The Washington Post has just published their annual cell phone guide. They reviewed the services from Nextel, AT&T/Cingular, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The Post concluded that Nextel had nearly flawless coverage, at least in the DC metro area. Ditto for Verizon. They praise T-Mobile for greatly improving their coverage, and they kind of like Sprint PCS too. Guess what? THEY LIE!
I am conducting my own cell phone carrier test and here are my results, left to right:
Verizon Wireless, free cheap phone of unknown make: Like the Post, I tested the signal in many many locations, inside and outside, all over DC, MD, VA. In my house, about two minutes off the Beltway, I get no signal at all. At my sister's place, also two minutes off the Beltway, no signal. On the Beltway, two-four bars, fairly solid. Solid all through DC, suburbs bad.
Cingular/AT&T, the super-fabulous Nokia 6820: This phone folds out into a mini QWERTY keyboard that makes text messaging and instant messaging really easy. The weird thing about the Cingular service is that you can take one step and lose the signal completely, take one more step and get five bars. This happens everywhere.
Sprint PCS, my beloved Treo 600: No signal in my house, lots of dead zones, and the previously strong signal in my sister's house has gone down to one bar.
I am obviously not going to keep all these phones, but I think I'm going to add a Nextel and a T-Mobile so my testing can be complete. Is anyone totally happy with their mobile phone service?