Verizon is awesome in Estill County. Verizon phones actually use Appalacian Wirelesses towers in Estill County. Both are CDMA type service and Verizon has a "roaming" agreement with them. I also commute to Richmond to work weekdays. I hold good service from Irvine to Richmond on KY52 up to about the county line. From there it's gone completely until I get a couple miles past the Waco Community, where it returns gradually, and holds into Richmond. Coverage in Berea is good as well. No Coverage in the Big Hill Community, but I understand AT&T has a tower placed in the Red Lick area now. My wife commutes to Winchester for her work, and she holds service for 90% of the trip on KY89. Service in Winchester downtown is pretty good for the most part, except for a couple spots. I work for the county road department in madison County, so i'm all over the place on a daily basis and I needed a phone that had good service. I've had em' all, AT&T, Nextel, Cellular One, and I'm sticking with Verizon. Most people have AT&T around here because the closest Verizon store WAS in Lexington, but there's a NEW Verizon store now up beside Kroger's in Richmond.

We have found that Sprint works better than our previous carrier Cingular (AT&T) in this area. We do loose service on Hwy. 52 -Richmond Rd.from the Estill County line until we reach the Richmond Fair Ground area on Hwy. 52. Appalachian wireless works better, however, there service is too expensive and there are restrictions outside the area that lead us to select Sprint. My son has Cingular with no service most of the time and this is his primary phone. For all the positive advertisement of AT&T with excellent coverage in so many places I hear many negative comments from people in our area of how they are unable to obtain quality service. AT&T may need to change their ads.

when you enter town over the bridge you lose signal, I live in town an there is no signal at all at my house.