No-Contract Cell Phones March to Glory

No contract phones were sure to come, as the USA was one of the few places where the actual cell phone itself was paid for and/or subsidized by the carrier, such as Verizon.  Most of the world required the customer to pay full phone price, and then sold them a pre-paid amount of time.  But, unfortunately for much of the world, the air time was expensive compared to the USA.  So, in some ways we have lived a charmed life – cheap phones and high priced two year phone contracts. That has propelled smart phones to a deep penetration of the market, and convinced many of us “we can’t live without them”. 

I have been hearing from friends and magazines lately that new deals are on the horizon for cheap “no contract phones”.  One friend uses Boost, and has good coverage and service, and pays only $35 a month for unlimited use and no roaming charges.  Net Zero is pushing the envelope with a new announcement, $9.85 a month, no contract, for 4-G service for data (wi-fi type modems or hard wired modems to desktop PC’s)  Limits on usage are not too bad, and for more money you can buy more time, and you can be notified when you need to buy more “just for that month”.  Or purchase a stronger program if you like.

Now a good friend tells me Wal-Mart sells an inexpensive no-contract plans under the brand name "Straight-Talk".  ST operates on the Verizon network, which is my favorite network.  He says a good friend living in Falls Church, Virginia bought a couple ST phones and is very happy with the service.  Neither Sprint or AT&T provided a usable signal at his house.  ST obviously works fine.