I've been with Verizon for about two years now, and for much of that time I was a traveling consultant so good cell service was critical. Even now my cell phone is my primary phone.

When I first selected a phone I knew that I couldn't predict where I would be month-to-month, so good network coverage was critical. Just take a look at the nationwide coverage map and you'll see why Verizon wins in that department. Verizon works everywhere in the United States. Well, just about. You might have problems in Alaska and the unpopulated parts of Nevada.

Some cell services do advertise coverage maps that rival Verizon's, but their coverage quality is definitely not as good in those areas. I was in a data center outside of Chicago a few months ago--between Nextel, AT&T and T-Mobile, my phone was the only one that worked. I can't remember being anywhere in the United States where a person using another service had reception and I did not.

Sprint has good coverage only in major cities and along certain highways. If you look at Sprint's map, note that only the dark-green areas are digital coverage. The light green is off-network roaming, and that'll cost you big bucks. In my home area, people are always complaining about Sprint dropping calls. AT&T's coverage seems to vary widely based on which plan you have and if you have a multi-band phone or not. In my experience, even where AT&T's coverage map rivals Verizon's, the actual coverage is not as good. (My home is a good example.) AT&T probably has the second-best network.

Coverage quality is very good in the LA area. For a while Verizon was the only service that got coverage at my home in Orange County. Sprint put in a tower nearby and now you can pickup Sprint here too. There's still no Cingular reception here though.

I'm not a huge text-message user, so I can't comment on that. But I have successfully sent and received emails from my phone. Every phone has an email address like 2135551234@vtext.com. If you're off-network when a text-message is sent to your phone it is held for delivery until you come back on the network. (Had this happen to me when I was overseas for a week.)

Verizon's customer service is second-to-none. I have never been on the phone with a CSR that couldn't handle my problem or direct me to someone who could. I can't even remember being placed on hold to wait for a rep. Problems, though rare, have always been handled rapidly and efficiently. I was reminded of this recently when a co-worker who had just switched to AT&T's GSM service couldn't receive or make calls on his phone. He called AT&T's customer service department from my Verizon phone and was talking with them for a good 40 minutes. They still didn't fix his problem.

One nice touch about Verizon is that their sales reps can analyze your Call Detail Record for the past few months to see what the best plan is for you. Verizon will actually mail a card to you if they think you could save money by switching your old plan to a newer one. (The cynics amongst you will no doubt point out that the newer plans have shorter nighttime hours than the old ones used to and promotional plans require a contract renewal.) At least you can switch your plan at any time. I'm not travelling as much as I used to so I'm on the local plan right now. But if I'm going outside the California/Nevada area next week, I can call up and switch to a nationwide plan--the new plan will take effect tomorrow; minutes and charges are prorated for the elapsed portion of the billing cycle.

Speaking of billing, this is the one area where Verizon always screws it up. Every single time, without fail, that I have switched my rate plan, there have been major errors on my next bill. They make up for it with good customer service though. Just ring 'em up and it's all fixed in five minutes.

Probably the biggest down-side to Verizon is the poor selection of phones. They have been getting better lately but they still don't have the latest-greatest stuff. Another problem is that you pretty much have to buy your phone from Verizon. You can't just buy a GSM phone off of ebay like you could if you were going to use AT&T.

Verizon does have its faults but I'm willing to forgive them because of the excellent customer service and awesome coverage area. For me it's much more important that I be able to make and receive calls at all times than whether I'm holding the latest fashion in mobile phones. If you rely on your cell phone, Verizon is the way to go.

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