Verizon has a good network. They put themselves behind the 8-ball by sticking with CDMA as long as they did, it made for an expensive upgrade, which will go on for some time now.
What they had in strength of nationwide coverage, they lacked in both people skills and user interface. Their phones are absolutely crippled, to the extent that to get the same features in an identical phone on another network, the prices are prohibitive. They had to relax them a bit for the Droid phone, hopefully a sign of things to come.
AT&T needs to improve coverage, no doubt, and they are. They also went out on a limb and listened, something Verizon rarely does. I love the carryover minutes, and the plan changes and customizing online is much easier and better than Verizon, forgiving as well.
Verizon also has positive perception going for them, AT&T has negative perception. My niece and nephew both stated the negative claims repeated above many times about AT&T. Depending on where you are, they may be true. But when they switched, they found their AT&T service was fantastic.
I get the same thing over here. AT&T sucks, (repeat many times). But My Verizon service sucked, and I said so. (does that surprise anyone?)
But now I have much better services, and occasionally, someone will break with the ranks and say their Verizon service sucks as well. Is their an electric shock delivered or something? Having AT&T service improved in the LR would be awesome. The Navionics app is really a great one, and it's ten bucks.