I am from Long Island (north shore) too, and we have 4 cell phones in the house and 3 are Verizon one ATT (TDMA). They all work well. I actually get better reception with ATT but I know they are switching to GSM and their service will not be as good, at least for the next couple of years. Our house cleaner has T-Mobile (GSM) and it is really terrible service here. So I say, yes Verizon is good but make sure you get tri-mode phones and not "all digital" as the all digital is still spotty service here. I don't know much about the Kyocera phone but my phones now are LG-vx4400B (now discontinued), Samsung SGH-a650 and Audiovox CDM8900 (all are tri-mode phones). I still think Nokia phones are the best, but Verizon offers only one Nokia phone and it is bulky. Over the years our Nokia phones worked the best, second was my Motorola V60, and the ones we own now are so-so. I don't think the phone manufacturers these days pay much attention to quality. That is a pity!
I really think most phones out there these days are junk.
Really sad but true.