Ask Slashdot: Who Has the Best 3G Coverage In California and Nevada?

New submitter derchris writes "We will be on vacation in the U.S. next month for about 3 weeks. We are going to do a road trip between San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. To not use roaming for data, and get a heart attack once back home looking at the mobile bill, I was looking at so called 'MiFi' devices, portable 3G Wi-Fi hotspots. As far as I know, more or less all of the U.S. carriers have such devices available. But as I'm not from the U.S., I have no idea what would give me the best 3G coverage in the areas we are travelling. Another question would be whether I can buy one of these devices off eBay, and use it with any SIM card. Let's hope there are users available who could give some advice on this topic."

Comments

Very Specific Question

[Missing.Matter]

For a question posted on a worldwide forum this is a very geographically specific question. Shall I also ask Slashdot which carrier has the best coverage outside my front door? This isn't even a question that requires the unique expertise of the /. crowd; just go on the 3, maybe 4 carrier websites and check the relevant maps.

Re:Very Specific Question

[pushing-robot]

And if you're not aware what the major US carriers are, they're Verizon and AT&T, followed by T-Mobile and Sprint.

Verizon has better coverage in most of the country, but as you'll be sticking to big cities and major highways the others should have good coverage as well.

Also, Verizon and Sprint don't use SIM cards, while AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequency bands for 3G. Make sure you know the device you buy will work with your choice of carrier.

Verizon

[commodore73]

I had AT&T in California and Verizon in both CA and NV, and Verizon was definitely better - almost no issues, where AT&T was terrible. I didn't travel extensively (mainly the bay area and Incline Village), but I would certainly avoid AT&T, and I would actually recommend Verizon,