Oh my god I can't even believe that cell service in 2008 could be this bad. Verizon, ATT, Sprint (Especially) are all bad. I drop calls, cant make calls and you know this is desert land. The one time when a person might actually need to make a phone call in an emergency and they'd be stranded cause of idiots. It's bad enough we have to put up with poor service in major metro areas. This land is as flat as can be, no obstructions. You'd think it would be easy to provide cell coverage but no.

Sprint is terrible in many areas of Hobbs, Ruidoso, and Las Cruces. My daughter can chat away with her Alltel service in the areas where even if I can get a connection established, it's immediately dropped. I am counting the days until my contract ends with Sprint. By the way, my experience with Leaco cellphones wasn't great either, but Sprint is by far the worse of the two.

In the office building I work in, the calls come thru but will get dropped. I drive from hobbs to el paso once a week and dont have coverage from the hobbs airport to Carlsbad. No coverage out of carlsbad to the city limits in el paso--except for one spot just past the reststop in texas. Not very comforting. In hobbs, calls get dropped frequently. I cant wait to switch services.

We have two phones with Sprint. Both usually have two or three signal bars at best. Both lines go in and out of service area even while we are standing in our backyard... in town... in the service area. Technical support advises us to power-down our phones for a few minutes to reconnect to the tower. (I can't count the number of time we've done that. It doesn't help.) Our two-year contract is up next month and we will not renew with Sprint.

I have a Cingular To-Go Phone that was completely useless during a recent visit to Hobbs and surrounding towns. I now know that Cingular has no service in nearly all of NM and much of nearby TX. I always thought I was buying service anywhere and would just pay roaming fees. This is the last time I bother with Cingular. From past comments it looks like only Alltel cares enough to provide cell phone service to NM and surrounding areas. Alltel can count on a new customer soon when I move to NM.

We have had Alltel for almost 2 years now. We are very happy them. Their coverage is excellent in this area. They have recently put up 3 more towers in Hobbs. So coverage is even better than before. Have had coverage everywhere in Hobbs, even in big buildings. Rarely switches to analog in Hobbs, but it's still not roaming because Alltel has their own analog coverage. Decent coverage between towns, anywhere from 1 to 5 bars. Hardly ever no service, except brief spots out in the middle of nowhere. They do need a tower halfway between Hobbs and Seminole. Occasional dropped calls in the low spots. Only analog coverage in Capitan, NM. It frequently switches to Verizon 1X while there. But no matter to me, I have national roam so it's free. Quite good coverage in Texas and Arizona also. Some dead spots, but a lot less than Sprint had. Overall very pleased. Would recommend Alltel to anyone. They have some of the best coverage in rural areas. We don't have Verizon here so cannot compare them, but suspect they would be comparable if we had them here.

Sprint is good for major cities and Interstate Highways. Since SE NM has neither, and Sprint puts in one tower in a town and expects it to cover everything, I am moving to Alltel. I wish I could get Verizon. But Alltel has a strong network here because they absorbed the former Cellular One network and merged all of that into their own. Regarding you folks who are complaining about Santa Fe, my sister-in-laws Alltel phone works in her home in the hills just outside downtown and my stupid Sprint phone is marginal if it works at all... ditto other family members T-Mobile and other carriers. I am trying to get rid of my employer-provided Sprint phone and already cancelled my wife's Sprint phone and am moving to Alltel. Hey, it works well all over here. Different strokes...

Sprint coverage varies around town, depending on where you are and even what building you are in. I get anywhere from 1 to 5 bars. But for the most part it is 3 to 5 bars. In town I have had some dropped calls. But, out of town coverage is very spotty. Dropped calls are more frequent out of town. And once 10 to 15 miles out of town, you go on roam, unless headed toward Lovington or Seminole.