Yah, exactly. Most of the people I know still in contract with AT&T are waiting to jump ship to whatever carrier will have the iPhone 5. My gf and I are both a year in on our iPhone 4 contracts with AT&T and we have no problem dumping them.
You have to figure how much is your time really worth?! All the AT&T network b.s. (esp in San Francisco & NYC) that we've had to deal with costs me and my gf much more than the cancellation fee ever will. That said, the cancellation fee is still a load of crap.
I wonder how true this is outside techies. I'm personally network-agnostic, as I only use my "phone" for data and calls from the wife. I use about 100 minutes a month, so it doesn't matter.
My wife, however, makes at least 60 minutes of calls on more days than not, keeping in touch with friends and family (basically all the social lubrication I do with email and Google+). For her, the network effect is incredibly strong: all her friends and family are on Verizon, so she is very hesitant to switch as she gets the in-network minutes free. It was a huge deal for her when I announced I wanted to leave Verizon (for a Virgin Mobile Android) and how many minutes that would add to her plan.
I think a lot of people are loyal to their network not because of what they get from it, but about the people they know on it.
> For her, the network effect is incredibly strong: all her friends and family are on Verizon, so she is very hesitant to switch as she gets the in-network minutes free.
Sprint has unlimited mobile to mobile for plans with data, so as long as the other person is on a mobile line (probable since they are on Verizon), the call is free.
I wouldn't say that customers are exclusively device-loyal and network-agnostic. The convenience of using the same device can be outweighed by frustration over the network's coverage, downtime, etc. Everyone has different breaking points, but I guarantee that if you couldn't get reliable service where you spend most of your time, you'd strongly consider a different device!
I left Sprint to get an iPhone. If I need to rejoin Sprint to get the next iPhone, that's no problem.