Charlottesville, VA---Best Carriers

Who has the best coverage? It really depends on who you talk to, but I would say that Alltel has about the best coverage for that area.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, Alltel is the only provider that has an EVDO network in that area. Attached below is a VA coverage map.

Hope that helps out!

*** Teal denotes EVDO coverage -- the light purple indicates 1xRTT

 

Ill throw my vote in for alltel in that area as well. Cingular & t-mobile dont have networks on par with alltel in that area. US Cellular is also available, but im not sure if they have high speed available in the area. Go with alltel, in the event that you cant get a signal, youll fall back on the us cellular network, if its available.

 

For what my experience is worth I've used Alltel many times around Charlottesville and I've been very happy with the coverage so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. They're well built out in and around the area and I can make calls in places and buildings where other providers seem to cut out. As for your question as to which provider is worst (and I assume to avoid), it really depends on where you are specifically. I've heard several people complain about nTelos, the Sprint affiliate in the area. And the GSM providers, T-Mobile and Cingular, just don't seem to be up to par as clock mentioned in that part of the state.

As for the data, Alltel has EV-DO (400-700 Kbps with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps) and are the only high-speed provider as Wump mentioned. USCC is 1x (40-70 Kbps with bursts up to 144 Kbps) and nTelos is 1x. So my vote would be Alltel on both parts of your question.