George wrote:

> That would be except in the large region of the eastern US that I am in.
> A tmobile phone is a paperweight here if you go a few miles away from
> the interstate.

Yeah, but apparently that model fits quite a few users.

I remember commenting once about how one carrier had coverage throughout
the Sierra Nevada mountains, by virtue of both their native network and
roaming, including coverage on several state roads over mountain passes
with ski resorts. A competing carrier lacked coverage in these areas.
One response was along the lines of planning your routes so you avoid
routes where your carrier has coverage issues! It's true, if you stay on
Interstate 80, you have pretty much uninterrupted coverage on any
carrier, at least with roaming.

It's amazing to me how many people live their lives without ever
venturing more than a few miles from their homes. Unfortunately we're
seeing repercussions of this now in California, where one of the budget
cutting moves is to close down 48 state parks. There's not much of a
constituency to keep them open since they are little used.