AT&T may have the best clauses, but their coverage in Los Angeles leaves ALOT to be desired. I recently switched from Verizon (who has better coverage but far worse phones) to AT&T. Yeah, I got a phone that does not require I use GETITNOW(tm) for anything I might ever want to do (along with the associated payment to verizon for the honor), but it came at the loss of any kind of consistent or decent coverage.

What about US Cellular?

Just wanted to add for T-Mobile, it's 30 days not 14 for trial period if in California according to the customer service rep who helped me with my new phone.

I thought att hadn't started pro-rating their ETF yet. Last I heard, they mentioned that they were going to start soon, but didn't set a date or anything for it...

Didn't Sprint switch to prorated termination fees at the beginning of the year?

AT&T, but all roll over minutes are lost if you make any changes to your plan (even changes that give AT&T more money).

I thought ATT announced prorated ETF but still hasnt implemented it? If so Id get my fiance to cancel and add her to my plan.

I have ATT and really like it.
Bonus is, when my phone broke I got a cheap "Go Phone" online for $20 and just popped my old SIM into it. I didn't even have to deal with a store, customer service, overpriced new phones, or extending my contract.

I don't think ATT has gone to prorated ETF yet. SADSAM, the ATT contract (available on their website) says that if you go from a plan with X minutes to a smaller plan with Y minutes you can only keep Y minutes. So if you have 1000 rollover minutes and you switch to a plan with 800 minutes, you loose 200 minutes. I just switched down a plan and after talking with a supervisor, and explaining that no one told me that when I switched last time, she waived it for me. I'm still waiting for my next bill to see if it really worked.

Note that prorated ETF fees don't prorate to 0, you need to know the rate (X$/month or so is typical)

A few years ago I signed up with Verizon. When I did, I ported my number over from T Mobile. They canceled my account and charged me the full ETF. I called them up, substituting the "E" with a "W". I had entered the contract before number portability was required. T Mobile informed me that by porting my number, it canceled my account. I told them that had I known that porting my number would cancel my account and slap me with the ETF, I would have stayed for the few remaining days of the contract. But since I didn't explicitly cancel the contract, they should have charged me the fee. After explaining this, they waived the fee. The whole call took a surprising 20 minutes.

ATT has not set a date for prorated ETF's. if you ask for this you will be told no.

@ ALEXANDER

Sprint said that they would pro rate ETF sometime in Q1. The way that they are hemorrhaging customers I don't think that is going to happen at all. I am itching to leave or at lest switch to the SERO plan.

Rollover minutes are a farce. Unless you vary wildly from month to month on your phone usage you will not NEED more minutes in the second month. Example: if you have a 400 minute plan, and you use 300 minutes one month, you rollover 100 minutes. What do you think your chances are of needing 500 minutes in the following month? It's a marketing gimmick.

I live near an airport. T-mobile is the only signal I can get reliably and the price can't be beat. We pay $65/mo for two phones.

Not completely related, but on the topic of AT&T, I called last night to ask for a credit from a text spam. I had put off calling for weeks because I dreading haveing to deal with AT&T customer service. When I finally got to speak with a (native English speaking) CSR, he was very helpful and at the end of the call he even thanked me for being a customer since 2005! I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.

Didn't Sprint just start the 'Change your plan without extending your contract' promotion?

Yup, they did, I just checked their website

Sprint is not pro-rating early termination fees as of now.

Sprint also has a long standing practice of renewing contracts without telling the customer for ESN swaps done in stores even if you provided the phone yourself. The contract renewal is recorded with no signature and no explanation as to why the contract was renewed or what, if anything, the customer received for the renewal.

@nweaver: What? That's what pro-rating means.

@AT203: That's the point, it's a game. You first get a plan that you know doesn't give you enough minutes, then you hoard those for 2 months until you have enough rollover to comfortably talk as much as you like.

@SadSam: I've changed my plan and retained my rollover minutes. Went with more minutes and added a line no change to my rollovers. Just my experience...

@deepsprint: Right on! That is exactly right, it's happened to me & 2 co-workers as well.

When I found out I'd been "slammed", I told them "show me where I signed my name agreeing to a new contract or play back an audio recording agreeing to such a thing and I'll go away. Why? Because it doesn't exist. I could just as easily sit here and tell you unsubstantiated things like "the CS rep told me my bill would drop to $29/mo after a year, sorry, you have to do it"

Hey Sprint, just because you *say* something doesn't make it true. In fact your behavior is fraudulent and is about to result in a criminal investigation and/or a class-action lawsuit.

It probably didn't help that the CS rep who slammed the hell out of me barely spoke any English (Spanish accent, not Indian, in case anyone is wondering).

@SadSam: sorry i have a bunch of rollover minutes in my tank and I have done pretty much anything you can do with a cell plan.

@AT203: i love my roll over, my months are crazy, I have no talking one month with 400 minutes available and maybe 100 used, and then the next month I am using 900 minutes... and since I had rollover I didnt have to pay massive overage fees for it.

Verizon definitely 100% definitely always requires you to extend your contract when changing your plan.
I know this from experience. Tried to go from a $130/month family plan to a $80/month family plan in November and was told we absolutely had to re-sign to change our plan.
This changed from the non-fuck-the-customer version (change your plan whenever with no problem) in mid-2007.

I thought T-Moblie is currently running ads that say no contract required? That's the best fine print.

@BrianH: I didn't know
Spaniards had a discernible accent.

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: You can get a non contract pay as you go phone through T-mobile, but you're also not getting the best rates if you go that route, yes.

@SadSam: That is not universal. I have changed my plans several times and if you talk the rep and pull some strings they should carry over the minutes.

Those extra minutes came in handy when I was engaged and away from my fiance.

...wait is first place good or bad in this race?

I know that rollover minutes are a gimmick at best. But sometimes they do come in handy. I have the lowest plan offered with 450 anytime minutes. I had this when I had a girlfriend who was on sprint. I used alot of minutes talking to her and only saved a few minutes each month. But when we went through our breakup and the calls became long and many, those rollover minutes helped.

Its just now everyone I know including the girl I am currently with all have AT&T. So I use maybe 100 minutes if that a month. My rollover minutes began expiring with me having over 3.5k of them. Combine that with the unlimited to AT&T text plan, I have never legitly gone over the basic fee and then taxes for the month. The only time I did was when AT&T srewed over their billing system and charged me extra for services I was already paying for, for no reason. They quickly fixed that after complaints stating FCC and BBB contact.

How does one switch providers _without_ incurring an ETF fee? I mean, do you until the last day of the contract, and then port a number to a new wireless provider? Or the day after the contract expires? Or once contracts expire do they typically go month-to-month? Except, it sounds like Sprint just immediately rolls you into a new contract without telling you.

Are there any "undocumented" AT&T plans that have less than 450 minutes a month and an accompanying lower monthly bill? I had the 450 min/mo plan since that was the minimum the website offers me. I have over 3K rollover minutes since I'm not all THAT talk-happy (although I'm starting to chat more than I had in previous months) and I'd love to find something with 200/300 minutes a month and use the difference to buy more text messages a month.

Paying 63/mo after taxes, iphone plan.

@Mr_Human: Most simply put, in the ETF equation, you avoid the "F" by avoiding the "ET" (i.e. completing the contract). If you are asking when the contract is completed, it would generally be whenever the last billing that covers time in the contract occurs.

Best advice i can think of is to see if they will be willing to set your account to close on a specific date/end of current billing cycle. If you are trying to cancel by porting the number over to a new company, see if the new company can set the activation to occur at a specific date/time.

@socalrob: Mine expire regularly since they only last for a year. But you'll get more to replace them every month. You sound a lot like me, talking-wise!

I have been with Cellular One/Cingular/AT&T for the past 8 years. Only issue I have ever had with them was when I moved from one state to another. Caused a complete cluster-hump of problems. Different states have different regulations, that's understood, but they acted like I was the first person to ever move from Illinois to Wisconsin.
And back to topic... Love the roll over minutes.

@failurate: What kind of problems did you have? I hope to move to another state soon...