There are two separate questions here.

1. As far as other airlines "comping" your status: policies vary. They do this in the expectation that you'd like to move much of your flying to them, but that your lack of status with them creates a barrier. Therefore, it's pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime deal. If you don't follow through by requalifying on your own, forget about it happening again.

So, if you plan to fly enough with these airlines to earn status next year, the only issue is that it's now halfway through 2002 and it may be hard for you to requalify in what's left of it. Most airlines who comp status in the last half of the year therefore include the following year as well. Check with yours about their policy. If they won't give you 2003 or prorate your requalification requirement, and you don't expect to fly 25,000 miles with them in the next five months, wait until January or whatever their particular cutoff date is.

2. In my experience a 10,000-mile signup bonus for phone service is pretty good, but you might want to check the phone forums (fora?) on that.