I have tried just about every one of those cell phone providers. When I used to work for a private company I had to drive around from Sussex county to Monmouth county and beyond, Iv tried them all even metro, simple mobile, In all honesty I switched from AT&T last year back to Verizon because I had single every where. Yea there are a handle full of places(3 areas) that Verizon isn’t as fast but even at that, I still stick with them It’s one of those things you pay for what you get, don’t get me wrong T-Mobile was a close runner up, but I like being the family DJ going on road trips so Verizon was a no brainer

Former ATT here... was problematic in Penn station... Imagine, somewhere that thousands of people need to make contact when things go bad, and poor service there!

Verizon didn't work overseas without huge charges...

So our switch was made to T-Mobile.... At an Ohio farm, ATT delivered nothing.. T-Mobile was perfect. But even now, some patches in Pennsylvania (turnpike and I80, in mountains) go dark. So I'd test them in the far reaches of NJ. (Sussex, especially) Essex, flawless. Passaic, also, south of Wayne. ( Little use north of there)

Unlimited data.... Also, cheaper than VZ... every month.

We have Google Fi and I've never had an issue with it. It was cheaper for us than Verizon.

I had ATT for almost 20 years. Switched to T-Mobile in 2020. No complaints at all. I like it far more than ATT. M

T-Mobile premium plan should have unlimited hotspot or you can add it for cheap. Check I remember thinking about it but ultimately decided not to get it.

I frequent Passaic/Essex/Bergen/Hudson counties but I do travel up and down tri-state area. In general no issues at all.

For some reason I can't get service in Costco stores no matter where they are.

Xfinity mobile uses Verizon’s network and is a lot cheaper.

t-mobile

I've used with no problem from high point to cape may....not being a total fan boy, I've experienced occasional dark spots...like on sandy hook or out in the middle of nowhere nj fishing.

edit:

I've also used the phones Hotspot to tether to a tablet/laptop...no issues.

..IIRC, no charge fir using in Canada or Mexico....there was additional costs for Europe (Ireland, Wales, Englandn, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, etc...service was spotty in Europe.

I use mint, which resells time on T-Mobiles network. The coverage has been very good everywhere I've gone, but I would still check coverage maps for your area & places you travel to. Pretty sure they have the whole state covered though.

But you can't beat mint's prices. I'm on the 10GB/mo plan, and I pay for a year at a time.

From personal experience ATT isn't any better in the northern areas (Sussex, Morris) and likely not any cheaper either. I do get good reception in most areas but they really dial down the speed frequently, to the point that streaming music has to buffer.

I have had Verizon for almost 20 years and even they have dead spots in north Jersey. I was in Lincoln Park a while back and hit a dead zone on some road for about a half mile at least.

I just made the switch from ATT to Google Fi because I was tired of paying high prices for poor coverage. So far I haven't had any issues with Fi, and it's significantly cheaper. I also upgraded to unlimited when I went abroad and had excellent coverage with unlimited data. I can't speak to your hotspot question though !