Cell phone companies

I'm a bit peeved at the moment. I went to my cell phone place (Cingular) to look into changing my phone plan from statewide to nationwide since I'll be doing a bit of travelling this summer. One plan showed that it had maximum coverage area, but you had to have one of two phones available. Since I just redid a contract with them in Oct. and didn't have this particular phone, I figured I couldn't change without buying a new phone. I thought that the other plan looked ok though it had less coverage currently, it showed how it was expanding. Well, I found out that I also have to have a different phone for that plan as well. It turns out that I cannot have nationwide coverage with the current phone I have. When I got the phone for free (which is a relative term these days) I had to sign another 2 yr contract, so the only way to go to a nationwide plan is to buy a new phone starting at $99. I could look into another company, but discontinuing my plan would cost $150 for a cancellation charge. I'm not sure why I was given a phone that was already outdated when I renewed my plan in October and why I wasn't told that perhaps I would need to have a different phone for the future coverage. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh.