As Lonnie mentioned, there is fair, to good AT&T service in most of the urban areas of Alaska, so when there I use my iPhone hot spot to connect and rebroadcast the wifi signal to my other devices that need an Internet connection, such as my computer or iPads.
Someone mentioned that Verizon was putting in their own towers in Alaska, back a ways in another post. In the past they had been leasing space on other's towers. There are/were only about three or four carriers operating in Alaska for years. AT&T and Cellone have done some territory swaps over the years, with AT&T currently the carrier of those towers. There was a big push to put cell service into all the Alaska bush villages and I understand that project in finished. I believe it was MCI that was doing that project, but not sure if the system is compatible to most of our phones, may be but may not be.
Miles and miles of roads in Alaska have zero, zilch, nada, etc. cell service and then there are some signals in strange and remote locations. LOL Most of the pipeline corridor seems to have cell coverage, probably for security and maintenance reasons. While my iPhones and iPads are set up with AT&T, I also carry and normally activate my Verizon MiFi device but I have found on the last trip to Alaska the duplication of service wasn't needed so I turned off my MiFi account and only used my AT&T service.
However with that said, there are locations, where one or the other will have a better signal. A good friend of mine works as a track maintenance foreman for the Alaska Railroad and at times carries up to three (3) different cell phones with him, different carriers, to be able to call into the main office in Anchorage, from their work location at the time.
Even without cell service I have never had a problem finding an available WiFi hot spot to use. My thought is, if the owner of the device doesn't want me to use the signal, then they need to keep it out of my truck and RV. Many schools, churches, hotels have a good signal from their parking lots and leave them working 24 hours, seven days a week. Now I prefer to do banking over a cell hot spot connection as I feel it is more secure(except from the USA spy agencies) from being hacked or keylogged.
I also use a Wilson Sleek, probably use it more in the mountain west of the Lower 48, such as western Colorado. Bought it from the 3g Store, good service and a good price, many good vendors selling them online or at their stores.
Here are a couple of sites of the 3g Store, and as you can see, Wilson makes many different models for the different carries, uses, etc. I have found the Wilson people good to talk to when I need to buy. (they don't sell direct, but have good info) The 3g staff are also very knowledgeable and available for conversation to figure out which is best for your needs. Also check with Amazon on price, sure they have Sleeks as not much they don't have anymore.
www.3gstore.comhttp://3gstore.com/product/4025_wilson_sleek_4g-universal_amplifier-813426.htmlDecided to do a fast Amazon check and they do have them. I run an outside antenna on mine to get better service.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wilson%20sleek&sprefix=wilson+sl%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awilson%20sleek
