Lol, have you ever been to Europe? iPhones are definitely considered premium and there definitely are networks that are more expensive but offer better reception. In Germany, that would be Telekom, in Switzerland, it's Swisscom.

Yes used to live in Germany. I was talking mainly about the US though.

iPhone isn't always 'premium', since they have their version of cheap phones as well. Point is cell network service quality is independent from phone quality.