Two cents

Heidi and I had Cingular and Verizon, respectively. Heidi hates Cingular, and Verizon is kind of expensive (but I've had a fairly good experience with them). We just recently switched over to a T-Mobile family plan, so as to save money. We heard that T-Mobile customer service was very good (and have confirmation of that as much as two days can tell you), and everyone I've discussed it with in the Chicagoland area has been more than pleased with them. So save money, good customer service, good reception, good call.

We planned out our purchase in a big way. We read reviews (CNET is really good for tech reviews), we studied the literature, we talked to the sales folks at the mall kiosks, and lastly, we went to a standalone store with active demo models and tested the clarity of the calls. We decided on a Blackberry Pearl for me, and a Nokia 5300 for her.

Then we went to Amazon. With Amazon, they have spectacular deals on phones if you're starting up new service. Our monthly bill will be the same as everyone else's (with our stuff, that is), but our upfront cost was a grand total of two cents. One penny for her phone, another for mine, and free shipping (I'm not sure why we got that, but I'm also not complaining).

They got shipped to us activated, but we were able to get our numbers ported over as soon as we received the phones (well, that's still in the process, but it was easy to get started). So, we're both pretty excited. We're both kind of sick of our old phones, and are excited to get new ones, especially such nice new ones.