Here’s a message from neighbor Paul Thompson.
The lone complaint I can recall about moving onto W. Parkwood Rd. was the availability of wireless carriers with a signal inside our home. Verizon’s didn’t cut it, and we had to cancel our contract with them and start fresh with AT&T (their 3G even works in our basement!). Luckily Verizon came out to test the signal strength, and upon seeing how poor it was, credited us back the cancellation fee several months after our service had been moved, but I had to be diligent. I also loved T-Mobile at our old house in Kirkwood, but unfortunately that signal is non-existent at our house as well. When CLEAR wireless internet came to town, we wanted to jump on board and ditch our Comcast internet…but alas, no CLEAR signal either.
Using the comments section below, we would like to know what options we have in terms of signal strength in the neighborhood (especially for Sprint and MetroPCS) and your experiences. No need for long diatribes, just simple comments about signal strength and your address or general area would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Sincerely,
The Thompsons at 316 W. Parkwood Rd.
A note from the webmaster:
Neighbors don’t be shy. We want to know if this comment thing works! Please leave answers below for Paul, and if enough people respond with comments this time around, we’ll start to post polls or surveys on the site, and those can be a lot of fun!
Parkwood Garden Club 
Does anyone know if Verizon, after that visit to test signal strength, indicated that new radio/antenna equipment may be installed in the neighborhood to improve the coverage? We’re moving to the area in a few weeks and my Verizon account is an essential item that’s making the move from the D.C. area. Has anyone thought about where Verizon might collocate antennas (put them on existing buildings or structures, obviating need for new towers)?
We have AT&T at 317 W. Parkwood. 99% of the time it works fine for us. I do not have 3G on my 1st generation iPhone that’s 3 years old, and I get very little reception in our basement. Bolot has 3G and his works fine in the basement. We noticed a “Bermuda Triangle” of dropped calls surrounding the Ponce/Scott/Parkwood Rds. intersection with AT&T. Sometimes on my back porch I get few bars on my phone, but most of the time it doesn’t interfere with my calls.
@David – Welcome in advance! Verizon did not indicate that there were any plans to improve the strength, and I have a feeling that they are probably on the same towers locally that T-Mobile and CLEAR are on (perhaps to the SE in Edgewood off Arizona Street?)…both my parents and my parents in law still have Verizon and complain at our W. Parkwood house about the weak and intermittent signal. Oh well, it forces them to talk to us instead of trying to figure out how to use their smartphones.
I don’t think the weak VW signal is neighborhood-wide, as I recall that just a few houses away the Verizon strength was decent.
Paul,
Sprint is our wireless carrier and we do not routinely get good reception in our home so we had to get a land line. It was just too cold in the winter to have to go outside to accept or make a call.
We live at 471 W. Parkwood.
Paul,
We have used Credo Mobile for years (Sprint signal) and have had good reception in and around our house (264 West Parkwood Road) and throughout the metro area. We do not have a basement and we do not use smart phones; perhaps these variables make a difference?
stephen
Jens and I both have Verizon (x 6 years), and have had no problems with dropped calls or poor reception in the neighborhood.
Mike and I have two different providers on our blackberry work phones; his is AT & T and mine is Verizon. He’s never had any issues with service, although on occasion I’ve had to walk outside to get a signal to send an email. Initially, I had a T-Mobile blackberry, but had no service from our home and had to change. Our personal provider is Verizon and our cell phones work very well.
According to Verizon Wireless, there are parts of the neighborhood that are located in what the company calls “marginal coverage areas.” This means that Verizon has received complaints about coverage and has followed up with field testing. There are areas within the neighborhood that have significantly worse coverage due to the distance of existing tower/antenna sites and because of topographic features interrupting radio transmissions between handsets and antennas.
The Verizon tech person I spoke with today said that there are no short-term solutions. The carrier is in negotiations to lease a site for new antennas within 1 mile of West Parkwood but that site won’t go online for some time (more than a year; maybe two).