What city do you live in?? I've actually been finding it's quite city dependent.
I have incredible data speeds and reception in San Diego, but have traveled to a few cities, including Las Vegas & San Fran that are TERRIBLE. Drops all the time.
I remember you saying that. I live in Las Vegas. However, I visit San Diego frequently, and have been having the same data connection issues there. I've also had relatively few problems with the stock ROM. The behavior I'm seeing doesn't appear to be a problem with signal strength, since I'll show full signal strength, then it will seem to reset and repeat.