Dropping Verizon and going to US Cellular, gotchas????

OK.. Had TMO. Loved them. Had the MDA (HTC) and loved it. But I'm going to the southwest for 3 months and the TMO coverage sucks to say the least, unless you are on a highway, which I don't plan on being.

So, went to Verizon, but forgot about US Cell coverage.. so Got the Verizon Voyager, found it didn't support addresses (sux for me) and that coverage in my house, SUCKS. I sit here and listen to the phone all night, "Loss of Service", "Verizon Wireless", "Loss of Service", "Verizon Wireless", It's driving me mad. TMO had at MINIMUM 3 bars in the house at all times. So I'm gonna do their 30 day "try it out" and was planning on moving to US Cell.

Seems like there are no hidden fees, unlike Verizon where every little extra costs you $1.99 I'm gonna get the national 550 family plan (don't use the phones much right now), I would like to get the HTC6800 (like a slide out keyboard... Touch looks nice, but... Eye candy, prefer REAL keys.. May change my mind after going to US Cell store.) and the second line an LG UX260 with the slide out keyboard.

So, am I crazy? US Cell vs Verizon? Normally I'll be based in Chicago and I know they have ample coverage here.. and for the base plan I'll get more with US Cell than Verizon, 100 extra minutes for the same price... but have to pay the $24.95 extra for the data service for the HTC, but that's cool compared to Verizons ridiculous data prices...

Sorry, running on.. thoughts??????

I guess you should mention where you are going in the "southwest". US Cellular has no coverage west of Texas, so you will be roaming, most likely on Verizon. That may or may not be a good thing.

For use in Chicago, US Cellular is great, and they have a lot of expansion on the horizon. But if you want to use data, you may not be able to while roaming.

Thanks. Data service I can live without, I know it's spotty, but yeah, if I don't have it, I can wait. USPS will deliver my message via the old way on a postcard. haha.

Now I just have to make sure I can setup this HTC like my old one as a modem. Time to get moving, I leave Tuesday!