[tvandyck7]

I can't vouch for Utah, but I live in rural New Mexico and the coverage map shows that I am in the no service zone, but my phone works perfectly about 90% of the time. In fact, I don't even have a VZW store anywhere around me. When I try to purchase a phone or something online and it asks for my zip, I have to put one in for a different area because if I put mine in, it says that VZW currently has no coverage for my area. I only know one other person around here that has VZW besides my wife and I. The funny thing is that it works better than Sprint, At&t, and T-Mo, and they cover the area.
If you want to turn off your radio to save your battery, just activate airplane mode and you should be good to go.