That depends on the area. I just got an iPhone and it has much better reception than my old Verizon phone at my parents.

Agreed. My brother's Verizon phone is usually unable to make voice calls at my house in North East Denver.

Sure, but Verizon demonstrably has the best network overall. The fact that Verizon sucks for some locations that AT&T etc. serve well is only relevant if there are fewer cases for which that's true than when you swap the statement around.

Citation please? I haven't seen anything other than Verizon advertising that would back that claim up. Are there any objective third party comparisons of US cell carrier coverage?

Consumer Reports surveys of their membership.

The best reception in one fixed area is a landline.

given the location of the tech press and bloggers, whoever has the best coverage in SF and NYC (maybe Austin TX once a year) has the best coverage as far as reporting is concerned. I think a version of this phenomena was in the Fark book.