Metro PCS in Atl

[bk2000]

My dad wants to switch to Metro PCS, primarily to use from his office in Alpharetta and at home in Dunwoody. Can anyone comment on their service? Also, which phones are best? Thanks.

[GoodmanR]

no experience myself, but ive heard nothing good about metro pcs

[futureMD]

I go to school in Atlanta, and my aunt and uncle live in Dunwoody. Don't go with Metro PCS. They're horrible. They use the 1900 mHz PCS band (well, Metro PCS, duh I guess [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]), and their in-building penetration is very poor. You can't even get service in some suburbs, and you roam if you leave the ATL area. Going to school at Emory (I spend a lot of time in downtown ATL) and at my aunt and uncle's house in Dunwoody, go with Verizon. I have Verizon, and the coverage is incredible. I have a full signal throughout the campus and even in my dorm room with Verizon, and my service is great in Dunwoody. I expect Stanley Cline ("roamer1"), who lives in Dunwoody, to chime in here soon. He's the de facto expert on Atlanta (and pretty much the entire Southeast) cellular service. He says Nextel is great in Atlanta, but I have no experience with myself, so I cannot comment personally. However, my uncle lives in Cumming and works throughout Atlanta. He's had them for several years, and likes them a lot.

[roamer1]

Here I am [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Metro PCS certainly is cheap, but you get what you pay for: very poor indoor coverage, no coverage in many suburbs where everyone else has coverage (Douglasville, Conyers, Canton, Fayette County, 316 and 78 between Gwinnett and Athens, etc. etc. etc.) no way to receive SMS except from other phones (they DO support intercarrier SMS), no roaming outside the tiny coverage area (except for ultra-expensive credit card roaming with some phones), etc.

As for Alpharetta: most carriers are fine, but indoor coverage is better with VZW, Cingular, and Nextel, who all are 800 MHz carriers, as opposed to 1900 as AT&T, SPCS, T-Mo, and Metro PCS are.

As for Dunwoody: the best coverage by far is with VZW and Cingular. Nextel is virtually unusable around Dunwoody Village (even Metro PCS works around there, but not very well) but is OK in the Jett Ferry/Peeler/Tilly Mill area; AT&T, SPCS, and T-Mo are all the exact opposite: fine around Dunwoody Village but VERY bad in the Jett Ferry/Peeler/Tilly Mill area. (I live off Ashford-Dunwoody near the Wal*Mart and the best coverage I get is with Nextel and, oddly enough, AT&T, with the worst coverage from SPCS and -- you guessed it -- Metro PCS.)

-SC

[MrFlashport]

AVOID METRO PCS they are a joke of a carrier. Coverage well if you are on major roadways and even then you will find plenty of dead spots. They do NOT cover major parts of atlanta, like Douglas county, most of West Cobb, and forget it in Canton. Indoor coverage, especially in residential areas inside their "coverage area" is the worst of any carrier, and they offer NO ROAMING (other than credit card services) outside of their tiny coverage area. My experience is Cobb county, especially around south cobb dr/ewc...NO SIGNAL and forget it past EWC into austell rd. nothing. what a sorry excuse for a network. and customer care, well you get what you pay for, don't expect to speak to anyone about anything. North Fulton coverage is slightly better (roswell rd) but stray too far off the road and you get a poor signal (as is the case with most PCS carriers).

I put up with their lackluster and lousy service for a few months. I spent 35 bucks for an unreliable phone that didn't work in most of Smyrna, Marietta, Kennesaw and even Dunwoody. Anything is better than Metro PCS. Two cups and a string, FRS radios, CB, megaphones made out of paper cups...you get the picture.

My vote goes to Verizon, Nextel or Cingular (TDMA) in that order for coverage and network quality in atlanta. If you go PCS, than it would be Sprint (improved tremendously over the last 2 years), AT&T GSM (incredible network buildout), then T-Mobile (weak residential coverage and big holes in alot of areas).
Do yourself a favor, whatever phone you get, try it out in the trial period and make sure it works where you need it to.

Avoid Metro PCS, unless you live under one of their few sites, forget it.

[axvx8xoxr]

I have VZW in atlanta (used mostly in fulton, cobb and bartow/polk/paulding counties while at home) coverage is great but as several users have said Metro and Sprint PCS users have poor coverage as you leave certain areas where as I always have coverage in north GA. A good friend has Sprint PCS and frequently looses coverage in buildings, espically in the AMC 24 near towne center mall right as you walk in the door. I am a corporate pilot who often lands at athens/ben epps airport and gwinett (sp) county (great resturant called the flying machine on field) and have full singal there as well.

[daytripper672]

I'm a REALTOR in Atlanta. I love Metro PCS. I have less dropped calls than I ever did with my ridiculously expensive Verizon plan. My phone works from Gainesville to McDonough, which is more than enough for my usage. My phone works inside my home where my Verizon service NEVER did. I'm not saying that Verizon is bad. I just had a bad experience.

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by daytripper672

I'm a REALTOR in Atlanta. I love Metro PCS. I have less dropped calls than I ever did with my ridiculously expensive Verizon plan. My phone works from Gainesville to McDonough, which is more than enough for my usage. My phone works inside my home where my Verizon service NEVER did. I'm not saying that Verizon is bad. I just had a bad experience.

This thread is 5 years old. The OP got his answer a LONG time ago.

[daytripper672]

LOL... Good. Cuz i thought some of those repliers sounded punch-drunk. Time would be a reason for that. How long does content stay on here?

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by daytripper672

LOL... Good. Cuz i thought some of those repliers sounded punch-drunk. Time would be a reason for that. How long does content stay on here?

Hi there, Welcome to WA!

A thread is actually never closed out automatically on this board. From time to time when they get resurrected, if the content is no longer applicable, they are then manually closed out.

With that introduction, I am now closing this thread out.