[Kevin]

I've found that it depends a lot on your coverage. My advice, find out about the return policy... There's usually some small financial penalty for cancelling a contract early on (like $36 plus whatever minutes you use or whatever).. But it's better than a year or 2 pissed off at your carrier.

Take your new phone and try it where you use it. EVERY carrier has different coverage. If you think that cell phones should just work everywhere then you may not understand how they work.

RF signals are like voodoo... few understand why or why they are not in a ceratain area. The smallest things can effect them.. Like that neon sign at Krispy Kreme could be the reason you dropped your call.. not sprint!

If you're not within a tower's reach -- or sometimes between towers you'll have problems. Actually Sprint is less likely to drop calls when between towers because the technology that they use is the only thing to date that uses a 'soft handoff' meaning the load of the call is gradually transferred from tower to tower than all at once (which if there's an interruption during the handoff you drop the call).

You can also try to find someone that has done some market research in your area. I know in Oklahoma City an independant group tested Cingular to have the best coverage here.

Remember... a great plan ain't worth a damned thing if the phone doesn't work. You can either do your research or just jump into the deep end... Really there is no inbetween.