patrick.net

I'm on Republic Wireless, which uses Sprint. Adequate for my needs. At one point I was out of network in the Marin hinterlands last weekend.

Perfect! On accounta that's where I live!

I'm on Ting, which uses Sprint's network. Excellent company.

I'm typically in Santa Cruz costal mountains or the San Jose valley. No problems with service. I do see larger gaps in service when I drive distances into the country side (toward central valley, etc.) Out in the boonies, AT&T tends to drop bars, but keeps some amount of service out away from major metros. Sprint actually does have areas of no service when you get out in the sticks.

I was an AT&T iPhone user before I switched over to Ting. I will never join a larger carrier again after my experience with Ting. It's very similar to my experience switching from Bank of America to a credit union : better customer service, less red tape, more transparency in billing, much better savings. (I pay less than half what I did with AT&T on my monthly bill)

The downside : visual voice mail is gone for iPhone users. I won't lie, the shock of going back to a regular style voice mail box was a little jarring. I get far more text messages than I do VMs these days anyway, so it isn't too bad once you get over : "press 7 to delete" ... :)

Ha! I hadn't thought of visual voice mail like that. Thanks!

I was in the Bay Area about six months ago using Verizon 4G. Dirt slow compared to San Antonio, Texas. I don't know if they need more towers or what.

Thanks guys