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AT&T hasn't been as bad for me as well, compared to what it used to be around the house. I think any wireless company will have their downsides and we'll always fine a way to get frustrated about their service.
Based on 1) 2) and 3) i think you should stick with AT&T.
Consider waiting for the iPhone 5 to upgrade, it's coming this July as i read from rumors over the internet...
I had the exact same thing happen with my 3GS and the mute button. It's pretty annoying to be a teacher and not be able to mute your phone, btw.
However, beyond the concrete Faraday cage that is my school, I don't have a problem with ATT. They actually have been improving things quite a bit here in the Western North Carolina region to the point that I get few interruptions in service. We don't have 3G everywhere, but we chose to live in a pretty remote and non-metropolitan region of southern appalachia, so I can't complain.
My contract was up on the 12th as well (how's that for timing!). So, I went to the ATT store thinking I'd be treated like royalty for staying with them. Interestingly enough, the ATT stores here were all out of stock and playing catch up after the holidays. My 4 came in yesterday and it's everything I imagined it would be.
So yeah... stay with ATT. The ability to browse the web while on a call has been a great feature (one I thought I would never use) and the wifi at airports or places like Starbucks is a great feature-add.
I think this has been a big learning opportunity for ATT as they continue to grow and scale their network, so hopefully the benefits will continue as some customers offload to Verizon. Truthfully, I think Verizon has behaved with too much hubris from their "Droid Does" days to acting as if the iPhone is finally worthy of their great network.
The biggest plus out of all this is that iOS on Verizon will put a big dent in the Android market!
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I'm still using an iPhone 3GS. When the iPhone 4 came out, they told me I wasn't eligible to upgrade until January 2011. I seem to remember Jan 12th, but when I look now, it's the end of the month. That little change gives me pause.
Anyway, back when the iPhone 4 came out last June or so, I decided to wait and at least save the few hundred bucks.
Sometime in September my iPhone started to act poorly. The power button at the top didn't work well. I had to press it many times and very hard to get a response. At some point after a few weeks, it stopped working entirely.
By this time, the rumors about a Verizon iPhone deal started to surface, so I doubly decided to wait until January to see what that's about.
And here we are. Mid January. Verizon will have a CDMA iPhone available in February. I can upgrade my AT&T contract and get a new discounted iPhone essentially in February.
What to do?
I'm actually not really down on AT&T that much at all. Granted, I did just return from Las Vegas where AT&T is horrible. I had a nightmarish time in the airport there trying to get hold of the person picking me up and I couldn't make a call without walking outside of some strange 100' radius from the terminal.
But around home, AT&T seems to have caught up with Verizon on coverage, and then some.
Here's what bothers me about switching to Verizon.
I use my AT&T SIM card in an unlocked Google Nexus One so I can get my Android fix. I can't do that with Verizon.
Verizon's CDMA doesn't support talking on the phone and accessing the Internet at the same time. There have been maybe three times I needed to do that over the years, but it was kinda good that I could.
AT&T now has faster 3G network speeds in some locations. They also have free Wifi around, like at Starbucks.
Assuming network coverage issue is moot for me, I think AT&T wins.
What should I do?