Too many carrier options! I can't decide!

[Caturday]

I'm having a terrible time trying to figure out the best way for me to go. I'll try to keep things as succinct as possible.

Current situation:

• I'm on Sprint with my wife. Paying $150/mo for two smartphones.
• My contract is already expired. Hers is out in September, but her prorated ETF is only $50.
• We're both very unhappy with Sprint's data speeds and prices and want to change carriers.
• We don't use many voice minutes every month and we can use Google Voice instead of a texting plan in order to save money. Our average data usage is 500 MB per phone so 2 GB per phone wouldn't be a big issue, even with faster data.
• We live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area but also visit family in Appleton, WI, which doesn't have T-Mobile service, so T-Mobile isn't a very good option.

These are the options I've been exploring:

• Switch to Verizon before June 28 so we can get a 700 minute family plan with no texting for $130/mo. We save a small amount and get LTE coverage at home and when we're visiting family. If we wait until after June 28, we'd have to pay $150/mo and get unlimited talk and text, which we don't need.
• Switch to AT&T in September so we don't have to pay the Sprint ETF. The 550 minute plan without texting is only $120/mo. Main concern is I don't know how good AT&T's coverage is. I've heard some bad things but it does at least seem better than T-Mobile. Also no idea when AT&T will be bringing LTE to our home market.
• Buy a couple of unlocked T-Mobile phones and activate them on AT&T with the $15 non-smartphone data plan. Total monthly cost would be only $90! Concern here is AT&T's coverage and having to buy used and unlocked phones instead of getting new ones and exploiting a loophole in AT&T's system. Do T-Mobile phones get full speed data on AT&T? I know that if you put an AT&T phone on T-Mobile, you're stuck on 2G, but I don't know if the same is true the other way around.

The actual phones aren't really a concern; if I'm doing a contract plan with a subsidy I'd probably just get a couple of SGS3s and if I get used phones to put on AT&T I might get a T-Mobile SGS2 or HTC Sensation.

[openwheelracing]

Port your numbers out to Straight talk and try it for a month.
What can you possibly lose? If you don't like it, then you basically eliminate ATT and StraightTalk at the same time. If you like it, then you are golden.

[Caturday]

Probably the only issue is time. If I want to get on Verizon I'll have to act fast before they jack up their rates. But I could probably find a cheap used AT&T phone and activate it on either AT&T or Straight Talk in time to give their network a go before June 28.

[Volaris]

Well it seems you already know your postpaid/contract options - either AT&T or Verizon. Given your current monthly price and minimal ETF, it seems like a no brainer to switch.

I don't think it makes sense to get in an AT&T contract if you're just planning to buy non-AT&T phones - might as well get an AT&T SIM card from Straight Talk and have more freedom (no contract, unlimited minutes/text, plenty of data, and being able to use any GSM phone without worrying about plan compatibility). $90/month - you'd save $720+ vs Sprint. If you sell your Sprint phones, that can help pay for those phones, too.

If one of you really needs Verizon coverage, Straight Talk offers the Proclaim (not really a high end smartphone, though.....) or there's Page Plus with 2GB data (unlimited talk/text) at $55/month. No 4G smartphones on them, though.

So if you really want LTE, a Verizon contract seems to be justified.

[Caturday]

Yeah, after looking at network quality in the areas where we need it most, I ended up deciding to go with Verizon. Between Verizon and AT&T, the monthly cost was the same but Verizon has LTE just about everywhere I go and AT&T doesn't. Straight Talk was a separate issue; we'd save a lot of money in the long term but have to spend a lot more up front to get phones. And I was a bit wary of Straight Talk's data policies even though I don't expect to hit any limits.

I figure loyalty is dead among cell phone companies; after my Verizon contract is up I will re-evaluate and either stay with them or switch to a different provider. In two years, who knows what the landscape will look like? T-Mobile and Sprint should have finished a bunch of network overhauls so maybe I'll look at them again. Of course they'll probably follow Verizon's lead of raising prices and reducing service, but I'll just have to see.

Now it's just a matter of choosing which phone I want. Already ordered a 1 cent Galaxy Nexus for my wife from Amazon Wireless. I just have to decide whether it's worth paying $200 to get the Galaxy S III or if I can live with the Galaxy Nexus and save the money.