Four More Small U.S. Carriers Launching iPhone on May 18 with $50 Discounts

[carlgo]

From the great insights posted here about the small carriers, it seems obvious that they fill a real need and hopefully can continue to fill in the big holes in coverage.

 

[RotaryP7]

T-Mobile is rebuilding their network to work with the iPhone. I'm sure they'll get it soon.

 

[DanTheMan827]

So do iPhones on these small carriers say "Bluegrass," "Golden State," etc instead of "Verizon"/"AT&T"/"Sprint" or do they have a more generic carrier signal listing like some of the iPhone promo shots (that will say "3G" with no company listed as carrier)
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In my case, it shows my carrier name (Cellcom) along with 3G if i'm in an area that has 3G

 

[reedmartin]

Sweet more money for Apple, ergo more money for me!

 

[BlizzardBolt]

What, like 3 people uses these carriers, no one cares.

 

[blevins321]

These little carriers fascinate me. Do they serve those who don't travel out of the area, does the traveller get switched over to VZ, etc? What are the upsides and downsides of hooking up with a regional carrier?

It would seem the small carriers might appreciate their customers more and be easier to deal with, but is even that true?

I used to have Cincinnati Bell. Loved them. Only switched to AT&T for the iPhone. Biggest advantage is that regional carriers are typically much cheaper then the big 2. Since their focus is on such a small area, they tend to have the best service in their given region. I never had less than 4 bars anywhere on my old CB Blackberry. There are a couple caveats though.

First, their cheapest plans are regional-only. For example, a couple years ago CB had an unlimited everything plan for about $60/month as long as you stayed within their tower region (southwest Ohio and parts of KY and IN). If you ventured out, it took away from a set number of "roaming" minutes you were allowed each month.

Now, they offer free roaming, but theres a contract clause that allows them to terminate if you spend all of your time roaming. This is because they have to purchase bandwidth from other providers when you do this. They roam on AT&T and T-Mobile in some places.