Where do I begin?
I am on the Classic 500 minute plan, with unlimited texting and "unlimited" 4g data. After taxes/fees I spend about $72 a month. I used to be on my dad's family plan where roaming on the local ISP/cell service's towers was not considered roaming and I was free to do what I needed just about anywhere. In November of last year I got the Galaxy S3 and also took my number into my own responsibility, starting up a new 2 year contract but allowing me to keep my upcoming upgrade for July of this year since I had brought my phone in. Unfortunately when we had a power outage and I went off Wi-Fi I found out I was "roaming" and was quickly denied access to my data plan. Upon further investigation I realized nowhere in my area had T-Mobile tower coverage and so my data plan became next-to-null. When I ventured into T-mobile tower areas I was only able to get "E" (2g) coverage, NOT the boasted 4g and certainly not 4glte (although LTE is not a concern to me whatsoever as I know it is new and 4g would be just fine if I were able to get that much.)
Now I've held my tongue and dealt with leeching wi-fi despite paying an arm and a leg for a data plan that is mostly useless, 500 minutes I rarely even use a 10th of, and texts that I sometimes never receive because of weird tower jumps, but I am now finding out that I will no longer be eligible for the discounted upgrade to the Galaxy S4 that I have been waiting for because of the "no more contract" fiasco. On top of that, I swear my data plan has gotten slower as I can't seem to do anything even when I do have 2g now, I HAVE to go out into the closest city with 4g and even then if I don't have full 5 bar signal it just laughs at me. I have been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend and we don't have Wi-Fi at his place so I'm noticing the issues more and more and I just can't stand the thought of spending so much money for another year and a half or so and having nothing to show for it.
So, TL;DR : How could I go about either a) Switching to a no-contract/lower fee plan (maybe less minutes, I'd be okay with that) or b) Cancelling and changing carriers altogether without getting charged the Early Termination Fees and also being able to keep the number I have used for 4 years? I am no longer employed, having others help me out with my bills is rough enough, I can't keep paying such a large fee for continuous let down. If things don't change soon one way or another T-Mobile will lose another customer, but I really hope there is a better solution.