SF Bay area iPhone users - Sprint or ATT, which has better coverage?

[citymama]

I'm a long time iPhone ATT user but the coverage is pretty terrible (my home has a number of dead zones and I work from home!). I just read another post saying that ATT has disabled Facetime with the iPhone 5 (or maybe all iPhones?). However, I do like my unlimited data plan grandfathered since 2010. I hear Sprint offers an unlimited data plan to new customers as well so that would be my only other provider option. If you're in the Bay Area (in particular, SF or close suburbs), what has your experience been with your iPhone coverage with either ATT or Sprint? Thanks!

[AnnieW625]

Dh had Sprint 12 yrs. ago in the outer East Bay and in San Jose and didn't have any issues, but as a whole he found Verizon to be better so he switched. Honestly if you have wifi at home you probably won't use that much data. I have never gone over my 2 gig of data and I use my data a lot for web browsing and occasionally Netflix or you tube. I miss Pandora as I could listen all day at my desk, but really I am fine with just 2 gigs.

[codex57]

At this point, I'd go with Sprint. Their LTE is reported to be half complete. I've personally experienced it in various parts of SF (and surrounding areas). It's pretty awesome to be sitting on Irving St. or in Golden Gate Park and be pulling in 30Mbps. I pay over $50/mo for home wifi and I only get a stated 12Mbps but in reality get between 10-11.

Sprint is doing a ground up changeover to LTE (4G technology). AT&T and Verizon are doing a more patch job approach which allows them to cover more cities faster, but can't handle as much traffic. So, you'll see AT&T get a tower up and initially get high speeds, but then it quickly drops dramatically. Still respectable speeds of say 5-12Mbps, but you can pull 2-3 on the older 3G network during slow times on AT&T.

Sprint's 3G is horrific tho. But, since the LTE is lighting up quick in SF and already exists in major parts of it, even if you're in a 3G only zone in SF, I think it's worth it to suck it up cuz it'll be coming soon and it's niiiiiiiccccceeeee.

Coverage is the same. Inlaws and extended inlaws have a mix of Sprint and AT&T. Often in the same house. Random person has T-Mobile and Verizon but I'd say 90% of them have one of the two. Me and DW were on one of their family plans with AT&T, but we broke off to have our own Sprint plan for the iPhone 5. We weren't very happy with AT&T at that time. Too many dropped calls, altho data was ok in SF (not where we live tho).