I live in a major urban area. BlackBerry users from various providers, even T-Mobile, all have good coverage. However, I also travel a great deal throughout the US, including in rural areas. Generally speaking, which provider is likely to have the broadest domestic US coverage? I assume Verizon or Cingular, but...

In one area in which I travel I recently discovered that an Alltel BlackBerry 7250 worked but a Verizon BlackBerry did not -- "Data Connection Refused." For voice systems, Alltel and Verizon have roaming agreements, but I don't know how the major carriers deal with roaming for BlackBerry service. Any general information on this would be helpful.

Thanks!

Thanks in advance.

Verizon has good coverage, including rural areas in the Western States. You might consider EarthLink which uses Verizon's network but has a better rate plan than Verizon.

Verizon would be your best bet for greatest coverage, especially in the more suburban and rural areas. Alltel just started offering blackberry a couple of weeks ago (possibly less - my local Alltel rep just received BB training last week), and I think some of the data roaming agreements between Alltel and Verizon are also relatively new (only 1-4 weeks old). It's my understanding that Alltel and Verizon should now freely roam on one another's networks (including data), so I'm not sure how to explain the issue you experienced - possibly all the roaming agreements were not in place yet?

This is not true as of today. I called VZW business support, and they confirmed that they do not allow data roaming via other carriers.

I have Alltel and I roam on VZW when I am off network, and all of my data features work.

I was on the NC coast yesterday and all the areas that I previously had no data coverage are still present. I am not saying that Alltel cannot data roam on Verizon since I am not a Alltel user. I am saying per VZW support and my experience I cannot data roam on Alltel or any other carriers towers.

That is strange, I thought the roaming agreement went both ways? I guess they must still be working the bugs out.

As per VZW support they do not allow data roaming because other carriers towers that broadcast the data is substandard to theirs.

I guess I would rather have substandard data then no data at all?