Best Wireless Carrier in Pittsburgh (Erie, Lincoln: sales, 2014, credit issues)

[northender2011]

Hi - I am close to accepting a job offer in Pittsburgh at a hospital. Trying to figure out my wireless provider situation as no longer in contract. Who has the best coverage there? I have heard Verizon is not great, so is Sprint what everyone uses? How is their indoor reception?

Thanks

[UKyank]

Most people I know have Verizon here & it seems fine. I have At&T & haven't had any problems. A few co-workers have Sprint & I haven't heard them complain at all either.

The area seems well covered with any of the major carriers.

[Bong477]

Verizon is fine. Most people I know use it. The 4G LTE coverage is a little spotty but you can get at least a 3G signal almost everywhere. Regardless, I don't think any others are better.

[BarqCider]

as a former resident of northern va and current east end resident, I found my coverage with at&t perfectly fine. I have yet to find a dead spot, even when using my gps. You cant go wrong with Verizon or at&t.

as a former sales rep(7 years ago) of cingular aka at&t wireless, I think they offer good coverage. Your best bet is walk into a CORPORATE store(ran by said companies and not a 3rd party who sells their services) so you can ask the employee to put in addresses and/or zip codes to see how coverage is in the areas you go to. please note that while the OLD network of Verizon (CDMA) had better coverage, LTE is a whole new beast. your best bet is to see the map of how they work.

Also keep in mind that while they might show 1-3 bars, that doesn't mean how the quality of voice/data is. never rely on the bars on a phone as it is misleading. also keep in mind you have 30 days of trial so you can see how the service you choose works. This applies to any company

ps: I have had cingular wireless, now known as at&t wireless since 2002. I was on their old TDMA, the rival of verizons CDMA(now their old network, which is still trasnistioning to LTE). Never been to this area then, but I can tell you to check on the coverage maps of all companies you are interested in. I personally would go Verizon or at&t hands down. Mostly because I know of the enginerring side of things and I find sprints and t-mobiles LTE to either be weak, or so different, like sprints because sprints wimax failed and they are trying to transition their network to LTE( hard when you have nextels old network too).

I hope I could help in an unbiased way. if you have credit issues, then T-Mobile or sprint would most likely be the choice as their deposit requirements are less strict than verizons or at&ts.

[Blackbeauty212]

DO NOT Choose Sprint right now. Their network is a HOT MESS!, I had to leave and I loved Sprint. I'm on Verizon until Sprint's Network Overhaul is complete then I will probably go back (Sprint has much better pricing than Verizon).

Sprint right now is Overhauling their network into LTE, but that also requires all new infrastructure along with the removing of Nextel and Upgrading/Replacing of Clearwire (WiMAX) towers and Upgrading of the old Sprint towers themselves, like I said Hot Mess. It's supposed to be some of the fastest LTE once Sprint is finished, right now I'm hearing Network Wide completion is targeted for Mid-2014.

I will wait out my contract on Verizon (NOV 2014) and see where everything stand at that point, if I remain with Verizon or go back to Sprint with open arms.

[Squid729]

T-Mobile 4G LTE has been great for me all over town. T-Mo's new no-contract rate plans are the bomb, use the $ you save to go on vacation to a place your cell phone won't work once a year. their decent handsets like my Nokia Lumia 925 offer WiFi calling which means when you are hunkered down indoors - say in your basement - and the cell signal is iffy the phone can use your wifi network to make/receive calls, very nice feature.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1680

[cooky01]

Can't comment on 4G because I don't browse on phones that often.
For pure voice service I've had great coverage w/ both Verizon & ATT.

Wife has T-Mobile, who offers great price, but coverage isn't as great as Verizon & ATT.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Squid729

T-Mobile 4G LTE has been great for me all over town.

I have T-Mobile and am basically happy with it. There's a dead spot on Forbes just as you go up the hill from CMU. Also, they have very spotty coverage in Lincoln, Nebraska. In case that's an issue.

[alexernst]

We found T-Mobile 3G/Edge pretty useless driving to Pittsburgh up through W.Va. I imagine the hills of WV are tricky at the best of times, but even seeing a tower we couldn't get a signal (of any kind). Even Morgantown was a problem.

[captainmidnight]

We have Sprint and have been satisfied with it with no issues. My father works for them so we get a pretty steep monthly discount for 500 anytime minutes and unlimited mobile to mobile calls and text/data (3G and LTE) and its well worth it, IMO. We streamed Pandora through my wife's iPhone 5 during a trip to Erie this summer and no drops the entire trip. We get solid signal in our house and about two bars of LTE signal there. I believe three bars and up is considered a very good signal, so I wouldn't be worried if you have one or two bars on a phone.