Ive used AT & T in the past and always had trouble getting a signal where I live and I often travel to very "back woodsy" type places where the entire town is a gas station etc and I wouldnt have service with them the majority of the time if at all. Maybe now and again I would get a signal of 0 bars but not "no service". I signed up with Nextel 6 years ago which has subsequently been absorbed into Sprint and I have no problem with getting signals here at home or in those "back woodsy" places I described above. Nextel and Sprint still technically are different services (internally). I switched my Nextel plan to a Sprint plan briefly about a year ago and very quickly changed it back to a Nextel plan because Every time I turned around I was Roaming and paying outragous fees. Im in Texas btw and usually am not near a "big" city. Ive never used verizon, though I do have many family and friends who use it who don't really have anything positive to say about it.