Best cell phone service provider? (Chicago, Madison: neighborhood, live, suburbs)

[pete6032]

With Sprint I get a bunch of dead zones/constant 3G 4G handoff issues. What is the best provider here in CHI in terms of 4G speed/consistency and call quality?

[MannheimMadman]

What neighborhood are you in? I've had good success with both AT&T and T-Mobile. With both, I've gotten some pretty nice LTE speeds. TMO also support voLTE which helps with call quality.

[pete6032]

Originally Posted by MannheimMadman

What neighborhood are you in? I've had good success with both AT&T and T-Mobile. With both, I've gotten some pretty nice LTE speeds. TMO also support voLTE which helps with call quality.

Lakeview. When I commute into downtown on CTA everyday my Sprint phone does the 3G/4G handoff dance and I hit several dead zones.

[emathias]

Verizon, but it also is the most expensive. I am willing to pay for it because I got tired of paying less to get frequently unusuable service with T-Mobile. More money for something that actually works is the better value.

[Drover]

I can affirm that Sprint LTE coverage is spotty at best and LTE speeds are wildly inconsistent. Around here it's a good day if I can get LTE speeds faster than 2mbps. I've seen T-Mobile phones with 3G speeds higher than that, never mind their LTE speeds.

From the research I've done, the conclusion I've reached is the the best cost-to-speed-and-coverage bargain here in town is T-Mobile; however, if you leave town a lot then Verizon has more consistent national high-speed coverage out in less populous areas and smaller markets. You'll definitely pay for that more thorough coverage though.

[MannheimMadman]

I've got T-Mobile right now. In the Chicago metro area, I've had zero issues. However, once you leave the area, forget about it. It's almost unusable in SW/Central/South Wisconsin, and on my trip to St Louis, was only remotely usable in springfield, champaign-urbana, and only got service again once I got really close to St. Louis.

[SubconsciousMe]

I have T-Mobile and have had zero issues with service in Chicago. We frequently travel to Milwaukee, Madison, Grand Rapids, and St Louis without issue. I like to ability to call over wifi as well.

[personone]

I've had Verizon for years, and almost everywhere I've traveled/lived, including here in Chicago, have had great service.
It's probably one of the most expensive providers, but I've had friends who've switched between the other carriers because of service issues. After terrible service with Sprint years ago, I switched to Verizon and have never had any problems since.

[squirrels]

My personal cell is T-Mobile and my work phone is ATT, and I've never had a problem anywhere in the city or suburbs with either.

[UC18]

I, too, found Sprint to be awful in Chicago-- especially downtown. I had heard good things about Verizon, but it was expensive. I ended up with T-Mobile, which works great in Chicago. It doesn't work as well in some of the rural areas I pass through as Sprint did, but that's a relatively small inconvenience since I spend most of my time in the city.