No. Friends don't let friends pay garbage phone fees. Since you're an FT'er, you're a friend. Dump Sprint at home. Get VoIP. Spend the extra money on travel.

Seriously: about one year ago, I did three things: (1) optimized my cell phone plan simply by doing a little research into the latest plans and realizing that there are better, cheaper fits out there, (2) calling my cable company and explaining that their bill is too high. They knocked off $20 a month on the spot, and (3) kicking all traditional phone companies out of my house.

One year later, total savings is about $700. That more than covered our recent weekend getaway to Chicago. See? Less money to bloated last-century telcos. More money for travel!! ^

For VoIP, I'd probably start with Sunrocket. That's who I used - $199/yr no bull, no fees, no shipping charges, equipment included, unlimited local & U.S. calling inbound/outbound, plus some bonus international (but not unlimited). When it comes time to re-up, I'm going to drop down to a $10/month plan that has limits, because I simply won't ever reach the limits.

But also look at Lingo and Packet8 and perhaps others. (Vonage and Time Warner are priced too high, IMHO.) If you are a big international caller, they all have slightly different options. Compare options from all of them for the countries you need - Lingo has great deals on Western Europe, IIRC.

The act of converting is a temporary hassle. You'll wonder why they have to handle physical paper to process the transfer, but they do. It's because Congress allows it and because the Regional Bell intentionally makes this as hard as possible to do. That's why the process feels soooo mid-20th-century. But stick with it and try not to scream. Understand that they'll screw it up, drag their feet, and you'll probably have a temporary phone number for a few days. But 2 months later you won't ever look back. You'll never scratch another check to a Regional Bell or a landline CLEC again.

And every year you'll have a couple extra Benjamins in your pocket. That does not suck.