General US Network Observations:
We note the most geographic coverage and fewest complaints with Verizon Wireless. AT&T is nearly as good, but they have a number of coverage and capacity challenges in both western rural markets and in the largest cities. Sprint often tops AT&T with service and coverage in many markets and often has broadband superiority. T-Mobile normally offers the best value with excellent urban neighborhood-level coverage but somewhat limited rural roaming. MetroPCS and Cricket have new but growing networks that serve complimentary markets with an expanding lineup of phones and good broadband services, but both have some limitations outside urban areas, although roaming is available. Nextel is slowly being absorbed into Sprint.

Some markets have additional local carriers that offer a better wireless value, and we include them on our State Pages. These include US Cellular, Alltel and several other small companies with a number of consumer benefits. We often recommend these smaller carriers over the larger companies. Also see Ratings of these carriers.


More Reviews:

• Pros & Cons of the Top Carriers Good and bad points of the country's largest cellular companies.
• "The Best" We chose what we feel are the Top products and services among several cellular categories.
• Carrier Ratings A numeric chart ranking the major cellular companies based on coverage, pricing, customer service, roaming and more.
• Report on All US Carriers An alphabetical list of reviews for all the cellular companies we have researched.
• Prepaid Reviews Our take on the various choices of Pay-As-You-Go services.
• Discount Reviews Find the best web-only prices from the carriers and the top wireless retailers.