I have been a verizon wireless customer since they bought airtouch, and I was with airtouch for years before that. I have always stuck with them because they have amazing coverage that makes the other guys coverage maps just look silly. I have always been able to justify their ridiculously strict usage policies and the hobbling of the functionality of their phones because I knew I had the coverage to back that up.

Up until recently the part that gave me the greatest pull was that they had no phones with flash lite support. I have NEVER done anything with flash lite, mostly because I didnt have a compatible handset. Luckily for me Adobe has made that problem go away. Now Adobe has partnered with Verizon and they are delivering a variety of flash lite handsets as well as the new flash cast service. So Adobe and Verizon seem to make a great pair.

I have a treo 650 and luckily, until recently, I had not had any of the problems that have plagued others with this phone. So its time for me to start looking for a new phone. I am really tired of having a brick attached to my hip, so I was looking for a smaller phone. The problem is I dont think I could ever go back to not having some sort of keyboard. I never got the hang of typing on a keypad, but my wife and friends have started to communicate primarily via text messages, so the ability to type efficiently is a must.

Verizon has several phones that have keyboards and the new samsung (with dual flip modes) seems to be a very nice phone. But none of the phones that have keyboards have the flash lite capabilities.

So there are 4 things I am looking am looking for in a phone. I want it to be smaller than my treo. I want it to have a keyboard of some sort. I want a nice(ish) camera in the phone. And I would like flash lite programming capability.

The real problem I have with any of the phones that come from verizon is that they hobble the bluetooth functionality of the handsets. In order to comply with their exclusive content provider contract through their “get it now” service, they have to disallow you from bypassing those services. So any way you would have to transfer files to the handset not through get it now are disabled. The problem is that that this takes away things that you should be able to do like pair the phone with your computer and having the computer dial from your address book for you.

The next problem is that being an internet professional I like having the ability to check email and the web on my mobile. This is another place where verizon really takes advantage of their customers. Their unlimited mobile phone data plan you will pay a $69.99 monthly charge. Cingular only charges $29.99 and tmobile is only $19.99.

Then to really compound my issues, I went with a friend to tmobile the other day. They had decided they needed a web enabled phone and wanted me to help them pick. We went in and played with lots of phones, one of which was the blackberry pearl. I have never liked blackberries. They are big and the navigation is horrible. I hate that while typing you have to take your hand off to the side of the phone to scroll the dial and make selections. However the pearl solved all those problems. It was small, had a partial keyboard (the true type works amazingly well) a nice camera and is web enabled. I played with the phone for about 20 minutes, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since. I am totally crushing on this phone! And of course its only a GSM so I cant get it on verizon.

Verizon is working on that though. They have announced a pearl competitor called the Curve (Blackberry 8300). This phone is a cross between the pearl (8100) and the 8800. So it has the scroll ball like the pearl but a full keyboard like the 8800. They say the phone focuses on entertainment features, but I see it lacks a camera. If it had a camera I probably would have called it good enough and put an end to this by picking it up. But no camera and no flash lite means this is not gonna work out for me.

So after all of that it comes down to this. I am very very seriously considering switching to Cingular/AT&T.

This switch is actually very characteristic of me. I gave up on windows several years ago. I switched to linux because it gave me the ability to customize my computing experience the way I want to. Moving away from verizon’s hobbled phones and restrictive usage plans feels like a similiar move. I am willing to give up some luxuries in order to have more freedom in general.

I have been flip flopping on this decision for quite some time now. And I still dont know what to do. I can get me and my wife both internet connected blackberry pearl’s for less monthly than I would for one phone on verizon. But what good does that do me if i dont have a signal and cant make a call?

Anybody made the switch? Any of my friends use cingular in portland? Anybody not like their pearl? I am really looking for some advice here. I am getting really tired of feeling consumed by this dilemma.