Well, I made the switch from Sprint to ATT, although I have not ported my number and am still within my "test drive" period. I have been able to travel quite a bit with my Iphone, and Razr V3xx, and my Sprint Razr, and Q for a side by side comparison. I was able to travel from Minneapolis to Morris, MN (almost SD border in Cell One's old area) and then back to Minneapolis, to Eau Claire and over to Steven's Point WI. I have to say I have mixed results about ATT's coverage compared to Sprint (CDMA). In MN in the area's I traveled the ATT Razr V3xx always out performed the Sprint razr, and the Iphone signal always held even when the sprint Q was showing "no signal". In fact we were getting 5 bars on the ATT in areas we either had 1 bar or no bars on Sprint (or roaming partners). Both ATT and Sprint were very strong on I94 from Alexandria MN to Eau Claire WI, with the very slight edge actually going to ATT I would say. However, once we got off south of Eau Claire WI on HWY 10 and went east to Steven's Point, ATT was about as usless as a door stop. Not that Sprint (CDMA) was perfect, but at least I got a signal most of the way. I was aware of this by looking at ATT's maps, but I guess it didn't hit me until I actually traveled those routes. I think this area is where Iwireless and Einstien PCS are the GSM partners, and is the border of the Cell One covergae to the north and US cellular (CDMA) to the south. Unfortunately I don't think there is any 850mhz GSM carrier. The most prominent fact, my spring Q get's absolutely horrible signal. Not sure if its because I'be dropped it one to many times, but no comparison to the other three phones I have. My delemia. I really like the Iphone. For what I need in a smartphone, it's perfect, especially with some of the updates hopefully to come either with this version or on the next gen 2.0. My concern is the coverage. In MN ATT seems pretty good, although I haven't gotten into Northern MN at all. In WI, major holes, and while this not be ATT's fault because it not there license area, the lack of their roaming partners from expanding coverage (Iwireless, Einstien PCS) is very disheartening. Is ATT going to launch a significant upgrades and fill in the holes in the old Cell One area's they now have in Northern MN and WI, or are they content for the time being? I have a few days to decide and take the phones back, but do I have the phone and fits what I need best with so-so coverage, or go with Alltel (my other choice) with great coverage and service, but really no PDA's I like?? *Update* Does anyone have a link to a website where I can see where ATT would have actual tower locations in northern wi? I wonder if there are some tower's that have TDMA still and haven't been converted to GSM. The more and more I look at the map, the old Cell One service can't be as bad and spotty as the ATT coverage viewer shows it. I did live up there for 4 years and new people that had cell one and while it wasn't as good as Alltel, I didn't think it was that bad.
AT&T doesn't have any TDMA-only towers. If you look at the coverage map they have online, many times you can guess the tower location. But if you are in a roaming area, then you can't tell. You'd have to look at the roaming carrier's coverage map instead.
my only point was that especially in northern wi, alltel has far better coverage than att, and wondering if att is going to pay any attention to that, or just focus on the more metropolitain areas. if they don't, I don't think att will compete with alltel as cell one had gotten a very bad rep in that area.
