I'm planning an e2e LT hike for summer of 2012. For those of you who have hiked the LT, what is the cell phone coverage like and is there one carrier that is better than the other? The reason I ask is two fold. My cell phone plan runs out soon and I'm considering changing carriers. Second, for this hike, my husband would like to have a little more comfort knowing that I can check in occasionally. He'd actually like to send me with a SPOT, but I'd rather just check in via cell.

We live in NH, so he's never very far away. I do hike in the Whites quite a bit and he doesn't have a problem with me hiking solo there or going on multi-day trips. This is a bigger step and I want him to be comfortable with me being the LT.