After having bad experiences with Cingular, and other family members having horrible problems with T-Mobile and Alltel, we ALL settled on VerizonWireless. We are very pleased. We didn't get insurance, but they were quick to replace our defective phones with no hesitation. We will re-sign our contracts with no question. 4 years and running. Verizon's coverage is also better than the other companies, yet Cingular says they have the best? I think not. Their reps for customer service are also very helpful and knowledgeable. That is hard to find in today's world of outsourced call centers and foreigners who have strong accents. Also, getting to a rep is very simple, just press 0.
Actually AT&T can no longer use that raising the bar line or the best coverage thing by law because just as you stated it is not true! VZW is the largest most reliable provider!!!