Hey everybody, I'm looking to switch to a new cell phone plan shortly, and I'm trying to find a service that works well. I have Cingular service, and it's not too bad, but I also need to find a service that works in Albuquerque.

I know Verizon works in Albuquerque, so it's a matter of finding out if it works in Rolla as well. If anybody with Verizon would give me an opinion of their coverage in the area, it would be much appreciated.

I suppose it would also be helpful if this was an open forum for anybody to voice their coverage opinions... so let the... thingy... begin.

I have Verizon I think. Seems to work fine for me, I haven't really had any problems.

i have sprint and it works well here...i dont know about in albuquerque though.

Cingular and Verizon are the two you want to look at, they are the two largest (difference of a million people or two). Verizon customer support is amazing, but I have never had to use Cingular customer support so I don't know about them. Verizon gets as good as coverage around here as cingular does. So it basically boils down to price and what features you want.

I have Verizon and it works fine. I used to have Spring and kept getting dropped calls or no service if I got off the interstate corridor so we went to Verizon. No issues at all with them so far.

Cingular fucking sucks. I get decent coverage in Rolla, but my signal goes to hell in St. Louis. It seems with Cingular, the bigger the city you're in, the lower signal strength you have. My mom, who also has Cingular, was in New York City last month, and in the middle of fucking Manhattan, kept getting dropped calls...if she had a signal to make the call in the first place. Our contract is up in December, and we'll be switching service providers the second it's up.

I have verizon and have no problems talking from st. louis to rolla and everywhere at both ends. My mom is a teacher but her classroom is in the basement of the school and verizon was the only one that got reception.

I also have driven from st. louis to memphis, and st. louis to new york with excellent coverage the whole way.

NOTE: pick out a good phone, preferably with an external antenna. I have the samsung a950, and while it is an excellent phone, the internal antenna is right where i put my hand, and I have had several people tell me that they have a hard time hearing me even though I have full signal strength. Then again, apparently I mumble a lot.

I haven't had any trouble with my Cingular phone. I've never been to Albuquerque though. I have been to through most of in MO, between Rolla and Chigaico, IL (drove it) and had no problem; Dallas TX, Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Middle of nowhere KS...

What ever you do, you'll want to consider a good phone.

Regional Coverage Map for Cingular Wireless.

I have Virgin Mobile which rents their lines through Sprint. I get OK coverage at the very top of TJ (10 South represent!), but anything just goes bad. What's sadder is that my coverage is zero in Kansas City, the world HQ of Sprint.

i get excelt coverage every in rolla. the amazing thing is its the only phone that i get service with at my house and i live a mile form hwy 70. Of course my sister is on the same plan and has a samsung phone and barely gets service at home. when i bought my phone over teh summer Sanyo was rated #1 in customer satisfaction. the phone will make a difference too.

Rolla doesn't have the Verizon EVDO service. How am I supposed to watch CNN headline news in class?

Verizon is great. It's customer support is great and the coverage area is fantastic.

Verizon works well for me. The only problem I've had is when I'm in a roaming area (a tower belonging to another company) and I called the Verizon customer service number, I reached the other company's customer service! Apparently the Verizon customer service number is just a generic customer service number for whoever's tower area you're in. Caused some problems when I wanted to fix something with my voice mail and they just kept telling me to call the Verizon customer service number, and I did and kept getting back there... very annoying.

Did you dial 611? That's the generic wireless customer service number. I'm sure Verizon has a 1800 number that takes you to the same place, if you would have known it.

When I worked in Tucson, AZ I had great coverage from verizon. I drove cross country from Atlanta and had no real problem. I would recomend getting a car charger if you don't have one.