I live in Illinois and am under contract to Cingular for my cell phone
service. I just fried the phone by dropping it in a sink of water. I
don't want to go into the cingular store and get held up for an
expensive phone or extend the contract. My question is: what are my
options? Can I buy a phone online (assuming its the same technology)
and is the provider required to activate that phone, or am I stuck
with Cingular as the source of my next phone?

My wife's Cingular phone stopped working also and we just went in to
our local Cingular outlet, told them the phone was broken and we were
halfway through a contract, and they gave us a refurbished phone at no
cost.  We have had no problems with the refurbished phone and it was
the same model as our original.

I had my cell phone stolen and when I called Cingular about it, I was
told I could purchase a cell phone from anywhere (ie. Ebay, Cingular,
etc) to be programmed for my existing Cingular service.  I do believe
you are tied to your provider based on the contract you signed, even
though your phone is no longer working.