I guess I should have prefaced with my area. From the west end of TN to Washington DC, South to the Carolinas and North to Michigan GSM coverage has been getting worse once you get out of any decent sized towns. Its almost like they have transmitters at the town limits, people's gsm phones drop there. I was keeping an analog cdma and a gsm phone for diversity but in the last few years the coverage areas of either has gotten so low it doesn't matter anymore.
Cell coverage certainly isn't great in the I-81 corridor or 60 miles west of DC in Virginia. I have Verizon and always lose the signal about 70 miles west of DC in Virginia headed toward the mountains. Friends and I caravanned to Pigeon Forge, TN in October and relied on walkie-talkies to communicate between vehicles (I-66 and I-81). I wouldn't bet a nickel on getting a cell signal anywhere along that route -- outside of the few significant towns.
At 3700 feet in the Shenandoah Mts, at the campground we frequent, there are only a couple of campsites where a signal is possible for most peops I know. But I did meet someone with a Droid last summer and they were pulling up weather radar away from the usual good spots for a signal. I don't think they were on Verizon.
Mountains add in a lot of dead zones as the signals get bounced and or blocked. My parents home is in a valley and we can't get a signal there, but 1 mile down the road I get a perfect signal where the two streams and valleys merge so the area is open enough that the signal can get in.
Now with a droid I only have to go 1/4 mile down the road, the reception has improved that I can still get a signal that last 3/4 of the mile where I couldn't before. The higher end phone has that much of a better antenna.
I drove down on the 4 wheeler to meet someone who wanted to visit us, she had to turn around 1 mile away from there and drive the 7 back to town then make a call on her at&t phone, I assumed she had called from where I was and wondered where she was when I got then so I had to sit and wait for 20 minutes for her to drive the 7 miles back from town to meet her again.
On top of the mountain I have a perfect signal vioce and data, yet no one else on other carriers can get a call in or out. So its partly the better carrier but partly a better phone too.
I actually have the cb radio to converse with others who don't have the coverage.
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