Why always poor cell reception? Phone or TMo

[SonDan]

I purchased my Nexus from Google as soon as it was released. The cell reception has never been great but I was not a big telephone user.

Once I felt the need to always have a working phone I got a Moto X on Verizon that is great, albeit expensive.

If I want to use my Nexus 4 on Tmo as my main phone again, how can I tell if it is the Nexus phone that is poor or the Tmo service?

I tried today and got barely two bare on Edge.

 

[Raptor007]

There are a number of factors in cell reception, radios in the phone, antenna placement and design, frequencies the carriers use. I would start with the carrier side first and their coverage, is it bad everywhere you go or just in a few places? If its everywhere could you have a bad unit, have you checked in compared to in store demo units. Typically the stores have cell boosters but still it would allow a side by side comparison.