That seems to be the major challenge now, as shown by 4 different versions of the iPhone 5, who knows how may different versions of the Galaxy 3/4, and other high end phones. The iPhone 4S was nice, as it had just one model, simply because it didn't have to deal with the LTE frequency mess.


CDMA still seems to be a limit here, though I'm not sure if it's technical or just carriers being stubborn. Even though the 4S had only one model, there was never a way I found to activate the CDMA part unless it came from a CDMA carrier. LTE may help with it's support of a SIM.


I'm amused this seems to be a popular consensus that I've never been able to agree with. I don't know if it's just chance or what, but for my needs, AT&T has always offered better coverage. My parents house, AT&T works, Verizon and everyone else, 0 signal. My new job where people rave about Verizon, 1x coverage/1 bar and dropped calls, AT&T HSPA+ and no call issues. My Austin apartment as well had much better AT&T coverage. I will say I am seeing overloaded AT&T network like coverage in parts of Seattle though, making me ponder a switch. But with the work situation, it won't be to Verizon.

*edit* I will give Verizon credit though for an excellent LTE roll out. During my trip, I did have multiple times where my iPad was happy on LTE coverage while my phone sat on AT&T Edge service. Verizon (and Sprint) needs LTE much more then AT&T and T-Mobile though, to make up for the poor CDMA 3G speeds compared to HSPA 3G.