I was an AT&T contract customer with two iPhones since iPhones came out. In wv, AT&T has coverage almost everywhere and Verizon and Sprint do not.
Me and AT&T stopped getting along when they throttled my unlimited data plan to 24kps.
Some apps will not even function at 24kps.
Not that AT&T has ever had stellar 3G speeds here. I cancelled my contract service and bought a go phone SIM card, chopped it down to fit in my iPhone 4S. I use the 50.00 unlimited go phone plan. I got a 4G virgin mobile hotspot from sprint that costs me 35.00 per month, unlimited 4G, 2.5 Gb of 3G. I have 4G signal at home and in town. I see 4G speeds of 6-10 mb/s down and 1.5-4 mb/s upload most of the time.
The hotspot is mounted to the rear view mirror of my truck. It has quite a powerful wifi radio (Sierra wireless overdrive).
I can pick up the wifi from my truck throughout the house. I got rid of my dsl and AT&T 3G data plan. I replaced 75.00 per month worth of broadband bills (DSL 45.00, 3G AT&T - 30.00) with 35.00 and NO contract.
I stream roku movies, all my music streaming and web surfing on this hotspot. So far I have seen no throttling that I have noticed. The terms and conditions say they can throttle you but I have not noticed it.