Roaming coverage is very much slower. Now slower connections that we used to find very acceptable are very frustrating.

Notwithstanding this, there are some anchorages which just don't have decent signals.

Look this over, if you haven't already:

http://vzwmap.verizonwireless.com/dotcom/coveragelocator/default.aspx?zip=

Click on Data Coverage (or whatever) -- you can zoom in pretty well. They don't plot the water, but you can get a pretty good idea what's going on.