AT&T vs Verizon in the South Bay area? (San Jose: house, taxi)

[saintforlife]

My wife and I are planning to switch to Verizon when the next iPhone comes out. We are currently on AT&T. But it seems in the south bay area (San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale etc.) AT&T has some dead zones that really annoys us. We have also seen that AT&T has no coverage in any of the national parts (Yosemite for example)

Question - How is Verizon's coverage in the South Bay area and also the Bay Area in general? Is Verizon's network more reliable? Also how does Verizon's data speed compare with AT&T's which obviously is an important aspect of smart phone usage.

[vietiscool]

i switched to AT&T from Verizon. Verizon has way better coverage, but I couldn't resist the iPhone at the time. With the iPhone coming to Verizon, I'm probably switching back after my contract ends.

[roadwarrior101]

I don't see much difference in the valley....AT&T is good in populated areas. Verizon is better in rural areas.

[nr5667]

I live in south San Jose and just used speedtest on my Verizon phone, 74ms response time, 22.8mbps down, 1.65mbps up.

[sonarrat]

I switched to an AT&T phone recently and found to my surprise that I got full coverage in the back country of Morgan Hill (which is nominally covered by Verizon).

[80skeys]

The problem with AT&T is not the coverage, the problem is dropped calls and poor call quality because their circuits are over subscribed.

They're supposed to be installing a bunch of new towers around the area, but by that time they may lose a bunch of customers to other networks.

By the way, Metro PCS will be supporting the iphone in the next few months.

[Zeya]

The general consensus among friends is that AT&T coverage can get spotty in big cities and probably in rural areas too. In suburbs it can maybe be ok sometimes. You get dropped calls. And maybe their data services are marginally better than VZW.

At my house in San Jose, I have to stand in the front room by a window to talk on my AT&T iPhone for fear of the call dropping. My girlfriend with VZW Android can be anywhere in the house and be fine. Basically, make sure whichever one is going to be rock solid in your home and at work. If in doubt, just go VZW.

Personally, I plan on switching to VZW when my 2 year contract ends. I had VZW for years up until 2008 and never had any real problems. But since going AT&T it's been just annoying enough for me to want to go back to VZW.

[ClaroAtaxia]

I'm in the South Bay (Sunnyvale) and work in Mountain View, at both locations my ATT iPhone 3GS has NEVER once gotten 3G coverage, it only gets EDGE and even then the data speeds are so slow it's unusable most of the time. Outside of the city it's okay, but the Bay Area has overloaded ATT to the extreme (thanks Apple I'm going to switch to Verizon in the next month or so and am crossing my fingers it's better.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by ClaroAtaxia

I'm in the South Bay (Sunnyvale) and work in Mountain View, at both locations my ATT iPhone 3GS has NEVER once gotten 3G coverage, it only gets EDGE and even then the data speeds are so slow it's unusable most of the time. Outside of the city it's okay, but the Bay Area has overloaded ATT to the extreme (thanks Apple I'm going to switch to Verizon in the next month or so and am crossing my fingers it's better.

I have a 3GS too, and I've never had problems with internet connectivity.. I've tried it from places as far out as Anderson Park in Morgan Hill (which is Verizon Land), middle of nowhere Monterey County, Los Altos Hills, top of the hill in Belmont, and the densest parts of San Jose and San Francisco.. never any issue.

[Nell Plotts]

My daughter has VZ and uses smart phones. There is a spot on 280 north of Page Mill Road where her calls drop occasionally. With that exception VZ service has been superb.