Best cell phone reception in Chicago?

[mrspaha]

My daughter's employer is providing her with a blackberry (or some similar phone), and she can choose which provider to use -- verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and I think Tracphone or Virgin Mobile.

We have had US Cellular family plans for several years, and I have been very happy with them; however, I have noticed when I've been in downtown Chicago, the reception is poor when driving around the taller buildings.

Is this true for all carriers? For those of you in Chicago, do you have problems with your service dropping calls? At first, I was going to suggest she go with Verizon, but now I hear people saying they expect Verizon will have problems once a lot of people start switching because of the iphones.

Any suggestions? (She will NOT be getting an iphone, just a blackberry or something similar).

 

[meliss8599]

We have ATT and while it works in the places I personally need it to, I know of at least two places where there is little to no service and I live right outside of Chicago. Verizon does seem to have service that works EVERYWHERE as my dad has it and never has problems w/reception even in the places where I do with ATT. Hope this helps!

 

[Psychodisney]

I was a long time subscriber to ATT until I just couldn't take the dropped calls anymore. Switched to Verizon 2 yrs ago and have been very happy. ATT coverage in the northern and far northern suburbs is not very good.

 

[FINFAN]

We have Verizon, have had it for years. I can tell you that my kids( 16 + 20) are usually the ones who have reception no matter what/where they are and that someone usually needs to use their phone because they can't get reception. One of my DS friends can't get AT&T to work in our basement, so much for his Iphone...DD's boyfriend had T-Mobil, DD begged him to switch as it was basically like having a phone part time..he has AT&T now, improvement , but she has better coverage. Verisaon is not the most budget firendly carrier out there tho so be ready for that , however, I still feel they are the best for us. Also, never dropped a call or lost service anywhere in WDW...even in the Shedd Aquarium underground...THAT was amazing

 

[jgates]

U.S. Cellular has contracts to be able to use all towers from all carriers. So odds are if there is a poor signal, it will be poor for most all carriers (probably). May be different on whichever system uses the 'buried' cable lines that run along the interstates vs. towers - but I can't tell you which company that is (sorry!).

If there is a USCC tower, it will try to pick up that signal 1st - so the potential is there that it could be picking up the USCC tower that is further away, rather than the competitors tower which is closer.

Personally we have had very, very good luck with USCC.

 

[daughtersrus]

We have US Cellular as well and don't have any problems. When DD#1 first went down to ISU, she had horrible reception. She couldn't get anything at all in her dorm. The problem wasn't the service but the quality of the phone. She switched out the phone for a different model (no cost since she had just got it up here the week before) and never had a problem.


We were even able to get service and use the Easy Edge internet when we were in Hawaii. Long story but DD's phone broke while we were there. When we went to our local store to replace it, they were surprised to hear this. They don't have any towers there at all so the rep had no idea how we were able to access it from a competitor's tower. It was the end of the trip so I can't imagine going the week without them being able to check email and facebook hourly.

 

[LUV DA MOUSE]

U.S. Cellular has contracts to be able to use all towers from all carriers. So odds are if there is a poor signal, it will be poor for most all carriers (probably). May be different on whichever system uses the 'buried' cable lines that run along the interstates vs. towers - but I can't tell you which company that is (sorry!).

If there is a USCC tower, it will try to pick up that signal 1st - so the potential is there that it could be picking up the USCC tower that is further away, rather than the competitors tower which is closer.

Personally we have had very, very good luck with USCC.

Just want to clear some things up...
USC does not use all towers from all carriers. Why would other carriers improve their competitions experience?? The only time that carriers "share" towers is in rural areas and thats only for roaming. They have roaming agreements in place. Also, if one cell company has bad coverage in an area that does not mean all other carriers have bad coverage, they all have different towers.

All carriers have buried cable lines that connect to the cell towers. A buried cable line will not provide cell phone signal. There is no cell company that uses buried cable lines on interstates for service.

 

[mommyrants]

Verizon holds the contract with the City of Chicago for the data cards that run the police cards - because of this, they have the best coverage in the city. It may not be the fastest data, but they will not drop calls.

I have AT&T, I occassionally can't get data downtown, but am generally ok.

 

[4forMe]

DH and I have Verizon and never experience dropped calls. We will not change providers as they do have the best reception in our area (Chicago). In fact, we haven't had problems with our reception anywhere we have traveled, including our trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico.

My BFF has an iPhone and I can't even tell you the amount of times her call has dropped while I was on the phone with her. Thus, we are not jumping on the iPhone bandwagon.