I bought the Motorola V265 phone with Verizon service in May on sale on Amazon for $99, with a $50 Verizon rebate and a $150 Amazon rebate. So this phone rates super good as far as cost is concerned (assuming the rebates come in OK, which is a big IF). 1 year contract, 450 minutes for $39.99/month.For comparison, my old phone was a Nokia 5165, with AT&T; Wireless (now Cingular) as the provider. I'm a low minutes user, but this is mostly because I got horrible reception at home.I live in Falmouth, MA. The region isn't well-covered by cell towers, and is moderately hilly with dense tree growth. Add to that, the fact that I live at the edge of a bay. So cell strength is a big deal for me. I spoke with co-workers and cell phone accessory retailers and most said that for the street I live on Verizon had the best coverage, although it still wasn't that great.==== Phone Minuses ====-It seems to have a short battery life, although I plan to test this with more rigor and see how it stacks up to the advertised specs.-The sound quality is a little tinny. The Nokia was more far-away and hollow sounding. The sound quality can't stand a candle to even a cheap corded land-line phone.-The camera is pretty awful, but I didn't expect much. Plus you have to pay extra to get your pictures from the phone to your computer.-The extendable antennae doesn't seem to add too much to the signal strength, and seems like it would break easily.-The volume and speakerphone buttons are in an inconvenient place on the side and they are always in the way of my thumb.-The buttons are too small and I'm a person with small hands, too! Other button configurations have seemed easier to use. I liked the raised rubber-ish buttons of my old Nokia better, and even some of the flat-ish buttons that rocked a little.-There's no protective cover for the camera lens.==== Phone Pluses ====-Lots of features to delve into, many I will probably rarely ever use but it's nice to know they're there.-I absolutely love the speakerphone feature.-A must-have feature for me is an external phone jack. A lot of phone models I looked at in stores, while they had the port for the external jack, the actual electronics weren't connected. Having this jack means that I can go to an electronics store like Radio Shack and buy an external antenna (and the proper connecter) and get a better signal. So far, Verizon's signal is OK as compared with AT&T;/Cingular.-I like the external display; having the black & white contrast helps readability but like most screens I've tested doesn't do well in direct sunlight.==== Verizon Service Pluses (as compared to AT&T; Wireless/Cingular) ====-They seem to take more of an effort at making sure I'm satisfied. We'll see how long this lasts. I have my doubts.-I was able to port my existing phone number without hassle and the procedure took about a half-hour taling to a customer service person on the phone.-The signal strength at my house is much better. With AT&T; Wireless/Cingular, I could not make outgoing phone calls sitting on my living room couch. With Verizon, I can actually make calls, although the clarity is not great. Because of restrictive zoning laws here, most companies share towers, so I suspect the difference is a matter of one critically placed tower.==== Verizon Service Minuses ====- **** Verizon started charging me monthly fees BEFORE the phone arrived in the mail! ****Apparently, if you buy the phone through a third party like Amazon, they deem service to start at the date of purchase, rather than the date the phone is actually turned on, presumably because Verizon can't control the actions of the third party. I asked a Verizon customer service person nicely, and they agreed to prorate the bill for the difference between the date of purchase and the date of delivery. The refund did show up on the next bill.-The billing cycle for the monthly service charges is for the month ahead rather than the month just prior (as AT&T;/Cingular had done). This is likely to cause problems when I decide to end service (see below).==== FOR AT&T; WIRELESS/CINGULAR CUSTOMERS ====I have had tremendous problems on the AT&T;/Cingular end of the porting process.First, the customer service number (800-888-7600) that's on my bill keeps spitting me into the Cingular phone menu. To get around this, one customer service person said, at the prompt to enter your wireless number enter a dummy number (like 000-000-0000) to get into the AT&T; service area. There is one other hitch. Apparently the AT&T; phone menu dumps you into the GSM department. If you have digital service (like I did), you will need to find a way to get to a person in the Digital department (I never was able to do that using the phone menu options).***** Second, AT&T;/Cingular billed me for a full month's montly service charge even when I ended service in the middle of the billing cyle!!! *******I called several times, most times not even able to access a person who could deal with AT&T; accounts. So I did some web research.I found that in March 2004 AT&T; Wireless was sued in a class-action lawsuit for doing this very thing. In the lawsuit AT&T; Wireless was accused of violating the Federal Communications Act and imposing an "unjust and unreasonable" charge by assessing the full monthly charges after switching to another provider before the end of the billing month. Apparently, just recently (in May I think) AT&T; Wireless settled out of court. I think this would have been huge had it gone to trial.So, with this information at hand I managed to finally reach a customer service person who could handle AT&T; accounts. I asked nicely to have the bill prorated. She said no. I told her about the lawsuit, explained that I'd like AT&T; to do the right thing, and she finally relented. She later confided that making the change to have the bill prorated was up to the discression of the customer service rep (!!) so be nice and polite when you ask.On a side note about Verizon: people at my office have had problems with Verizon billing them multiple times for the same call, so be sure to check your statements.==== FOR EVERYBODY ====Depending on the terms of your agreement, you may be liable for a full month's service charge when you change services, even if you stop service a day after the new billing cycle begins. Keep this in mind when you port your old number.*** Be sure to read your service agreement with a fine-toothed comb. You will probably need to spend a couple hours to fully understand it and it will feel like you're back in school in a foreign-language class. BUT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTRACT. If you don't understand something, get a customer service person to help you. Just like with credit card companies, if it's in the contract, you gotta pay it. ***