We've have pretty good luck with Virgin Mobile. Their help line seems decent, and they offer options that suit our needs. Give them a look.

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Seconded

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I've used everyone except Cricket (because they didn't exist last time I was looking) over the years. Verizon and T-Mobile have been the best of the batch. Currently I'm with Verizon, but the only reason I left T-Mobile was at the time Verizon was the only company offering free calls to other Verizon users, and the majority of the people I called were with Verizon. I've been with them for about 5 years now, started with a pay-as-you-go plan and switched to a regular plan 2 1/2 years ago, and I've had no complaints.
AT&T was ok service, but they're very uncooperative if you have to change something or need to arrange payment alternatives. The rest of them pretty much sucked :)

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Having been on Spring way back in early 2000 and switching to Verizon for coverage in the Washington DC area, I can say that I like Verizon's Wireless service.

However, I will caveat this by saying this is greatly enhanced by the fact that most of my friends/family are Verizon as well, so I have lots of free calls. So my suggestion is fine out if other companies offer free in-network calls, and if so, who most of your most frequently called people use for cell service.

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In my experience, AT&T is terrible (lousy coverage in too many places, including our own home). Sprint is even worse. Verizon has been very reliable. I seem to remember reading several surveys--sorry, I don't have references, but one of them was done by the WSJ in the early 00s--saying, essentially, that of all the cell providers in the NYC area, Verizon sucked the least.

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The note above says they had lousy coverage with AT&T. Well, I had lousy coverage at my home with Verizon! Their local tower was always going down. And at my mother's house I was the only one who could get a clear signal in the house. All the people with other carriers had to step outside to get a clear signal.
You can see that YMMV. Ask friends with different carriers how well your neighborhood and Your House are with their carrier before you commit. If they are all equal then life is good.
Find a Phone you Like then go with the carrier that uses that phone.
And Do NOT get rid of the land line completely. Go down the the minimal charge (strip all the bells and whistles, even long distance if you want), but keep one phone in the house attached to a land line. In our area it costs $17/month including taxes when you do that. It may be the only one working in an emergency as there are many more things that can go wrong with a cell tower, including being swamp by EVERYONE trying to use their cell phones at once.
But yeah, not being tied to a line is Real Nice once you get used to it. Not having that long distance bill is nice too.

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I'm a very occasional user. I've been happy with T Mobile's pay as you go plan. I bought 1000 minutes (for $100) when I got my phone three years ago. Any minutes remaining after a year carry over as long as you buy another ten dollars' worth before the end of the year. It roams when it can't get T-Mobile reception and I can use the phone in Canada.

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The cheapest way to have an occasional cellphone is T-Mobile pre-paid. It's 10 cents/minute with minutes that last for 1 year (for a cost of $100/1,000 minutes per year).

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I can only speak to my experience. It's been pretty adequate with AT&T; I have some friends on the plan, and no problems with reception.

The point about keeping a landline in case of emergencies is well taken. I don't have one, but when Wilma knocked out a lot of stuff in my area, I had to use my car to charge my phone...and even then, phone service was a little spotty the first couple of days after the storm.

One of the things I really like about AT&T is that my minutes roll over from month to month. I don't know if other plans offer that (though I wouldn't be surprised).

But what works for me won't necessarily be what's best for you.

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