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which wireless carrier should i choose?

are you asking that question? in a new world of wireless number portability (WNP) it's now easier for some people to move from carrier to carrier because they can keep their phone number. it hasn't really happened yet, but i would expect there starting to be some promototions to get you to switch, the same way you get competing offers from long distance carriers.

a caveat - the first decision factor will always be the coverage map the carrier provides versus where you use your phone. ALL carriers have dead spots in their coverage map, and ALL carriers are inconsistent as to their customer service and uptime of data services. some are better than others at other things that will drive your decision.

anyway, which carrier should you choose in the US? here's my rundown of the "big 6". i have or have had acess to plans with all these carriers fairly recently, so some of this comes from personal experience, other parts come from hearing others' experiences.

T-Mobile
you should choose t-mobile if:
1. you live in a major U.S. city and you travel to europe or asia. yes, att and cingular also offer GSM phones that roam on some of the frequencies used throughout the world, but in my experience setting up roaming is easier with t-mobile and also have better roaming agreements in the major european countries.
2. you want to use mobile data extensively to retreive email and browse data on your phone. t-mobile's $19.99 all you can eat GPRS data plan is not touched by any other carrier
3. you want to spend a lot of time in starbucks with wi-fi and you want it all billed to the same place as your mobile phone
4. you want to equip quite a few people in your family with mobile phones and use mobile-to-mobile. t-mobile lets you pool minutes, and also have some good m2m minute plans
5. you want to change phones a lot or often. because t-mobile shares their band with europe and asia, the latest phones that work there work here.

you should NOT choose t-mobile if:
1. you live in a somewhat rural area or travel frequently in a car off US interstates 30 miles outside of a major US city
2. you want a really easy time downloading all sorts of games and other add-on services for your phone. this can be done, but t-mobile is very slow to the gate on this one
3. you want a really consistent coverage map. t-mobile has more dead spots than the average carrier - resulting in more dropped calls, especially while in a car or on a train.

AT&T Wireless
you should choose at&t if:
1. you live in a major US city, you might want to travel outside the US with some frequency, AND you want to download a lot of games, videos, and integrated services all billed to your cellphone. AT&T's mMode portal has really gotten a lot better in revision 2 on the latest phones - and their downloadable services are great without having to sync with your PC
2. you want to change phones semi often.

you should NOT choose at&t if:
1. you live in a somewhat rural area or travel frequently in a car off US interstates 30 miles outside of a major US city
2. you really use a LOT of mobile data, such as if you have a sony ericsson p800 and want to constantly update all your email over GPRS

Sprint PCS
you should choose Sprint if:
1. you are tied to the Palm OS as also being your phone OS. sprint seems to get the best Palm phones first, and their PCS Vision network seems much faster than the GPRS versions of these Palm based phones.
2. you do a lot of browsing using a browser using one of these phones

you should NOT choose Sprint if:
1. you want to travel with your phone outside of the US and Canada
2. you want to have a phone compatible with "standards" used throughout the world such as MMS, SMS, bluetooth. Sprint has their own versions of such things but won't be able to integrate easily if the day ever comes when all carriers want to interoperate seamlessly

Nextel
you should choose nextel if:
1. you want to use DirectConnect, the push to talk walkie talkie feature. it's built into their network, and no other carrier will do this right for some time, imo
2. everyone else you communicate with also already has a nextel phone
3. you have a boat that doesn't go that far from shore. i don't know if it is their frequency but i have found the few time's i've been on a body of water nowhere near a cell tower (like lake michigan, or off the cost of florida in the boating lanes) that nextel phones worked when others did not

you should NOT choose nextel if:
1. you want really cheap voice and data plans
2. you care about such things as "migration to 3G", upgrading your phone to the latest and greatest tech every year. nextel wants to stay profitable, so they aren't going to make such investments until the tech is totally proven out
3. you don't like motorola phones. that's pretty much your only choice here

Cingular
you should choose cingular if:
1. you want a cheap family plan with multiple phones per family with pooled minutes
2. you like the idea of "rollover minutes" where if you don't use minutes one month they rollover to the next
3. you want a wide choice of "multi-network" phones, that is, those that work on the GSM network AND on the more rural TDMA network. that is if you occaisionally travel abroad but also travel to rural destinations and big cities in the US, cingular has more phones that support this
4. you really really want to use AOL IM as your method of sending text messages to other friends on AOL. you can do this with T-Mobile too, but it might be cheaper with cingular.

you should NOT choose cingular if:
1. you want a wide choice of PDA/phone combinations. they offer a decent blackberry plan
2. you want a phone that supports email. they are getting some phones that are doing this but with their current data plans i estimate it will be really expensive
3. you want the latest and greatest technology and services

Verizon Wireless
you should choose verizon if:
1. you want voice coverage wherever you go in the US. i acutally think their coverage map is the best.
2. you want to use their high speed 1x PC card service with your laptop
3. you really want simplicity in downloading mobile applications to your phone. NOTE: simplicity is key. it is not cheap. their get it now service is the best at this BUT it is REALLY REALLY expensive. most of the apps now have a MONTHLY subscription fee and it really adds up.

you should NOT choose verizon if:
1. you want a clear picture of what your monthly bill will be. verizon nickels and dimes you for everything such as detailed billing, browsing, text messaging, and mobile data usage beyon what every other carrier does
2. you want an accurate up to date picture of your billing usage. i have seen firsthand verizon come back with billing usage from over 3 months ago. their excuse was "it takes awhile to download billing records from the tower".

should you choose a regional carrier?

if you stay close to home and care about really local features and services, then a carrier such as U.S. Cellular might be perfect for you. typically, the competition has forced these carriers to offer some really competitive plans in the major markets and not having a national footprint is letting them innovate faster as well.

do as i said, the above are just some of the reasons you may or may not choose a new carrier - part of it will be if you want a specific device tht is only offered by that carrier. this is really only an issue with nextel, verizon, and sprint - with the GSM carriers, you can get plenty of phones on the grey market from places such as romeo hifi or gsm phone source that are SIM unlocked and will work across the GSM providers (careful though, att and cingular have an 850 mhz band that won't work with some of these phones depending on where you are).