I and my personally prefer verizon. Overall, it's better service. I say overall, because he doesn't spend his whole life in the dorm. As for switching, I don't think it's worth it. Why? Because while you're son may be in sijan for the next 3 years, he won't be in the same room for 3 years. In 3 years so far, only one semester was my son's room really bad with verizon. So he "Improvised, adapted, and overcame". He found that if he left his cell phone on the window sill, it had great reception. So for that one semester, he used a blue-tooth headset when in the room. Left the phone on the window sill. Plus; with all of his friends and family being on verizon, it was much cheaper than calling out of network for ALL INVOLVED. Our son is on our verizon plan. It's a lot cheaper to pay the $10 for his additional phone on our plan, than for him to pay an additional $30 for his own. And our family sure isn't going to change to AT&T just for him.
Now; after he graduates, he'll have to do a lot of research. 1) He's trying to go to grad school. Possibly overseas. Totally different cell service there. So there's no sense of him getting his own cell plan now that he's a senior. He'd have to cancel it early. If he's not overseas, he'll probably get his own plan. But he's already said it will be verizon. When he and his friends go skiing, hiking, and simply traveling around; he says his verizon still gets coverage when his friend's AT&T and T-Mobile don't. Anyway; if you and your family already have verizon, I'd have him keep verizon and learn to adapt. It definitely can be done. Like I said, leaving the phone on the window and using a bluetooth worked great for my son. Best to you. mike....