Verizon or T-Mobile in LA & NY

i can't talk about LA or SF but in NYC verizon is the best for coverage...they oprate on a 800 mhz unlike t-mo's 1900 in myc so they have better building penetration.....Verizon is one in NYC followed by ATT TDMA coming in a close second......

 

In New York, T-Mobile is the former Omnipoint Wireless. The network in and around Manhattan has received consistently good reviews and I would be as comfortable with them as with Verizon. Building penetration is a religious argument. Some buildings are better penetrated by 800MHz, some by 1900MHz. If you have a T-Mobile tower on the roof of your building, you'll probably get better in-building coverage than with a Verizon handset hitting a tower 3 miles away. If in-building coverage is an important factor to you, ask the folks in the building who has the best coverage, and go with them.

In Los Angeles, T-Mobile and Cingular share towers. I have seen reports of capacity problems in the Los Angeles area using Cingular, but I don't know if these problems have carried over to the T-Mobile side.

While you didn't mention them as a possibility, I would recommend against Sprint PCS if you intend to be in the New York area frequently. I've generally experienced pretty poor coverage in and around NYC on Sprint PCS, and they have also had capacity issues. That said, Sprint has generally excellent Los Angeles coverage, as long as you are "below the 10" in the Claremont area. If you're "above the 10," coverage gets spotty (too many NIMBYs blocking tower placements).

 

Either will be fine. Verizon have better coverage but coverage for T-Mobile is perfectly fine. Both carriers have dead spots in both cities.

I have really excellent coverage with T-Mobile in San Francisco.

 

maniii - ZaphodB is right about coverage in LA, both are fine. With my personal experiance I had little better luck with Verizon working in more building than T-Mobile. In my case I would pick Verizon for having a slight edge in penatrating buildings.

 

Yeah, I have a more specific question.

Does anyone have experience withy t-mobile in southern california?

I've seen some good deals on amazon for t-mobile phones and my only question is about service.

Thanks,

mG

 

My Dad has T-Mobile and we travel to Southern California often. T-Mobile(Cinglular) do have some dead spots and capacity problems down there, some even on major highways. If you need more info, I'll be happy to help you, but coming back onto the subject, I think that Verizon is better in LA&SF....T-Mobile isn't bad, but Verizon is slightly better, and in NYC, I would also recommend you Verizon. They are very strong there, even inside buildings that T-Mobile doesn't cover too well. So I'd pay a little extra and go with Verizon if you want my opinion.
I hope I was helpfull in adding to the subject.

 

They're both probably equally fine, Verizon have an edge in coverage, though there are spots where even Almighty Verizon have dead zones, or analog-only coverage. T-Mobile are so much cheaper that it's hard sometimes to justify the price difference.

I haven't had a capacity problem in four months or so -- they've really cleaned it up -- but I had a 911 problem a couple of weeks ago (which you can read about further back on this forum).

 

Verizon is the clear choice for me in CALIFORNIA. We have all 3 carriers at the store...and rarely ever have a return with a Verizon activvation.

Can't help w/New York tho.