which company?

No company covers the entire USA. Verizon's America's Choice map looks the most complete, but there are plenty of holes that are not apparent from the map's view from space. Sprint's network is smaller, covering most cities and connecting roads and highways, but wherever it is you're "home," with all digital calling features intact, and it can roam over most the rest of the country. AT&T's non-single-rate setup is similar to Sprint's, although I dropped them a few years ago because their coverage in New York City was spotty. I think your best choices are Verizon or Sprint. I tend to favor Sprint slightly, because they are everywhere that I travel, their phones are better and you usually get more minutes for your buck. On the other hand I have friends with Verizon who like it a lot.

 

Maybe because the National Single Rate is a fair bit more expensive and has absolutely no additional minutes of any kind. I think the Americ'a Choice plan is a nice option for a lot of people including myself.

 

I agree. It was the America's Choice plan that almost swung me from Sprint to Verizon. I didn't even consider the National Single Rate plan, since I don't spend much time in the hinterland. I'd rather pay less up fron for more minutes, and if there comes a time for me to check on my still in the backwoods I'll be happy to spend a few dollars in roaming fees.

 

There are a lot of cities in the "hinterland". America's Choice is great for someone who never travels but if you travel as much as I do, you don't want to mess around with figuring out are you "roaming" or are you not.

 

On my AT&T plan the phone displays "roaming" when I'm roaming. (It also displays other, less understandable things such as "extended area," the meaning of which I've yet to decipher...)

 

Re off-peak minutes:

AT&T DOR offers 1000 N&W mins for 9.99/mo extra
VZW SRN offers 1000 weekend mins for $10 extra
Cingular Nation (not Preferred or any variant thereof) offers NO option of off-peak mins -- but given that they roam on other carriers so much more than the other major carriers, I'm not surprised.

-SC

 

Matt8205,
I am not sure which plan you are on but: When I used to have a local plan with AT& T wireless the "Extended Area" would come up on my phone when I was within my alloted "Coverage Area" but I was not getting my signal from a "AT & T Wireless" cell tower. It was usually a partners cell tower such as "CellOne" (now "Cingular"). Roaming as you know is anything outside your alloted coverage area.

 

I'm on the Regional Advantage plan, which gives me nationwide long-distance and a generous roaming area in the northeastern states.

Downside: Virtually no peak minutes. As a result, I have diverted all my long-distance to AT&T Wireless, and away from my land line, which is AT&T long distance. I wonder whether AT&T has noticed this phenomenon yet? Seems like they're robbing Peter to pay Paul...

 

I haven't used Verizon's America's Choice, but if you're telling me that there are a lot of cities around the US that aren't included in the America's Choice coverage area then Verizon's coverage map is downright deceptive. For example, AT&T's actual network is quite limited, so that its Digital One Rate Plan is an obvious advantage for the extensive traveler. However, the reason I almost jumped from Sprint to Verizon is because the America's Choice coverage map makes it seem like almost the entire US is included. If that's not the case I'm glad I didn't sign on to Verizon.

 

If you want the most coverage, go with Verizon.