[peterwwillis]

Yeah, I don't get why people use the big-name providers unless they have a family plan. Prepaid services like Net10, Straight Talk, Cricket, Metro PCS, Boost, H2O, Jolt, Redpocket, etc are less than half the cost of the bigger ILECs/CLECs and most of them are or have GSM offerings. I like that Net10 and Straight Talk give you T-mobile or AT&T sims to bring over locked phones.

My personal favorite combo at the moment is Straight Talk's "Unlimited" 30 day service for $45, combined with an AT&T Radiant pre-paid phone ($70 cash). This phone is the same specs as a new Moto-E smartphone but for half the price. (I find it hilarious that I can lose or break my phone 7 times and still pay less than for one iPhone 5)

[eli]

Just to be clear, most of those are MVNOs -- they basically buy wholesale network access from the big name providers and resell it (and provide support) under their own name.

[mkaziz]

But they are much cheaper, usually.