Thanks to everyone in the neighborhood (and there were a lot of you!) to took the time to respond to my question about AT & T vrs Verizon for iphone. I have compiled the responses below (my apologies if I forgot anyone) and am passing it along, because I think there is a lot of great info, and a couple people asked me to share my findings... (btw we are leaning towards Verizon, but haven't bought the phones yet) Thanks again to all, as usual HP overwhelms us with your good will. CAN"T WAIT to get there! --Tazio Hilbert Brooklyn
Begin forwarded message:
From: Tazio Hilbert <tazio(a)shirbert.com>
Date: February 18, 2011 11:01:35 AM EST
To: Todd Shirley <todd(a)shirbert.com>
Subject: Verizon vrs At&t so far...
• I have AT&T and and iPhone and I've been having a lot of trouble with my service for the past month. I posted on facebook and a dozen other people agreed that it has been really bad. They have an "ICU" case open becaues I've complained so much and I have ok service today, but I've been dropping 5-10 calls per day for the past week and I can't get on the web.
Please let me know if a lot of other people say the same thing. On the other hand Highland Park is fantastic.
• I lived on Bryant court and my house was a Verizon dead zone. I may be the only person to switch to AT&T for better coverage. This experience may not generalize to the rest of HP.
• I have AT&T service ----- it is the worst in Highland Park ----- good in parts -- but there seems to be a large dead spot from above Stanton towards the park. many many times can not use my cell phone in the house --had to keep my land phone because of this..................
• Hey, I have an Iphone with AT&T and the service in HP is horrible.
• I have AT&T and service is sketchy in the HP area. However, your AT&T iPhone will not work with Verizon. The hardware is not compatible with the verizon network.
• I have Verizon for my cell service and it is fine. I have heard others have trouble with reception in HP. Not sure why.
• We live on grafton st at highland. We have no att service. Verizon is mildly better, but still not good. We did buy a micro cell to cover our house from att, and that has worked well for us. Good luck!! HP has notoriously bad cell coverage.
• I live in HP on Hampton St. near Negley, and my Verizon Droid tends to have problems here. It will drop calls and lose service completely for periods of time. However, everywhere else in Pgh, I have no problems with coverage. I can’t speak for AT&T phones in HP so I don’t know if they have the same problem, but Verizon phones definitely struggle a bit. Hope this helps!
• at&t service is very spotty in highland park. that said i do still like at&t, though i did buy a microcell signal booster for my home...
• I switched to AT&T from Verizon when I got an Iphone. My opinion is that Verizon has better service in HP, but there are drop call spots on One Wild Place going down to Butler St.
• Haven't used Verizon, but ATT has been fine for my wife and me. We live way in the NE corner of Highland Park and can talk anywhere in the house without a problem.
• AT&T coverage is notoriously bad in highland park and morningside. My AT&T iPhone only works on the third floor of my house in morningside. I can't speak for verizon, but I can't imagine it being worse than AT&T
• Well verizon is def. Better in this area. However, with
Verizon getting the iPhone AT&T is starting to become
Proactive over here. They are now giving away
A mini cell tower that you can have in your house and will give you 400ft. I have AT&T and can use my phone in my house but I do drop a lot of calls. I have no experience with verizon I just do not hear as much about it.
Good luck
• Welcome (potentially) to Highland Park! Anyway, no matter which provider you go with, you will have cell phone trouble in HP. I don't know what it is, but it seems like as soon as you cross into Highland Park proper, you lose at least 2 bars.
We have Verizon and have always been happy w/their coverage (HP excluded). Our neighbors have AT&T and T-Mobile and they too have the HP bad cell service. Not sure if you plan on having TV or not, but Fios offers a bundle service (TV, internet, land line). You can use the land line if you keep dropping a call. I know, who uses a land line? Well, we do now- still only occasionally. You can throw your cell on there as well to get one unified bill. Hope this helps. Cheers!
• We have Att and often can't get a 3G signal in our home. I have resorted to turning my 3G radio off in my phone so that I can use the edge network ( which is usually strong). Cheers,
• I have an iPhone and ATT. Service was awful a year and a half ago but I've noticed an improvement. Come to think of it I haven't had a dropped call in a long time.
One of the many things I like about my iPhone is the ability to talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time. You may not be able to do that with Verizon. Welcome to Highland Park. It truly is a nice area
• My fiance and I have android phones on Verizon, and they work just fine
in Highland Park, oakland, and wherever else in the city we go.
• Well welcome (hopefully) to the neighborhood. Our experience has been that both are terrible, especially in our area of Highland Park. We have AT&T on our Iphones and certain parts our our house are considered total dead zones. I used to have Verizon -- but not on an iphone. I recall it to be slightly better. Good luck.
• Well, at my house (Elgin St) they both suck, to the point where I don't
even try to use my cell phone at home. However, that data point is
current for AT&T and about two years old for Verizon (I switched when I
got an iPhone). I've heard rumors that Verizon is in process of putting
up a cell tower near the zoo, which would likely improve matters in much
of northern HP. On the other hand, AT&T will sell or give you a
microcell repeater if you need reliable cell service in your house.
I prefer using landline when at home anyway, so I haven't bothered
to try to get one of those.
As far as coverage when you're out and about goes, my impression is
that Verizon still has an edge, but AT&T has gotten better over the past
year or two. Pittsburgh's topography is an absolute nightmare for cell
phone engineers --- the hills guarantee that there will be dead spots.
So either one might suck worse than the other for you, if a particular
place that you happen to frequent is in a dead spot for that network.
• I have had the at&t iPhone in HP and a Droid on verizon. The Droid works better by far on veraizon so I would guess the verizon iPhone would also.
• I have the iPhone and use AT&T, and my partner uses Verizon. I have to say, I'd go with Verizon (I'll be switching when my contract is up). ATT's coverage isn't bad, per se, but there's too many dropped calls and spotty coverage during a call. It's kind of like making a cell phone call in 1998.
• As you'll hear from others - or may have already seen via the list serve, which service is better is highly variable depending on where you are in the neighborhood, as with the rest of Pittsburgh.
A friend of ours swears AT&T is the absolute worst and has major issues at his house (in central HP). But we've been really happy with it - we switched from verizon a few years ago for the iphone. With verizon, my husband (but not me so much) had constant problems with dropped calls in our house and backyard - with AT&T neither of us has an issue at our house (though we can't get service inside Tazzo's the local coffee shop).
with all the hills and valleys you encounter gaps in both networks when traveling around town.
I'd suggest maybe just going month-to-month till you move - and once you are settled have friends using both networks come over and see what coverage is like where you are living, then sign a contract.
• Cell phone coverage is not good in HP at all. I just purchased an iPhone through Verizon. My reception is decent but I need a network extender to get any sort of reception in my apt. building. Good luck with the move.
• Hi, I live in Highland Park. I have had 3 cell phone companies.
The first was Verizon. It was very good almost everywhere in the Pittsburgh area except in Highland Park. I used to have to stand at the corner of the kitchen table and not move an inch in order to keep a call. My recollection is that it was not great when I traveled outside of this area either.
I then had T-Mobile. It was wonderful in Highland Park; I never had a dropped call. However, it could not keep from dropping calls everywhere else. It was so bad that T-Mobile actually let me out of my second contract with them 8 months early. Every time I had a dropped call or a few dropped calls, I called 611 to tell them. They finally got tired of me and I tire last.
I now have AT&T. I really like it. I have very good reception everywhere that I have gone.
I hope you get reports from other people, too. I know that Verizon wanted to build a tower in Highland Park, which many of us are against. I read recently that there are new improvements in very tiny antennaes that will undoubtedly be used with cell phones. So, perhaps Verizon will be able to have better reception in Highland Park without putting up a huge tower in a beautiful park.