Ok, I haven't waded through all the comments in this thread, but here is what I found out today based on extensive conversations with reps from Sprint and Verizon:
My plan currently is the lowest-tier family plan on AT&T, like 700 minutes, bundled with an iPhone 4 with unlimited data, a dumbphone for my wife with no data, and we each have $5 200/mo texting plans. I have a FAN account through my school which saves 15%, and my total bill before taxes, fees, and any other charges is $96.49.
Sprint said to get this same plan we would each need to have individual plans. No family plan if one person doesn't have data. So that's something to think about. My discount would be 10% on Sprint, only on the plan itself, not the add-ons, and that seems to be the way all the networks operate when it comes to the discounts. So I would have $69.99 - $7 = $62.99 for the plan, $10 add-on (STUPID) fee for having a smart phone (how can they get away with advertising this plan as $69??). So my total is $72.99. Then my wife would have to get her own plan on a dumb phone. The basic talk plan, minus the 10% is $35.99. Then add $5 for the cheapest texting plan. Total for both of us is $113.98quite a bit more than AT&T.
Verizon said to get this same plan we could have a family plan. The cheapest family share plan is $69.98. That section of the bill, on Verizon, gets an 18% student discount, bringing it down to $57.38, and that includes the two lines. Then we add a $30 data plan, and two $5 texting plans, which include 250 texts. Grand total, $97.38. Not too bad.
So for me, a 64GB iPhone 4S and dumbphone for the wife (who doesn't really care about iPhones and data plans), it breaks down like this:
AT&T: $106 (not sure if you could get this now since they eliminated the cheaper texting plans)
Sprint: $113.98
Verizon: $97.38
Benefits of AT&T: potentially faster 3.5G speed on the 4S, can keep unlimited since I'm grandfathered, rollover (not that I need that either)
Downsides of AT&T: crappy network, customer service is lacking
Benefits of Sprint: price includes unlimited messaging for my line (but I don't need it) and my wife would get 300 texts, 100 more than AT&T and 50 more than Verizon, nights start at 7pm, free mobile to mobile on any network (don't use the phone enough for this to matter a lot)
Downsides of Sprint: price, network not as robust as Verizon in many areas, no data and voice at same time, CDMA 3G is slower
Benefits of Verizon: we'd each get 50 more texts per month than we have now, and my wife often goes over by 15-20, so that could be useful, and it's arguably the best network around
Downsides of Verizon: no voice and data at the same time, CDMA 3G is slower, no rollover or friend/family "circle" at the lower minute tier
So which one am I going with? Probably Verizon, unless Sprint can pull out a price change on Friday. But Verizon is probably overall the best for what I need: don't use voice a lot, minimal texting, usually use under 1GB of data each month (since I'm often on WIFI at work, school and home). Still trying to convince my wife to get an iPhone, so that might change things if she goes along with it. She loves her iPod Touch and says she doesn't need the data plan. But then she always calls or texts me to look things up. Especially directions. Maybe I should buy her a GPS instead?
