I've been with Verizon for 10-11 years and was with Airtouch before that. I hate Verizon and have only stayed with them because they're supposed to have superior coverage.

However, In the past 12+ months, I've had several dropped calls every week. I've contacted customer service and gone into the store. No one can figure out what's going on (supposedly).

Yeah, AT&T's problems are highly regionalized, because it's an infrastructure issue. Ask people with iPhones in San Francisco or NYC about their issues - it was brutal for a long time, and AT&T kind of threw their hands up and said "nothing we can do."

Other places had exactly zero problems. AT&T's reactions are pretty telling, though.

I have T-Mobile and my reception completely sucks. It's not like I live in the boondocks. I'm in a major metropolitan. I constantly lose signal and have dropped calls. I will say that T-Mobile's customer service has always been helpful in solving any of my issues. On the other hand, I use to have Sprint. Their coverage in Atlanta is excellent and I never had any issues with dropped calls. Their customer service though....ughhhhhhhh. Abysmal. I truly think Sprint has an HR policy where they're forced to hire only miserable people.

I get a feeling that the authorities aren't going to let this happen. Here's why:

The merger creates a monopoly on the GSM market. GSM is the cell phone tech that is almost exclusively used everywhere in the world. There are two other common technologies: PHS, common in east Asia, and CDMA, only used in the USA (Verzion and Sprint) and China (Unicom). That means, if anyone from anywhere outside the US roams, they are restricted to roaming on this new "AT&T/T-Mobile monster".

I actually left T-Mobile because I was just tired of the contracts and nonsense, but AT&T is far worse in that regard. In fact, ever since I ended my landline and DSL service with AT&T, they've accounted for 40% of my junk mail and have outright lied to me to try to get me back.

These days, I'm with a MVNO called PagePlus Cellular which resells Verizon. Minutes are like candy: I can stop purchasing them when I don't want any more, and the vendor has no business in knowing any of my personal info; they don't even know my name ;).

They really are at capacity in NYC though, there just isn't the bandwidth, it's a huge city full of huge buildings with cell towers on your average apartment building and the network's just absolutely overloaded. If anything Verizon getting the iPhone could ease their pain a bit.

The coverage for Sprint in Atlanta is so good because they have a major office in Atlanta.

I am not happy about this:mad:. I have had T-Mobile since '03. I have 5 lines on my plan and don't have a high bill. I do not want to have my rates increase. I have one year to figure out what I'm going to do. I have never had problems with T-Mobile reception until I moved out to Phoenix.

I do agree that AT&T has more coverage and better smart phones but I don't want to be an AT&T customer. But I guess AT&T would be better than Verizon.

Yep, and mostly from NYC iPhone users. From what I've heard ATTs reception in Manhattan has always sucked so when the iPhone came out and every hip Manhattanite bought one it kind of brought the problem to a head (and into to blogosphere).

I used to be with Cingular and I'll say from experience the transition was unnoticed in terms of service and customer support.

For the people that are concerned about reception and dropped calls-
Since AT&T is acquiring T-mobile, wouldn't they also be acquiring their cell towers and other "infrastructure"? IIRC Cingular towers became AT&T towers during that takeover.

Yes. That's why they are buying them. I'm excited. I've been an AT&T customer for a long time and was Cingular before that. AT&T isn't as bad as hyped. My iPhone works well in NYC everytime I go, and my NYC friends had no complaints. I have dropped calls in very dependable areas in cities (ie. at cell phone tower edges.) I hit the same area in MD/DC or PHX and I drop a call every single time. Who cares? I know it's coming. For me, AT&T offers the fastest data rates and internet coverage for the iPhone. I didn't switch to the Verizon iPhone for that reason since I use my iPhone for data more than talk. Yay for better infrastructure from this merger. I'm not going anywhere anyway.

I never have dropped calls and my reception is good...occasionally my phone will have trouble placing an outgoing call, but because that doesn't happen after I turn the phone off then on I suspect that isn't AT&T's fault. And their customer service has been great...the only complaints I hear are from customers in Tuscaloosa....on game days it's near impossible for me to make or receive calls when I head to T-Town. And texts are usually delayed.

AT&T agrees to drop bid for T-Mobile

http://news.yahoo.com/t-agrees-drop-...214118672.html

Woo hoo!!

http://i41.tinypic.com/25r1rpy.gif

LOL!^^