I had sprint for years. canceled it and tried cingular, didnt like it went with verizon. so heres my take

Sprint
Cingular
Verizon ^

I used to have Sprint but use Cingular for business. Most posts here are about basic costs and customer service. But there are significant differences between say, Sprint and Cingular.

Sprint gave you free SMS and $5 for unlimited web access. Cingular charges for both on a data rate plan. Expect to pay a lot more on Cingular.

I have a Treo 650 and Sprint's CDMA phone had the firmware updates long before Cingular did for their GSM phone. And you will need every firmware update for the Treo.

As for international roaming, you are far better off with a cheap unlocked GSM phone and buying local SIM cards wherever you go.

Ask around friends and families, someone has a phone and SIMs you can borrow for just about any location you may go to.

I made the big mistake to sign up for a 2 year contract with Cingular. The first phone was a piece of crap and I had a long wait to get a new one and the loaner they gave me was usuless. So I decided to pay some extra money for a better phone...what a mistake that was! The phone was even worse than the first one and they would not take it back and give me a new one, they "had to" send it in for repair and had to put me on a very long waitiung list for a loaner. The phone was simply not working most of the time and it was costing me too much money and time and aggravation. I finally told them here is your god*&%$ phone back. As a final insult I had to pay the cancellation fee!...I signed up with Sprint PCS, got an awesome Treo 600 and never looked back for almost 3 years. I rip Cingular ever since this experience. The funny thing was they told me several times that they "had problems with that specific phone".