Verizon is the only way to go for rural areas like virginia. My friend from jersey went to school down there and his verizon worked like a champ!!
If you nextel isn't working great, most of the other companies won;t be better other than verizon. They really have the oldest biggest farthest reaching network.
I live in NJ and where I am is rural and verizon was all that would work great until recently.
TMobil is a good company, and their plans are cheaper, and their phones are way hotter, but as far as service goes, verizon is the best.