[TriLUG] OT: cellphone companies in Raleigh area

[Brian Henning]

I don't know how relevant my experience is...  When I first signed up with
AT&T, they offered Regional Adgantage calling plans.  Mine cover(s/ed) 7
southeastern states (no roaming anywhere from Virginia to Florida, including
Alabama and Tennessee).  However, I'm not sure Regional Advantage still
exists for new customers, nor if a region covers North Carolina and New
Jersey.
  As far as service quality...  AT&T has good digital coverage in most of
the metro areas around RTP.  However, quality rapidly declines once you hit
the more rural areas.  I had to move back into my parents' house in Bahama,
and I basically keep my phone off while at home, because signal quality is
so poor (analog coverage only out there).  It's pretty much unusable without
an external antenna (which I have..  +3dB gain..very handy!..)
  I don't know if it's a function of AT&T's service or simply network load,
but I do get more than a happy number of dropped and never-connected calls
in certain areas.
  In all, I definitely would not recommend AT&T if you're not living real
close to a downtown area.  My parents have Verizon service, which seems to
sport much better coverage.  I'm planning to abandon AT&T when my contract
expires this fall.

~B