Newbie with a Rant and a question

Welcome to Wireless Advisor mantaray. I'll try help you out and add what information I can. I'm sorry to hear of the trouble you had with the iPhone and At&t. At least now you know of one provider that happens to not work that well at your location.

Finding out who has the best, or even dependable in some cases, cell service in any exact location can be tricky. Often the most useful help you'll be able to find is from people, who have service that live in your general vicinity but there are a few tips that might help to guide you.

I noticed you listed your location as Cleveland. According to Consumer Reports which publishes the results of an annual survey, Alltel was rated as having the best network in the Cleveland area followed by Verizon Both providers also have high-speed data networks if you prefer a phone, similar to the iphone in having the internet, playing mp3's etc.

Another approach may be to start with the providers that use an 800 MHz cellular band signal as opposed to a 1900 MHz signal. In Cleveland, the two providers that have FCC licenses to use those airwaves also happen to be alltel and Verizon. The lower frequency generally travels further from a given tower and penetrates indoors better. Though, especially in urban areas, this information isn't always the case because 1900 MHz carriers can simply place more towers.

So just from the information that I have with coverage being the biggest concern, I would say that alltel probably should be your first choice followed by Verizon. Alltel, from independent ratings, airwaves used, and other online threads and forums, seems to have excellant coverage in the Cleveland area. For data, they have high-speed data. They also have very competetive plans that offer My Circle unlimited calling to 5, 10, or 20 numbers, and smartphone plans that include unlimited texting and data. Verizon, while I believe they should also have a very good network, they probably would not be any better than alltel contrary to their numerous advertisements on reliability, and they have more expensive plans in general that tend to offer fewer minutes while capping data at 5GB.

 

Welcome to WA!!
For starters most of the carriers have street level coverage maps. I'm not sure if alltel does..but I know all the others do. If you would like them let me know in a pm. I'll give you links to the ones that I do have!!! Hope this helps!!
CI

 

read your reciept it says a restocking fee is charged for returning an iphone opened.

also, please note that iphones dont have the best reputation for getting great service (from what ive seen)

also did you ever try turning the phone off and restarting it? sometimes when phones have just been activated they still havent recieved all their necessary updates.

anyhow good luck in your search.