Incremental increases on cell phone bills should be expected. I offset that somewhat by paying the annual Republic chunk once per year and you don’t have to be a fat cat to afford that.
The good news is we are not being held hostage here with a suspicious contract full of holes the company could slither through. We are also choosing and staying with Republic for the level of service when we have a problem or question and that is a high level here and especially so when the way to communicate with the company is by keyboard or phone and is not the numbing experience of concentrating so hard to be fluent in Mumbai English over a dim voice connection. If that happens in the future I’m outta here. Comparing Republic’s overall value, in my opinion, is obviously far, far superior to any other cell telephone or cable company. When the forum crowd here can also help it’s a bonus. As comedian Richard Pryor used to say, "This is a NEIGHBORHOOD! This ain’t no “RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT!”.
I am a little anxious to see what happens with any merger/takeover/buyout simply because I once worked for a subsidiary of Enron. My trust with large corporations to do what they say is “wait and see”. If it all goes south and the party is over I will judge to what degree the fun has taken a dive and make a decision as to where I want my dollars, and trust, to go. Life is fluid. Like surviving a riptide current. When caught in one relax, go with the flow, surface, and swim across to another part of the beach.