Depending on how much you're paying for the current line & contract you're going to end up paying a lot more if you just 'let the line expire'. For example, if you're paying $50 a month for a line you still have to pay it regardless if you're using a phone on it or not... $50/mo x 24 months = $1200

If I were you I would get a Blackberry Tour or Storm2 with Verizon on the same line you currently have (and purchase insurance). They are both considered world phones with both GSM and CDMA technology. This way if you do travel you can insert a sim into the phone (after getting it unlocked) and use it with a local carrier.

AT&T should be able to port your number if you want to go that route.

I'm new to the forums, so please be gentle on me... here's my delimma:

- I lost a cheap Verizon phone about a week ago and I'm looking for a new phone. It was the second line on a family plan (my wife uses the primary phone on the plan). The phone that I lost was on a line that was only a few months old, so it's not eligible for an upgrade any time soon. I am looking for a PDA-type phone since I am still lugging around an old Palm Tungsten E from the early 2000s, and I'd like to get an all-in-one device. Here are the options that I am weighing:

1) Cancel the line ($150 fee or so) and get an iPhone (in the hope that they can port my number over to AT&T from Verizon); I am an iMac/iPod user. This would involve paying a $175 cancellation fee for the old Verizon line (or I could let it expire).
2) Stay with Verizon and get a third line with a Droid, then move my old number to the Droid and let the third line expire in two years (or cancel it outright; paying the $175 cancellation fee + the $199 price on a Droid upfront is cheaper than buying a Droid outright for $599).

Here are a couple of factors that I am weighing:
a) I am in the Navy so overseas travel is possible. I know that AT&T uses the GSM network but I'm not sure what Verizon's policy is on the termination of contracts if a user is in the military (I assume that it should be favorable).
b) I am not extraordinarily tech-savvy, but I can make stuff work as long as there's a good set of directions to follow. I'm not really clear on all of the ins and outs of what both the iPhone and the Droid offer, but I'd like a phone that I can use to manage all of my contacts, calendars, and emails, as well as one that takes decent pictures and would allow me to read news and stuff on the go. All of my friends that I've spoken with regarding this issue swear by their phones (either iPhone or Droid) as far as usability goes, so I'm kind of stuck.

I appreciate any help that you can give me (including options other than the ones I've listed above) - thanks in advance.