I've had service with Nextel for many years. I got a Blackberry probably 4 years ago and signed a 2-year contract at the time. I've been out of contract for the last couple years. I regularly get offers from them offering me $100 credit if I sign a new contract or 1 free month if I sign a new contract.

There's a new model of the Blackberry Curve that recently came out and I decided I wanted one. Nextel doesn't carry it. I changed to AT&T for two reasons. They carry the phone I wanted and they have coverage in a lot of the Carribean where we usually go once a year.

When I called Nextel to cancel, they made me some great offers. The first was to GIVE me a new Blackberry (usually about $300 with a 2-year contract). The next offer they made was three months of free service WITHOUT having to sign a new contract (my average monthly bill is about $130.)! After tha last offer the guy said, "What do you think?" I told him I thought I should have called to cancel a lot sooner.

Anyway, I guess I've learned that once I'm out of contract on my new phone, I'm gonna call and tell them I want to cancel to see what sort of offers they make me if I'll stay with them.

I'm locked into Verizon for another two years and might try your method, but the problem is that I like their terms and service area.

I think the same general theory might work if you called your cable TV carrier and said you were cancelling and moving to satellite<g>.

Welcome to a REAL network Jeff.
I canceled my nextel a while ago. Seems they wern't intrested after I signed a 2 yr contract with them, with my conection problems. After many tries to get them to resolve my issues, I stoped calling them and started shopping around.
I went with Cingular...now ATT. I've never been sorry for that move!
However, they where very interested in trying to keep me, after I already signed a contract with Cingular. I had to pay a penalty to them for breaking the contract, it was money well spent. I had 2 lines with a avrage monthly bill of $240. My avrage bill now (with 2 phones)is $120, that's with one iPhone, with internet! Real internet! The whole internet!
I think you'll like ATT. Smart move.....although it was about time! LOL

I've been wondering about my high cell phone bills lately. I have Sprint and can't change because it's the only carrier that works in my neighborhood. I have 3 phones, 2 with internet, with 1400 minutes, and I end up paying about $200 a month. The plan is $89, then I have insurance on the 3 phones, unlimited text for $15 on one of them. Does that seem right to you? It just seems like so much money. The only advice I hear is that other carriers are cheaper but until they build a tower near me, I'm stuck with Sprint.

Gail, I'm surprised you can't get Verizon in your neighborhood - I thought they had everything blanketed east of LA to Thousand Oaks or up to Simi Valley.

If your neighborhood is blocked out, this probably won't help , but just FYI, we have a Verizon family plan with 5 phones, 2100 anytime minutes, and unlimited text/pic messaging on all 5 phones for $200/month. I guess it's pretty standard to have free night & weekend minutes, as well as unmetered calls to other folks on the same network. We don't have internet on any of the phones, but I think that runs about $5/phone/month.

I heard that there are websites that are brokers for your contract. For instance, if you have Verizon and want to change to ATT but are stuck in a contract, they will help you sell your contract. There's always someone wanting out of one carrier and into another. I heard about this from a very reliable source that said that it leaves you free and clear, you don't lose any personal info, your credit is not damaged, etc. It is supposed to be a very legit service and a lot of demand for that service.

The iPhone is a nifty device. You don't have to look hard to find ways to make it work with any carrier that uses a SIM card. Around here, that's just Tmobile which isn't really an upgrade IMHO.

I had the opposite problem of Jeff when I moved here. I had Sprint on a month to month and was happy. They kept calling me trying to make "a deal". I kept telling them I was happy and to stop calling me. They kept calling, so I cancelled them.

BTW Jeff, I was getting ready to buy a Blackberry Curve the week that that iPhone came out. I drove by the ATT store that afternoon and the line wasn't 20 people deep, so I got the iPhone on a whim and never looked back. There's a lot of stuff it can't do, but everything it does, it does it in excellent fashion.

FYI, for Cajun or anyone else with an iTouch, they are making phone calls with it. It takes a special earpiece microphone since the iTouch doesn't have a mic, and it uses the wifi internet to make VOIP calls much like Vonage or your cable TV phone offers.

Gail, if you take off the text, that's $64 for 3 phones, which is a little over $21 per phone, including the overpriced insurance. Sounds pretty good to me. As your contract nears it's end, you could always call and tell them that your are thinking about renewing, but would like to shop around for the best deal. Ask them for their best and final offer. Don't let them know you can't get other service in your area. You might can work out a better deal. You should at least get new phones and a better plan with more features for signing a new contract.

We're with the gang that likes ATT/Cingular/ATT. Our phones work all over the country and some out of the country too. Toby has a Blackberry Curve and I have a Razr2xx and with a "north american plan", some internet, some texting, free ATT to ATT subscribers and 1500 minutes which rollover if unused, the plan runs about 120 a month.........for the two phones. The base rate is $79.95, but we all know how that goes. By the way, our rollover minutes are up to about 3800 now...........weird, eh?

Unfortunately, I live fairly close to the Santa Monica mountains and Sprint is the only phone service that works consistently. When I moved here 8 years ago, I had Verizon and had to switch. I think you are correct that in most of LA, Verizon is the way to go.

Thanks for giving me the feedback on my phone bills.

BTW, I held back on this change for a while after reading Consumer Reports which rated AT&T at the bottom of just about every survey they did!

So....are you happy with your change and your new phone?

I love the phone. Does a couple things my other BB didn't plus it's about half the size and weight. I'm stlil getting used to the track ball but think I'll like it.

So far, no probelms with service. Do dead spots and no dropped calls.

So I guess the answer is, yes. I'm happy.