I have not considered either of those options. It's not something I'm familiar with, I will need to look into them. I do want the simplest setup possible, and the simplest phone available. He has such a hard time using the cell phone he has, it just has way too many options for him.

As for roaming, I was looking specifically at the Cricket plans, as my dad had gone into the store and spoken to a sales rep there. When I looked at the plans online, anything that was not in a coverage area was considered roaming was was an extra $5 for every thirty minutes while out of area. I figured this was no longer the case for the larger carriers, but I will look at all of their specific plans.

I still think Verizon is his best bet, but he has some bizarre animosity towards them.

Have you considered getting some kind of antenna or signal booster to get a better signal from a carrier that normally doesn't get a good reception? Are you looking for a prepaid plan? I ask because most plans don't have roaming charges within the US. Some local carriers still may have roaming charges between states though.

My 70-year old dad is trying to find out who he can use as a carrier in Wisconsin. Zip 54613.

He is currently a US Cellular customer, and he tells me that he got a letter that said they are shifting him to Verizon? I did a little research, and it appears to me that his account was likely sold to Sprint, not Verizon. However, I cannot see this letter, and thus am confused about what exactly happened to his account. I guess he has had at least one phone conversation with whomever sent him the letter, and as they are not telling him what he wants to hear he is getting very upset.

Beyond that, I am trying to find which carrier would be best for him. He has two different houses, one in 54613, one in Illinois at 60018, and thus needs a phone that works in both locations with no roaming. Being right outside of Chicago, he can use most major carriers, but in doing my research I found that the only carrier that really covers 54613 is Verizon, and for some reason he is opposed to getting a contract with them.

I am having a very hard time trying to get him to understand "roaming" and how it would affect his billing. He went and spoke to a rep at a Cricket store the other day, and he tells me that the rep there swore up and down that the phone would work fine in 54613. I have little doubt that it would work, and I have little doubt that he'd get clobbered with out of network charges.

Is there a site where I can just enter the zip codes and find out what carriers cover the areas? Perhaps there is a smaller local carrier that he can use in both zipcodes? I've tried googling this, but end up with a bunch of useless sites.