Like you said, it depends on where you are. In Western ND, Verizon is great, and reliable. AT&T stinks. No signal or spotty signal past the end of the sidewalk, and that's a lot of this state. I have had text messages arrive between two days and two
weeks later than they were sent on AT&T. YMMV, depending on where you are.
I still have both (legacy from when one or the other would work, but not both in many areas I work in), but AT&T goes when the contract dies.