I have been with cingular for about 4-5 years now. Most of my travels have been along the gulf coast say withinbetween 2miles and 1/2 a mile. Cingular worked all along there better than anyother phone service the people in my crew had. I have never been north of the Louisiana state line with it though so I cant say how it does out of the extream southern parts of the nation... the phones do hold up like crap though. ring now I am on my 6th phone.