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Did not see another thread so I thought I'd start one. I'd like to hear about your cellular provider (past and present) and also hear about any information related to expanded coverage and 5G rollout.
As for me, I'm currently on AT&T but spent several years on Sprint and about a year on Verizon. For me AT&T has proven to have the best signal in and around town and also out in the boonies. I also had good reception with Sprint here which may surprise people. Not quite the rural coverage as ATT but good here in town and acceptable outside of town. Verizon for me had the worst coverage. I know it's great across most of the country but it was spotty here in Morgantown. Several areas where I had coverage on both ATT and Sprint had no Verizon service.
I also had USCC in the earlier days of cellular but It's regional coverage is just not good enough for me. I spend more time outside of WV traveling than I do in the boonies of WV so it's not a viable option for me.
Curious to know if anyone is using T-Mobile here? I know traditionally coverage here has been non-existent but T-Mo is probably the fastest growing cell provider in the US and has been expanding at a rapid rate. I know they've increased coverage in WV over the last few years and they have a bunch of 600mhz bandwidth available for build out so I could see them finally stepping up and covering WV soon.
As far as 5G goes, I believe a company or two (ATT and Verizon) have been having some low level discussions about cell sites around the city and county but nothing big yet publically.
I've been with Verizon since before 4G LTE was even here (had Verizon before I moved here) and the first couple years of LTE here were ok (little rough in some places since it was a brand new network for the area, like near my old apartment where the towers refused to switch seamlessly which was a huge PITA but that has been fixed) but in the last 2 years or so Verizon has spent a LOT of time and I imagine money getting this areas coverage smoothed out and improved. I live out past Cassville now and last year and early this year there was one spot on route 7 that had a dead spot about 150 yards long. About two months ago I could tell they were working on the towers and now all of a sudden I have 5 bars the whole way from west of Cassville into town. Verizon has majorly improved coverage all through this area, I used to lose service hitting Preston County on 68 until I got to Hancock, MD and now I have 4G LTE the whole way with no drops. At football games it works really well (surprisingly) thanks to the new mini cell sites and the tower they have up at the Elks Lodge above the stadium. 2-3 years ago I used to notice all kinds of drop offs outside of downtown but they have all disappeared. I also recently got the new iPhone and have been watching as Verizon upgrades tower by tower to the newer "gigabit" LTE and also add support for MIMO. When I first got this iPhone in September, I think only the towers covering campus supported MIMO and gigabit but I have been noticing better and better speeds at towers further away from the city. The tower covering where I lived went from 20 mbps up to 75 mbps after a couple days of bad service and people climbing all over the tower (I assume they were doing upgrades) and I can regularly get around 110 mbps near campus.
My old roommate had ATT and with them being here for so long I think they have/had a major built in advantage and would have been the company I would have gone with if I didn't have Verizon already but I think that advantage is slowly eroding. Verizon seems to be finally paying attention to this area since they weren't in this area for wireless service before deploying 4G LTE.
As far as T-Mobile, I've heard it is great in downtown but when you leave downtown it starts going down hill very quickly and out where I live the speeds apparently are worse than 3G (if you can even get coverage).
Sprint I heard has finally deployed true 4G to the area, but it is apparently very slow compared to ATT and Verizon and is very hit or miss. My friend lives in the area and just switched to Verizon from Sprint because he couldn't take the unreliable service anymore.
U.S. Cellular is known for their rural coverage. Same as WVUMatt, I had Verizon in Morgantown back before 4G was there. Verizon really stepped their game up in WV over the past decade or so. I wouldn't go with anyone else besides them
I have an unlocked phone and can switch freely between all 4 of the big providers. Last Xmas I switched to Verizon from ATT just for the hell of it. Verizon coverage was good at my house just north of Morgantown. But I had no signal inside my office building in Sabraton. Then I was doing some work on RT 19 south out past the Laurel point soccer fields. My co-worker and I was up a hollow off little Indian Creek and I had no service at all. My co-worker on ATT had full coverage.
I know it's a small sample size but it was enough to make me switch back to ATT. Especially considering I had no signal on Verizon in my office.
AT&T and US Cellular are going to have the broadest networks in this area. Verizon would come next, followed up by Speint. T-Mobile doesn’t actually operate here, rather they’re getting spare capacity in AT&T’s towers. Verizon gets much of it’s rural coverage in this area by using US Cellular’s coverage, but you’re limited to 1x. I don’t remember the last time I had something that slow with AT&T’s network.
Of course, that is all generalities, and coverage can vary greatly from building to building. For me, AT&T provides the best coverage for the areas I use my phone. After many years with AT&T, I moved to Cricket. It’s owned by AT&T and uses their towers. My coverage had been just as good for less.
If you're stuck with Comcast for anything...look into their cell service. They usually have $500 sign-up promotions and $300 phone promotions if you ask their customer retention department. Basically, they charge you the price of your phone plus $12 per gig of data used or $45 flat fee for unlimited. They literally use Verizon's towers...so same thing.
If you're stuck with Comcast for anything...look into their cell service. They usually have $500 sign-up promotions and $300 phone promotions if you ask their customer retention department. Basically, they charge you the price of your phone plus $12 per gig of data used or $45 flat fee for unlimited. They literally use Verizon's towers...so same thing.
Just a note. I do believe Verizon (VZW) provides tiers of service for their coverage. So VZW customers do get priority over customers of other mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that piggy back over VZW's networks. I am not sure you will get the same quality of service with Comcast on the VZW towers.
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