carriers

T Mobile gives a lot of perks, 2 extra GB data for the same money and has the Nokia Icon - Windows.

Verizon lacks in perks and has the Samsung Galaxy S5 - Android.

It seems that T Mobile is faster with 4G and LTE but Verizon covers more area and is slower with 4G and LTE.

I tried the coverage maps but it is unclear.

If both allow a test drive like 30 days it may be a good idea - I have to call..

What does the forum think?

Thanks Peter 

Southern MD, 30 minutes north of DC.

I doubt that anyone can answer that one for you.  Coverage is fairly specific to a region.  Published coverage maps are also suspect. 

I'm on the other side of the country from you.  Here, CDMA (Verizon) tends to be faster than GSM (T-mobile and AT+T).  T-mobile tends to be less expensive, but really only has coverage around major cities - which are few and far between here.  The only carrier with poorer coverage is Sprint.  AT+T coverage is "fair", but US Cellular is better.  None, however, comes close to the coverage in the rural areas (where I spend most of my time) than Verizon.  I'm on Verizon.  Every few years I get the reps at the other carriers to give me a loaner phone for a week to check the current situation out.  I quit even trying out T-mobile years ago because it's coverage was such a joke.  I have relegated Sprint to the same waste pile as they haven't put up any new towers around here in years and there are vast holes in coverage.   AT+T coverage keeps getting better, but then so does Verizon and AT+T has never caught up.  Locally, US Cellular is as good as Verizon, but not if I'm out of the area.

There are lots of things I don't like about Verizon, but I have a phone to make and receive phone calls.  Verizon is the only one that lets me do that consistently.

My analysis might be beneficial to you if you lived in Central Oregon.  It is virtually meaningless where you live.

Thank a lot for the informative reply.

As thy say in real estate, Location, Location!

I am with Verizon here in the Flint, Michigan area.  A couple of years ago I was going to switch to T-Mobile.  Unfortunately, I couldn't use their service if I wanted to.  It was so bad, that I couldn't even complete the call to activate my phone number after 2 tries.  And if Flint, Michigan isn't urban I don't know what is.  I had AT&T before that.  I switched not because of service, or coverage but because I don't like the company.  Any company who shuts your phone service off a week after your bill is past due and then wants to charge you to reactivate is not going to have my business.  Its the same reason I dropped their phone service and switched to Comcast.  They did the exact same thing at my business more than once for a lousy $150 bill that was less than 10 days past due.  The amount of business they probably cost me during that period far outweighed that lousy bill.

Around the time I changed to t-mobile, I came across a website which indicated the number of towers that were in my area.  Verizon had the most towers, and T-Mobile had the least.  Verizon had over double the towers T-Mobile had.  And my experience backed that up.  Needless to say, I will continue to pay the most expensive carrier in the market, because I get the best service.  I was switching to T-Mobile because they were the cheapest.  I found that Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon were all exactly the same price for my circumstance - only T-Mobile was going to be $30 cheaper per month.

I've heard AT&T has the best 4G speed and I'm not sure how the data coverage compares.  I can tell you that I have had very good speeds with Verizon. However, I just ran multiple tests from different apps and hit a horribly inconsistent speed between .5Mbps and 3Mbps, with one test topping out at 27Mbps. So, take it for what you will.  Location definitely matters.  But, I think in most areas Verizon is going to have your most reliable coverage.