Learn me smaller cell phone companies

Our contract with Verizon Wireless is coming to an end in a few months. Before I signed on for more time I wanted to learn more about smaller cell phone companies like Cricket.

I think the Florida carrier is Frog or something like that. Are these carriers trustworthy, worth the money, and what kind of service can I expect?

I've had Consumer Cellular for over 10 years. No complaints.

My dad has Cricket.

Service area sucks, call quality sucks, often drops calls in town, etc.

I pay $70/month for Sprint with everything, he pays $35. It wouldn't be worth $35/month for me to not have internet, email, reliable service, etc.

For starters answer these three questions.
1) Where do you live?
What metro area? Are you in the city or out in the boonies where coverage can be worse?

2) Where do you work?
Is that near home or are you a road or airplane traveler for work. If so, where does this travel take you to?

3) Where do you play?
Do you have a lake or cottage you frequent often, etc.

All of the companies are trust worthy just each has different coverages and different compromises.

Next set of questions:
How do you use your phone...
Are you a big talker? (How much talk?)
Are you a big texter? (How much text?)
Do you use a smartphone and therefore a lot of data? (Do you need Android?)
Do you need the ability to check your email from the phone?
Do you need the ability to send pictures remotely from you phone or can you just swap the data card into your laptop once you get home.
Do you like the handset that you have currently and will it last another year or two?

The wife and I have Boost Mobile. She switched from AT&T and loved it, so when my Verizon ran up, I switched and love it. $40 a month for unlimited calls/text and they use Sprints towers so my reception is decent.

Jrw1621: Near Orlando, but out towards Saint Cloud. Don't travel much, we stay mostly in Central Florida. I never use more than 1000 talk minutes Less than 200 texts per month usually I use a smart phone but less than 2gb per month (random browsing and navigation mostly). Yes Pictures aren't a huge concern I'm alright on my current Droid (original Droid) and it's in good shape. It could last at least another year.

When you say 1000 minutes, is that daytime minutes and the nights and weekends are free and not counted or is that all calls all month?
In addition, Verizon (VZ) lets you call other VZ customers for free, does the 1000 take that into consideration?

I don't know if it was national or not, but a few years ago Cricket had a "problem" with it's customers credit card security. Someone was able to get ahold of the credit card info of a lot of Cricket's customers (at least in Tenn.).

jrw1621 pretty much covers all the "bases" on what you need to consider besides just the price. When I lived in Memphis, I had AT&T at first, but switched when my contract ran out. I wound up with a cheaper carrier, but service area was spotty...at work I would get great reception in the parking lot, but not inside (tho, I suppose that was as much the fault of the phone). And driving out of the metro area also had an effect on phone reception.

There once was a website that allowed you to compare nearly all the carriers at once and showed their coverage areas...now it's probably an app for your phone.

Maybe not so useful to you Yank types, but I'll just chime in here anyway... I have my Canadian phone with a smallish upstart company (Wind) because I couldn't stand giving money to either of the two (thankfully former-) sanctioned monopolies. It works pretty well for me, the only problem is they only have towers in a few cities so the rest of the time I'm roaming on another network. For $29 per month, with no contract, I have unlimited data/text/talk when I'm on a native tower. (No domestic "long distance" fees either.) If I'm roaming I have to pay I think 15c per minute and data by the kb. Right now I roam about 50% of the time but they're building towers like crazy (three more cities covered now than when I was here in September) and the urban coverage is improving pretty quickly.

There have been some teething problems but just about everything in dealing with my provider is 1 000 000 x better than the "big two" (if you're in Canada you know the big two, I won't mention their hateful names here) - customer service, options, rates, etc. I'm pretty happy.

That said, my German phone is with a big-ish provider who have subsidiaries all over the E.U. (O2), but the flexibility I get from them is still years ahead of most of what you can find in North America.

Here are some answers tailored to you...

Page Plus:
This company buys service off VZ in bulk and remarkets it to pre-paid customers through Independent Retailers. In this choice you can continue to use your current VZ Droid handset so there is initial savings there. When/if that current handset breaks you will need to buy another used VZ handset either from an independent retailer or CL/ebay.
$29.99 gets you 1200 minutes / 3000 text / 100MB data.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans/Talk%20n%20Text%201200.aspx
$55 gets you unlimited talk and text with 500 MB of data.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans/55%20Plan.aspx
Sending pictures through the cell towers is a huge hog of data so you would need to wait till you got home and swap the card or do it at home via wifi. If you were to go with this plan you would need to switch to wifi whenever possible.
Pro:
VZ towers so no change in coverage for you.
Use existing handset so no investment there.
Con:
You will need to be mindful of data usage.
If you use too much data it does not cost more but rather the plan is for 30 day or 500MB whichever comes first so if you use all the data in 20 days you will spend 10 days unable to move data - at all.
Coverage:
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Why%20Page%20Plus/Coverage%20Map.aspx
Find a retailer here:
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Why%20Page%20Plus/Store%20Locator.aspx
Since you will be using your exisiting equipment it will be best to purchase this at a store who will get everything activated.

Metro PCS:
In your area of Florida, this smaller company has service. Florida is one of the markets that they have a dominate stance in. In total they only have about 7 markets nationwide. When and if you leave their market (and their towers) then this company borrows service from Sprint mostly as well as borrows from a few other companies as well. This borrowing does not cost you more - all included, but limited to maybe just text with no talk.
Be sure to check the coverage to be sure it meets your needs and expectations.
http://www.metropcs.com/coverage/
You may be able to continue to use your existing handset here (check with a retailer.) If not the $149 HTC Wildfire is a good vlaue of price and capability.
Monthly service is $40 and that gets you Unlimited talk /text and data when you use a Metro PCS tower (shown in dark purple on their map.
Light purple gets you text only (NO TALK CAPABILITY at any price.) The criss-cross areas give you talk and text but no data.
Where their map says "future expansion" that means they have zero capability there today.
Map: http://www.metropcs.com/coverage/
Pro: Least expensive to use but you will likely have to one time buy a new handset for about $150.
Con: For that savings you are accepting a smaller area where the phone works but if that meets your needs then the saving is a value to you and the way you use a phone.

Boost Mobile / Virgin Mobile:
These two services are wholey owned by Sprint. They are the prepaid side of Sprint. They are marketed different where Boost focuses on all inclusive fro $50/$55 and Virgin focuses on less talk and more data starting at $35. Virgin does have a all inclusive of $55 as well.
For you I would recommend the $55 plan with either. If you can stay under 1200 minutes, Virgin does have a $45 plan that gives 1200 minutes while still getting unlimited text and data.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp
The coverage is identical for both and is Sprint towers only:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/check-cell-phone-coverage
Not bad in your area but study the map above because if you are standing outside the green area you have no capabilities at all.
If you go with Virgin, the best value handset is the Optimus.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp
The mspr is $129 but if you keep an eye on Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack, you will often see this handset on sale for $99.
Boost's bargain handset is the $149 (as low as $129 at same retailers) but it is quite a bit more stripped out compared to the Optimus.
http://www.boostmobile.com/shop/phones/
No, you can not swap handsets between Boost and Virgin even though they are ultimately owned by the same company.
One advantage to Boost is they have a shrinkage thing where your monthly goes down by $5 for every 6 months you have been with the company.
Pro:
Unlimited talk / text/ data off any Sprint tower anywhere in the US.
Con:
Must buy handset. ($99-$200)
No borrowing so therefore if sprint does not own a tower there then it just does not work at all.

Straight Talk:
This is a Walmart only offer. The parent company is TracPhone and this is only sold as serviced at Walmart. The reality is that TracPhone bulk buys service from Sprint for the Android offer and remarkets it. The handset is identical (but not swappable) to the Boost handset. Boost charges $55 per month, this charges $45 and the coverage is identical.
http://www.shopstraighttalk.com/bpdirect/straighttalk/PhoneDetails.do?action=view&productVariantExtensionId=11895108
Pro: If Boost is a good choice for you this gets you the same thing but cheaper by $10 right away.
Con: Walmart only - if that matters to you.

T-Mobile:
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
$50 for unlimited talk text web
Handset:
$179 for Optimus
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
Coverage: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-coverage
Pro: Coverage is pretty good.
Con: Buy handset which is a little more expensive.

-John

Straight talk user here. I have one of their cheapie flip GSM phones and pay 30/month. Used to have AT&T, and before that Verizon. The wife and I were tired of paying over 120/month (oh, this month you exceeded your minutes so blammo $250) so we switched so we could budget accurately. I am tempted to get a Straight Talk Nokia or android smart phone, but that would mean the $45/month plan with unlimited everything plus the initial cost of the phone. Still a heck of a lot cheaper than a phone plan, plus a data plan, plus a texting plan.

Like jrw1621 says, ya gotta do your homework on coverage and plan offerings. I'm waiting for the day in the States one can just buy a sim over the counter and use whatever phone.

I would so with a Strait Talk over a small local company.

I will agree that Straight Talk is a legitimate choice but all of the companies I listed have more subscribers than Straight Talk so how are you defining small?