The Worst Cities in America for Cell Service

[Megalith]

RootMetric has published their latest mobile network performance report, revealing the best and worst places for cell service: 125 major metropolitan areas have been tested and ranked based on categories ranging from reliability and speed to data and call quality. Overall, Lansing, MI has come out on top while Hudson Valley, NY sits at the bottom of the list.

Among the largest 125 metropolitan areas in the United States, Lansing, MI, topped our overall mobile performance rankings during first-half 2017 testing, moving up from 20th in the previous round. Lansing also finished the first half of 2017 ranked #1 in network speed and data performance, #3 in call performance, and #4 in network reliability. The only category in which Lansing failed to make a top 5 showing was in text performance, where it was still a top 10 finisher, ranking #7.

 

[Space_Ranger]

Doesn't surprise me that my region was DEAD LAST on the rankings (125th). Thank GOD Optimum service is good in the area.

 

[Domingo]

Denver and Colorado Springs are being crippled because T-Mobile and Sprint full-on suck in large portions of both cities. I'd imagine that's probably the case in other cities that have rural sections or unusual terrain.

 

[Space_Ranger]

Denver and Colorado Springs are being crippled because T-Mobile and Sprint full-on suck in large portions of both cities. I'd imagine that's probably the case in other cities that have rural sections or unusual terrain.

Our region has a lot of "Old Fashioned" folks... The towns and villages don't want you to dirty up their lovely beautiful areas with those nasty ugly towers!

 

[DigitalPanhandler]

I find it amusing, when I go wheeling up in the mountains, my virgin mobile phone, which cost 49$ and screen is shattered, still gets signal bouncing off sprint towers.... however my tmobile friends with fancy 400-800$ phones, have no service whatsoever in the springs/Manitou/woodland park areas

ok I shouldn't say no service, ill modify that to "sporatic to no service"

 

[biggles]

Interesting how mediocre cell service is in Silicon Valley. One would think this would be a priority area given all the tech experts there.

 

[wizzi01]

I find it amusing, when I go wheeling up in the mountains, my virgin mobile phone, which cost 49$ and screen is shattered, still gets signal bouncing off sprint towers.... however my tmobile friends with fancy 400-800$ phones, have no service whatsoever in the springs/Manitou/woodland park areas

ok I shouldn't say no service, ill modify that to "sporatic to no service"

Had nothing to do with the phone, or are you just being obtuse on purpose? I have friends that had to dump sprint because they couldn't get signal in the middle of the damn city.

 

[nilepez]

I was just in the UK, and service is much better than here...and way cheaper. 1 Month 500 minutes (which I'd never use), unlimited text and 7gb data was 19 bucks with tax (including the sim card). Rarely hit a place with out LTE (unless you count the Tube) and even when it dropped to 3G it was typically pretty good.

 

[Krazy925]

Interesting how mediocre cell service is in Silicon Valley. One would think this would be a priority area given all the tech experts there.

I drop more calls in the South Bay/peninsula/SV than I do in the North/East Bay for sure.

 

[Cali3350]

Interesting how mediocre cell service is in Silicon Valley. One would think this would be a priority area given all the tech experts there.

SF itself is a terror for cell servicers. So hill with relatively small amount of tall buildings.

 

[nutzo]

My city is in the top 50, so that might explain why I don't seem to have any serious signal problems.
When I first switched to T-Mobile years ago, the signal was a little week at my house. however coverage has improved significantly the last few years.

 

[Domingo]

It's probably worth mentioning that calls vs. data can be very different in some areas, too. There are plenty of instances where I can make a falwless phone call with no chance of it dropping for 50 miles, but it's a data dead zone. I make all of like 3-4 phone calls a month so I don't give a damn about that.

 

[DejaWiz]

Omaha in the bottom 5...I've known that since my first cell phone back in 1997 with AirTouch (they created Verizon after merging with another company/conglomerate).

In '98, I went with Sprint for their Free & Clear plan, and was with them up until late '14...fought with them for 2 years after moving to a new neighborhood, having no consistent signal, and having to drive at least a half-mile out of the neighborhood if I had to make/take any important calls. Every time I called to log a complaint ticket, they would rattle off the same tired diatribe along the lines of "that is an area we are currently expanding on, so you should get perfect signal within the next few weeks to couple of months!"...they even sent me one of their Airave contraptions with didn't do jack shit to help out.
Sprint and T-mo completely suck around here for coverage. The Verizon and AT&T networks are about the only smart choices to go with, inside the metro area. US Cellular and Chat Mobility are decent choices for those in the rural parts.

 

[nilepez]

Omaha in the bottom 5...I've known that since my first cell phone back in 1997 with AirTouch (they created Verizon after merging with another company/conglomerate).

In '98, I went with Sprint for their Free & Clear plan, and was with them up until late '14...fought with them for 2 years after moving to a new neighborhood, having no consistent signal, and having to drive at least a half-mile out of the neighborhood if I had to make/take any important calls. Every time I called to log a complaint ticket, they would rattle off the same tired diatribe along the lines of "that is an area we are currently expanding on, so you should get perfect signal within the next few weeks to couple of months!"...they even sent me one of their Airave contraptions with didn't do jack shit to help out.
Sprint and T-mo completely suck around here for coverage. The Verizon and AT&T networks are about the only smart choices to go with, inside the metro area. US Cellular and Chat Mobility are decent choices for those in the rural parts.

I'm in Dallas, and at home my signal is just so-so, but all of my calls at home are over wi-fi, so it doesn't matter. Unfortunately Sprint's data coverage on highways can be spotty and LTE is frequently unavailable. On some trips there are spts on the highway that have no signal at all, which is ridiculous. I should probably switch to Cricket...it's a little cheaper than Sprint and AT&T's coverage is better than Sprint's.

 

[DejaWiz]

I'm in Dallas, and at home my signal is just so-so, but all of my calls at home are over wi-fi, so it doesn't matter. Unfortunately Sprint's data coverage on highways can be spotty and LTE is frequently unavailable. On some trips there are spts on the highway that have no signal at all, which is ridiculous. I should probably switch to Cricket...it's a little cheaper than Sprint and AT&T's coverage is better than Sprint's.

That'd exactly what I did... bought an AT&T LG G3 when they were released, jumped ship to Straight Talk, and finally over to Cricket as soon as AT&T switched them over to their GSM network. I've got a ZTE Axon 7 now, and it's flawless with Cricket.

 

[bman212121]

It's probably worth mentioning that calls vs. data can be very different in some areas, too. There are plenty of instances where I can make a falwless phone call with no chance of it dropping for 50 miles, but it's a data dead zone. I make all of like 3-4 phone calls a month so I don't give a damn about that.

It definitely depends upon your carrier. Verizon's bread and butter is still their 1x network IMO. It has some of the best range and coverage so calls and text messages usually work. They were the first to roll out LTE, but haven't done much with it since. There are definitely gaps in the LTE coverage that their 1x does not have.

Compare them with say T-Mobile, and it's going to be a different story. They are aggressively pushing everyone to VoLTE, so with them chances are good that your voice and data coverage are the same. They just switched a few markets over a couple of days ago, and I know people who had to get new phones because their BYOD phone didn't support VoLTE.

AT&T I think you're going to have a bit more of a mix. They have decent 2G coverage, and afaik LTE and or HSPA+ should be available in a lot of places as well. I'm not sure where they stand these days on VoLTE, but I'm sure like everyone it's going to vary by location.

Sprint is either a it works fast or it doesn't IMO. Some places you have some coverage, and if you happen to be in an area where they were playing with WiMax or LTE-A or insert name of next generation technology they won't actually roll out, you might see really good speeds. Go 10 miles away from that and you might be in a black hole or kicked back to EVDO. At least unlike Verizon they decided it was important to do something with their 3G network so it's not quite as painful to fall back to.

 

[nilepez]

That'd exactly what I did... bought an AT&T LG G3 when they were released, jumped ship to Straight Talk, and finally over to Cricket as soon as AT&T switched them over to their GSM network. I've got a ZTE Axon 7 now, and it's flawless with Cricket.

One of these days, I'm just going to sign up for Cricket and use it with Sprint (gotta be when I'm on the road) and if Cricket exceeds Sprint (and I think it will), I'll switch. If I"m not on the road, I could take the 4GB plan (maybe even the 1GB plan) and be good, because I"m on WiFi so much. But if I'm out of town/on vacation for a week, I could easily chew through 4GB of data.

Once nice thing with spring is that when you're out of the country, you get free SMS and Data (slow, but good enough for email). that's useful for that period between the time you land and the time you find a prepaid SIM card (which are dirt cheap in the UK, AU and NZ).

 

[nilepez]

It definitely depends upon your carrier. Verizon's bread and butter is still their 1x network IMO. It has some of the best range and coverage so calls and text messages usually work. They were the first to roll out LTE, but haven't done much with it since. There are definitely gaps in the LTE coverage that their 1x does not have.

Compare them with say T-Mobile, and it's going to be a different story. They are aggressively pushing everyone to VoLTE, so with them chances are good that your voice and data coverage are the same. They just switched a few markets over a couple of days ago, and I know people who had to get new phones because their BYOD phone didn't support VoLTE.

AT&T I think you're going to have a bit more of a mix. They have decent 2G coverage, and afaik LTE and or HSPA+ should be available in a lot of places as well. I'm not sure where they stand these days on VoLTE, but I'm sure like everyone it's going to vary by location.

Sprint is either a it works fast or it doesn't IMO. Some places you have some coverage, and if you happen to be in an area where they were playing with WiMax or LTE-A or insert name of next generation technology they won't actually roll out, you might see really good speeds. Go 10 miles away from that and you might be in a black hole or kicked back to EVDO. At least unlike Verizon they decided it was important to do something with their 3G network so it's not quite as painful to fall back to.

I just looked at Verizon's map, and it looks like their LTE coverage is solid (and oddly better than their overall data coverage...don't understand that part, but regardless, as I recall, Verizon was the first to get into VoLTE (which doesn't mean T-Mobile hasn't surpassed them, but they moved into it 3 or 4 years ago, as I recall).

 

[DejaWiz]

One of these days, I'm just going to sign up for Cricket and use it with Sprint (gotta be when I'm on the road) and if Cricket exceeds Sprint (and I think it will), I'll switch. If I"m not on the road, I could take the 4GB plan (maybe even the 1GB plan) and be good, because I"m on WiFi so much. But if I'm out of town/on vacation for a week, I could easily chew through 4GB of data.

Once nice thing with spring is that when you're out of the country, you get free SMS and Data (slow, but good enough for email). that's useful for that period between the time you land and the time you find a prepaid SIM card (which are dirt cheap in the UK, AU and NZ).

There is a Cricket app that allows you to adjust your plan on the fly for each billing cycle, so if you want the 1 or 4 GB plan as default, but have known/planned future trips, you can switch to a higher data cap. Not sure how often you travel, but if it's once every couple/few months, it's at least another flexible option with Cricket

 

[Semantics]

Landscape, how many you have to serve in an area plus how hard it is to get sites to lay nodes = shit service. Choose a semi popular carrier in your area and you're probably fine, choose an unpopular or the most popular in your area and you're taking a gamble.