Virgin Mobile phones work very well for both voice and data in Willmar, MN. I also live in an apartment that is about 3 feet underground so getting the type of service I have is really good. If you travel north of Willmar toward St. Cloud the service remains great but heading south the service (especially 3G service) goes down fast. I would still recommend Virgin Mobile at this time though. At the time of this review Virgin Mobiles Beyond Talk plans are very affordable, the cheapest being 25 dollars a month for 300 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data.

Now that AT&T has purchased Unicel in the area my reception is awesome. I used to have extremely spotty reception here but good everywhere else. Now I can stand next to my friend who has Verizon and mine has 5 bars and theirs has 2. Thank You!

No reception for prepaid phones by AT&T, but there is reception for contract phones, because there is roaming off of T-Mobile towers in the area.

I have Midwest plan, just bought out by Alltel. At home have to use antenna, but not while in the car around town. When out on Hwy. 12 towards SD, the Kerkhoven tower has been changed so no longer have a good signal and is usually down to 1 bar if that, and the battery drains really quick then too. Have been told it is because it is no longer digital and on analog. When Midwest put up new tower in Kerk, I could talk the whole way on the Hwy. No longer. Alltel fixed that! Looking for a new plan. Looks like not much out there that works. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are definitely out. No coverage at all where I need it. Doesn't leave much. Verizon or Alltel--they both use the same type towers-CDMA I believe.

The local company that owns this area is MIDWEST WIRELESS a CDMA carrier, just bought out by Alltell also a CDMA carrier So anyone with a cdma phone in this whole area will recieve decent reception, over sprint, Cingular and all the others, VERIZON is of course CDMA also, so I have noticed fairly great reception and the phones ability to switch from one tower to another is quite better then my old MIDWEST phone.