I dropped my Verizon, and now go with a Tracfone, plus an Ipod Touch. The phone, one of those pay-as-you-go plans, gets as good service as I ever got with Verizon, at a fraction of the cost. But then, I'm not on the phone all the time, like some people.
For web-surfing, the Touch does just fine, although it requires Wi-Fi. The advantage is not having to pay a ridiculous amount in data fees and air time.
Well, it all depends what you intend to do with it. I'm happy with my Sprint plan, as far as phone calls go. But I want mobile web browsing, fast processor, mp3 player, camera, GPS, PDA, mobile interface with my trading platform, data storage, and a few other things. All in one. I don't really care much about the phone calls very much. These things aren't really phones any more. Phone is just one of several things they do.
A good camera is $200 - I already have one. A good MP3 player is $100+, and I use one often. A GPS is over $200, I would like one. A good PDA is well over $200, I would like one. Mobile internet, it all depends, but you need to be in a wi-fi hotspot - unless you're on a data plan. So all the stuff separately is probably a thousand bucks, and have to carry around a mini laptop. I'll take the smart phone. Plus, recharging a Tracphone with payments sucks. I did it for several years for my mom and I hated it.
I still haven't decided what to get.
I liked the Driod, but plans I looked at are expensive. I need to start looking around at plans again.
You really can't find a bargain data plan. I tried a little than I gave up. You can get a bare-bones plan with a data limit for about $70 a month, I think. Which is your basic $50 you'd pay for a cell (after all the add-on tax bullshit) plus $20 for the data. Thats not really too bad. Most carriers are in the same price range.
I'm probably gonna merge everyone in my family into one big ultra-super-duper everything plan. It'll probably come to about $200 a month. Which is approximately what I pay for my kids plan, plus the Sprint plan I have for myself (which I added my mom onto last year so I can avoid that Tracphone horseshit). So everything comes to about $200 anyway.