I feel I have the best phone out there. The Motorola V...it's looks similar to the Startac but it's much smaller! It's almost the size of a beeper. I live in Essex County. My service is Verizon. I used to have AT&T and they SUCKED! Since I switched to Verizon I have NEVER had a problem and that was 6 months ago. I even took my phone to Sobe & Vegas! My plan is $59.99 a month, 550 weekday minutes & 2000 weekend minutes. No roaming or long distance! I do the advertising for the company that makes/installs almost all of the cell phone towers in NJ. When I asked my client who had the best coverage, she said go with Verizon. They have the most towers, which means best reception throughout the state. But she did say in a few years AT&T will have caught up and may even possibly surpass Verizon. Hope this helped! SMOKEE