WOW, thats a very high deposit.
Back in 2004 when I had ZERO credit, I started with AT&T since i got my discount through my employer. I had to put down $150, so i waited until the following year, i got in without any deposit.
Then in 2007 I switched to Verizon again because of my employer and the dropped calls on AT&T
No deposit with them either, ever since i signed up i've only gotten 1 year contracts and i've taken advantage of my yearly upgrades to the fullest.
Started with a Motorola Z6tv, had many issues with it not working right and one time it went into recovery and i couldn't figure out how to get it out of it, and it happened when i was in baltimore.
I switched to the LG Voyager, the following year I got the HTC Touch Pro 2 right after it was released (due to rumors of it coming out soon

then last year I got the HTC Droid Incredible by adding a line, then Droid X came out in July, I sold my Incredible to my friend, i got the X, and i had it for a few days, hated it, had problems, wifi wouldn't work right with the security i had setup, it had nasty UI and camera wasn't as good as the Incredible's. I traded back my Incredible and gave my friend that bought it the Droid X.
This year the tradition continues, I will ONLY buy HTC phones, I hate Stock Android, and other UI's that look similiar to the iPhone (i'm looking at you Samsung and LG)
ThunderBolt all the way!!