At the moment we have all three. Sprint (kid's phones,) AT&T for DH's work BB, and I have Verizon. I personally have had Sprint and AT&T prior to my newish Verizon contract. Verizon makes a big deal about their coverage because they can -- it's no joke. IMHO, they really do have better coverage and service compared to the other two.

I'm not addicted but I am dependent on it. For me it's a necessity for business. I Twitter from my Blackberry and I've even written responses here on GW using my BB! I've yet to drop a call or connection with Verizon and it offers more options and add-ons than I will ever in a million need or use.

Verizon for my company phone and we have it for my DH and DD phone- better coverage in the sticks for all of us. I think my DHs work BB is something else dont know.
I agree Verizon has better coverage here in our area.

We have Consumer Cellular. I rarely use my phone and hardly ever have it turned on. Dh uses his, but not at the house. Even though we're less than a mile from the nearest tower the only way to get decent reception is to walk out into the yard.

Have 2 neighbors who use Verizon and swear they get good reception.

I'll never give up the land line!

My new one - Straight Talk from Walmart

$30 a month 1000 minutes of talk and text
$45 a month (whch I have) Unlimited talk and text

got the cheap phone at only $29 but the better phones also do the internet for that 45 dollars a month

Verizon because we get reception even underground (in the Metro) here in the DC area.

Verizon all the way!

We've had Verizon for a few years, we get good reception in country areas where a lot of cell phone companies drop calls.
I'm sure it in part has to do with where a companies towers are.

We've always had Verizon, and have always been happy with it. My DH and I both had areas on our routes to work without coverage, but we knew where they were, and they were small areas. We even get reception at our weekend cabin, which is in an extremely rural area.
Dee

I've got Verizon for my work phone and it does get me service in a lot of areas my personal ATT doesn't. I've never had trouble with dropped calls from either one, tho.

We have ATT because all our kids are on it, and we get free mobile-to-mobile and roll over. We've NEVER gone over on minutes and we are wireless only. We just got a deal with ATT that we can add up to 10 wireless numbers that are out of network on our M-M plan, so that works good for us as BIL, MIL and my mom are also on other networks.

We've pretty much been with ATT since analog phones, did a stint with Qwest...NEVER again.

We had Alltel for a long time, and now they have been bought out by Verizon. It was a smooth transition, and I have to agree with all the above-- I get coverage pretty much everywhere, and our plan is pretty inexpensive considering how much we are on the phone with work, etc. We live in the serious middle of nowhere boonies, and most people can't even get a signal if they use other providers.

At&t. Just switched because we all wanted to get an iPhone.

So far, no issues with no service in areas we travel. Pricing was the same as with Verizon, although I have to admit to not having any issues with Verizon either. Just wanted an iPhone and got mad that Verizon was raising my cancellation fee to $350, so decided to jump ship rather than renew as we had been talking about getting an iphone since my last two year Verizon contract renewal!

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone! We're sort of rural and I've heard good things about Verizon. We're hoping to drop the land line and go solo with wireless so the feedback settles the mind a bit. I can't wait! :c)

Go online and check the Verizon coverage maps and other companies you are considering. Zoom in to the areas that are of concern for you and make sure you're covered. We've always had Verizon but considered switching at our last renewal just 'cuz' - not because we were unhappy. But I have a son in school in a remote part of CO and the ONLY service there is Verizon - all the students have it. Here in Chicagoland we could manage well with just about anything but our son would be lost without Verizon.

We formerly had Cingular/AT&T which was terrible in our area. Our home is set in a thickly wooded area and we sit down in a valley-type situation. Often could not get a signal while in the house, so we had to go outside to use the cell phones. Also, the AT&T service would drop calls at certain points on some local highways.

We all switched to Verizon over a year ago, and love the service. I would say the other difference besides consistent cell signal would be the cost of Verizon service vs. AT&T, and that Verizon does not offer the rollover minute benefit. However, Verizon offers a program where you can go online and list up to 10 non-Verizon telephone numbers that when called are billed as if we were calling another Verizon wireless customer - free.

We are now able to use our cell phones in the house without calls dropping or no service at all.

I've been with Verizon for 15 years. I like the coverage and that whenever I've had a problem, I remind then that I'm a loyal customer. I've had $800 in roaming fees forgiven.
And, all the customer service reps are in the US. I like that.

Oh boy, can't say enough how I really appreciate the feedback. I have been wanting to get rid of the land line for a while now and couldn't because no matter what state we've been in, the calls are not great indoors.

Ideefixe, I'm so glad you mentioned the customer loyalty because thing because that is something that's terribly lacking on Sprints part. I cringe when a customer service call is sent outside of the country, so I usually have to call 3 or 4 times to try to reach someone in this country. Ugh...it's gotten so bad!

We just switched to AT&T and I HATE IT (yes, this is me screaming). In our house, every single call drops repeatedly. The voice quality is terrible, too, and getting worse.

We switched from T-Mobile, which never gave us any problems, to AT&T for the iPhone. Love my phone, hate the coverage. I am going to go talk to customer service and see what they can do, but please, please, please don't consider AT&T.

I have four friends who work (in sales or mgt.) for ATT. They all have ATT cell phone svc, and they all wish they had Verizon. I have had Sprint, but changed many years ago to Verizon. I really like their plans as well as their coverage and connectivity.

Red

I have Verizon. I would love to have an iphone since I have been a loyal Mac user since forever. Since AT&T drops calls the second I turn into my driveway, I must stick with Verizon, whose coverage in my foothill community is superior to none.

I would love to buy an unlocked iphone but can't justify the money. My Blackberry is good.

Xantippe - I am so sorry, my sister got my mother an IPhone and offered her free service with it. My mom lasted a week, said no thank you and went back to Verizon. Thanks for your words of wisdom, luckily, AT&T was never even on my radar but I hope you're able to get something worked out.

Golddust & Red, thanks for the feedback, I can't believe how overwhelmingly popular Verizon is!

I have AT&T because most of my friends and family do. I've been very happy with it and the service is good in my area.

.....Jane

Eleen you get unlimitied minutes and texting for $45.00 a month from Walmart, geez.

I have heard that Verizon will start offering the Iphone in 10 or 11/2010.

lukkiirish, I second Verizon. Lots of our friends have it and love it-in fact, I don't think I've ever heard a single complaint. That being said, Tmobile gave us great coverage for a very small price--so, depending on what their coverage is where you live, you might want to consider them.

We have Verizon - I'm pretty happy with it. Hubby drives a truck (when he was well) and has pretty much always had coverage. We can see how much better verizon has gotten because he doesn't have the dropped call issues he had in some states. If you go to their coverage map & compare it to other companies, they have everyone pretty much beat.

At another forum I go to there is a post about AT&T & how they shut you off if you are a day late with payment, they then charge you a fee to turn the phone back on. This is even if you paid on time but they were still processing the check. People are also posting about the problems they have with their house phones and how they've gotten 2 bills for the same phone number; paid one bill, only to have the phone shut off because it looked like it wasn't paid. There were also problems with them crediting another customer with a similar name.

My daughter is using Virgin mobile - what a pain in the rear to put minutes on the phone. She has a monthly plan where they don't penalize you if you don't add minutes, phone just gets shut off till you put minutes on.

She also has TMobile which seems expensive; I have to do the math on it.

Judigal, thanks so much for the heads up on the Iphone. I'm not so interested in it, but my daughter sure is so I hope it's true for her sake. She told me just the other day she might just keep struggling with Sprint until Verizon gets either the IPhone or at least a phone she likes so I can't wait to tell her about this.

Xantippe - I know few people in our area that swear by T-Mobile, they can hear great on it however every time I talk to one of them, there is a lot of static on my end which I've always thought was strange.

roselvr - My DH used to drive a truck cross country, I sure don't envy you, it drove us nuts for him to be gone all the time. That was about 10 years ago and cell services were so bad, we used a messaging system instead. That's really bad news about ATT, yuck. It almost makes the pay in advance an attractive alternative, doesn't it?

Thanks for the feedback, now if I can just decide which phone to get, I'd be in good shape!

Thankfully he doesn't go "on the road" much. Usually it's surrounding states; and he's always had pretty decent coverage. There were parts where he knew he wouldn't have cell for 10 minutes of a trip; but we really can't complain. These days it's rare for calls to be dropped.

I was surprised to see so many stories about bill paying with AT&T.

As far as phones - it all depends on what you like. I would never go with a phone that does not have a keypad. The phone I'm looking at is the HTC Ozone. I returned the Samsung Omnia; hated the touch screen & the keys were too small, lots of hand fatigue. I'm going to be using a Blackberry Tour, not nuts about the ball.

My son has the LG enV - not sure if it's touch but so far he's been ok; my teen had it and trashed it. Teen had the blackberry touch, killed it.

Do your research. Most phones have some issue or another.
You usually don't want to get a phone that just comes out; you want to wait until it's been out a while and they put out another model with things fixed.

I got annoyed with Verizon and their cancellation fees. After Nov. 15th, if you renewed a smart phone contract the cancellation fee went from $175 to $350. So, I figured if I wasn't 100% sure we didn't want to switch and try the iPhone we should jump ship now before we renewed.

I don't believe that Verizon will have the iPhone because they just signed up with Google and developed the Droid phone.

So far no problems with At&T, but we'll see. I do agree that if you live outside a metropolitan area, Verizon is the way to go, but we've been using them for 15 years, and really wanted to try the iPhone, which I have to say I love.

I'm on Verizon with my parents, Dad just got a new phone so restarted the contract, mom has been telling me for over a week to go get a new phone too. Guess I'll go today. I had AT&T 3 years ago when we moved in, could only get signal standing in south corner of porch or in attic. We have AT&T home phone and DSL, the service stinks. We thought we finally had DSL fixed late last summer (after we kept insisting there was a problem with their switching equipment and multiple tech visits to our house, they found a bad slot in backplane in their box on highway, changed us to a different board). Then in Sept the phone went out (but we still had DSL). Now, they offered me $10 off per month for next 6 months if I upgraded my DSL, I said sure, it's been spotty since then - lots of noise on the line and I can't even get 500 kbps, forget about the 1.5M I used to have or the 3M they "upgraded" me to. It's up right now, they're sending a tech out this afternoon to check to see what the lines will actually support (I tested and got 2.2Mbps over the past half hour but who knows what it'll be this afternoon).

I just want something *reliable* so DH can telecommute on Wednesdays and I can access Home Dec forum and CL LOL!

They tried to sell me TV (Uverse? DISH?), no way! No sense paying even $30/mo for spotty service when I get networks (all but ABC) for free (except in pouring rain, but then AT&T wouldn't be working either).

I've had TMobile for about 4 years and pay a lot less than my friends with AT&T and Verizon. The people I know with AT&T complain about their service more than the Verizon customers. I don't have problems with dropped calls. I recently got the Motorola Cliq, which uses the Google Android operating system. I like it because it has a touchscreen and a physical keyboard. I can download lots of apps (not as many as for an iphone, but how many do you need?). I was a little miffed that I bought it and then they came out with the new Google Nexus One phone that looks really cool. But it is touchscreen only, and I have a hard time with that.
I have a friend whose family is on a Sprint plan that costs them $160/month for four phones with 1500 shared minutes and unlimited texting and web. Two of the family members have Blackberries. I think that Sprint and TMobile have both come out with very aggressive pricing plans. My unlimited voice plan is $39.99/month.

roselvr, my SIL has the HTC Ozone through his work and is super happy with it. He let me check it out and it's nice. The sound on it was very crisp and clear which is my main concern. I'm just not sure about the shape of it. That probably sounds weird but we've always had clam styled phones. Right now, I have the LG Lotus through Sprint and it's the funkiest looking little phone. Sprint service maybe iffy but the phone works great. It's a square clam with a full qwerty keyboard.

Thats great that you haven't had to deal with what we did. My DH did the full cross country & Canada gig and it was a miserable time. On his last trip he broke a finger while unloading some boxes and had to go on disability. He studied computers & networking while he was home and changed careers. I was tickled pink!

Caroloh, thanks for the feedback, I guess we'll know today about what the status for the Iphone will be. Luckily for my DH & I it's a none issue, we really just want simple right now. Although my phone is equipped to text, I have that part turned off. My biggest problem with Sprint is their reception especially indoors. In regards to the 350 cancel fee, it seems like that is pretty much the norm with all the services I've looked into. I agree it's unreasonable with times being what they are, no one wants to be committed for that long especially when the service is subpar and/or there are income changes w/in the family. One thing I did note about Verizon was if you pay more for the phone, you can opt out of the longer contract. It's not much of an alternative but at least it's something.

ajsmama - sounds like a mess. We had ATT DSL when we lived in California. My DH is now a network engineer and almost had a nervous breakdown trying get the overseas customer support to understand what the problem was with our connection. All they would do is read a script. Ahhh...got to love that! Then it took 3 months for them to finally process our notice to cancel service when we moved out of state and of course they wanted payment for it. More recently, we cancelled our ATT landline service a few months back because every month they were increasing the fees for one thing or another. NEVER AGAIN. After those experiences and the problems Roselvr mentioned, you could not pay us to have ATT anything.

Terriks - Wow, I have heard that T-Mobile's pricing is very competitive but your plan is really low. I've also heard their phones can wow people. If their service was better in our area, I'd be tempted to give them a shot. Sprint is not cheap. It's pricing is the same as Verizon, and if you have an older contract and you let it stay expired for more than 3 months, they will increase your bill. They've done that to me on more than one occasion and it really has miffed me because they claim that's not their policy but it really is. My DH can get a 20% discount for Verizon service through his work, so after all the reviews I think it's...

I have a "Loyalty" plan with TMobile, but their regular unlimited voice is $10 month more - $49.99. I think that Sprint has just recently come out with their new low rates. My friend has been with Sprint for quite a while and was going to switch carriers, but the new plan was too tempting. It's always worthwhile to check all of the providers in your area. My local Costco is a good place to price shop because they carry AT&T, Verizon and TMobile. They usually have better deals on phones and bundle them with accessories like free bluetooth headsets.

lukki - It took us *months* to get AT&T to send someone who really looked at the problem, and then multiple visits to fix it. I've got a direct number to their St Louis tech support office, and the cell phone of the latest (and greatest!) local tech, so I can skip the overseas people unless I really need to put in a trouble ticket (then it has to go chain of command). I got tired of hearing them ask me to cycle the power on the modem and tell them which lights were blinking too! This AM the guy in St Louis asked if I worked for them b/c I seemed to know so much LOL!

But I'm still waiting for tech to come and test my lines - it seems to have settled down a bit, was getting 2.2Mbps pretty reliably b4 I went to Verizon store, now I can still connect but speed has dropped to about 1.7M - still good, but makes me wonder if we'll have service at all by the time DH gets home.

Oh, and I found I'm on a "secondary" ($9.99/mo) line on my mon's contract, my dad was "primary" (I thought he and I had the same plan) so that's why he got a free phone. I'd have to pay for mine (with rebates, but still not free). So I'll hold off and see if DH's company is going to stop paying for his Blackberry. He said it was possibility in next couple of months that they'd cancel and just tell people they'd remiburse them for their own plans (minutes?). If that happens I can drop out of my parents' plan for no penalty (found I'm month-to-month now, if I got a new phone I'd be locked in), then DH and I can get our own plan - if they take away the company device, we can get 2 Blackberry Curves for $50 after rebate. At least if they keep running the same promotion they have now. We'd have to get insurance though - DH is hard on them, esp. the holsters, but he did drop one device in the gutter and break it running across the street a couple years ago.

I've been a flip phone user - Motorola was always my preference. I never thought I could use a phone like the Ozone. My daughter had a Motorola MotoQ and wanted a new phone; I let her have my upgrade & took the moto Q and am hooked on the keyboard phone since then. The Ozone is very much like my MotoQ; so was the Samsung Saga; but the Saga was not wide enough & numbers were very slippery. I would actually go to buy the Ozone but we're looking to downgrade my daughter because of the $35 Blackberry fee so I'm probably going to take that; not sure what I'm going to do with her, may just remove her and let her keep the T Mobile pay as you go phone. She's already gone through a $10 card in one week and is on her 2nd $10 card.

I hope to get to Verizon today or tomorrow because my MotoQ went bad. I saw commercials for the last week that Verizon has new plans out that are a lot cheaper then what we now have; this is to keep competitive with AT&T.

With any phone; it pays to make sure you're always on the best plan. Way back when, hubby was happy with his plan & phone & didn't go to renew after the 2 years was up. I had my own plan at the time and my bill was cheaper. It turns out there were more features in my rate plan then his and when he went over minutes he got pounded. I always try to walk into a store every few months for a review. Right now with my daughter not using her phone we don't need the massive minute plan we have so I should be able to save $100 a month.

Ozone - want to add that the Ozone runs windows mobile like my MotoQ. I use my phone for appointments and love that I can sync it with my computer calendar as well as Gmail calendar. I've also used mobile Word before.

I love Verizon! I used to have their service and thought they were amazing - great customer service, clear lines, no dropped calls. However, I purchased an iphone so I switched to AT&T. AT&T is horrible - dropped calls all the time, static etc and I am in NYC so it's not like I am in an area that doesn't receive coverage. Also ATT's customer service is awful. I signed up for automatic payments and it took them 6 months to get it right. I also use T-Mobile for my work Blackberry and I am not too crazy about their service either. I find that I am not able to get service in certain places ie. my in-laws home, in Grand Central ect.

If the iphone ever goes to Verizon, I am switching back.

AT&T Customer Service for our phone and DSL has been good - if you get someone in the US. Overseas tech support is awful. But we lost DSL (after the tech left last night, saying he didn't think we could support 3Mbps). Just got it back now - after I called Tech Support in St. Louis and said "Drop me back to 1.5M now!" - they also transferred me to Customer Service here in CT who gave me $10/mo discount for next 6 months plus credit for the hassle this week after the upgrade didn't work. Tech says they oversold it - he's seen them sell people 6meg package when they could barely support 3.

Well...I'm a bit disappointed. Actually, I'm more than a bit disappointed, I'm really rather miffed. While looking at phones last night on line, my DH noticed all the phones I was interested in require a data pack for 29.99 making phone service for 2 with only 700 minutes a whopping 99.00 plus tax. My DH will never be a text user and has no need for that and the phone he wants won't even have that capability. And, although with work I may need that within the next year or so, I don't need it now. So I have a choice, I can buy the phone I'll need in the future now & pay and extra 30.00/mo more for it, or I can get a freebie do nothing phone and have to buy a full priced phone in a year when I need it for work. I'm not willing to do either, so Verizon is no longer an option for us. :c( And also, they haven't lowered their pricing AT ALL as they're advertising, neither has Sprint for that matter. All their prices are still the same as they've been for the past 3 years. It's just now, you can't get any phone you want, they've attached the data packs to the phones now so you can't plan for the future like I need to.

Yeck. That sounds frustrating! Hang in there.

I'm pretty sure there is a way around the $30 charge. My MotoQ never had the data pack even though they said I had to; I only put it on after hubby was diagnosed. I only texted; never sent pictures or went online.

With my daughters blackberry, we changed the phone to a regular one online and when we put the blackberry back on the data pack never got added again; you have to physically add it when you do stuff online. I was livid because she had a lot of picture charges which I didn't understand because they say you "have to have" the data pack. Apparently you can add/remove stuff online; which I haven't played around with due to lack of time. Normally if I need something done I visit the store because I know everyone.

I've yet to get to verizon to add the blackberry to my number; wish I had because I wanted to check out the new plans I saw on TV; which it sounds like hasn't happened. I'm not sure if it was a commercial or a TV show where they were talking about new phones. It's possible the new plans haven't started yet.

Did you check to see if online pricing was different then the store?

Thanks for the reponse, roselover, I hate to say this but I think it's a retail scam. The pricing in their plans hasn't changed at all since I first looked at them almost a year ago, they didn't lower prices, they've just changed the wording and plan structuring so they look like they're lower. What I was told by a CS rep on the phone is that the data packs are now "required" because the phones won't work at all without them. When I asked why Sprints phones from the same makers don't have that "problem", all she could say was that it was a different carrier. I was a little taken back by the conversation as she seemed to have the perspective that no one is being forced into anything and I could take it or leave it. Several people have told me that that her information is incorrect so I guess I'll stop to inquire at one of their stores. My only concern is who do I believe? If it's anything like Sprint, the left doesn't know what the right is doing and they don't stand behind any incorrect information you receive. LOL...OMG, this is not what I was expecting at all. (big sigh)

Here's a current as-of-today update on Verizon.

I have a Samsung Sway phone that I got last Oct. in my 'new every two' upgrade. Got it at Best Buy which was a first - I've always gone directly to Verizon but wanted to compare different company providers - ended up staying with V and completed the transaction there.

Last night the screen died - no reason, didn't get wet, didn't get dropped, just died. Took it in to Best Buy this morning. That phone is no longer part of their Verizon offering, is past the 30 day mfg warranty and not covered under any other and I didn't buy the BB extended plan. They apologized saying there was nothing they could do and suggested I try a Verizon store.

Went to the one where I usually do business (there are several in my area), gave the phone to the salesperson, she looked at it, looked up my account and took it to their tech. They put their heads together and in 5 minutes she came back with a brand new phone, all info transferred. No questions, no hassles, no fee.

When I call Verizon they answers my questions or make changes or suggestions - whatever the issue is. And the person on the phone speaks English as a first language. (I've just been through 2 months of outsourced to India hell with Hewlett Packard so forgive my politically incorrect comment) I'm a happy Verizon customer and have been for many years.

DLM, so glad to hear that they were supportive to your needs, it's great that they service their current customers so well. I however have not seen that side of the company yet. I took suggestions and stopped at a store yesterday where I explained our phone needs. The guy proceeded to show me a phone, the only phone I'd be able to buy to avoid the additional fees. It was a poorly rated phone that I have no interest in owning. At this point, I'm in the market to save money not spend it on things we don't need. DH can also get a 20% discount with Sprint and while I'm not as thrilled with their reception or customer service, I do appreciate that they have more flexibility with their plans for new and current users so when hard times hit, we can scale our plans down to the bare minimums without any problems.