As a T-Mobile customer myself, all I can say is that the other networks seem to be worse, and all the competition has been gobbled up, so choices are few and far between. Of the major carriers, T-Mobile seems to have the best customer service. Also, when you buy a phone from T-Mobile, there's no contract: you can choose to pay for the phone on an installment plan, and if you leave T-Mobile, you obviously owe the remainder of the phone cost, but there's no penalty for early departure, and it's really straightforward to register a phone you bought separately. I'm definitely not saying this move doesn't suck or that I'm not disappointed in T-Mobile, mind you.