Signal strength in Columbus (here we go again!)

[Celloman]

Hi all,

I'm currently with Verizon in Columbus, OH. Actually, I live in a town called Upper Arlington, which is surrounded by Columbus. Upper Arlington is tricky for signal strength - UA does not allow cell phone towers. A coupe of years ago, when I was making the carrier decision, various trials with friends' phones led me to stick with Verizon, which has been reasonably good overall. I have had signal issues in the last couple of months, but there's a decent chance that it could be attributed to my rather quirky phone (Moto KRZR).

That brings me to today. Currently, Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile, and AT&T pretty much all have the same coverage map. My house is in an area that the carriers show as the second-highest signal strength. I'm wondering whether anyone has any experience in this area with carrier coverage in general, and with AT&T specifically. AT&T has expanded their coverage here over the last couple of years, and the iPhone looks awfully tasty. If I switch to AT&T to get the iPhone, can I reasonably expect to get about the same signal, both in Upper Arlington and in Columbus in general? Thanks!

[Analog134]

I'm an AT&T user and I know what you mean about UA. That city needs to work with the wireless carriers to come up with a coverage solution in UA. Here's my 2cents worth of AT&T coverage in and around UA. I don't have much trouble when I'm driving around the area with my iPhone 2.0, but it will switch to the 2G network a lot in UA. I really like the iPhone, but its not as good as my Motorola v3xx at pulling the signal. I'm not a Verizon coverage know it all, but I feel they have better coverage around UA and I feel the Motorola KAZR was a great phone.

You know if you want to try AT&T they offer 30 days to return the device and service if you don't like it, make sure you go to a company owned store, they will work with you then the folks at Wal-Mart. I know other carriers offer some type of return like this also. Just make sure you go to all the place you know you will need phone service and test it out. You may get lucky and the AT&T iPhone will work fine for you in house.

Hope this helps?

[Eric47]

test it out for 30 days. you will probably know well before 30 days if its working for you.

[Celloman]

Thanks for the input. The 30-day trial had occurred to me, it just seems like potentially a LOT of hassle if things don't work out (and then I'd have to come crawling back to VZW). I figured I'd try doing a bit of research first to see what I could learn.
Analog - does your iPhone reception stay reasonable, even when it switches over to EDGE? When I'm at home in UA, I really only care about the phone functions (the fancy stuff would be for when I'm not at home, and I'll usually be in an area with much better reception).
Thanks again!