Last year, when I bought an iPhone 4S, I had to wade through the confusing marketing claims of Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint to choose a carrier. I went with Verizon because my friends with Verizon seemed pleased with their service and didn't have a problem with dropped calls. In contrast, my friends with AT&T had very little good to say about it. One friend in the San Francisco Bay Area even told me, "I love my iPhone except the phone part since almost half my calls are dropped midway through converations."
Unfortuantely, none of the mobile phone carriers do an effective job marketing the features and benefits that they offer. In fact, Verizon is particularly ineffective in its advertisements as this funny Saturday Night Live spoof illustrates (a 15-second commercial precedes the skit):
