Cell Phone providers in the southeast - best bang for the buck?

[remarcable]

I currently have two phones with Suncom ATT, and am really sick of paying $30/mo for only 150 minutes. This appears to be their cheapest plan and their "family" plans are even worse in terms of cost. $150/mo for 4 phones!

I used to have Bellsouth service, and my parents still do. It is much cheaper at $15-$20/month, however the service is just plain lousy - the phones hardly work anywhere and forget about travelling around the country. The bellsouth phones don't even work in Florida. At least with Suncom you can get access anywhere on the ATT network even if you do get charged for roaming.

Also used to have Powertel, and those bastards stole from me and are just plain idiots.

Also my mother had to have a lawyer get involved way back in 1996 when she had an Alltell account, those bastards refused to cancel her service despite 3 notarized letters and a dozen visits to their office. They even sent a collections agency after her!

So ... Other than the providers listed above, what would you suggest? Buying new phones would really suck - I have about a half dozen of the damned things sitting around here and currently have a Nokia 6162 and a 5165.

Despite being assured of it at the time of purchase, my rather expensive 6162 is incapable of e-mail messaging and yet the bottom line "$1" 5165 I got for my girlfriend has no trouble sending e-mail. I really am pissed at Suncom over that.



I really hate the damn things. But they are quite handy to have around in an emergency. I use around 10 minutes a month max. My girlfriend uses more, but would never go above 400 minutes. Ideally I'd like a plan for two (or four... then perhaps I can get my parents to foot the bill!) phones that share a fixed number of minutes.

Anyway, fire away - What do you use and how much do you pay?