Coverage of prepaid providers varies greatly and depends on both the quality of the host carrier's native coverage as well as the ability to roam onto other carriers using the same technology (GSM or CDMA). Verizon has the best nationwide coverage by far, followed by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Nextel (now part of Sprint). It's important to distinguish between native coverage and roaming coverage, because some prepaid carriers don't allow roaming, even at extra cost, so coverage on these carriers will be non-existent if you go out of their relatively small native coverage area. Some prepaid carriers do allow roaming but charge significantly higher rates for it.

Check the coverage maps at the Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile web sites to get an idea of the carrier's native and roaming coverage. Be sure to look at the prepaid map which often has much more limited coverage than the same carrier's postpaid map. Some of the prepaid carriers have their own coverage maps as well, i.e. Virgin Mobile has the Sprint map with all the roaming coverage removed as shown below. Also see each January's Consumer Reports where they report on the different wireless carriers and poll over 50,000 subscribers across the country (Verizon and Alltel are consistently the top rated carriers (and now Alltel is part of Verizon); this is one case when an advertiser's catch phrase, "It's the Network," has some validity.

Most MVNO prepaid plans allow roaming off the primary network though sometimes there are significant extra charges for roaming. You definitely want to avoid Virgin Mobile which doesn't allow off-Sprint roaming, which results in very limited coverage outside urban areas or freeway corridors. For example, look at the Sprint coverage map (below left) versus the Virgin Mobile coverage map for the same area (below right). The green area is native Sprint coverage. The gray area is roaming coverage, primarily onto Verizon, but also onto some smaller CDMA carriers. The white area is no coverage. As you can see, there are vast roaming areas with Sprint postpaid where you'll get no coverage at all with Virgin Mobile (though calls to 911 may work). Virgin Mobile's statement on roaming is: "No roaming means no roaming charges," which is one of the most clueless statements I've seen on any prepaid web site! There do not appear to be any MVNOs on the Sprint network that allow roaming, even at extra cost. One of the most amusing things I read on Usenet was from someone that insisted that the lack of coverage on Cingular wasn't a problem for him because he simply planned all of his travel routes, and chose his vacation destinations, based on the availability of coverage from Cingular!

Sprint Postpaid Coverage in Sacramento to Reno Tahoe		Virgin Mobile Coverage in Sacramento to Reno Tahoe

Green is Sprint native coverage. Gray is roaming coverage, mainly on Verizon, which is available to Sprint postpaid users, but not to Jitterbug or Virgin Mobile users.		Green is Sprint Native Coverage, available to Virgin Mobile users. White is no coverage. Vast areas of roaming coverage, that Sprint's regular postpaid customers can use, are not available to Virgin Mobile users.

With any of the MVNOs that charge extra for roaming, you want to be sure that you're not going to be spending a lot of time in roaming areas, i.e. make sure your home and work locations are not roaming areas. Paying for occasional roaming isn't a big deal, just don't get into gab-fests.

For detailed coverage maps click on the hyperlink (blue underlined name of the carrier). Take this information with several grains of salt as coverage changes more often than the maps are updated. Some coverage maps are very accurate, like T-Mobile's, which shows coverage down to the street level, emanating from each tower, and they do seem to keep it up to date (recently they added coverage to my neighborhood with a new tower, and it showed up even before the tower was on line). Some maps are less detailed, like Verizon's. Special coverage isn't shown, i.e. Verizon is the only carrier with coverage in the Washington D.C. Metro underground sections.

The maps on the PagePlus web site are very out of date. PagePlus did recently issue a statement that they have added the former Alltel areas as non-roaming coverage. See the announcement at http://www.pagepluscellular.com/news/COVERAGE.PDF. I got a message from a PagePlus executive on September 11th 2009 saying that the new coverage maps would be up in a couple of weeks. Until they update their maps, use the Verizon InPulse coverage map as a rough guide to PagePlus non-roaming coverage.

The coverage is excellent, but there is extra-cost off-network roaming in rural areas. For CDMA phones on PagePlus look at the roaming indicator (flashing means you're not roaming (it's counter-intuitive)), while a solid roaming indicator means that it's extra cost roaming. If you place a call while roaming you'll need to enter the number twice, this is the indication that you're roaming, but when receiving calls while roaming you need to check your handset to see the status. Before you sign up with PagePlus be certain that your home area, and places you frequently visit, are not roaming areas.

If you go to http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController and tick the circle for "Enhanced Services" the dark green is native Verizon coverage. If you're not in the dark green area then you'll likely be paying roaming charges, which are very high. In the past, the PagePlus map looked pretty close to the Verizon Enhanced Services coverage map (not the Verizon InPulse map). Verizon has native coverage in most mid to large size urban areas.


PagePlus (Verizon network)		Verizon Postpaid Service Red is Included Coverage (native or roaming), white is no coverage.


Virgin Mobile Prepaid (on Sprint) Green is coverage, White is no coverage. Roaming is not available. Coverage is okay in most cities, but don't venture out to any national parks, or out into the heartland.		Sprint Postpaid Service Green is native coverage, Gray is roaming coverage. White is no coverage. Note the vast amount of roaming you get with Sprint postpaid coverage that doesn't exist with Virgin Mobile.

T-Mobile's prepaid coverage has improved, and it now includes extensive roaming. Postpaid adds coverage mainly in Mexico. The downside to T-Mobile, not shown in the maps, is that in their native coverage areas you can't roam, even when you get no T-Mobile signal. In the western region this is a big problem, while in the northeast corridor they have good coverage (T-Mobile is the old Voicestream).


T-Mobile Prepaid Dark green is native coverage. Hatched green is roaming coverage. Gray and white is no coverage		T-Mobile Postpaid Service Dark green is native coverage. Hatched green is roaming coverage. Gray and white is no coverage

Note that AT&T prepaid's coverage area is much smaller than their postpaid coverage area. Don't go to Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, or southern Oregon.


AT&T Go Phone Prepaid Dark orange is coverage. Light orange is no coverage.		AT&T Postpaid Service Dark orange is coverage. Light orange is no coverage.

Verizon has the same coverage for both prepaid and postpaid, but postpaid roaming is free, while prepaid roaming is 20¢/minute.


Verizon InPulse Prepaid Purple is included coverage (native or roaming), gray is extra cost roaming, white is no coverage		Verizon Postpaid Service Red is included coverage (native or roaming), white is No Coverage.

Tracfone offers both CDMA and GSM phones, so you need to know your phone's technology when you check coverage. As you can see, CDMA offers much better coverage in rural areas (there are technological reasons for this, and as a result more rural carriers operate CDMA networks than GSM networks). These maps don't distinguish between roaming and non-roaming areas. For some Tracfone models you pay 2 units per minute for roaming (versus 1 unit per minute for native coverage calls). For some Tracfone models there is no premium for roaming. Some users have reported roaming in Canada at no extra charge, and Tracfone getting upset about it. On a Tracfone, your account balance is electronically loaded into the actual handset, and the carrier often doesn't know that they should not be allowing the call to go through or that they should be charging 2 units per minute.


Tracfone and Net10 GSM		Tracfone CDMA

Jitterbug
Jitterbug coverage is actually very good, because they have extensive roaming at no extra charge, but the regular per minute charges are high enough to make up for it.


Jitterbug		Verizon Postpaid Service Red is included coverage (native or roaming), white is No Coverage.