cell phone coverage ATT, iphone & 3G

<p>We used to be a Verizon family and that is what our daughter used her first year at Cornell. Now the rest of us have switched to ATT for the iphone and we'd like to consolidate the billing to ATT family plan to save money. </p>

<p>I've read the coverage is not as good for ATT, but is it good enough? She'll be living on West Campus next year and most classes are in the engineering quad. I know I saw students with iphones last year.</p>

<p>I see Ithaca has 3G coverage, does this work well?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>ATT is not the greatest...but it will work for your daughter. I had a few friends who had ATT and 2 had the iPhone. They all lived in Collegetown and I never had a problem reaching them.</p>

<p>It's only REALLY bad for ATT on North Campus, on Central I normally have full service, and I'm hoping West will be the same (since I'm keeping ATT for next year as well).</p>

<p>yes its REALLY BAD on north campus. i tried to call my friend with ATT who lived a floor below me in dorm and during the whole year, ive NEVEr reached him. so i eventually got tired of calling cause he never has service and i actually just walked down the stairs.</p>

<p>So, overall how bad is it using AT&T at Cornell?? I have been asking myself for switching to AT&T or Verizon.. I want to get AT&T if I can..</p>

<p>We have the AT&T family plan. S, a junior, is currently living in Balch while attending sumer session, and has no cell phone service in his room. However, while living in Dickson his first year and on West campus last year, getting service was not a problem. So I think that Balch may be an exception.</p>

<p>Does anybody have experience with at&t in the townhouses? Building E if you can get that specific.</p>

<p>I had AT&T for four years and i never had any problems reaching anyone and similarly others had no problem reaching me. Granted there are few places where you might not get reception, including the ground floor, dorm library and sometimes the dining halls of west campus dorms but these are limited areas. My roomate on the other hand had verizon and i feel like we had the same kind of reception everywhere!</p>

<p>I should mention that for 1.5 years i lived on third floor of hans bethe. So i am not sure of reception on other floors.</p>

<p>Does this include the 3G network as well or just EDGE?</p>

<p>bottom line: ATT is tolerable in general...HORRIBLE on north...like horrible. elsewhere it's not bad. if you want an iPhone, it's fine...you'll manage...</p>

<p>and yea 3G as well as EDGE</p>

<p>Att has decent service for the most part except when driving between NYC and Cornell and on north campus. there is WIFI all over campus, so if you have an Iphone, the fastest internet will likely not be over 3G but over the Wifi networks.</p>

<p>with the wifi all over campus, paying 30 a month for the 3g seems pretty redundant, unless we can use that 3g as a tether for our laptops to download more than cornell's 10gb limit, but we have to wait till the iphone 3g gets jailbroken for that.</p>

<p>3G is fine everywhere in ithaca (even when phone coverage is spotty)</p>

<p>North campus is the worst for coverage while I get full bars in Collegetown. On north I can send emails, but I can't accept calls.</p>

<p>***.</p>

<p>was that with the iphone 3G or the first iphone?</p>

<p>i think with the iphone 3G using the 3G network to talk, the coverage will be better on north campus...</p>

<p>Also, oddly, in my experience the coverage in Townhouses was much better than the majority of North. In Appel Commons I could get 1-2 bars when I really needed them, and got 3-4 in my room in Mews, though it dropped a lot (leading my parents to often think I hung up on them during the first week...). It really depends on your building -- in Mews I generally got service, but if I wanted to actually talk I'd have to walk closer to the Thurston Avenue Bridge... All in all, it's not too bad, though, and it's definitely tolerable if there's really no option (like for me -- either stay on AT&T family plan or pay for own phone or verizon? I knew the right choice, lol.).</p>

<p>
[quote]
3G is fine everywhere in ithaca (even when phone coverage is spotty)

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So if I get the new iPhone and keep the 3G settings on, then I will get fine coverage that is better than what people have been describing with AT&T?</p>

<p>nope</p>

<p>10CHAR</p>

<p>why are people telling me conflicting things, i am so confused</p>

<p>How was Verizon coverage? We are switching once our ATT contract is up in Nov...</p>