iPhone/AT&T reception on the East Coast and beyond?

[BiikeMike]

Wirelessly posted (Treo: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

I am getting seriously fed up with Verizon. I'm thinking of leaving them, but I don't know where to go. I'm thinking iPhone, but I have heard that AT&T does not have as good of coverage as VZW and was wondering if anyone has any insight on AT&T vs. VZW.

I am in Richmond, VA, but routinely travel all up and down the east coast, and regularly travel across the country.

any info would be helpful, Thanks!

 

[GFLPraxis]

AFAIK Verizon has the best coverage on the West coast (at least up here in Washington state), and AT&T has the worst; but that could easily be reversed on the East coast.

 

[PatMack]

I live in Greensboro NC, and I was a Verizon loyalist until i got my iPhone. I was horrified by the droped call stories that i had heard from people. I thought GSM was some kind of primitive frequency range with "walkie-talkie" like quility. Anyway, on to (my personal) reality:

Its not bad at all. They are really quite good around here. In VA, Verizon will trump AT&T in the "Backwoods". However, if you are going to be mainly in cities and larger towns, AT&T will be fine.

Go for it.

IMHO

 

[rdowns]

FWIW, happy with ATT in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and Denver. I was a Cingular customer prior to buying my iPhone.

 

[hard-case]

South Jersey here, but I do a lot of travel into PA, up to NYC, plus occasionaly down to Baltimore and have had zero complaints. Out of the hundreds of calls I've made, I've had only two drop, which was better than Verizon (granted, I switched to Cingular back in 04 so it has been a while). My only kinda complaint would be sometimes EDGE speeds seem a bit....temperamental. Sometimes it seems a bit slow, sometimes blazing fast. Thankfully more of the latter than the former.

 

[joechimy]

as possibly the most recent verizon to at&t convert let me chime in here...

background: i was a verizon customer for over ten years (when i rocked an analog phone from a company called bell atlantic) and i never had a complaint about the network (its awsome we all know that) and they know that cuz they treat us all like crap.

worried about the at&t network i went and opened an account (good way to get a decent backup phone - with a discount), forwarded my verizon calls to the at&t number and tested the coverage in my area. no complaints, worked fine and now i am the very proud owner of a iPhone.

you have a month to cancel the at&t account if you don't like it - so its pretty much no-risk. also, during my tests i realized the coverage map on the at&t website is VERY accurate (doesn't lie like the verizon map) so be sure to check that out.

(i'm in central jersey by the way)