Get ready to bend over for Verizon [again...]

[TheWraith]

3. All data plans are local.

The problem with comparisons between providers is that once you get beyond the limits of a specific form of technology--for instance, EVDO being slower than LTE, HSPA being faster than EVDO, etcetera--almost everything is up in the air. For instance, each tower can have a different amount of "backhaul," the connection which hooks that tower up to the larger internet. That connection is shared between everyone on that tower, so all other things being equal, one tower which has 50 people on it will perform great, while another that has 500 on it at the time will slow to a crawl. Or you might have a situation where a tower in the city is given priority enough to have a lot of backhaul, while one out in the country is given almost none. Thus the city tower can handle a lot of people constantly at a moderate speed of service, while the country tower will perform great with just a few people on it--faster than the city tower--but slow to a crawl if it gets a dozen or two.

There's also issues of "spectrum," the amount of radio frequencies available. One carrier might have a great surplus of spectrum in one city, letting them put up lots of towers with lots of speed, and only the bare minimum in another city. That, for instance, is part of why AT&T's service in New York City is generally considered to be terrible, while in Buffalo it's actually superior to Verizon.