I love this question, because it demonstrates how wrong Congress was when they wrote the law enabling mobile communications. It's not like Canada.
Cellular was set up in the U.S. with an intent to block any single company from offering national coverage; and to keep the Baby Bells from controlling the business. The Congressional intent was that between 50 and 300 cellular providers would offer service, but local service only. Fortunately for us customers, mergers and acquisitions are gradually undoing this intent, and we are moving toward a semblance of national service.
As the business evolves, Verizon and AT&T-Cingular are becoming the biggest players with the most extensive networks, but each still has large areas of the country where they are not licensed to do business, and smaller areas where they have no presence at all.
For example, I can't get Verizon, where I live, in the heart of SBC country (SBC is the collection of southern, southwestern and western Bell System descendents that recently bought AT&T and adopted the name). If you come to my town, you might get a voice connection on a Verizon phone, but no extended services, no data services. Forty miles away, Verizon is licensed and has 3G presence.
My family, and wife's family, live in Verizon home territory. They can't buy service from AT&T. In some places I can get an AT&T connection, someplaces are spotty. SIL has Verizon for the family cellular plan, as her kids are in Chicago, another Verizon home territory; Verizon is their landline carrier. Yet in the exact place they live, they can't get Verizon data services, they buy those from Sprint, the 3G provider where they live. BIL uses Nextel for his business mobile, because it offers something else Verizon can't provide.
"Who has the best coverage and reception?" is relevant in the U.S. only if your residence, or business location, is in an area where the company is license to sell you service. You will find places where there is no Verizon, others where there is no AT&T. You will find places where you can't buy service from either, yet one or both works because of a roaming presence with a local provider. You will find places where neither works, but a local company provides cell service.
I suggest, if you can establish residence in Verizon territory, buy Verizon. In AT&T territory, buy AT&T.
If you are a visitor, with no credit history at an address where a cellular provider is licensed to sell you service, you can buy a pay-as-you-go plan. Verizon and AT&T both offer pay-as-you-go, with geographic restrictions. These plans do not have the extensive roaming arrangements that let customers say "we have coverage everywhere."
You can go with a third party pay-as-you-go, like Virgin Mobile, TracFone or Net10. These providers have no network, they sell service on partner networks. Each has different partners in different parts of the country, to provide national coverage to rival that of Verizon or AT&T.
If you have mobile service with a provider in Canada, you might check into extending that service into this country. If your provider is GSM technology, you will roam on the AT&T network. CDMA, I've not looked into it, might be Verizon, Nextel or Sprint.
edit: Just checked Virgin. Virgin uses the Sprint network. That's national, but concentrated in urban areas and with regional gaps.
* This post was
edited 02/22/08 11:53pm by tatest *
I have Verizon, my wife has Cingular. We did this so that as we travel, if one provider lacked service in an area, the other might have coverage. Half the time this is true and one phone or the other will work if both do not. But sometimes there is no coverage on either phone. All companies have some areas that they do not service. Verizon has had fewer areas of "no service", but ATT/Cingular is catching up fast. I am very happy with Verizon but have been considering switching to ATT because I have iPhone envy and only ATT has the iPhone.
Marc, Boca Raton FL
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We have Verizon and have travelled coast-to-coast with very few problems. Also have Verizon aircard for laptop which works like a charm. only 2 places so far we've traveled that we couldn't get phone or aircard signal: Hot Springs Arkansas and Ocala National Forest Florida. That's because their cell towers are probably older and haven't been upgraded. Hot Springs in surrounded by mountains, too. Relative had Nextel and we had Verizon and we always got a signal when he couldn't. I now use my Verizon aircard with Rev-A service when I'm home and can just take my computer on the road whenever I want. Service is not "cheap" but for the convenience, it's worth it. Wi-Fi in parks is not there yet in my opinion.
Good luck!
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