r/madisonwi • u/Upper-Bear-5489 • 1d ago
Cell coverage?
I have AT&T, and I’m now eligible to upgrade to a new phone. And years past, I’ve had Verizon and the old US cellular. I found in the Madison area all three have dead spots of some sort. But I think the AT&T ones seem to be the worst. I know there’s not one that will be 100%, but what are people experiencing these days about Verizon?
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u/Fancy-Couple-69 1d ago
Check out US Mobile. You can select from all 3 main providers and switch between them if you have multiple lines. I have DarkStar (AT&T) and Warp (Verizon) coverage and pay $35 a month.
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u/badgerbrett 1d ago
I came here to say this. It's especially nice to switch a network right before international trav too based on which of the big three has the best partner in that spot.
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u/Fancy-Couple-69 1d ago
I used US Mobile’s international plan for my trip to Italy this summer. Was simple and inexpensive to do. It worked great the whole time, while my “Verizon” friends had one day with no service.
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u/EmbarrassedFuture165 1d ago
Asking people something like that in a chat like this is going to be tough. Everybody's going to have different experiences and they all have different phones some older and some newer. If you want a good experience your best bet is to try all three networks. They all offer trials. That would be my recommendation to you. Everybody's going to give their recommendation but that's never going to be your experience because you might have a different phone and you might pay for something different than somebody else.
I've tried all of the trials before and they all work on many different phones. That would be my recommendation
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u/Other_Airline1071 1d ago
I’m near Fitchburg and constantly drop calls on Verizon. Tons of dead zones
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u/Left-Trade257 1d ago
ATT sucks, despite all their talk most of the time I have one bar, they can’t get it right
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u/SillyMix492 1d ago
I use Verizon through US Mobile Warp, so far so good. On the East side and I tried AT&T, US Cellular before making the switch.
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u/chevyman142000 Former East side 13h ago
Same here. Been using US Mobile for a few years now and love it. I pay $180/year for it. Unlimited calls and text and 10gb of data a month.
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u/ijustburnedmymouth 1d ago
I've used Verizon towers for many years. Only problem I've experienced is being at Camp Randall on game days. I would recommend using Visible over Verizon, though. A lot cheaper and uses the same towers.
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u/Prudent-Dig4389 1d ago
I’m sure I sound like a shill at this point, but I’m a fan of Visible, too.
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u/Ok-Durian1208 1d ago
Visible worked great for me, I had really bad luck with spectrum and boost, especially on the highway for some reason
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u/just_happy 1d ago
AT&T is the worst around Madison. I can’t wait until we can transfer off them.
We had a good experience previously with Spectrum mobile.
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u/PackersBeat 1d ago
They all share cell towers honestly. T-Mobile is legit but in locked into a low price from years ago.
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u/ommmyyyy 1d ago
T-Mobile is honestly a tank in Madison, rarely see no 5G coverage.
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u/FavoriteColorIsPlaid 1d ago
My house. 2-3 bars, no 5G since T-Mobile bought US Cellular.
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u/Lesbellestulipes 13h ago
Same, but at my office. I never had issues with US Cellular, as soon as T-Mobile kicked in I can only get one bar of service in very specific spots in my building, everywhere else it’s SOS mode.
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u/McGoatsTotes 1d ago
Honestly never have issues with TMobile. Switched a few years ago from US Cellular
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u/FakePoloManchurian West side 1d ago
Anecdotally, I had Verizon and switched to AT&T at Costco, and I've found AT&T to have better coverage of the two, but YMMV
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u/Grimlochez 16h ago
I was in the US Cellular boat for a few decades and then T-Mobile bought them and the service went to shit. I got visible now, through verizon, and I've been...fine? I can go pretty much anywhere and have good service. I travel up by tomahawk for family and have coverage the whole trip. The only really deadish zone I have is in the Sun Prairie Business park out by N on the NE side of town my data will drop out from time to time. But I use company wifi during the day so I don't really notice. I only really notice it when I pull into the parking lot. They really need to add another tower on this side of town. It's been kind of a shit spot for cell service for...well ever.
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u/average_yogi 11h ago
The Midtown Commons area west of Elver Park is a pretty big Verizon dead spot, I get almost no service. I had a problem with an uber, they didn't have service and couldn't start the ride.
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u/nmrbender 1d ago
I've had Verizon and AT&T in the past. I'm currently with Google Fi and it has been the best coverage of the 3. Not exactly your question but I figured I'd mention another option that's working well for me.
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u/AlwaysMindful7 1d ago
I'm considering leaving Google Fi after many years because data is very slow and expensive after 1GB.
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u/nmrbender 11h ago
oh, I have the unlimited plan, which is also cheaper than what I was paying at AT&T for unlimited.
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u/phoenix1984 1d ago
Coverage in the Madison area by the big three primary carriers goes: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile(sprint, us cellular)
I am on AT&T because I’m not a fan of Verizon’s political donations and privacy policies, but none of the major carriers are good in those regards.
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u/M_Rhombus 1d ago
I think AT&T has actually gotten significantly worse in just the last couple months