maybe it's just where i live, South Texas (5 miles from the mexican border), but i have not had many issues with ATT that weren't related to the crap receiver in my Samsung Blackjack... i travel up to San Antonio, Bryan/College Station and occasionally all the way up to Fort Worth and have yet to have a dropped call or been unable to send/receive TXT, which is the bulk of my communications. so i honestly believe the issues ppl have with any provider's coverage stems from IO errors or lack of reading the fine script on coverage maps. with these tiny internal antennas being used on current fones it's not hard to believe that people, and the way they hold their fones, cause a lot of the call drops. believe it or not, i can control the signal strenth of my fone by simply moving my hands around the fone. but this is nothing more than wasted breath since it's never the user's fault...
i agree the providers suck with their price gouging and catch-22s... but this doesn't remove the burden of intelligent shopping by the consumer...