To say which coverage is the best, no one can over all say which is better or not. Its all depending on where you live and how big the population is. There is a balance that a lot ppl dont see.
When you see a cell tower you see the tall narrow repeaters on those towers. Each one of those repeaters, I think can only support up to 1000 processes, weather it be 1000 ppl making a phone call, 1000 ppl using the internet or a combination of the two.
Sadly when you look at the tower, you have no way of know which carrier they belong to. The best thing to do is ask local friends and neighbors what carriers they have and how they like their service. From there you can determine who to go with.
As for cheap prices, Sprint and T-mobile have their unlimited plans for cheap, which is a nice thing to have. For the most part, I heard the only reason they have those plans is to make up for their lack of coverage. But of course that is for my area.
I was with Sprint for 10 years and left them for AT&T. But it was because the building I work in has a dedicated AT&T tower on top.
Beyond the service, you also want to know how well their customer service and tech support is rated. The worse thing in the world, when your phone is busted, is to get someone on the phone that is reading from a script.
Personally, I found Sprint and T-mobile to have the worst CS out there. Script readers.
Verizon, I have had limited contact with them in trying to help my mom with her service. In my experience, they are pushers, if there is an issues, they like to blame it on the service plan you are on and trying to sell you on a higher plan, or additional equipment. Dont get me started on them.
AT&T - I have worked with their CS a few times and each time Ive worked with them, either at a store or on the phone, they have always bent over backwards to get me going. Not so much to get me to spend more, but to make sure what I have is working at its best.
Now Im sure everyone is going to have their own views and experiences.
So this is my 2 cents.
