bars, some are out of six. Some cell phones have better reception than others even when they have the same amount of signal from towers.</p>
<p>In order to really get objective reception rates, you’re most likely going to have to put your cell phone in debug mode and see the measurements for signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio.</p>
<p>That said, I’m using a MVNO (a reseller) on Verizon, and based on my observations in various places, I get better reception than my AT&T or Sprint friends. I don’t know of anyone that uses T-Mobile, but their online coverage map should be quite accurate. All four carriers should be quite acceptable in the Bay Area. Even MetroPCS is worth a consideration.</p>
<p>That said, I pay $30/mo for 1200min/1200txt/50MB and actually use 900min/300txt per month. There’s no contract. It’s PagePlus Cellular. However, customer service is absolutely unacceptable (worse that your wildest imagination), but if you go thru a good dealer, you’ll hopefully never have to deal with them.</p>
<p>so at&t is fine for sure?? i’m thinking about getting the iphone 4 but i read reviews from WSJ that said reception was horrible in some areas. i have tmobile currently, and when i went to SF and berkeley last month i barely had reception anywhere</p>
<p>If you’re happy with T-Mobile keep it and switch phones. Your phone might just suck. I have T-Mobile and my myTouch Slide got great reception all over Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, El Cerrito, Albany, San Francisco, and whatever other random cities I ended up running around.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with Sprint?</p>
<p>Sprint works perfectly in Berkeley. There are a few deadzones, but they are in places you shouldn’t be using your phone in the first place. If you have roaming enabled, you won’t have any problems.</p>
<p>Before my family enabled roaming, I had signal in most places, but lacked signal in Pimentel and some small parts of VLSB’s 2nd floor</p>
<p>AT&T works perfectly, never had any problem before. I always have reception where my Verizon & Sprint friends don’t.</p>
<p>AT&T has obvious issues with its data network at times (3g will be slow at peak times in SF–not so much of an issue in Berkeley) and the cell network gets overloaded at peak times. I almost never make phone calls myself, but I recall a couple times when my calls were unreliable. Verizon probably has the best network, but I rather use the iphone. AT&T’s issues are not so bad that I would even consider switching unless some other carrier obtained the iPhone exclusively.</p>
<p>im gonna have to say sprint, cuz i have sprint and i get signal from pimentel and places most others dont. sprint is also pretty cheap, but the only downside is they seem to not have many options for phones, but theyve been stepping it up lately with the evo 4g</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it’s just my location(Unit one residential units), but my att reception is pretty poor in my dorm/unit. i have the iphone 4 and and 3g is very slow; bar reception is usually one or two bars and sending picture messages works once in a blue moon. also, call frequently drop but i had this problem back home in maryland as well so it’s not just this area. at&t should think about strengthening its network not only here but across the country. then again, that wouldn’t be in the best interests of att’s investors from an economic viewpoint so i guess when the iphone 4 comes out on Verizon in 2011 i’ll be heading over.</p>
<p>I have Verizon and the only time I haven’t had excellent reception was in Memorial Stadium and in Soda (underground, lol).</p>
<p>My friends with Sprint and AT&T get good reception everywhere except in some places around clark kerr it seems.</p>
<p>Overall you should be fine with most carriers though.</p>