I have five phones on my plan and travel throughout Arkansas Oklahoma Missouri. I have been using cell phones on a daily basis while traveling extensively in this area including remote parts of Madison and Newton counties. I have been doing this for over seven years and have tried some other providers, but have gotten back on Cingular as soon as possible. Every member of my family has also gotten on Cingular because of pore service from other companies. If anyone knows about cell phones in this area I do and I don't even know anyone that works for a cell phone company. So my only reason for writing this is to save someone some trouble and get the truth out. Having said this remember nothing is perfect.

AT&T gets the best coverage of any service and rarely drops calls anywhere. I've used the old AT&T and Altel and neither could compare to Cingular. I've also never had a problem with billing.

Its not the best service for a phone company. If you get out the interstate 40, 440,540,530 and etc it loses signal. But I do like my phone. Lol. Thats the only thing good about it.

I travel with work around NWA and originally signed up with Alltel, had great service and great customer service. Since the buy out, Verison has dropped calls, low signals, no customer service, and prices keep going up. Several people I work with have AT&T and are no happier. I sure miss Alltel.

Reception in this area is unpredictable. I can have 4-5 bars and drop a call or no bars and connect just fine. The wind can blow or a bumble bee can fart and the signal suddenly drops to nothing. There are areas in my yard where I cannot get a signal outside, yet I can get 3-4 bars or more certain places in the depths of my home literally only 20 ft away. Go figure. There are towers, according to the map, about 1 / 2 mile west of me and 2 miles east and 2 miles north. Apparently this isn't sufficient. Not the worst reception (that would be Sprint), but not the best. For comparison, most of the places I've been in this area with poor reception get very good Verizon reception on friends' Blackberries. I may have one bar or no bars and they'll have 5 bars. Historically, AT&T has had better rural coverage in Arkansas than anyone else. However, with Verizon buying out Alltel a couple of years ago, and combining their in-state assets, Verizon's rural coverage seems to be better, now, than before, and is at least on par with AT&T if not superior. If you have a choice, Verizon may be better all around.

Calls drop in the house. Must go outside to get reception.

With ATT. Very poor reception; many, many dropped calls, lots of static. My contract is up in Dec. and I'm outta here. I'll try Verison. Can't be worse.