Verizon vs. AT&T CELL Coverage

[latitudeadjuster]

Anyone compared or actually used both Verizon vs AT&T?

We have Verizon, but its getting high. AT&T a little cheaper but has that NEXT plan to upgrade after 12 or 24 months. I know all the details on each just wondering about over all coverage opinions.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Your coverage is really dependent on the area so how they compare in Dayton may not be a good indicator of how they compare where you live. I have however had both and where I live Verizon is superior. I actually get service at my house where I didn't with ATT. The interesting thing is that when I was at Wright State for school I would get a full signal with ATT in the basement of the building when I switched to Verizon my phone went to no service immediately upon entering the building. I always thought this was interesting since they both had significant coverage while outside of the same building. I believe they will give you a loner phone for a week or two to test the service. If they still do that, that would be your most sure comparison.

 

[GTBRMC]

Agree with above. I have a work-issued Verizon phone, wife and daughter have AT&T pay-as-you-go phones. In our area, and in much of the Great Lakes region where we travel, both companies provide good to excellent coverage. I would overall give Verizon a slight edge. We have had both Sprint and T-Mobile in the past and both Verizon and ATT have much better coverage around here than either of the above. In this neck of the world, the coverage king may well be US Cellular, but they may be more of a regional player + I have no personal experience with them.

Honestly, when I last compared ATT and Verizon (and the others) it came down to total landed cost as the deciding factor for me as the service levels were not differentiated enough to really notice. Total $$$ out of my pocket over time really is driven by offered packages... This is why we chose ATT.

Of course, all the majors are constantly upgrading and changing, so keep that in mind. Good luck.

 

[Trm1765]

It has been many years but I used to have AT&T and now have Verizon. AT&T actually was the first company to make cell phones affordable. They were the first to offer a national coverage non roaming plan and it has taken off from there,, but that was 20 years ago. I go to many places all over North America on very short notice and now use Verizon for dependable coverage. Years ago I found that my AT&T signal just began to disappear and my coverage got less and less. Then one day my entire town lost complete signal. AT&T said they no longer had a tower in my town and we would no longer have signal. That was pretty much the end and I have been with Verizon since. Now I can say that no matter where I go, I always have dependable signal and the phone is usable. To me, no matter how cheap the bill, if the phone is not usable then it is not worth having so poor signal is not acceptable. As I landed in different places around North America some of my partners working with me had different companies and my Verizon consistently had coverage where theirs did not but over the years I think that has got way better.

Cell phones have come a long ways,, 30 years ago I had a cell phone with a company called United Telespectrum.. it was $1/minute and very poor minimal signal. To call me you had to know which tower I was near, call that tower and then try call me. If it didn't go through you tried the next tower...

 

[DieselCamel]

Having traveled most of the Americas interstates. Verizon has the best overall coverage. But it really comes down to where you will be using it. In a small percentage of areas AT&T has better coverage

 

[MikeyL]

It's interesting ......... Reading all of the replies above. They mirror Barbie's and my experiences totally.
We had Sprint to begin with ("Back on the good old days," too long ago to have any importance) and then went with AT&T.
We quickly became VERY VERY dissatisfied with coverage and service levels. So after 4 somewhat agonizing years (words like "agonizing" make for good journalism ... LOL) we explored switching to Verizon. We had to pay more, about 20% more. But we did it anyways.
What did we discover ? The difference was MORE THAN WORTH THE DIFFERENCE !
Phone ? I'ld encourage checking out both AMAZON and COSTCO< for the best deals. The other day AMAZON offered a Samsung Galaxy S5 for $1 with a new 2-year plan. COSTCO prices change every week or 2. AMAZON's can & do change daily.
So, to give a typical long-winded summary answer to your question: Verizon - Pay more and GET MORE !
How good is a "savings" if you have NO COVERAGE whatsoever, or so many dropped calls rendering the phone practically useless.
Hope this helps, Mikey Lulejian -Lake Oconee, GA

 

[Zarrella]

Verizon Rules!!! Of course it doesn't hurt that my son owns a Verizon store!

 

[rkluck]

I stated above experience can vary greatly on location. I had to go to Verizon (Work phone) to get coverage at the lake house. AT&T did not provide coverage and I wanted the phone for both at the house and on the lake if needed. My wife has AT&T and most of the time when she doesn't have coverage Verizon does as we travel around. Verizon is more expensive here.

 

[waterboy]

Since I travel heavily for work, I have found that Verizon has by far the best coverage in rural areas. I think once you get into the cities it is usually a wash. In the mountains of NC and VA, Verizon is about all you can use for reliable coverage. Forget ATT and the others.

I used to have a neighbor that worked for ATT. He said that the frequency was very different for Verizon vs what ATT, T Mobile and others use. Verizon carries farther and penetrates the buildings better so that accounts for why better coverage with Verizon. I have used ATT for a month or so a while back and you could hear the signal pass tower to tower every mile or so. The increases tower passes meant increased drops, at least around here, as compared to Verizon.

We cannot get an ATT signal at our house so we have used Verizon exclusively for years. I hate the higher cost but you gotta have service.

As they say it depends on where you live and how you use your phone. My experience is Verizon for travel, rural areas, etc. If you are exclusive in a big city, the others might be OK.

 

[Wayloncle]

I had AT&T for a very long time and had no complaints while living in MO and KS and traveling all over. But in this area of FL, ATT didn't have a signal so I switched to Verizon. It has a signal in most places, but I now work in Cape San Blas, FL where I have no signal, but about a mile away I have LTE.

I would switch back to ATT in a heart beat if I had reliable signal around here.

 

[Big Shasta]

We have had them all and where we are on Panama City Beach, Verizon is far superior. I don't wanna pay their prices though so we all have Page Plus Cellular. It's prepaid that uses all Verizon towers and verizon phones. It's 4G and costs me 43.00 a month (with tax and all fees) for 1gb of data and unlimited talk and text. I make sure all my background data is off, my apps update on wifi only and I have plenty of data every month.

 

[Topper232]

I've been on Verizon for work and personal phones for about 10 yeas now. Personal phones since they were bell Atlantic mobile.

When my company first issued cell phones, they were all AT&T. At the time I was travelling all over the north east and coverage was horrible as well as frequent dropped calls. Not ok when you're talking with a customer and you loose him repeatedly. I wound up getting my own Verizon phone and the company reimbursed me. Now the company is mostly Verizon, from what I understand, due to the better coverage.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

It is truly funny that this thread appeared today! Just yesterday my FedEx driver showed up carrying 4 phones and proceeded to ask me what carrier I had and how the signal was in the area. She had test phones from 3 carriers to use for a few days so that she could figure out who had the best coverage in all of the areas she goes to throughout the day.

So, the answer to your question is that you'll need to test your local area for the best signal. It's not worth saving a few bucks and having poor reception.

 

[davel501]

I travel all over the country and never have a problem with Verizon's service. Add 10% to whatever they tell you the monthly bill is for hidden fees, surprise charges and general orneriness from the customer service folks...they actually make me slightly more angry than Comcast.

 

[Speedling]

Gonna have to disagree with some here.
Att has been awesome for me always.
Started with nextel ages ago for the two way. They got bought by sprint and i ran fast!
Att has been perfect for all my travels but last year i went with t mobile to try and save money. Huge mistake! Tmobile rents verizon towers. Somewhere. On a mountain. In another country.

Had att and will be going back

 

[robbo3]

I have friends with ATT and have seen their signal cut out while Verizon is going strong. It's very rare that I've found dead zones (although they do exist) with Verizon. Yes, it's more, but worth it for the coverage.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

I love ATT's signal strength in my region-- no problems whatsoever, even one mile offshore. I still have an original unlimited data plan from iDay (iPhone release) back in 2007!