<p>I currently have T-mobile but I hear it has pretty awful service at Cornell. So i'm thinking about switching to either Sprint or Verizon. I think we're leaning toward Sprint so does Sprint have good service in Ithaca? Are there any plans to improve Sprint service in the near future?</p>
<p>Verizon works fine for me. I’ve never had any problems with getting cell service.</p>
<p>I second that…Verizon works fine for me as well. 
I’ve never had Sprint, so I can’t make any recommendations for or against it.</p>
<p>Verizon and ATT both have towers on North Campus on top of one of the dorms so you will get excellent service with either of those.</p>
<p>verizon is the best hands down - you even get service in the gorges*! - at&t doesn’t.</p>
<p>*and by gorges i mean first dam/second dam - so, not on campus.</p>
<p>Verizon has a better coverage than AT&T. AT&T has been trying to increase their coverage on campus, but it still can’t beat Verizon yet.</p>
<p>verizon works in cornell basements! </p>
<p>i had t-mobile fall of 2006…and the phone only worked from like south of mews/kay/court/bauer so not on most parts of north 
</p>
<p>worked fine in ithaca commons/downtown</p>
<p>I had AT&T and it worked so-so. Like I would get 1 bar in my suite dorm room on West Campus, but 3-4 bars in the living room part of the suite; it served me well. I texted way more than calling though, and as long as you have one bar, you’re good to go with texting.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how Sprint is, though? It’s much cheaper than Verizon, which is why I am curious to find out if it’s acceptable or as bad as TMobile is there. Thanks!</p>
<p>Just throwing this out there. If you don’t want a fancy smartphone like an iPhone or a Droid, check out [Straight</a> Talk](<a href=“http://www.straighttalk.com/ShopPhones]Straight”>http://www.straighttalk.com/ShopPhones) at WalMart. They have a full set of fairly priced phones to buy (from an expensive touch screen smartphone to a moderately priced full keyboard phone to a dirt cheap clamshell) and service is $45 a month for unlimited voice, text, and mobile web (although the mobile web features are very limited if you’re used to using a pricey data plan on an iPhone or another big carrier smart phone) without a contract (you just pay the $45 when the month is up). The service is only at WalMart and is run through TracFone (which is actually the American front for a Mexican telecommunications behemoth and customer service is absolutely terrible–the one downside of not being with a normal carrier), but they’re on Verizon’s wireless network, which is wonderful. I never have any problems even in rural Central Pennsylvania and it sounds like the network is equally strong in the Finger Lakes. I honestly don’t know how they’re not driving Verizon out of business, as I would think that the vast majority of Verizon customers use their phone for little more than talking and texting. Either way, it’s a good deal for a college student.</p>
<p>I hear that Verizon is the best way to go. AT&T is supposedly putting in a new tower, so in about a year it should be up to par with Verizon. When I visited Cornell, I was on campus for 3 days with my Sprint service and it worked pretty well on North Campus, but once you start walking to Central from Balch Hall, for example, you lose all service. It’s decent on central. I’m guessing inside a hall/building that you’ll have 1 bar. Outside, as long as you’re not near the gorges/lake, you should get decent service (3 bars). It’s do-able if it makes a big difference in money to get Verizon over Sprint. Texting should be fine though with 1 bar.</p>
<p>I’m an international and I plan on going prepaid because the plans are not economical for me, especially if I’m going to be spending my summers outside the US. Which carrier would be the best in that case? I’m generally a light user and prefer calling to texting.</p>
<p>@srrinath: I personally would still go with verizon if you only use the cellphone in Ithaca. They have a pretty good deal for verizon where you only pay $3.99 per day for unlimited domestic calling and $0.01 per text that you send/receive.</p>
<p>AT&T, on the other hand, has a “better” deal. You only need to pay for $3.00 per day to get the unlimited domestic calls, but I think you still have to pay $0.20 per text that you send/receive.</p>
<p>Verizon is the best way to go, but I’d never get it due to how expensive many of its contracts are. I’ve had Sprint for the past year and it worked very well for me. I lived on North Campus, but it worked well enough when I was down on West, C-town and on Central.</p>
<p>I’ve had T-mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all at some point at Cornell. T-mobile is atrocious, I was rid of it before classes started. Verizon and AT&T are effectively the same in my experience. I have an iPhone so I’m obligated to have an AT&T plan, but surprisingly, I get 5 bars literally everywhere (ok maybe not deep in the laundry rooms of west but everywhere else). Anyway, I’d go with Verizon.</p>
<p>it’s been almost two years since the last post on this thread, anybody care to update? MY daughter will be a freshman in fall and reported that her SPRINT service during her visit in April 2012 was awful.</p>
<p>Sprint is terrible at Cornell. Verizon is by far the best.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response.</p>
<p>international student here, planning to get the iphone 5 when it’s released. any recommended carriers? (and preferably internationally unlocked, since i’d want to use it back in my home country too with a regular micro/nano sim)</p>
<p>and do people usually get data plans? or is campus wifi good enough (for imessage/ skype/ etc.)?</p>
<p>thanks in advance :)</p>
<p>Not sure about international, but my AT&T locked iPhone worked just fine in Itaca when we visited last summer. My DD AT&T phone worked as well.</p>