Sprint, Metro PCS, AT&T Los Angeles coverage report

[xchpstang]

I was in Los Angeles visiting friends over the weekend and thought I would post my coverage experience in a bit of areas for Metro PCS, Sprint, and AT&T.

Hollywood: stayed with a friend who lives by Sunset and Bronson and no coverage issue with AT&T or Sprint, data or voice. I did get a network busy message once with Sprint at around 5:30PM on Friday but retrying the call did push it through. I figure that particular cellsite must be nearing capacity as it serves the very busy 101 freeway in Hollywood. I didn't get any network busy at that time with AT&T on the 3G network as from what I've read it is vastly superior in capacity than the GSM network. As far as data I always had EVDO everywhere. AT&T 3G was almost everywhere but inside my friend's apartment it would fluctuate between EDGE and 3G. Metro PCS, the only network my ic902 can roam on, didn't work inside my friend's apartment or inside my old apartment on Cole Ave near Fountain. Sprint and AT&T worked fine in these places. Outside Metro PCS did work just fine. On the Metro Red Line Hollywood/Vine station both Sprint CDMA and Iden worked til about the ticketing level (mezzanine level) but no reception at the train platform level. At the Santa Monica/Vermont station both Iden and CDMA impressively worked down to where you look over the train platform. Reception was lost when stepping on the actual train platform. Keep in mind I didn't expect reception down here as this is 5 or more stories deep underground and there are no repeaters or cellsites down there.

Los Angeles/Downtown: AT&T, Sprint, and Metro worked fine everywhere inside and out in the downtown area near Chinatown and also all three worked fine near Macarthur Park and 6th St. At the Westlake Metro Red Line station both Sprint CDMA and Iden also worked down to almost the train platform. At the Wilshire/Vermont and Wilshire/Normandie stations I was able to make a call on Sprint at the train platform. Both of these are also pretty deep underground.

Santa Monica: No problems with voice or data on either Sprint or AT&T. Didn't test Metro. AT&T does have some areas near the Promenade where I could only get EDGE.

Anaheim/Buena Park: No problems with any carrier (the areas where I was at near Knott's)

It's been 3 years since I moved out of L.A. but a lot of things have changed. Back in those days Sprint was a rare sight to see. Most people I knew had Verizon and now I do see quite a bit of Sprint phones everywhere. There was quite a bit of places where my old Samsung i500 used to lose reception and had to roam even in the middle of the street but now there is coverage even where I didn't expect it and roaming is a thing of the past.

Last but not least, on my way back home I held a call on Sprint CDMA from Sylmar to well into the Central Valley. This used to be a troublesome area for all carriers due to mountains but it looks like Sprint did major improvements and no more dropped calls even with the mountains. As far as the Central Valley I never really had any problems on the freeways even 3 years ago but now in 2008 obviously much has improved and there is great coverage even away from the freeways out in the boonies.

[shango]

As an Alltel customer who spends a lot of time in LA, I was so happy when they made Sprint preferred over Verizon. Sprint coverage is good here and the sound quality is fatter. The Verizon network gets overloaded during rush hour. I had att, coverage is good but GSM always sounds choppy to me and drops calls.

Thanks for the report.

[larry]

Thanks for the report. Pretty much what I would have expected.

[Mobile Mike]

Good report. Thanks for posting it.