I originally went with Verizon because of their coverage in our area. Over the last couple of years I've given strong consideration to switching to Sprint. AT&T offers no service in this area, TMO is spotty voice (at best) and data is 1x but Sprint has decent coverage on the interstate near us but very spotty coverage in rural areas of Kansas.
My wife was driving home from Wichita airport on Monday afternoon and was on Kansas Hwy 15 which is a rural road that runs through the center of Kansas north/south. About 25 miles from home she had a terrible car accident. A guy in a car ahead of her saw it happen and turned around and came back. His Sprint phone did not work, but, my wife's Verizon phone was able to place a call and paramedics and sheriff department were notified. I was called and rushed to the scene.
Had it not been for Verizon he would have had to leave the scene and find the closest house to make those calls. Our one year old car was completely destroyed and miraculously my wife walked away with a few cuts, lots of bruises and some soreness but we didn't know that until she was taken to emergency and x-rays and cat scans done.
Just two weeks ago I had signed up for an account at Sprint but something told me to have her use her Verizon phone when she flew out of town for her trip.
I have a few posts in here from the past with me bi***ing about Verizon. I won't be doing that, at least for awhile. Our Verizon service worked where no one's elses did and I will not forget that those few extra dollars a month are not much compared to my wife's life.
Just sharing my own story, I never thought I would be saying "thank God for Verizon" but, you know what, there it is. And I never meant it more than now.